Meet the candidates for the Rockford Public Schools Board

Click on the question to see each candidate's answer.

Can you sum up why you want to be a member of the RPS205 school board and why you feel uniquely qualified in a few sentences?

What are three issues you would say are top priorities you’d look forward to addressing if elected?

What programs or initiatives at RPS do you think do great work and deserve more praise? 

Black & Hispanic students make up over 60% of the student population. But Black & Hispanic teachers only make up 9% of the teacher workforce. How can RPS recruit & retain more teachers of color? And do you think that’s important?

The Rockford community is mourning the tragic death of a middle school student. Their family say the student was bullied persistently. Many community members have spoken out about being bullied at RPS schools. Many say they’ve seen the district minimize, ignore, or cover up incidents of bullying and harassment. How can the board help rebuild trust with the community when it comes to this issue?

Last year, RPS had the lowest school tax rate of any district in Winnebago or Boone counties. How do you feel about the board’s current tax policy: its sustainability and its impact on local taxpayers?

What do you think of the job the current RPS administration, including the superintendent, is doing?

What’s an education issue you think is more important than some people may realize?

Note: Q&As have been edited for length and clarity.

Can you sum up why you want to be a member of the RPS205 school board?

Patricia Chavez: I'm from Rockford, and I have a lot of involvement with the Latino community. I feel, because of my experience in my position within a community, I know what they need and am familiar with what their needs can be. But more than anything, just migrant communities overall in Rockford have the same challenges, but maybe in a different form, depending on the communities. RPS' student population actually is about 31% Latino or Hispanic. I feel there's a lack of representation on the board. So with that, as my mom in the community, as well as my financial background, which I think will play a key role.

Fort A. Zackary III: I want to be a member of the RPS 205 school board to make a positive difference in our community for our kids and to be a voice for teachers and parents. I’ve been a classroom teacher for 28 years, 18 years in RPS 205, and I believe I am uniquely qualified to accurately assess the potential of district policies and initiatives, and to share with board members and administrators the actual impact of those initiatives on teachers and students. Too often, I feel teacher and parent input into the decision making process is ignored, when teachers and parents are the ones working most closely with our students.

Nicole Bennett: The reason I ran two years ago continues to be the same, and I feel even more engaged than I was the first time. I'm a parent, and I have an actual vested interest, personal interest, in the education of our community. Not only do I love our community and love our children, but I really wanted a parent voice on the board. I wanted to really raise up our student voices. That was important to me two years ago, and it'll continue to be important to me for the next four.

Kimberly Haley: My background is in educational workforce development and economic development. So, I really kind of understand the importance, from a community and a regional standpoint, to have well-educated, skilled students. I work really closely with our employers in the community. I know that our employers' workforce is changing, that we're needing more skilled individuals. They're choosing students right out of the classrooms that that meet their needs, especially in our manufacturing industry. I want to be a part of that mechanism that ensures the continued growth of our community and our region.

Scott A. Anderson: I love Rockford. I've lived in Rockford all my life. I've been blessed to be part of the school district. I've got three grandkids in the system now. So, I thought it would a great opportunity to be a part of their education, impact it, and bring some common sense whatever the situation may be. One of the biggest reasons, as well, is achievement: our state report card and and how poor it is. We've got a lot of great things going on, but, if you can't have those proficiencies up at a good level, you're behind the eight ball right away.

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What are three issues you would say are top priorities you’d look forward to addressing if elected? (or issues currently on your mind if you are already a board member)

Patricia Chavez: I think the budget is probably going to be No. 1, especially with what's coming out of Washington and the decreases happening in the Department of Education. I'm definitely waiting to see how that's going to affect the school district budget. The other issue, of course, has recently, unfortunately, been brought to light: the mental and emotional health services they're offering to the student population and to the staff. Looking at what, what more can be done? What are some things that have been successful and things that we can do to take a deeper role in providing those services and support to avoid an unfortunate event again, as much as we can. Another one is in regards to English learners. One thing is, obviously, yes, we've seen a trend of increasing proficiency overall, but I've kind of seen the English learners' scores have been stagnant and a low percentage. I definitely want to go understand why that is, what needs to be done to to improve it.

Fort A. Zackary III: First is student achievement: The state incentivizes schools and districts to prioritize graduation rates and freshmen-on-track data when grading districts on their Illinois Report Card. Good news is that RPS’s graduation rate is trending up; still well below the state average, but moving in the right direction. But what is that high school diploma worth? Graduation rates and freshmen-on-track data can be massaged to yield better numbers. Test scores can not be. Only 2 of every 10 students in RPS is proficient in reading and only 1 of every 10 in math. The district has always put a lot of effort into high school, it’s time to go back and strengthen the foundation. There needs to be a coordinated effort made to strengthen elementary academics. By the time students are in middle and high school, it’s too late. The other two issues are discipline and lack of intervention support. These two issues are cited by teachers as their biggest challenges in the classroom. Teachers feel discipline is too subjective or simply no longer enforced. The discipline code needs to be strengthened, expectations and consequences need to be clearly and explicitly spelledout, and there must be consistent implementation. Lastly, most teachers say intervention minutes are not being met, and resources are not making it to the classroom. This is due to a combination of unfunded mandates, the system being overloaded, and an interventionist shortage. If the district and state are going to mandate resource, speech, ESL, counseling, or behavioral supports, then the district and state need to make sure they are providing enough interventionists and support for the services they have mandated in a student’s academic plan instead of piling on the teachers.

Nicole Bennett: No. 1 is safety. So, safety of our building, safety of our students. If students aren't safe, whether that's physically, emotionally, they're not going to learn. That includes increasing our mental health supports within our schools, making sure students have access to restorative practices, making sure that we're enforcing the code of conduct that Rockford Public Schools has. Since I've been on the board, we implemented weapon detection systems in all of our high schools. We piloted those to make sure that students are feeling safe, so students go through them every day to identify any weapons that students might have or anybody visiting our building, for that matter. Then also the creation of our new teen dating violence toolkit. When I ran two years ago, that was something that the community had been working on for well over 10 years, but really needed a partner at Rockford public schools to kind of move that forward. We were able to present that to the board and and get that approved. That's something that's in implementation now. The next issue, which tags along with this, is mental health. We really want to make sure that we're connecting students to the right intervention at the right time. Over my past 18 years as a social worker, I've always worked with youth, and I've always worked with mental health. So, making sure that we have those supports inside our building, that we have more partnerships in the community to support our buildings and our staff. We have a workforce shortage, one of which is social workers and support staff. I had connected RPS 205 with University of Illinois' College of Medicine. They have a grant with the Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board, so we now have a pathway so students can learn about mental health and social work services in high school, attend Rock Valley College, then Rockford University, then UIC to get a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master's of Social Work. We can kind of grow our own staff. Staff that currently work at Rockford public schools would be able to be in a cohort to be able to advance as well. Lastly, a priority regardless of what we're talking about, is incorporating voice. So, incorporating student voice, staff voice, parent voice, community voice.

Kimberly Haley: There are several different aspects of education that I really champion, and one of them is early childhood education. If students are coming into the classroom in kindergarten, and they're not prepared, they even start to fall behind then. The other issue that I hugely support is our career and technical education. RPS 205 has secured the building that is now going to be the College and Career Education Center. There's going to be a focus on career and technical education and mechatronics, welding, automotive. There's also going to be areas of focus in graphics, healthcare, and hospitality. The other area that I really champion is improving reading and math levels. One of the areas that I think is important, and I don't think is focused on enough, is parent involvement: through PTAs or parent volunteer opportunities so that they understand the education that students are receiving. When parents are involved, students are more involved. And I think we need that in RPS 205 to address discipline concerns and goals as well as attendance concerns.

Scott A. Anderson: One of them is proficiency in reading, math, and science. We're at like 22% proficiency for reading, and we're at 13% in math. That's not real good at all. I think absenteeism is a big issue around here. I can't figure that one, if it comes from COVID or whatever the excuse is. But that, chronic absenteeism, is almost 50%. That's not good either. And some discipline stuff. I talked to some teachers and principals. Every one of them started rattling off something that had to do with discipline. I'm not exactly sure how deep that goes, or what that looks like, but it seems to be a real issue for the teachers.

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What programs or initiatives at RPS do you think do great work and deserve more praise? 

Patricia Chavez: What I feel really impressed with, and I'm really proud and happy they've done is that they're actually investing in their students and investing in homegrown teachers, by having their different pathways for them to become teachers in the school district. I feel very impressed by the creative and diverse methods that they've done in their recruitment efforts. I also appreciate and feel it's a smart choice to have the community partnerships to make this happen. All things can be improved, but I feel overall that I see much more of an effort then I think I saw in the past.

Fort A. Zackary III: For one, the high school academies. Having high school students begin to explore broad categories of interest that feed into career options in the future is a good idea. The academies provide targeted learning in Business, Industry, Health, and Human and Public Services. Each academy offers vocational training, giving students options upon graduation to either go on to college or go straight into the workforce in a meaningful career. The College and Career Education Center (CCEC) is another concept I support. Not every high school has enough students in a particular discipline to justify the cost of adding a wood shop, garage, or culinary classroom. Will there be kinks to work out, such as transportation, when the program launches? Sure. But, they will get worked out. And, the CCEC is a much more equitable solution to getting high impact vocational programs to high school students, than putting a mediocre copy at each separate high school. Finally, I do think the district is doing a good job of reaching out to and creating community partners, and recruiting teachers and administrators. Programs like Rockford Promise and the pathways RPS has created for more people to become teachers and administrators are good ideas, and needed as we are in a severe teacher shortage. Other initiatives like paying student teachers and offering housing assistance were unheard of when I went through student teaching. In today's economy, where every family is paying more than $17,000 a year in groceries, these are huge incentives.

Nicole Bennett: Two programs that I really feel are important to share: one, the College Career Education Center. Starting even this fall, when it will open, it won't be full capacity yet, but it'll be starting and being able to have Career Education centralized locations. Students across all of our high schools will be able to have access. Automotive, welding, culinary, graphic design, all kinds of different programs centrally located. Rockford Promise: I think more people are hearing about Rockford promise, but I think there's somewhere around 300 scholars right now who are actively a part of Rockford Promise. So, college degree, tuition free. It's a really good example of the collaboration we can do. Rockford Public Schools, city government, local universities, local community college come together to say, 'we want students to have this benefit of being RPS students. Now it's open to other schools as well, but really taking that burden off of the financial responsibilities for a degree.

Kimberly Haley: RPS has great mechanisms in place for teacher recruitment. There's a teacher shortage, and we have bus driver shortages, but I think we have mechanisms in place that we are trying to grow our own. We are reaching back into our own current employee pool, and offering those employees to go to school on RPS' dime to to go into teaching. We work closely with the city and the Rockford Promise program to allow students with a 3.0 GPA or better to go to school for free. We have those teacher pathways, and we also work with several other outside schools. One partnership we have is with Central State University to attract teachers of color. So, we are developing partnerships with different universities so that students come here. Not only do we pay our student teachers, but we also have housing and incentives for them to want to move here and teach at RPS.

Scott A. Anderson: I think the gifted programs are really, really exciting. I got a nephew with autism and they've got some good programs for that. They've got some really good incentives for teachers, to retain them. They offer up schooling to advance their career. This kind of goes to my heart, The paraprofessional program is really an exciting asset to the district as well. I'm excited about the technical education part of that, the trades. I think we have some good relationships with schools like Rock Valley to be able to get kids trained and ready for the workforce. We're going to need a lot of folks to step up into the trades and that kind of stuff to be able to to maintain the wonderful city that I'm in.

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Black & Hispanic students make up over 60% of the student population. But Black & Hispanic teachers only make up 9% of the teacher workforce. How can RPS recruit & retain more teachers of color? And do you think that’s important?

Patricia Chavez: I feel it's very important. Teachers should reflect the population that they're serving. I feel that students could possibly be more successful in their school education when they see people like themselves with their same background, the same challenges, in places of leadership as well as teachers. I feel it's a better connection. I feel it's a better sense of cultural competency. That is what's missing, in a sense, at times when the teacher does not reflect their students. They need to offer teaching as something exciting, to be a sustainable career. I feel they're doing well in paying their student teachers, but also, who are these people in leadership? Are they reflecting someone like themselves? Are they seeing an all white leadership team? That makes you question what opportunities do I have if that's all I'm seeing. We have a large, diverse population, and that could be an issue. That could be a factor of why teachers may not sign on. I know for myself, personally, it is like, what opportunities would I have being a Brown person? You know, if there's not any in leadership positions, why is that? And usually we find out it's not for a really good reason.

Fort A. Zackary: There is a teacher shortage nationwide. People of ALL backgrounds are not going into the profession. We had non-credentialed teachers teaching classes each of my last three years at Ellis Elementary. And while there are some proven benefits to having a teacher that looks like you, after working at Ellis for 12 years, a school that is almost entirely Black and Hispanic, I can tell you that parents just want a great teacher in the room with their kids. Most teachers teach in the city or town they grew up in, and to become a teacher you must go to college. Unfortunately, when taking the SAT to get into a college, RPS graduates are only scoring at the proficient level 14.8% of the time in literacy, and 8.2% in math. Finding quality teachers, regardless of color, is going to be tough until more of our graduates can get into college. RPS teachers are not happy. RPS has great teachers, but they are burning out. They feel overworked, like every unfunded mandate falls on them, that discipline is so bad they can’t teach, that they must themselves fill the role of interventionist because those who need help aren’t getting it, and that despite RPS’s high absenteeism and student mobility rates, they are the only ones being held accountable. For every administrator that told my daughter to interview at this or that school in RPS last summer, I had 5 teachers call or text the house telling her not to go to that particular school. As long as the climate in RPS schools continues to undermine the district’s wonderful recruitment efforts, RPS is going to have a hard time retaining any good teacher, regardless of skin color.

Nicole Bennett: 100% yes. We collectively, as a current board, are 100% in on any recruitment effort, any any wild idea somebody has, whatever it is. It is so important for our students to see people who look like them, interact with people who are like them and really see themselves in jobs and see a future. We have what's called a war room. It really is figuring out students all the way from like freshman year, who we think might be good teachers in our district, and following them as they go throughout our education pathway, trying to partner them with Rockford University. So, somebody that was a public school student who understands the demographics of our community and really wants to come back and give back and teach in our community. We're partnering with Central State University and having students come here and be able to visit Rockford. We've partnered with other community partners, so when they come here they can get a good understanding of our housing, all of our amazing restaurants, what is Rockford has to offer you. We're trying lots of different different things, but we do have room to improve. I mean, the teacher shortage is the teacher shortage, but, the diversity of our staff is so, so important.

Kimberly Haley: I think it's a priority because students work better with people who look like them, who understand their background, who understand their specific struggles. We only really have a strong partnership right now with Central State University in Ohio right now, that is an HBCU. I think we can expand partnerships with HBCU's to attract teachers of color. And we can partner with our state universities. We also try to maintain a level level of competitiveness with our pay structure so we can attract teachers to our district.

Scott A. Anderson: I'm on the fence on that one. I think a good teacher can get through to to any pupil. Would it help once a while? I think if it calls for it, yeah, in certain schools in the district here, I would be all for that. I would definitely support that just to try and balance that a little bit. I mean, if the stats show that it works, I'm all for it if it's going to get all the reading and math up.

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The Rockford community is mourning the tragic death of a middle school student. Their family say the student was bullied persistently. Many community members have spoken out about being bullied at RPS schools. Many say they’ve seen the district minimize, ignore, or cover up incidents of bullying and harassment. How can the board help rebuild trust with the community when it comes to this issue?

Patricia Chavez: I can make a ton of suggestions of what can be done to avoid future incidents. But the main thing I feel is important is the school taking a certain level of accountability and also bringing people to the table for solutions. I kind of feel we can make tons of suggestions, but the response I got back from the superintendent's presentation with media was more like 'it's everyone's issue,' and yes, it's a community issue, but also, as well, the community wants to hear, what action or what accountability will come into play, and how can they do better to improve that? Of course, promises can be made, you have a plan of how to how to improve, but actions is going to be more than anything. I think it will be very difficult to create to gain trust without them taking a certain level of responsibility and putting action towards it.

Fort A. Zackary III: First, our hearts go out to the family. They have all of our condolences and prayers. What happened was clearly a tragedy. As to the details of what happened, an investigation is ongoing and we must reserve comment until it is concluded. What I can comment on is what I have seen and know about bullying in general. Bullying, especially among children, is a problem humans have had forever, and probably always will. One of the biggest problems we have is not following through on consequences for bullying when it is discovered. I know of an incident at an RPS middle school where the parents of a bullying victim were told that’s just the bullies “culture,” they were just trying to intimidate the victim, they wouldn’t actually hurt them. The parents of the victim pulled their child out of RPS, never to return. The first solution is with the discipline code. Bullying must be clearly and measurably defined. Then behavior expectations and consequences must be clearly defined, including the steps and due process procedures for escalating behavior. And finally, those consequences must be consistently enforced. The second solution is to remove cell phones from school campuses. A lot of bullying is done online and through social media, so no cell phones in school at least reduces bullying while at school. Taking cell phones from middle and high school students is also proven to improve academic achievement, focus on school work, and work ethic and efficiency.

Nicole Bennett: I think bullying is a part of a concern that we have at the district 100% but we also have lots of other areas of violence and lots of areas where we need to improve. I hear the community saying that. I see it as a board member. I listen to students. I'm inside buildings talking with staff. To be transparent and honest, obviously this is absolutely a need that we have. Over the past two years, and in particular the last year, we as a board and me as a social worker are constantly advocating for more serious responses, depending on what levels of violence happen: sexual harassment, bullying, lots of different things that we have to educate our young people on what's appropriate and what's not. Then also there needs to be restorative responses to students. Then there also needs to be consequences. Consequences are direct correlation to our actions. In terms of our community and the trust, RPS 205 has a long standing issue with trust in our community. It's going to take all of us to build that back up and and make sure that we are listening and doing with and for people, we're not doing to people. I think, oftentimes, we try really hard to do, do, do, and that's great, but if we haven't asked what is needed, if we haven't listened and truly sat down to listen, we're going to do it wrong every single time. In this most recent tragedy, we've really tried to listen and act in the needs of what the building is experiencing, what the students are experiencing, what the families are experiencing. Moving forward, it was already a plan of ours and it was in the most recent school board meeting that happened, and it'll be up for vote next week for school board meeting: bullying has a more serious consequence than it did before. Same thing with sexual harassment. For example, if two individuals get in a fight, the person who was the aggressor in the fight has a consequence or a response and then the same thing for a victim. If I was bullied, or if I was in a physical fight, what would make me feel any more safe to come into school? We have safety plans that we've created now to make sure that individuals feel safe entering back into our buildings. There's a lot of things that we can do, but we have to listen. We have to talk to students who are part of this. Also really reminding them that if we don't know something, we can't do something. So, how important it is for students to report anything that they see or hear or anything that they have experienced. I don't know many people who work with children who don't want to love on children and help them, but we can't do stuff if we don't know stuff.

Kimberly Haley: The district immediately stepped in to address the situation by reaching out to the family, providing social and emotional supports at Eisenhower, which is the school. The support and counseling services were not only made available to the students and the families, but also to the staff. So, although the issue of bullying is addressed in our Student Code of Conduct, the district is adding to that policy to heighten awareness of the supports available to the students, increased attention is being given to how students can report bullying, as well as the ability to be able to make anonymous reports. So you know if a student does feel bullied, they can be escorted to their classes or there's an increased attention paid to that student.

Scott A. Anderson: I think it's a lot of it would be consistency, be transparent as much as possible. I mean, because there's a lot of stuff that falls under that umbrella of privacy. I know we have a code of conduct they have to abide by. But it was just a horrible, horrible thing. I think Dr. Jarrett did a good job of kind of saying, 'hey, if you see something, say something.' If your buddies are with you and if you see something, go to an adult and say something.

Return to Questions

Last year, RPS had the lowest school tax rate of any district in Winnebago or Boone counties. How do you feel about the board’s current tax policy: its sustainability and its impact on local taxpayers?

Patricia Chavez: We have to wait and see what comes out of Washington to see how that's going to affect us. I don't know if it's going to be sustainable, and if we need to explore an increase because of that. I feel like we're kind of in limbo with that, knowing what's going to happen the next few months or next year, or two or four years, to see how these cuts are going to affect our students or affect our school district. But either way, what's going to be decided is going to have to be a solution where we can continue educating our students.

Fort A. Zackary III: RPS has done a good job holding tax rates in check, yes. However, I still pay more in property taxes to RPS every year, than my entire property tax bill in San Diego, California. And, according to Smart Asset’s “Where Real Estate Taxes Are the Highest” Annual Study, Rockford has the second highest property tax rate by percent of home value than any other city in the country, behind only Peoria, Illinois. Labor costs will have to dramatically increase over the next few years to catch up with the out of control “transitory inflation” of the previous administration. Combined with the new high cost of any consumer goods, RPS’ current budget is not sustainable. Again, this is a state and national problem that is bigger than RPS. When I started teaching 28 years ago, my starting pay was around $34,000 per year. To have the same buying power as I did almost 30 years ago, a teacher’s starting pay would need to be $69,800 per year, $11,800 of that loss in buying power coming in just the last 4 years. My daughter’s starting pay as a brand new teacher this year: $42,000. No district can keep up with the salary needs of teachers. My wife and I are career teachers and our own budget is now in the red. I don’t see how new teachers starting out today can make it long in the profession, and evidence shows they're not. The solution is NOT higher property taxes, especially here in Illinois.

Nicole Bennett: We've held the levy the past 10 years, collectively, as a community, I think. There was a discussion recently about increasing property tax, and I was the sole board member who voted no for that. My constituents have asked not to increase their property taxes. I think that we as a district do receive a lot of money from property taxes, and that is the largest way we're funded. Same thing with other schools in Illinois. We lean very heavily on our financial team to be creative, to access any other revenue streams, grants, partnerships, any way that we can make sure we are looking for opportunities to save and to be very efficient with our funding and be good financial stewards to taxpayers. To make sure we are always prioritizing investments that have direct correlation to student outcomes. What's the return on our investment? Our return on our investment is student achievement and safety in our buildings, and all of these things that we're making sure that we prioritize when there is a lot of uncertainty. We do receive a significant amount of funding from the federal government. Given what's to come over the next weeks, months, years, we are going to have to make sure that we are prioritizing the needs of the district.

Kimberly Haley: The low tax rate in our district is certainly appealing to taxpayer, so sustainability is a key concern. Can we achieve the quality education for our students if we continue to keep that tax as low? That's the question that we really need to be concerned with. The district will have to look at accessing more tax taxes, I'm sure in the future to address our needs, to lower classroom sizes, to maintain competitive pay for our district teachers and staff, and also to address our transportation issues. We also want to continue to maintain the social and emotional supports we've made available for students. We are coming out of an era where we had those extra COVID funds and we were able to use those in positive ways in the school district. Since those have gone away, we've had to do away with some of those programs. So. we are working closely with our community partners to maintain some of those types of programs. We're partnering with the Rockford Public Library and the park district to maintain the and the YMCA. But we will probably need to look at raising the tax rates in some way, because not doing so could harm the long-term success for our district.

Scott A. Anderson: Outside looking in, being just a candidate and paying those taxes, I'm excited that we didn't have to raise taxes. We have to do a better job, fiscally, to maintain that. Maybe look at a DOGE type thing, for lack of a better term, to take a look at the things that work and things that don't work. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, if our kids are reading and their math is where they're supposed to be, and I'm getting the most bang for my buck, and you might have to raise a little bit, I'd be okay with that, right? I would be okay with that. They're not going to get lower. We've got to do with what we have, the best that we can do. To get in there and really look at the line items to really pick through things that work and things that don't work, and where you can save some money, where you can't, is probably one of the biggest things. I would think our money, your tax money, is probably one of the biggest things that any of us you know struggle with, for sure, second highest in the state, the Rockford area.

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What do you think of the job the current RPS administration, including the superintendent, is doing?

Patricia Chavez: There's been some successes. There's always areas that can be focused on and can be improved. I always feel there's room for improvement. Of course, some increases have been regarding proficiency levels and graduation rates. Attendance issues are still a concern. More than anything, it's for the board to work with the superintendent, in a cohesive manner for us to be able to come together to better serve the students. They had some successes, but there's always areas of improvement. I think that trend of improvement because the same efforts are being done, but looking back also, what more can we do? They must be doing something right to keep improving.

Fort A. Zackary III: There are several things the superintendent should be given credit for. First and foremost is bringing some stability to RPS. We had a revolving door of superintendents. Stability had been missing, and desperately needed, and the superintendent has provided that. He has improved various internal departments of the administrative arm of the district including: payroll, finance, legal, and IT (informational technology). He has done a good job of leading the modernization of schools and facilities. And, he has done a great job building community partnerships at all levels, but especially with the high school academies and the College and Career Education Center. These were great, new ideas that have brought vocational skills and training back into our schools in an economically and equitable way. Two areas that I think have been lacking, and as a board member I would want measurable growth goals put in place for, are: student achievement and accountability. The second is administrative accountability. A principal told me that the only people in the district being held accountable are the teachers, and school support staff and interventionists. And, that accountability is only being done by building principals. But, teachers are only implementing district initiatives and dictated unfunded mandates from above. Teachers are doing a great job with the resources they have been given, but they are the only ones held to account for test scores. But, where is the internal accountability for the administrators that came up with failed policies? Administrators need to be held accountable when the curriculums they chose for the teachers fail.

Nicole Bennett: I think the board has a really good working relationship with Dr. Jarrett, with the administration. Over the past two years, we still have a lot of work to do, but graduation rates increased 8%. Third to 8th grade literacy is up somewhere between 4 and 5% over the past two years.Certain areas are making really good gains, but something that we have discussed recently, and I've been very vocal about, is I want us to do a new strategic plan. We need more qualitative goals. Our chronic absenteeism rate is somewhere around 50%. So, 50% of our students are missing 10% or more of school, which is a significant loss of learning and access to their supports, their peer relationships, all kinds of things that go into not being in school. We're doing a lot to get students to come to school. What are we quantifying and how are we talking about that? I want us to talk to our key stakeholders in the community. I want us to talk to students. I want us to have listening sessions all across the district. What are we getting really right, and what are we absolutely missing the mark on? What's the experience of individuals who interact with RPS 205 in whatever fashion that is. I think we need some new goals. I think we need a clear vision and a direction. We have so many students, and we are such a large district, and it takes a lot to move those areas. So, I'm just really excited for the idea of really getting some good goals to work towards.

Kimberly Haley: There's always room for improvement, especially in RPS 205. There were some strategic goals put in place maybe five years ago. The strategic goals were to improve 3rd grade reading, to increase middle school on track rate, our freshmen on track rate, and to improve our graduation rates. We have made gains in all of those areas, but there's still a whole lot work that needs to be done. I believe that the superintendent has taken ownership of the problem and is taking steps to make greater improvements in those areas. One area I think that we really need to also concentrate on is math. So, I think the administration needs to continue the work they're doing with teachers and staff, to provide training so that they're able to deliver the curriculum in ways that students understand, but also to work with families and keep students in the classroom.

Scott A. Anderson: I would say flat. There's some good things, but I still come back to accountability: to get those numbers up to where they belong, and to be able to touch on some of the emotional stuff as well that you have to deal with. They're all great people, I give them a high five for what they do.

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What’s an education issue you think is more important than some people may realize?

Patricia Chavez: I don't think people focus on, or questioned much, the bilingual program. Students spend eight plus hours in the school environment and my question is, again, with these rates of proficiency with the English learners, where are the challenges with that where it happens to be a low score? An important role of the school district is to transition these students into American school system, right? And becoming active community members as well. I feel that that is not even considered or looked at through a lot of groups. The proficiency levels have improved, but I feel more can be done. What role are they playing in transitioning students, once they arrive into the school system, and then what is it their role in being able to, culture competency, assimilating these students into the community?

Fort A. Zackary III: The one education issue I think is overlooked and tremendously important is local, state, and federal government influence on individual school districts. For some reason people don’t equate what is happening around them to their vote. Many issues RPS faces: taxes, teacher shortages, truancy and absenteeism, discipline, drugs, teacher retention, just to name a few, are problems that are bigger than RPS and the board. The board and district must follow the mandates from the state and federal government, often they are unfunded mandates. School boards are often bound by state laws and procedures. The people you elect beyond the school board matter. A clear example would be marijuana in schools, which high school principals will tell you is directly related to the state law. Teachers and parents are complaining about the drug problem in schools, but many voted for the state leaders who legalized it. Oh, they will respond that marijuana is still illegal for minors to have in school, but then bar law enforcement from enforcing the law.

Nicole Bennett: Students' well being is something that we hear about, like 'it's rough for students,' but nothing that we ever are going to try to do will work if we don't have students that are well. Students need to feel like they matter and they belong and we believe in them, and we want them to be in our buildings. We want to help them. We had a student in a listening session share that she was having some issues with mental health and was missing some days of school, and the fact that her support staff and her teachers reached out -- that's why she came back to school. She knew people cared about her and noticed that she was gone. If our students don't feel any of those things, everything else is for naught. They're not going to trust us if they need help. They're not going to even trust us to be vulnerable to learn and say, 'I don't understand this.' We can put all the initiatives in place and do all these programs, but if we don't have our students showing up and knowing that we want them to be there, it's for nothing.

Kimberly Haley: Student attendance. Students being in the class is very important to their learning. We are way behind on reading and math levels, but if the students are not there, we're going to continue be to be behind on the reading and math levels. One of our schools, the STEAM Academy at Haskell Elementary, that was really an underperforming school. We made it a STEAM Academy and attendance was mandatory for students to stay there -- that has been the greatest turnaround in our district. It is one of the highest achieving schools in our district at this point, and that happened in a couple of years. Attendance is overlooked as an important point. We're looking at transportation issues. If you live within a mile and a half of the school, you have to walk. That's been an issue for some of our students. We have tried to address that issue and and make transportation available for the students that are within that mile and a half radius. If they're having problems getting their children to school, maybe there's a personal issue. We want to work with our community supports to address those issues with the family. That's why I champion parent involvement in schools. If parents are involved, students are going to be there. The other issue, I think, that we don't really look at, is identifying student learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. I don't think that's something we pay too much attention to when they're coming into school. I think that a lot of students may have those issues. We need to, as educators, identify that disability and work with the students to address that concern so that they're able to learn.

Scott A. Anderson: The trades, the technical education part. I think they got some money alloted in those programs to get people workplace ready for sure. I think parental participation as well. I think I would like to really see more of that. Some before and after school stuff would help in the improvement of the math or reading and stuff. I would like to see grandparents and parents definitely step up a little bit more.

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