Richmond 4th District School Board Race - 2024

When my son came home with a clear backpack, I was relieved because I could see inside of it, and it was really convenient. With that said, there is no data that shows that clear backpacks improve safety - anywhere.

There’s actually data that shows it can be harmful to the safety of individuals. It’s treating students like criminals. It’s not something I agree with.

I do have a background in criminal justice, and I’ve seen the school-to-prison pipeline, and we have to do better for these students who feel as though they have to bring weapons to school. Whether that’s mental health resources or wraparound support, that’s where our focus should be.

It’s a hard thing, of course, because I do not want guns or weapons in school, but I’m also realizing that predominantly, most students who go to school are not at risk of doing anything, so that’s nice.

It’s very sad that we are where we are. Last week, I went through a lockdown drill with my students, as we do annually, because that's what we do for preparation, right? We need to make sure that we are doing our due diligence and making sure that students know the plan if something like that happens.

Every single time, I reflect on why we're doing that, and it's a terrible, terrible shame. The clear backpacks and the metal detectors are mandated, temporary approaches that I support because our children's lives and my colleagues’ lives, my fellow teachers and staff’s lives matter, and I want to make sure that they are safe. But we need to treat mental illness as we do physical illness. Mental health and physical health should both be prioritized. 

I strongly believe that we have to make sure every child is safe and valued, and they feel supported. We have to make sure that we're investing in wraparound services in every school building. 

And for the city, every child should have before and after school programs to support them and their achievement. We also need to make sure that we're going into the family. I think we haven't talked enough about it, but investment into the full family, because we know it’s a family responsibility to make sure that they support their children. So I just want to make sure that we're always keeping at the forefront how we look at investing behind all of our kids and all of our families so that everybody can be successful. 

Cell phones during the day do impact learning. I think that each school should have autonomy over what that looks like. I also think that students should be involved in what that looks like.

When decision makers make a policy that comes from the top-down it usually does not have buy-in, and we have to focus on how we can find creative ways to still meet goals academically while having individuals that are affected by these policies involved in making the policy. So at the Governor/state level, I do not support a blanket implemented policy.

I think it’s more nuanced than (a blanket ban). I have to say that I don't support the heavy-handed approach that that the administration is taking. I also think that it’s nuanced, that it needs be a building decision. As an educator, I've read a whole lot about this, and experienced it first-hand. There is a lot of data that supports taking cell phones out of the classroom, but I don't think that a blanket ban is what works. We saw that the Yondr pouches just didn't work in this building, and so we saw that the principal decided to implement a different policy that utilizes shoe holders on doors where students put their cell phones in that. 

So I think that, again, we need to rely on principals and teachers and stakeholders. Students, I think, also should be included, especially student leaders who are elected by a student body to make those types of decisions, and at least to weigh in on those decisions, because it’s very important before we decide on any type of policy.

RPS actually was a little bit ahead of the curve related to this. Last school year we implemented a pilot program, and Huguenot High School was part of that process. We utilized Yondr pouches. Through that process, we also did a lot of engagement with our students and our faculty to see how it felt, and some parents as well, to make sure that we understood what that impact would be as you move out of the classroom. Then, quite frankly, it moves to the board.

I want to make sure that teachers have the ability to teach and not have the distractions of kids being on their cell phones and doing other things that cut into the time. Again, I will always support that. What we learned is that not every plan or pouch or every process we had in place worked effectively. So we have some lessons learned over the pilot program we did over last year, and we're going to be able to be able to implement different systems to make sure that it works effectively.

I see everything as being connected. I think the academic achievement gaps are huge, but we can’t fully address those until everything else is also taken care of. So, supporting interventions to close achievement gaps and ensure equitable resource distribution is something that is important.

We also need to address teachers’ concerns. Teacher pay is very important, but I have not talked to one former teacher who has left because of the pay. So that’s something that needs to be addressed, and that’s a culture problem in the city of Richmond. I will work to create a positive work culture and establish channels for teacher feedback, to review politics and engage stakeholders through town halls and surveys.

I think that for me, my understanding from the conversations that I have had, and my experience in the classroom: Teacher retention and recruitment is our greatest challenge.

In fact, nearly 50% of teachers who are new nationwide leave the profession after five years. Fifty years ago, there was a report that mentioned that the single most important factor affecting student outcomes was teacher quality. Fast forward to 2019, the RAND Corporation found the same results. So did the American Institute of Research. It comes down to teacher quality. Many of our students are in classrooms with substitutes. We’re thankful for our substitutes, but we must make sure that our students have highly qualified and experienced teachers, and by doing that first, we support our teachers better.

As your current school representative of the 4th District, I spend a significant amount of time engaging the community. I want to make sure that my constituents understand what's happening, but also understand from them what we need to improve in our school division. 

The biggest thing that I've heard, after I've knocked on over 4,000 doors so far this election season, has been facilities. A lot of parents in the Westover Hills community, they're so invested in making sure that their kids have a great education. Quite frankly, when they go into the school building in Westover Hills, it troubles them, as it does me as well, as a product of Westover Hills. It’s the same school building that I attended. Down to the bathrooms, nothing has changed. 

So we have to be critically focused on improving that, and it's something that we're actively working on as a school board currently - doing facilities assessments, school by school, to make sure we have a strategic plan of how we're going to address those concerns and fix those as we move forward in the coming years.