I’ve been battling an inner struggle. I have always viewed campaigning with, “What can you do for me”? I’m not fond of candidates slinging mud at the other and not showing me what they have to offer. However, I am beyond frustrated with some of the things I’ve witnessed (and not witnessed for that matter) by some of our current board members. Therefore, I have tried really hard to not “throw mud” or take personal attacks on my opponents while still bringing the truth to light so you can be an educated voter. The truth is so relevant and if you don’t attend meetings and do some research you’d never know. It is one of the main reasons I am running for a board seat, I couldn’t just sit back anymore without trying to change the tide! With that said, this blog post is about what I can and will do as your board member!
I am fortunate enough to work in a school district that is truly innovative. Our community told us they wanted more involvement and we listened!!! We now work with our senior citizen groups and bring them into our schools for various activities. Last year our school had a book club. The senior volunteers and some of our students read age appropriate novels outside of school and met once a month over lunch to have a book discussion. It was a huge hit with everyone and our seniors could be a part of their tax dollars in action! As a district technology teacher I had the privilege to teach basic and advanced computer classes to our seniors on Saturdays…it was a blast!!!! I am also active on various volunteer, after school committees including school leadership, school safety/anti-bullying, assessment, and multicultural. I have a great understanding of curriculum and the current mandate to meet the Common Core Curriculum Standards recently adopted by the state of New Jersey. I know I can give feedback and offer ideas and methods to supplement the Everyday Math program. The new standards call for repetition to meet the objectives while the Everyday Math program focuses on a spiral curriculum. This is fine for the average student but the slow learner will need to be supplemented to be successful. I also co-wrote our district’s technology curriculum. I instruct my students with the necessary skills to be academically successful and tech savvy! We use Excel, Powerpoint, and Word. We explore blogs, wikis, keyboarding techniques, 3D architecture design and complete internet scavenger hunts. I pride myself on searching relentlessly for the newest and most relevant skills to date and keep things fresh. We spend time discussing social networking, the limitless opportunities of the internet as well as the dangers. On our school leadership team we work with teachers, administrators and parents to communicate our needs and wants. Last year, through this committee I assisted with our district’s annual multicultural day and coordinated science day! We brought in guest speakers, parents and community members for both days. On multicultural day our students learned about acceptance and diversity and appreciation of other cultures. On science day, our community and parents led hands on activities and demonstrated many different careers that involve science. Both events were exciting and awesome! As a part of our assessment committee I was responsible for investigating, mastering and training staff in various online assessment programs to benchmark progress and pinpoint specific weakness. As a parent of a differently-abled child I am proud to say that by knowing our rights, investigating alternative forms of assessment, providing manipulatives and suggesting modifications, our son is in a mainstreamed 4th grade class and is successful! By speaking with the teachers and working together my son’s progress is now measured against himself instead of against the status quo; as it should be! The last two years have been glorious and rewarding for all of us….working together as a team! I understand the need to pinch pennies so we must do more with less. We absolutely need to seek out the millions of dollars of money available in state, federal and corporate grants.
Now for accountability! We obviously don’t want to micromanage, however we do need to follow-up! I think Deptford does a lot of delegating and turns around and washes their hands of the issues. For example, I expressed concern about 3 different policies on the website regarding National Junior Honor Society. I was told we pay a lot of money to a tech person to run the website and that shouldn’t be happening. It was never followed up on and never fixed. The website itself can be daunting to navigate and I still can’t find the requirements for elementary school honor roll in the handbook/calendar. If something is brought to light as a concern for our families I promise to be persistent in getting it fixed! Speaking of being made aware….what about these “see attached”? Parents are busy and can’t always make board meetings but they can read the minutes online. The problem is, most of the minutes say “see attached” or on file in the Superintendent’s office. Well, if people can’t make the meetings, how do we expect them to go to the board office every time they want to be informed about policy? In this age of technology, attached should be ATTACHED…it’s not! And attendance…..well, I understand that being a board member is voluntary and people have to work, emergencies, etc. BUT…one of my opponents has missed 2 of the last 3 meetings. I think that sends a bad message to the voters. How can you ask for their vote in November and not show up to meetings in August and September? It’s voluntary but as a board member I will also recognize the responsibility I have been entrusted with!
As you can clearly see, I am bursting with ideas and enthusiasm and this is just the tip of the iceberg! I know I can bring innovation to Deptford Schools. I am also receptive to others’ visions. I am going to post my resume that I submitted for the vacant seat in July. You can read and decide if you want to hire me with your vote! Can’t wait to get busy on the board!
Stacy Gray For Board Of Education 