Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills, experiences, and perspectives would you bring to the District, and why would those contributions be valuable in the role of School Board member?

As an educator, youth mentor, advocate, and parent, I value the contributions that schools make to their communities. I am running for the OPRF D200 Board of Education because I believe its strengths play a role in our community's ongoing flourishing. As a place where engaging excellence can lead to equitable outcomes not only for our students but for our community at large. I am also motivated to serve in this capacity as an opportunity to give back to the community where I lived and develop projects of collaborative impacts that help all of us thrive.

I attended graduate school at Princeton Theological Seminary, where I completed a Masters of Divinity degree and earned a Ph.D. in Religious and Social Ethics. At the end of my studies, I went on to teach at Drew University, Theological School, where I served as Associate Professor of Religious Ethics and Social Theory before being selected to serve as President and Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Leadership at Meadville Lombard Theological School. As a professor and administrator, I have worked in creating initiatives that brought awareness to issues impacting the community at large, like health outcomes in the community, racial profiling, and ecological concerns. 

To the work at D200, I will bring experience in Higher Ed Administration as CEO, experience in designing and implementing equity-based assessments, and skills in facilitating conversations across multiple institutional and community stakeholders. These are skills that will strengthen the work of D200 board.

2. What are the three biggest challenges or opportunities you expect District 200 to face in the coming years, and how would you work with your colleagues to address these challenges or realize these opportunities?

District 200 faces several challenges, some of which are immediate (1 )and some long-term. I will name one immediate and two long-term challenges (2) and (3). 

1. Safe Return to School: In the short term, the planning of transitioning back to school while strengthening crisis-preparedness to face the possibility of lingering COVID-19 disruptions school, should they occur, needs to be prioritized. There needs to be an awareness that given what we have learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic, we should be mindful of possible interruptions to the school year and be prepared to transition to pedagogical work in hybrid learning as necessary. We also need to be mindful of the ways in which not every community member has been equally impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic and make ready to provide the necessary support to create a thriving learning environment for all. 

2. Fiscal Responsibility: I consider fiscal responsibility and expanding the conversation table with stakeholders. In the matter of fiscal responsibility, we need to understand that budgets are ethical statements that bear witness to the things we care most about by declaring how resources will be allocated. The board must continue to carefully monitor the strategic plan and facilities improvement project's cost implications. Budgets should also consider what investments are necessary to remove barriers of access required for centering our students' needs and success. 

3. Stakeholder Engagement: As representatives of students' community and advocates, the board members should foster a culture of deep listening to various stakeholders' needs and concerns while clearly articulating the vision of equity and inclusion to create a thriving educational environment for D200. Facilitating and strengthening engagement with stakeholders is critical for building the consensus required to invest in our school's present and future.

3. How will you balance competing interests, such as your own deeply-held values and opinions, input from District staff and fellow board members, and diverse views from the community? How would you describe your leadership style and your decision-making process generally? 

Effective board members guide their work with a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities as board members. Board members are first and foremost representatives of the community and advocates on behalf of the students for the District's sound governance. Board members are also responsible for establishing strategic priorities and planning for the school district, as well as work to achieve financial equilibrium budgeting practices. My leadership style is marked by collaboration, consensus building, and accountability to those most impacted by the decisions made. I have experience in facilitating large-scale collaborations between diverse stakeholders to achieve a common goal. I've been able to be successful in this work because I believe in democratic processes that are transparent and accountable to multiple stakeholders. But this work is successful only in so far as stakeholders are willing to engage in crucial conversations, to gain a new perspective by providing new answers to old questions, by centering the lives of those most impacted by collective decisions. 

4. What values would you bring to the budgeting process? What changes do you favor in the process by which the District conducts its budgeting and fiscal planning?

As I mentioned above, I treat budgets as ethical statements. Changes that I favor in budgeting and financial planning are those that set the District up to achieve financial equilibrium where we are clear of the cost of operations and also of the areas that require investment. Such processes are best served by strategic planning that keeps short-term balance needs and long-term goals all in service of the mission of D200. In my managing work, achieving a balanced budget is always the goal; that is a priority that I will bring to the District's practices. However, there are also times in which to achieve an institution's mission, and increased investment of resources is the right approach in order to move from the status quo to the next level of operations. This perspective is important because to understand that schools are integral to our community, and we are committed to all our students' success, we also need to be willing to invest the resources necessary to achieve this goal. This, of course, requires careful assessment of needs, agreement on the course of action, and consensus-building among stakeholders. 

5. How will you balance the community's desire to decrease the property tax burden with the need to maintain the quality of our schools, create an equitable learning environment for all students, and address facilities issues?

As a taxpayer and Oak Park resident, I understand my property taxes as an investment in the success of my children, their friends, and other children and youth in the community. I also understand that my property taxes contribute to the larger economy of Oak Park as the schools employ residents and non-residents. The quality of our schools was one of the reasons my family and I decided to buy our home in this community. Thus, I am committed to finding innovative solutions that help us achieve an equilibrium between tax-burdens, tax-levy practices, and our need to create and sustain equitable learning environments where all our students can thrive and with the necessary infrastructure to sustain the schools work. 

6. Special education is mandated by federal law. How will you set up structures to ensure ongoing concerns of families engaged with special education are addressed? What do you believe are the biggest issues facing families and children with special needs, and how will you work to see their needs are met?

This is a question that cannot be answered from the standpoint of an isolated individual, but it requires consensus building, adoption of best practices, and centering the learners' success in this process. As a parent of a young learner currently in D97with an IEP plan, and as an adult with ADHD, I understand firsthand the support structures that need periodic review. One of the best ways to ensure that learners with special needs are met is by investing in our teachers. Making it possible for our Special Education instructional and support staff to have adequate resources and investing in their ongoing development means that learners with special needs will have access to the resources they need to succeed. This falls within the fiscal responsibility of the board. It is also important to promote conversations between guardians and teachers working with students with learning needs. In my experience, open communication has been integral to the success of my child. 

7. How do you define equity? Have recent discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking? 

I define equity as a set of intentional practices that aim to remove and overcome barriers that may hinder individuals and groups' success that experience marginalization and exclusion. When leading and creating policies informed by equity, administrators consider the particular issues and circumstances that impact individuals and communities' differential outcomes. Equity goes above and beyond Equality. Equality often focuses on making equal resources and opportunities available to all without necessarily taking into account remediable differences that exist between particular groups and/or individuals. Recent conversations in the larger community make it clear to me that we need to deepen our understanding of equity and prioritize equity-based outcomes in our education system. 

8. How do you plan to solicit feedback from people who may be experiencing OPRFHS in a different way than you? What barriers do you believe may exist in this process?

Soliciting feedback from community members and stakeholders who have a different experience than me should not be my sole responsibility but one for every board member. As board members, while each individual member may represent various constituencies and bring to the work values and beliefs informing individual perspectives, the responsibility of the board as a whole is to represent the community interest and be advocates for our students. Periodic listening sessions and town halls are good ways to gather a community's input. However, I think that a board culture that prioritizes transparency and accountability in their deliberations and decision-making process can promote a culture of trust from the constituency it serves. 

9. How should the District assess its policies and progress with respect to the opportunity gap? As a Board Member, how will you determine whether the District is succeeding?

Success in overcoming opportunity gaps is best to assess by tracking the success of those who may be deferentially impacted by accessing available opportunities. Keeping in mind that the board's role is one of governance and assessment and not micromanagement of the administration's implementation process, the board's role will be to contribute to the development of strategic planning that aims at overcoming opportunity gaps impacting members of our learning community. Equity-based audits of expected outcomes are an excellent barometer to analyze D200's success in this area. 

10. District 200 Superintendent Joylyn Pruitt is retiring in June 2021, and a search process has been initiated by the current Board. What qualities do you value most when searching for a new superintendent?

The new superintendent should be an educational leader committed to working collaboratively to build the consensus needed with an array of stakeholders to put forward the work of shaping an education system with equity at its center. Furthermore, this person should be an inspiring leader who understands the necessary adjustment to adequately prepare students to adequately meet the demands of 21st-century citizenship and multi-career paths.

11. What is your impression of D200’s Access for All detracking curriculum redesign program and of detracking efforts generally? How will you handle parent concerns that arise as implementation begins?

The District's plan for restructuring the freshmen curriculum is a bold move that centers equity and access to promote all students' striving towards excellence. This plan is also a commitment to creating structures of learning where our first-year students can challenge themselves while receiving the support needed to promote their ongoing academic growth. Personally, my academic and professional success would not have been possible without one of my academic advisors taken a risk. While I was an excellent student in high school, graduating at the top of my class, my college transition was less than ideal. Within my first year, I went from a straight A's student to a B average. In talking with an academic advisor, this person challenged me to enroll in the honors program, that he will waive the GPA requirement for a year, but I needed to raise my grades. This opportunity gave me the motivation I needed to strive for excellence. I graduated college with honors and completed a Ph.D. with distinction. Without someone being willing to remove access barriers, it is likely that my life would have taken a different course. I believe that through the restructuring of the freshmen curriculum, we are saying "Yes!" to the success of our students. As the implementation unfolds, it is important to assess its progress through various stages. In my role as a Higher Ed administrator and a faculty member, I've experienced various rollouts of new curriculums and initiatives. These experiences have taught me that when we keep the students learning needs at the center and are able to engage new processes and structures with creativity and open communication, we can nurture a culture where thriving is possible and excellence an outcome. 

12. Educational and business leaders have begun to use a "cradle-to-career" framework when talking about education. Please discuss the role of District 200 within the “cradle-to-career“ framework.

While still in its nascent form, the cradle-to-career framework is having a deep impact across communities in the United States. Because it emphasizes collaboration across community partnerships that share expertise and resources, "cradle-to-career" frameworks in education have the capacity to come with innovative solutions to issues impacting communities. It also empowers learning to be applied in "competency-based" models and not primarily on "banking-models" of education. 

13. What lessons learned from the implementation of remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic do you believe will be applicable going forward, even after the pandemic abates?

As an educator who has a certificate in online learning and has taught online for close to a decade, I have experience managing the complexities and challenges of designing and implementing a hybrid learning model presents under the best of conditions. It requires the capacitation of teaching staff, assessment of tech-infrastructure, pedagogical considerations as to the best ways to meet the learning needs of diverse learners while keeping track of how matters of equity and inclusion may impact members of the learning community. The designing and implementation of a hybrid model during a global health pandemic present its own set of unique and unknown challenges. How long would it last? How long before we can return to a sense of safety? To consider the investment necessary to shift towards hybrid learning a temporary investment, or will our systems' retooling be a long-term investment? How do we support our teachers and other staff who are coping with shifting demands on their pedagogical practices and who are also, like the rest of us, learning to live in pandemic-times? These are matters not to be taken likely. 

While navigating many unknowns, D200 implemented a hybrid model of learning that honored our current moment's realities. I see evidence of this in the willingness to understand that freshmen needed a process of acclimation to a new school system and implemented ways to facilitate that transition in online and face-to-face settings. The courage to embrace alternative assessment strategies by implementing a Bridge Week instead of finals weeks to promote successful completion of work and remove the additional stress of end-of-year examination shows an understanding of the additional stressors in the lives of our students.

Consistent communication with stakeholders about the plan and how it was going to be implemented provided the needed clarity. Of course, there is always room for improvement, and its is important to underscore that there has been no precedent in recent times in our country on how to adjust to a pandemic while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. I hope that as a district, we can bring the lessons we have to learn to bear into the ongoing curricular conversations, adapting best practices that maximize the best of hybrid and face-to-face learning to promote our students' success.

14. District 200 has taken some steps to move away from policing and surveillance in schools toward restorative justice, mental health supports, and other services in schools. Do you feel these moves have been successful? Why or why not? What work do you believe remains to be done in this area?

As an educator, I affirm moves that shift resources from policing and surveillance investing instead in restorative practices, mental and emotional support providing alternate path towards conflict resolution, and responsible citizenship education. An abundance of evidence shows that policing and surveillance impact the school system due to their high cost. This high cost not only redirects budget priorities from direct services for students towards disciplinary measures. More importantly, surveillance practices negatively impact the experience of students of color. As a person of color who has served as a college professor and Higher Ed administration, policing and surveillance have impacted my own educational experiences and career. I've been questioned and prevented from accessing facilities, including library premises, classrooms, and at times, even my own campus office, as my reason for being there was questioned and my credentials not taken as valid. Facing such situations, I had to consider, for example, personal safety against being late for teaching or committee assignments. There is no justification for a school system to put much weight on children and youth. 

15. Do you see a role for the Board in ensuring that the climate at OPRFHS is welcoming to students in minority populations, whether racial, religious identity, LGBTQ+, etc.? What specific actions or policies would you propose?

Yes, board members in their elected roles are representative of the community and advocates on behalf of students. Therefore, ensuring a welcoming climate for BIPOC and LGBTQI+ students ought to be a priority by creating policies and fostering community-wide conversations to achieve that aim. Just as universal designs remove the barrier of accessing space regardless of ability, educational systems design through equity lenses is an important corrective to practices that enable some to succeed at others' expense. The board can serve as a community convening table to promote conversations around religious literacy, engagements that deepen understanding of prejudice based on race, gender, and sexual preference. Furthermore, to ensure that the creation of policies goes through an equity assessment before adoption and implementation. 

16. District 200 Board members share responsibility for oversight of the Collaboration for Early Childhood. Do you support this example of intergovernmental cooperation? Are there other types of intergovernmental cooperation that you would support?

Yes. We need to keep in perspective that the young learners in our Elementary Schools system will enter our High School at some point in their lives; children do grow fast. For this reason, I think it is vital that D200 board members be involved in the oversight of the Collaboration for Early Childhood. Intergovernmental cooperation that benefits the school capacities to offer direct service and support to our students should be part of D200 strategic planning. It also makes good fiscal sense to promote collaborations across government agencies that operate supported by taxpayers. Partnerships could include management of facilities, transportation, and expansion of mental health support are some examples where intergovernmental cooperation will strengthen D200. 

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[The above answers were supplied on 3/14/21.]