IsthmusWeek1
What in your background prepares you to set policy for a school district of almost 25,000 students with a $340 million budget and 3,700 employees? Please discuss your pertinent traits and experiences.
I come to this school board race with two valuable qualifications: A parent of two children who attended Madison public schools, and as a 28-year educator in the district. These two perspectives are crucial to today’s decision making.
Our children attended Leopold, Cherokee and West High, and obtained a marvelous education where they learned from both a rigorous curriculum and the life experiences of their diverse classmates. My goal is to guarantee that today’s students as well as tomorrow’s will have this same opportunity. I also appreciate the need of today’s parents to participate at all levels in their children’s education, having done so myself as a President of Leopold’s PFO, a Chairperson of an early Leopold boundary committee, a volunteer in its classrooms, and as a mentor to first year teachers.
I have taught 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades, as well as high school. My classes have included students who are English Language Learners, Bilingual, have disabilities, and are talented and gifted. I consider the diversity of Madison’s students, families, and schools to be one of the best rewards of teaching in its classrooms. It is the vitality of such classrooms that give our children an advantage over their peers in being prepared for adulthood in a diverse world.
Certainly, one of the challenges today is reaching the whole spectrum of students, so the school board must have members who understand how classrooms function and who know which programs are crucial for learning to occur. I offer a unique combination of qualifications as both a parent and as an educator, and I am in a unique position because of my background to bring both groups together in a united effort to face challenges and improve outcomes in a difficult time.
Supt. Art Rainwater is retiring in June after ten years of leading our schools. What have you liked best about his leadership? Where do you think he could have done a better job?
Art Rainwater became superintendent at a difficult time, having had a number of less effective predecessors, and he quickly rebuilt community trust.
As a former teacher, I saw him as a leader whose student-centered philosophy coincided with my own. He was willing to be held accountable for student achievement. He put his job on the line to commit our district to programs necessary to create success for all children.
One part of Art Rainwater’s tenure that I will always hold in high esteem is how he attended to the needs of students who have been traditionally marginalized in our schools and in our society – those children with special needs, English language learners, students in alternative programs, our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning students.
On the other hand, I wish we teachers could have gotten to know him better. His visits to our schools were too few, and, in addition, he did not encourage his Administrators to be in the schools. In fact, there were several poor principal appointments as a result of this seemingly intentional policy.
I also wish that there had been a greater effort to include parents, teachers and the public in the decision making process.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Art Rainwater, he is a man of integrity and honor. In other words, he is just the kind of person one wants to be in charge of our children.
What’s your favorite movie or book about teaching and why?
Few books or movies speak to the vast panoply of classroom life throughout our country and fewer still could supply the true nature of the student/teacher relationship to all people. So, I wrote: My Side: Reflections of a Public School Teacher.
I realized that today’s teachers needed a voice to articulate the substantive issues of their profession. Today’s parents needed to appreciate the vastly complex role the schools are expected to assume. In addition, I knew it was in the general interest of every taxpayer to comprehend the enormous importance of educating all our children properly in our public schools. I hoped that teachers, parents and all taxpayers would be interested in what I had to say.
