Good afternoon everyone. It really warm welcome to our Detroit school board candidates, all of our viewers and our wonderful moderators. I'm Laurie Higgins and the bureau chief at Chalkbeat Detroit. We are a nonprofit news organization specializing in covering education with a particular focus on inequities in education. We are really happy to be CO CO hosting this candidate forum with WD T one Oh 1.9 FM Detroit NPR station as an education journalist for more than 20 years. I think school board elections are a really crucial part of our civic process. School board members and the work they do have the potential to change a child's education or shape a child's education and experience in school. And that's especially important right now in the wake of a pandemic that has disrupted education everywhere. Tonight, you'll get a chance to hear from many of the people who are running to fill four seats on the Detroit school board. I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts. But first some ground rules and info for the candidates. Because we have so many of you. We are breaking this forum into 245 minute panel discussions. We will have a short intermission between those panels. We have two types of questions several there are several meaty questions which you will have 60 seconds to answer and several rapid fire questions which are designed to get quick responses. You'll have 30 seconds for those. We will then open it up for audience questions. You'll have 60 seconds to answer those questions. Candidates we ask that you keep your answers concise. Our timekeeper will jump in when your time is up and say time. This is your cue to stop or wrap up really really quickly. We'll ask the panelists the same questions in each panel, with the exception of the audience questions which might change from one panel to the next. Our questions mirror what we heard from those of you who've registered for this event? For audience members, feel free to pop questions into the q&a set function of the Zoom meeting. Now I'm going to introduce our moderators who will take us through the forum. We have Ethan Cooley, who covers Detroit School District for Chalkbeat. And we also have her Facebook colleague, a senior at Cass Tech and a community organizer. Take it away you guys.
Thank you, Laurie.
We're gonna get this panel started by introducing the first group of candidates we have Richard comment is a retired educator. And then Patrice Douglas apologizes she was unable to make it tonight due to being sick. Following that as Deborah Hunter Harville is a combat she is a retired educator who spent her career as a teacher and operates under Carville educational associates. Mr. Lemons is the Chief of Staff for a state senator. He is also a former member of the Detroit school board. Jamal Muhammad is a former secondary teacher in the district who now works as an attendance agent at Assam, in short, is an educator and a former Detroit school board member John Telford is an dpscd poet and resident has been an educator for 66 years and served as district superintendent during emergency management. And as they call it, a Vaughn is an incumbent, she's a bishop and leads the Kotel administration and the Holy Ghost Cathedral Church. So I'll start us off with our first question. For our candidates. And I'll start with Richard Clement. First question is what is the biggest issue facing the district and how would you address it
hello the Erie Yep, hello.
Good. The biggest problem facing
this
way the school district was destroyed to creative accounting and what we have to do to fix it and so
we'll place
in layer responses
and not a day go. We have some difficulties with Mr. Clement. Hello, I'm back.
Okay, I've said the the one of the most the most critical issues in the way schools are funded right now. And the reallocation of resources from teachers and classrooms and programs that would benefit our students such as music and swimming, and you know, technology now ology or help these students problem. We got a big attendance problem kids coming out, won't come to school, so we got to think out of the box to get back into school and what's been in there, keep them interested.
Thank you. Next is Deborah Arvo.
Thank you. Good evening to everyone. I would say our largest crisis at this time is attendance. And there's a lot of research that shows that attendance is directly related to literacy rates. And so since our problem here is that our kids are two to three years behind. They have the learning loss issues, and we've got to get them to school every day. And teach them with best practices every day and do it with fidelity so that's one of the things that I would be encouraging. That's the US for the the biggest crisis. So that's the biggest and I'll leave that and send you on to your next person. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. Next is Lamar lemons.
The the biggest crisis, or the biggest issue facing the Detroit public schools would be again attendance and literacy, of student performance by literacy. So would be those would be the two biggest issues.
And how would you adjust it
up? I would address it by increasing ad attendance. By having the greater parental involvement and finding out why the students aren't attending and addressing that. I believe in having a a literacy core send it out sent out and supplemental tutors for the students as well as after school programming and as part of the of the solution. Thank you.
Next is Jamal Mohammed
I think you're muted. So yes. I think
the biggest problem that faces in our school district is literacy in attendance. And how I will adjust it is is making sure that we are reaching out to the community to work with them to make sure that they have the proper resources so that they are able to get to school. It's one thing for us to tell our students that we can get they should get to school every day. But it's another thing for us to offer the solution to the problem. We're having issues with bus drivers have an issue with transportation but how can we reach out to the community and work together with them so that we can come up with solutions to find ways whether it's getting more vehicles or getting more drivers being able to utilize other resources that are in the city to help to address the attendance issue and how we adjust the literacy issues. Make sure that we are hiring qualified teachers in our school district that's putting the libraries back into our school district so that students are actually going into the libraries and able to we like we used to be back in a day and make sure that time things home.
Next is very mature.
Thank you. Um, I have a degree in reading. I have a master's degree in reading. And so I don't think one approach is going to be the best approach to stemming our literacy problem. One of the things that we need to do is have literacy core, which is very similar to what Lamar LeMans is recommending where you have a core of people coming in to help our students, but this score would be different it would be other students as well as other people such as high school school students coming in to help the junior high and middle school and the elementary students. The second approach would be to have the students and the staff work with Mrs. Moore Helen Morris literacy project, we would need to have the quick to learn program which we did have before the emergency managers Stop it wouldn't allow us to have it and then more one on one tutoring for our students.
Like you next is John Telford. You need to unmute. Can you hear me now? Yes. Good.
Okay. Yeah. The biggest problem that faces our students right now is the fact that the current administration has not taught him to read and that's why I'm running for the school board. That's That's my my platform. That's my passion and that's what I want to make happen. And right now it's not. So we've got to teach the kids to read and we have to do everything. What Mrs. Short what Dr. Short she's Dr. Short now with Dr. Short said is right on, you know, the literacy, core everything, everything that we can do to to enable our students to read motivate them to be able to read. We're letting our students down the school district has support I mean, the most basic responsibility of a school district is to teach students to read, if they if they leave the third grade not able to read. They're there. They're in big trouble. We've got to make sure that our students can read and write now at time
Thank you. Last is clinical.
Thank you. I would say that the number one and that's what you want issue of our district right now is systemic property. systemic poverty is the issue. That causes chronic absenteeism and causes problems in literacy, cultural abnormalities, broken family units, homelessness, food shortage, lack of utility support. We have some issues that are outside of the actual school that are producing what we see in terms of chronic absenteeism and literacy issues. So in helping to support that we're going to have to engage the entire community business community, clergy, community, educators, administrators, family support, everything that is available in terms of resources, nonprofits, to build back the family unit. Many of these children are homeless. These families, thank you. Thank you.
Now I'll pass on the next question to heavyset.
Thank you even so our next question is, how do you plan on connecting with students, families and staff? And we will start with correlate Yvonne,
thank you so much. I plan to continue doing what I've been doing for the last four years going house to house networking through support systems in the community, nonprofits, our churches, our faith expressions and liturgies, our pastors, interfaith community leaders, to get to the families to provide them the psychological, emotional and social support.
Thank you,
we will now move on to John Telford.
Students, family
and staff Well, I have an advantage because I see students very very frequently, because I'm kind of a classroom junkie. I'm I'm back teaching poetry at Frederick Douglass High School. So I see students frequently and I'm also the poet in residence for the Detroit Public Schools community district. So I go around all the high schools sharing my poetry. And that gives me a direct contact with students. Which I've I've never really left. You know, I've been an educator for 66 years.
Thank you. I just seven short.
Thank you for the question. As a former board member, I was the chair of the parent department. So I was regularly meeting with parents at the schools. In addition to that, we had a monthly parent meeting of all the parents representatives from each school in the district. And in addition to that, we had the board meetings where we embraced our parents coming to the meetings and discussing their issues and concerns. We we did not turn them off the mic. We allowed our parents to speak and we also encouraged them to meet with us after the board meetings. So I would like to continue doing that. Even though I haven't been a board meeting member when we went into the pandemic. I got a lot of calls from parents who wanted to find out how to get the computers that DPS D was handing out and the issue of the computer's not working. So I was not a board member at that point. But I did touch base with some of the people at DPS.
Thank you.
I will now pass it to Jamal Mohammed.
Yes How
would I be able to average our students, our staff, and parents and families is to make sure that we're engaging with our families each and every day. By sending out notifications to students make sure that we're actually be in a community working with the Detroit City Council working with Wayne County and asking him for all of us coming together at a table and having monthly meetings like we do the school board where we bring ideas together and we got to organizations for all of us to be able to help out and bridge that gap. Thank you.
I will now pass it to Lamar lemons.
The way that we engage the parents, the students and the communities we make sure that our district is very much a part of it. And to do that, I think we need to go out and in person visits to all the various homes community, the churches, the synagogues, the masjid, mosque, etc. And, and make sure that we are touching base with the community as they are, where they are. And make sure that they are partly engaged with the district. There's only a small percentage, a very small percentage that attend board member meetings, even when you're going to close the school down and you have a full house is still a very small percentage of the district as a whole. So that means if it student if the parents don't come to the schools, then the school has to come to the parents. I believe that we need to have a court of social work to social workers and go door to door.
Thank you so
much. I will not pass it to Deborah Hunter Harville.
Mic is off. Thank you
I apologize. um a lot of things we've been doing. We've been waiting to various classrooms and students throughout the district that's K through 12. Even high school students enjoy it. We've also been hosting specially at forums where we learn more about various disabilities that our students have and some best practice strategies to use. We've also been doing a lot with teacher professional development. Looking at tier one, tier two tier three instructional practices, so that we can get the family engaged, you go to Parent Academy sessions, and you just have a wonderful time watching how parents are getting engaged. I agree with everyone. Parent involvement could be greater, but we have to do more with the time span that we have. And so I agree you meet parents wherever they are and you roll with them and the same thing with the students. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. I will now hand it off to our last panelist for this question. Richard Clement. Good afternoon.
I would propose without needing to have our office hours like once a week for parents and students. And I would also have like the screen so that parents and students can see what they're doing and including curriculum. I would also identify the troubled students and trying to proceed more resources tool through community engagement door to door and teach a column to students Okay, and it may have to take on a team of people to do that. So
that's that.
Thank you so much. I will now hand it off to Ethan for our next
question. Great, thank you.
So our next question is, what should the district be doing to address learning loss and I'll start with Richard come
in. Well, it's trying to turn off my virtual background but the learning loss basically is about Attention, attention deficit. I mean, we'd have to look at testing and seeing how the comprehension goes to really reach into the cause of bugs. Okay. And each kid is child is different, and maybe it's a home environment. Maybe it's just first time Hey, they don't understand it. So they may have to take it twice. Get it right once. So just keeping, having faith in children's ability. You know, just look out and playing with cell phones. And all the technology so they got the talent.
Thank you. Next is Dr. Deborah Bravo.
Thank you, I would say thank you for that question. And I would say here are things that we need to be doing. We must implement a district Literacy Plan with fidelity. I mentioned that earlier. That means every day, a 90 minute reading block, every day, a 90 minute mathematics block because literacy is reading and mathematics, professional development for teachers, so that they can engage and know how to get students from tier one to tier two to tier three. And just to break that down. It just means to get their level of growth to go up. And that stay in one place. The training must be on spot look for parents to understand what we're doing as well as teachers as well as the students. I say bring back Saturday school. I say make certain that we have incentives to excite students. Thank you.
Thank you Next is Lamar limits. Area
first of all, I would concur. Ironically with Deborah Hunter Harville. On the issue of Saturday schools, I believe we need to have a Saturday and after school program. That's part of what I would do if I had a team in which to to get that done. In fact, I attempted that to do that to have that put in before but I was outvoted on the issue. So I believe in having the after school program having the third meal on the after school program. I believe it had been Saturday school program. How do you give the interest sports music, increase in music and you can do this on Saturdays and in the evening so that the child is intrigued. He's interested in coming to school, theater, or video theater. What do you have to do for theater you have to read you have to learn to read a script. You have to and that's those are the type of things that interest students love. The students would love to come in to do things that they're interested in.
Next is Jamal Mohammed. I'm sorry,
my internet went out for a minute. Can you repeat the question please?
So the question is, sorry, what should the district be doing to address learning loss? Yes,
Detroit in order to address the learning loss that we have a lot of overlap between them is to be able to make sure that we're investing more money into after school programs, make sure that we do have opportunities on a weekend for two students that have elected to be able to do different things on the weekend, but also to be able to get them Extra assignments and actual different types of abilities so that they're able to do stuff at home and they have assignments that they're actually doing and bring it back to be able to make up for their money moms.
Thank you.
Next is out of seven short.
Thank you for the question. I agree with everybody. I don't know what's going on my my screen is frozen. I don't know why. But anyway, I agree with what everyone has said except I'd like to add a few more things to this. You can have a subject such as English where you can teach the students how to read and study the reading and study skills within an English class. In other words, some of these skills can be taught along with another subject. So that's one extra thing I would do. I would also have more one on one tutoring which I think I mentioned earlier. And then I would have an African centered curriculum when we had the African center curriculum in ploy throughout DPS. We were one of the main public schools across the nation. We had people coming to DPS to see how we were able to get our scores up so high, how we were able to graduate so many students, higher percentage of students, and that African Senate program is really good in terms of that helping to make the students feel good about themselves and about their progress.
Thank you.
Next is John Telford. Yes, can
you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. The kids can't read. Okay. We've got to make sure that when they leave the third grade, they can read. Right now that's not happening. We can't continue to repeat doing what we've been doing. Because to do that is a form of insanity. You know, when you know that it's working. We've got to put out a program, as I just short said, you know, she mentioned the quick to learn program. I support that program as well. We were going to put that in when I was superintendent. We were prevented by the any emergency financial mismanagement. Hopefully, we'll get the vote on the board to make a program like quick to learn come in. It's research based field proven. And I'd actually it's maybe the only program in the country that guarantees success. If you don't pay it. If it doesn't work. It's called pay only for success. But in order to for it to be successful, we also have to reduce the class size in grades one, two and three, because those are the grades where the kids learn. They can leave the third okay, they can't leave the third grade without being able to learn. Thank you.
Thank you. And last is Clara Vaughn.
Thank you. Everyone has said really good stuff. I just want to remind us that as School Board, trustees, we implement and write policies. And so some of the policies that I think are missing, that will encourage and accelerate learning loss is going to be somehow engaging PE parents, because the pandemic impacted the way our parents are supporting their children in their education. It's difficult for a parent to teach what a parent does not know. And so I'd like to see some policies around parental support and possibly some adult learning courses that will assist parents to help their students. Thank you
Now I'll pass it back to visa. Thank you, Ethan.
We will now move on to rapid fire questions. You will have 30 seconds to answer these questions. The first question is What grade would you give BD or the district right now? We will begin with correlate Yvonne.
Great would I give Dr. BD and the district is that Can I can I grade them separate? Oh you won't want briefly for that too.
Quick. I will you can just separate
I will probably do a c plus. But I would give the current board probably a b minus or a I think the current board is amazing. But that would give us a c plus.
Thank you.
We will now move on to John Tilford.
unmuted are you doing Did you can you hear me now picture to come back. Okay.
What grade would I give that for reading? Well, that's kind of some things he's done well, and some things haven't been done that need to be done and I'm talking again about the reading program. If we don't teach our kids to read, we're failing our kids in the most fundamental responsibility that we have as educators. So in certainly in the in the literacy aspect of Dr. VTEs evaluation, I'd have to give him an F minus. But but he's done some other things.
Thank you. I will not pass it to Ida Simmons
short. I'm sorry.
We've been having some technical problems here. Would you repeat the question right quick for me, please.
Yes, the
question is What grade would you give to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti or the district right
now? Well,
I would say probably failure because the students are failing. So you can't get an A. If the grade is based on your your ability to do a certain job so you would have to be enough. Thank you. I
will now pass it to Jamal Mohammed. Yes,
my grave would be a deep because there's a lot of things that need to be approved on the school board and in the school district and with the superintendent. So Mark Weber being a D.
Thank you.
I will now pass it to Lamar lemons
is great and total our photo student performance. I would say it's failing. It's failing the students that he's done some things correct with the district to teacher recruitment, increasing that teacher salary, but his grade with the literacy rate at after edit what it is, is failing, especially when you consider every kid from the sixth grade. On below is his kid. Period. They only have one no one superintendent and that start to be
time. Thank you. I
will now hand it off to Deborah Hunter Harville.
Thank you for the question. Certainly it's a question that needs to be answered. I think as it relates to student achievement, we're running right at a c minus or so we must do better. But it's not because Dr. B He doesn't have the brain to get us to where we need to. It's about the time the fact that we are pivoting right now to increase achievement. And so I have that belief that that's going to happen in terms of the school board. I will have to say a see
time. Thank you Thank you. I
will now pass it to Richard Clements who will be our last panelist on this question.
After I'd give maybe a C reason to such a low grade is that we let the when it was time to rename the schools like Dr. Ben Karp to bring it back Eflin Crockett and J red Feeny to establish a neighborhood in history and in our city. Boards kind of miserably failed by not acting and good things you know, he's still these things. Paying off teachers loans and things and just, you know, get to do some stuff. Thank you.
Thank you. I will not pass it back to Ethan. Thank you.
So the next question is, most of us said chronic absenteeism as a critical issue in the district. What is one thing the district isn't doing that it should be doing? And I'll start back at Richard come and
steal
attendance and absence. I guess we don't have a unit set up to go in and go after the kids to all we got to fund it a little bit more than what we're doing now to bring up the absence and include the cell phones that they spent a lot of time on and bring that into the education process. And we got to test them to see if they comprehend what's being taught to them.
Thank you. Next is Deborah and Orville.
I would say at this time,
that maybe we need to have a little more creativity as relates to getting students to come to school. We have bands and buses. We're doing that part, right. We're trying to enable our kids and get them here. But back in the day, we used to give incentives like movie passes. Or family dairy clean tickets time or Wow. Okay, sorry about that. But you know what I mean? Thank
you. Thank you, Mr. Lemons.
Yes. The we need to have a pair of rental car commuter, a parent and community core that goes out door to door and make sure and see what conditions why the students aren't attending. Most importantly, we have to track our students. That's what we're not doing. Well, because we have found students and freezers dead because of apparent pressure insanity. We have to know who where our students are and what conditions they're living under, and how to remediate those conditions to move rapidly and to doing so.
Thank you
Next is Mr. Mohammed. Yes,
I in order for us to address our chronic diseases that we need to have more dollars and more money investing in transportation, make sure that we are able to help when families need gas cars make sure that we're able to have families assistance warehousing and make sure that we're actually putting boots on the ground and it's getting more advanced and attended to agents that have vans to when they actually go and pick up students to be able to bring them to school. You can have attendance agents, that's a personal issue as far as school is that we don't have the capabilities to assist parents with transportation and gas costs and resources that they need to make sure their students get School. Thank you.
Next is Item seven short.
Thank you for this question. We do need more staff in the attendance office. We also need to have more wraparound services not just for the student himself or herself but for the entire family which other people have already mentioned. We need to have a holistic approach to why the students are not attending school. So I really think a short survey would also be necessary to find out why they're not coming to school. Why the parents are not sending the children to school. Thank you. Oh, can I ask one more question is Can I ask about the video? Can I go out and come back in to see if that can correct that?
Yes, I can. You can try. I'm not sure. On my side.
If I go out can I click back in? Yeah, I think if you put the same link you can Okay. All right. Thank you.
Next is John Telford.
Can you hear me now? Okay. We need to strengthen the attendance department. Obviously we need to hire more attendance officers. As I've said we need we need a wraparound program. That that encompasses the entire school and the family. This is a this is a serious, serious problem because you can't teach an empty chair. And so these are the things that I would suggest we've got to motivate kids to particularly at the secondary level. You know, I was a track coach, Coach champion. Okay, again, a lot of those kids wouldn't have been coming to school at all that word for the program to track program.
Thank you. And last is collateral
equitable funding to do all the things that people suggests requires money. So at the state level and the federal level, equitable funding for dpscd. Thank you,
and I'll pass over the last rabbit question to visa
Thank you, Ethan.
So our last rapid question is named one thing you would do to increase teacher retention. And we will begin with correlate Yvonne
equitable funding teachers deserve it great salary.
If you want to retain great teachers, pay him great salaries, equitable funding and I will push for it in policy at the board when I'm reelected, equitable
funding. Thank you.
I will now pass it to John Tilford.
Okay, let's Can you hear me? Okay, let's let's pay the teachers what they're paying him where I used to be a superintendent and Deputy Superintendent Let's pay him what what they're paying the teachers in the suburbs. We've got to we've got to pay teachers. I mean, they need better pay and Detroit because they're facing social problems that that that they don't even imagine in the suburbs. So that would be that would be my major, major suggestion that we're not suggesting. If I get on the board. That's something I'm going to push for.
Thank you. I will now pass it to Ida Simmons short
you need to unmute. Okay,
I was trying to get the technology together so I didn't hear the question.
The question is
how named one thing you would do to increase teacher retention. Oh,
besides having additional pay, I think there are other incentives that we can use for our teachers to keep them here in Detroit teaching, such as providing housing through the housing stock that we have here in Detroit. That would be one example. There are several incentives, such as having the even though Biden has the student loan program going, but it won't pay 100% of students loans that it was the teachers who were former students, that would be something I would consider. Thank you.
I'm going to pass it to Jamal Mohammed.
Yes, I think that we need to put policies and procedures in place to make sure that the curriculums that our students are receiving in the classrooms are supported to be able to offer more transparency as far as literacy and making sure that you're actually getting the support and academics they need and being able to use programs like the champions for hope and help start seeing the different programs that we have in the community. They can come into our schools and assist because it takes a village to raise a child.
Thank you,
I'm going to pass it to Lamar illumines. Yes,
besides a pay, which would be quote equitable funding of conditions, work conditions, student class eyes, prep time, things that teach you need to dive in an environment, a good working environment, and besides pay
Thank you,
we will now move on to turn pro Hunter Harville.
Thank you. Great question. I would look at maybe giving
one mental health day
per semester so that will be two in total. I would also look at having more meetings with the teachers to find out the kinds of things that it takes for them to want to remain in our district. And I will make sure that staffing is 100% up to par particularly in special ed classrooms. Well, we still need to AV care pros and aides. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. I will now pass it over to our last panelist for this question, which is Richard
Clements.
Greeting greetings. Good afternoon, my mind the question to answer the question first, the incentive bonus bonuses for attendance. Pay off teacher loans, new teachers student loan debt $10,000 a year for five years up to $50,000 and give tax credits to teachers for working in the school district and living in the city. And that would really, really keep them here. Like say love teachers every day. That's my campaign slogan. So
thank you I'm going to pass it off to Ethan.
Thank you. Sorry.
We've gone through our questions. Now we're opening it up to audience questions. So I'll start with the first question. This is coming from Alice in a city hit hard by COVID and asthma. How will the candidates approve ventilation and air quality in and around schools and we're starting
with Richard club. Okay, air quality.
You asked about air quality at the school in the school systems in schools. Base has been a big investment in building maintenance and capital investment into into buildings and to put in modern air conditioned system that use like solar power, alternative energy and things like that that would not only be economic ecology efficient, but the regenerate jobs to all through alternative energy nice time. Thank you Deborah. So we
have already been in the process of making sure we have good air quality and making sure that everything is fine with that but what we did was a one of our board members networks and we just had awesome philanthropic giving, okay to help us to take care of schools in the school district. So now we need to go back and look and see that everything is okay and continue to request money. We got to keep pivoting because air quality is very important.
Thank you. Thank you
Next is Ireland's Yeah,
obviously we need to modernize the ventilation system and particularly make it sensitive to asthma. And because we have a high asthma rate so we need a great filthy filtration system and to identify students, particularly who have breathing problems. A lot of times we are not even in we're not made aware of a student's extra
challenges. Thank you. Next is Mr. Mohammed.
Yes, we need to be able to make sure that we have the proper ventilation as done in our schools. Our schools should be able to have some type of form to where they are able to go through the schools make sure that the ventilation is being cleaned. They shouldn't have air purifiers in a school nation that they had the proper heating and cooling and make sure that we're cleaning out on his own things that we have in the building does make an inquiry
we'll be telling
you next is irisin short.
Thank you. I agree that we need better air quality in our schools. And one of the best the best air quality would be the type of systems that the hospitals have so that we're purifying clean the air which of course some of the airlines have adopted solar would be the best way to go. Because we don't live the our schools are not close to water that will cut our cost down for these new systems. And also we need to plant more trees which of course
thank you. Next is John tougher. Yes.
Student Health and Safety are uppermost obviously. And we I agree with everyone else that you know about air quality we have to squeeze a financial balloon to make sure that that's that's that happens. I mean, that's de rigueur. I mean, that's just just an obvious question. We have to make sure our kids are safe and make sure that they're healthy. In school.
Thank you. And last is colorful.
The board just approved millions and millions and millions of dollars and facility upgrades. We're going to be seeing H backs improved over the next four years. Throughout the entire district. New school buildings are going to be built in some of our old buildings cannot be modified. So there will be new buildings added as well as additions added to the old buildings, and we're looking for great air quality. Thank you,
and now I'll pass it back to Risa. Thank you, Ethan.
Our next question is from given the Book banding issue in Dearborn. What should we do to support LGBT student students and ensure a diversity of ideas is offered in our libraries? We will begin with correlate Yvonne
you know, I'm not very familiar with what happened in Dearborn. But I know what's happening across the country. And so I believe that every voice of every child, every child's face, every child's preference, and every child's orientation, every child needs to be represented in what they read, and the pictures that they see. And so we've got to improve. We also have to improve in what our libraries are offering in terms of being opened and finding librarians to service that but every child needs time. themselves in a book.
Thank you. I will now pass it to John Tilford.
Can you hear me? Yes, yes,
go okay. There are there are some materials that are there age restricted. Obviously, there's some things that we don't want little kids to be able to see or read. But I told them all centrally sure particularly at the high school level. Censorship is something that is something that I will oppose and always will oppose. Or our kids should shouldn't be exposed to any any kind of material that there is. You know, that's that's just my opinion about that. I have time. I'm in total opposition to censorship.
Thank you. I will not pass it to either someone's short.
Thank you. As an educator and teacher of reading, it is important that all of our students have knowledge and awareness of others. That means locally, whoever the others are, and internationally, banning books has never really work because the students are fine the books some some other way. However, if a parent does not want a student to read a certain book, I believe the student the parents should have a right to determine that they student the child doesn't have to be the book.
Thank you. Next we have Jamal.
Yes, I think that we should make sure that the books that are in our library represent students from all different types of nationalities in all different types, background and everybody should be afforded with the equal rights and equal opportunities to be able to we learn and understand that everybody should be respected for their walk of life and that we should be able to do what we can do to be able to help and assist our children.
Thank you.
Next we have one more lemons
there it is, my computer was stuck. I totally opposed to censorship and and there's someone already said every voice must be reflected and definitely should not be removing books from the library you select your books and libraries has been number one, and every child should be able to see themselves represented in society as part of a global citizenry. City century.
Thank you.
Next we have Deborah hunt Harville
Thank you, thank you for the question of diversity is very important to me. And so we must make sure that we give all students a chance to learn however, they need to learn and give them the guidance that they need. So age appropriate sharing is important as it relates to librarians, because students are not going into education to become librarians. We don't have librarians that are graduating. So we have to go into the middle schools and go into these media centers and get students to get more engaged and go into school to become that as well.
Thank you. I mean, I'll pass
it to our last panelist for this question. Richard Clement.
Good evening,
ah, that banning is politically motivated. If you can't ban it on the book, they got the smart phones they can pick it up on the internet anyway. I think is straight out discrimination, the political polec are boats. And, you know, check out the books check out
the balance
sheet stupid, I think it's beyond I mean, it's against the First Amendment. They're gonna be kids are going anyway, so thank you.
I will now pass it back to Ethan. Great, thank you. So
we started last audience question before we ended up for penalty. So this league, we've seen the tragedies of school shootings. Oftentimes it's been said the assailant was seriously bullied at school. How would you eliminate bullying or hold police accountable? And the first question goes to Richard come in can you stop bullying
in school we need more athletics. You get the bully and he put a helmet on each one of them and he led them to get out on a football field and we'd call wrestling or something like that. Yes, I'm proud of the failure of the
so when you stopped it
time Thank you. We'll pass it over to Deborah Hunter arval.
Thank you again, um, we have already done something with our no bullying program. In every school. Of course, we have activated the initiative. And so kids need to learn how to treat everyone with respect. They need to know what to do if they in fact are being bullied. Like go to the office like tele teacher. They need to know how to stand up for others and give information to others and they need and parents need to get more involved with bullying. That's you kind of need a little more time for that but I'm sure we will pull it together with all of us on the lie. Thank you.
Next is Lamar lemons.
Yes. What? What is required is that you have to sit down with both the parent and the child and get them to stop that behavior. Teach the child that such behavior as an adult is a criminal offence and that could end them up. Put them on the path that they don't want to be on. So bullying is really an illegal activity that is tolerated only because you're a child the same the same action by an adult and the children should know that would what could end up being incarcerated and so they need to be taught.
Next is
yes, I think they will we need to implement policies to be able to teach our children about conflict resolution programs that we have inside the classroom. We need to make sure that we're given more emphasis and make sure that our children that we see the problems that we're intervening when they have problems that come up in the classroom that we're actually taking the time to listen to our students because when we take the time to listen to our students, a lot of times we can stop bullying from happening when we're able to take the time to listen to them implement programs and strategies and be able to offer them the support they need. Thank you.
Next is Iris of insurance.
Thank you for that question. Besides the board policy, it's important that the students that are involved in the bullying and their parents, both sets of parents come in and have meetings with the counselor, the social worker, and have follow up services provided for them. It's also important for the students, the other students who witnessed the bully to also have support some support services available to them. And what has been mentioned is conflict resolution but it might require more than that, such as I said counseling.
Thank you Next is John Telford.
Can you hear me? Yep.
Bullying of course is unacceptable. We need to teach empathy, empathy. anti bullying programs are excellent. I have a friend named Blaine Smith. He's played for three NFL teams. He's got a anti bullying program. I think it would be good to bring bring folks like Blaine in and and teach what they know. He also coached at Central High School but bullying is one of the worst things in schools or anywhere else. kid can't learn how to use the time. Willie.
Thank you and last Coronavirus.
We have mental health issues in our schools folks. So in addition to the anti bullying programs, we have got to step up mental health and trauma informed support for our children. Children reflect what they see and hear. And so we've got to work on mentally stabilizing our children, our families and our staff.
Alright, thank you to all our panelists. We are now going to take a short one minute intermission. So if you need to go to bathroom or water, you know snack, you can do that. But we're going to come right back to our panel too. So stay with us shortly. Thanks.
Okay. Let me ask you a question. For clarification. Are you saying that we're going to be part of how to or we're done? No. So
you're done. So the panelists for the second round roll so
Okay, so we can we can log off. Thank you. All righty. Thank you. Thank you everybody.
How can we see the brain out on the panel can I kind of place I can go see it.
You can stay where you are and see it. Okay, you know when it comes back on panels turn just turn off your candidate.
Candidates and panel one please stay muted. You can remain please stay muted and off camera. Sasha go ahead and get started with panel two. Thanks, everyone.
Okay, thank you for joining us for the second panel in our virtual dpscd Candidate Forum. I'm Sasha Ryan. I cover education children and families at one on one nine WD at Detroit's NPR station. And joining me is my joy Reed Nash, who is a senior at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School and a student journalists who is also a musical artists. So thank you my joy for helping me out here. We're going to introduce our second panel of candidates. Angelique Peterson Maybury is a current board member. She's also the DEI manufacturing strategist at Ford Motor Company. Monique Bryant is the executive director of the triangle society. Regina and Campbell is President and CEO of build Institute. Betsey Harris is a retired educator spending her career as a teacher, Assistant Principal and principal in Detroit schools. Alia Moore is a district parents he's also a cleaner and an artist. Originally Hudson works in the nonprofit sector and is previously worked as a school culture facilitator in the district. Iris Taylor is a health consultant and administrator of clinical services for the Detroit Health Department. She's a former school board member Latrice McClendon is community President Detroit Huntington Bank and is a district parents. So we'll start then with our first questions
for the panel. And you'll have one
minute to answer what is the biggest issue facing the district and how would you address it? We'll start with Monique Bryant.
Well, we all know the mayor but what we can address immediately, parent engagement is suppressed in this district. We should have a PTA every school and a set committee in every school. That way. We will be addressing concerns from parents in the community directly then, collectively, we could go to the whole thing and get some resolution to a lot of these problems. Keep voicing over and over at every board meeting, but parents still feeling that they have not been heard, nor has a has has a new policy been acted enacted to correct some of the things that we're experiencing as parents
and teachers and staff. Schools.
Regina and Campbell, same question.
So there's issues and this is a tough question. Right? Because if we say parent parental engagement, absenteeism, educational achievement and safety, they're all interconnected. Right? And so, those are all important issues, but I will say the safety piece is key at the top because in order for children to be able to learn teachers to be able to be effective, they gotta be safe, feel safe. And there's currently a policy that's in place with metal detectors. I walked to schools, the doors are unlocked. Things go off on metal detectors and there's no follow through. So again, you know, between security and safety, we've got to do that. First if we want educational achievement, as well as students to address absenteeism. Let's get with the safety protocols.
SC Harris.
Thank you, can you hear me?
I would first say I would say that. It is chronic absenteeism special education and the motivation to come to school. I think we're chronic absenteeism. We need to go to the homes or our find out what students are having chronic absenteeism. Find out the reason why and get them support. Support the reasons why they're doing this and then we've got to bring back the joy of coming to school, the joy of wanting to come to school, and I think if we tackle the absenteeism and bring back that motivation, then that was solved the problem.
Readily Hudson?
Yes, good evening. I believe two of the biggest issues are one the chronic absenteeism and as a result brings about the second issue, which is our academic achievement. And so as we look after the pandemic we lost 3000 students and which was drastically an issue for the Detroit Public Schools community district. And so what we should do is figure out how can we ensure a more positive and more proactive school culture for our students, as well as build and foster relationships with families as well as students? And individuals on the school level to ensure that we can boost our attendance as well as our academic achievement?
Let's face McClendon
Yes, hello, everyone. There are several issues that are facing the district. Things that kind of in my mind would be our low achievement, high dropout rates and also our chronic absenteeism. You know, I think addressing these issues, and I know I just gave you through us for one, but I want to say that it's important that we look at our low hanging fruit and look at our own policies that create barriers for our children. We talked about chronic absenteeism, yet we have some transportation issues in our district, whether that's in our public transportation or even in our policies that are that are created and so I think we need to look at our own policies and figure out where are we creating barriers for our own students? Thank you.
Only a more
Yes, thank you, um, one of our biggest problems and everybody you know, had good very good answers. But ultimately, this district, the board has allowed Dr. Vt to take control instead of the board as his employer to give him the mission to fulfill and the federal government gave us one point 27 mil billion dollars, I'm sorry. And a lot of the things and the issues that are being talked about right now could have been solved with a lot of that money, instead of having 700 million of that 1.7 billion in the sky for the next 20 years for facilities. It could be used to solve a lot of the issues that the candidates speak on today.
Angelique Peterson Mayberry,
returning everybody and thank you for hosting this Chalkbeat thanks for having us. I will say that there are several and when you think about an ecosystem, they are all interrelated. So you will hear things like literacy. Is that an issue? Absolutely. You'll hear things like chronic absenteeism. Is that an issue? Absolutely. Transportation, is that an issue? Absolutely. Teachers pay. Is that an issue and retention? Absolutely. I don't think we can say that. There's one and when you draw all of those together, what you have is funding. And so what we've been able to do as a district and team right now is that we've had 1.2 We heard Miss Moore just say $1.2 billion. And a lot of what we've been able to do is because we've had those that funding that goes away in 2024, so now what happens when you talk about literacy, you talk about academic interventionists, those who've been able to assist in that space? What happens in 2024? There's one pot of money, how do you now move and prioritize programming you have performing arts that was brought back and expounded So young people are doing more than reading, writing and arithmetic and playing sports? You're doing things in performing arts so how was time?
Iris Taylor your response as been indicated
and said before, the biggest challenges that we have are always integrated is not a singular focus. And so if you look at the overall reform work, we will look at absenteeism because the child has to be in school in order to learn you will look at literacy. But more importantly, we have to also look at the disparities that exist prior to the child being able to get to school. And so we have to build in some programming that addresses those disparities, whether that's a safety issue, whether that's a housing easier whether that's eating, whether that's a mental health issue, they collectively, we have to do programming that supports those disparities prior to entering school, as well as those things that happen while they're in the school.
Thank you for those responses
my joy has the next question. So so we
didn't I can't hear or did was not the only one not able to hear. I did
not hear oh my god,
can you try taking out your headphones
Sasha. I'm gonna go ahead. Yes, you can hear? Yes, thank you. Okay, great.
Okay, the question is, how do you plan on connecting with students, families and staff. So we'll start with Iris Taylor. Thank you for the
question. Engagement hat requires a costume and tissue or behavior that has to occur in multiple different venues. So I will be engaged in terms of community forms, visitations to community groups on there and their meetings as well as engagements. In the rounding that you would do in the school was parent teacher conference. There's not a single way that you can communicate and ensure that you have reached everybody where they are and heard everyone so I would support an overall strategy that has multiple different ways of communication and content for both faculty, students, family and community groups.
Angelique Peterson, maybe
Thank you. So this is a space we got to do a better job and we started before COVID where we weren't having the community groups, the meetings where a board member to board members would come into certain areas of the city and have community groups but I think that we've got to do a better job connecting with the groups that have already meeting in those communities. When you think about like the city of Detroit, there's districts and that's what makes it sometimes very difficult for the district because you're talking the entire city, but they have meetings in certain areas. And so maybe it's partnering with them to be present at those meetings as we have people but we have student ambassadors, not only student ambassadors on the board, but we have a student government team. And so being able to have more conversations, I've visited those groups and had conversations with them, but being able to have more of that. And then I also think that there are spaces in the faith base that we need to be able to have more conversation with them as well. This is where people go and so we've got to go where they are instead of expecting them to come to us. We've got to go to where they are.
Okay, Emily.
Yes, I am a parent first. So I am already very active in the schools. And I do communicate with other parent leaders throughout the district. So stepping that up and being on the board, I would like to introduce maybe once or twice a month and having a location where they can come and meet and have coffee or tea or even come in the schools. Some of the people that are up for reelection are okay with the current board policies as of cutting the mic off if things are repetitious. If it's not on the agenda. It's irrelevant. So that does not really spell welcoming and engaging the public. So if I am on the board, I do want to revisit that policy.
Hey, Latrice McClendon.
I think you guys call me Latrice contender? Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Yes, thank you. Um, you know, honestly, you can't connect with people without trust. Right. And I think as a parent for me to connect with anybody in administration, I gotta feel like I trust them. And so I think is really going back to the drawing board and figure out how we can gain the trust. of our parents, our staff, our students, right, through transparency, and also through, you know, strategies that are not punitive. Right. And so I think it's important that we want to meet parents where they are we are all not the same. Whether that some parents prefer some parents prefer to communicate on social media. Some parents prefer to communicate in person at meetings. And I think it's important that we have strategies that are innovative, and that we're thinking outside of the box on how we connect with those who are in this ecosystem. I also think we need more focus groups so that we can have more parent engagement, right when we're making decisions. about certain issues and policies. I think it's important to get the voice and if you have the voice of parents and teachers, and they feel like they're at the table it also builds trust and so I'm just
richly hatching.
Thank you. Yes, I believe it is important as a school board member, to engage every stakeholder of our community, be it parent, business, professional, community leader, churches, faith based community and etc. And so I believe that it is important that we do host events outside of just school board meetings to ensure that we're communicating with those in the community and invite them to the table as we make decisions on behalf of individuals, such as alumni and all other groups. And so we should just be focused on one building and fostering relationships with those individuals. So they will feel comfortable coming into spaces where we can have those conversations and those meetings and so that is something that we do need on the board and as they are already beginning the work that is needed, that we continue that we're in that space, so thank you
that's yours. Yes, thank you
for that question. And that's a good question. Um, first of all, I would make myself approachable. Be visible. I would make visits to schools. I would make visits to the PTA meetings. I would attend outside community meetings tooting the horn of our school district letting them know that I'm here. I'm approachable. I'm available, and it's about the students.
Gene and Campbell
thank you for the question. I've definitely believe that this is a role for a public servant. And just like in my day job businesses are my client, in this case is the student and the parent and caregiver centered around that. So between having a time where once or twice a month, there are certain hours that I can go into the community whether it be a school or meet parents where they are will be important, and having hybrid ways because some people can't they don't have a vehicle and can't come across style. So have a both virtual and in person to be assessable attending some of the Youth Forum and meetings is important to make sure that their voice is always at the table. So again, just meeting people where they are and being available and again, approachable and building trust.
Only by
well I engaged parents in the community first every single day. They know that they can depend on me. They call and they have a problem. A situation a concern. I am taking it seriously. I am addressing I am in a inviting person. And that's what people need to feel. They need to feel that you are compassionate about what is going on in their lives and their students. Not to just brush past and say well, we'll see see you send me an email, you know, come to a meeting. engagement happens at the front door sometimes just before student enters. We have yet to just simply care more about our students and our fans and it has to be reflective on every single limb and we do not get that and I say we because I am a parent of a community partner. And I sometimes just feel
that so the next question for the panel is what should the district be doing to address learning loss and we'll return to winning Brian.
Well, learning learning loss, we should definitely be bringing more resources into the classroom. We know that we're on a computer age, but we need some school books, a book so that parents can actually assist some of these things. And we've talked about periods can't read and some of the other issues. But I went to a parent teacher conference yesterday. And I'm like totally lost as to how the students are posting assignments and what's being taught. So we need to as we speak of parent engagement and parent book, that we have courses and classes. We need funding that provides resources for parents so that they can assist them. It takes a village. It takes a village. Oh, we're missing the very starts at home. We expect a lot of things from parents send them in and ready to learn. And then when they come home, we're expected to help with homework, but we can't do that if we don't know what's going on.
Academically, Gina? Thank you, Regina and Campbell, same question.
Thank you for the question. I believe that there are several ways to address learning loss Yes, bringing different more resources into the classroom, but also home and virtual. The one thing coke has showed us up close is that students learn differently. Some are more visual and can do be very effective in a virtual or in the classroom. So hybrid approaches, and making sure that for parents, my parents x four exemplars and I speak as a parent who acts for exemplars that they we are given that it's in a lot of times it's in order for me to help my child at home. I need to know what your metrics and your rubrics are and it's always a fight. So provide us with the framework, the metrics and the rubrics. And then you can say parents are accountable, because we need to understand what your plan is. So again, provide us the resources that we need train teachers, to not just know how to use Office teams, but how to teach online. I know how to teach online and it requires a certain tactic and strategy to make sure that students are learning well. So there are several different things about virtual perspective in person and in train.
Thank you, Betsy Harris.
Yes, that's a great question. Being a special ed teacher. I think we need to cooperate. Individual Student plan. I think every student should have their own individual plan. We should teach to that. Plan. We should evaluate according to that plan. And we should bring the parents into the fold so that they know what the plan is, what teaching is to be done through that plan. So I am in favor of every student have an individual student plan. Thank you.
Thank you, originally Hudson.
Thank you for that question. I believe we as a district should implement a district Literacy Plan, as well as providing training for teachers and staff that will bring about learning growth. I believe we also should revisit our night school. We had nice school for some time where our students had an opportunity to learn beyond the school level or some students who needed extra time to learn should have that access as well as Saturday school. And so we should also make sure that we are facilitating authentic and relevant learning experiences for all of our students. So I believe that that is what the district should do, as it pertains to regaining our learning loss and then finding our academic flooding as a district and moving forward.
Thank you. Let's face McClendon
Yes, thank you for the question. So I really believe that it's important that we focus on things that we can do while we have the children in school during their school hours. And we should be addressing learning loss in real time. And so I personally feel like if we were to build in programs, maybe take a look at the curriculum, maybe we can, if it's a math issue, lengthen those math that max time is short in another area and bring in resources in real time that students can access while in school. As a parent, it's not always easy to take your kids to school on a Saturday and evenings I think it should be an option, but I think we should be.
provide additional
resource for teachers so that they can grow, understand and have an understanding of the effects of learning loss and what they can do in the classroom. And also we should engage parents of course, and I think parents should have some accountability but should also have some technology where reports are sent to parents regularly so they understand where their child is, and if there is a deficit so those things can be addressed. Early.
Alia more.
Yes. It is very important to try to get our kids back to where they need to be academically, but and everybody so far has said some good points but ultimately, if our enrollment does not go up to as of now and stay where it is, and go up by next year, Dino cultures, academic interventionalist, attendance agents, nurses, all of those things will be gone because the majority of our COVID funding will be gone. Shell top $700 million sitting and waiting instead of cutting that in half and using that for our academic recovery to use that to address the absent chronic t it Epsom chronic T ism. We are just sitting here talking because the plan b I don't know if the district has a plan B but I do know that if our enrollment does not go up all of these suggestions will just be taught because
Angelique Pearson Mayberry
so I really can appreciate what I'm hearing because I think it means that people are in tune. We just rolled out a Literacy Plan and the last board meeting and so that is available. If you go on the website, you can you can see that. In terms of parents, we have academic nights, we have math like nights, literacy nights at the school level. And so for those parents you know, we need to stop saying just parents because I go and talk to grandparent groups. They are like seven year olds and plus raising young people and so what how to help them do they help these young people with their homework. We have summer school summer school where we were trying to help close some of that achievement gap. That we we call learning loss. And we only had like 10,000 students and out of almost 50,000 students and so these learning opportunities that we create outside of the normal day, we've got to make sure that people want a 10 and two is worth their while. So while they're there we talked about social emotional learning. So this is beyond what you could ever be tested on. But yeah, if it's not a dress, then it will manifest itself in what young people do with learning, reading, writing and arithmetic and behavior. And so I think it's important that as we talk about that we're expanding opportunities beyond the classroom that's got to continue to happen and before COVID We know that our young people had superseded the state standard as it comes to third and fourth grade. In terms of academics. We did that right as a district because we adopted a new curriculum. So I just want people to remember some of those things that were starting to happen before we didn't have well behaved everybody, academically.
Thank you. I was
tailor your response. Whatever you
want to say it is is very accurate. In order for us to close the learning gap. We have to stay focused on the reform and those elements in the form that strategically will help improve and have historically improved as he had been experiencing pre pandemic. I think it's critical that in that priority that we engage the community and the other resources in the community that can help facilitate smoke, it's on that same priority.
Okay,
my joy has the next question.
Okay, we are now going to shift to a couple of rapid fire questions. You will have 30 seconds to answer the first step. What grade would you give superintendent Nikolai Beatty or the district right
now? I'm gonna start with Iris take
over would say that we're at a moderate level. I think it's not great to be able to do a letter because some areas are aid some may be some received. Some we have simply missed the mark. Totally and have an opportunity for improvement. So I'll say that we're moderate at this point in
time. Okay,
Angelica Peterson, Mayberry.
Thank you, my fellow Crusader I would say below average.
Okay, and Alia more Yes, I would give Sorry, I couldn't hear
Miss more. Was it just me or did she cut out?
We couldn't hear you.
I think your you had your responses more was completely distorted. Maybe we can try again. Okay, it
was the airplane flying Can you hear me now? Okay, I do apologize. I would safely give the school board an F, but I would give Dr VD a D only because he has successfully become his boss's boss.
Thank you. And then we'll move on to Latrice McClendon so I
believe that we're pretty average right now and I will give everything his his grading would be average. We have a lot of work to do as a parent. I've seen some, some some good things happen as far as more teachers been hired and covering that gap. But I think there's a lot of work to do and as a parent with children, you know, I don't think that we're at a point where we're, we're talking A's and B's. I think we have a lot of work to
do. Thank you. Next we'll move on to rigidly hurting.
Thank you so much when as a student as a staff member and then as a student advocate. I believe that we should look at everything and so I believe that he should probably receive a D as a superintendent. Just based upon what we see. Currently prior to the pandemic and then now the post pandemic. And then as a district, I would say that we're making some progress I will give us about below average a C or C minus. Thank you
Thank you. That's yours.
I would give the Superintendent and the Board a c minus only because they're hand in hand. And there are some good things and there's some things where they're missing the point. But there's other areas that they're above average. So I will say they're a c minus. And that's being very generous.
Thank you, Regina and Campbell. Thank you for the question.
I would give based on student achievement, and literacy and F. And just like in my job, I'm accountable for my scorecard and meeting the goals either I hate it or I didn't It's no excuses on what you did good in this area. When our children are failing, we're failing. So it's an app.
Thank you Lastly, we have Monique Bryant. She's on mute
after a parent after being a parent, and an advocate and community partner in this district for the past five years. For me it's an asset that my board is failing me as a parent and as a community partner. After reading there will be an F because our students are suffering suffering.
Okay, the next question is also quickfire question you have 30 seconds to answer we've talked a lot about chronic absenteeism tonight what is one thing the district is not doing that it should be doing to address that?
Sorry, me money Brian.
We need to reestablish the value of a quality education. Parents we were talking about. Parents are sending them to school. I run across parents every day that are going out of their way miles passing three or four Detroit Public Schools, according to a charter school, and I was one at that time because I don't trust the Educate I or I should say I didn't trust that education that was happening in the schools and a lot of other things that we've talked about.
Thank you, Regina and Campbell. First, I
think it's critical to understand the root causes. There are several reasons why there's chronic absenteeism. I have yet to hear an actual cause so that we can determine what is the best solution is a path forward. You know, transportations issues, opening schools back up in the neighborhood. One is important so that kids can go to the school that's in their neighborhood. We got a lot of kids going from one side of the district to the other. And so we need to understand the root cause in order to propose the right solution.
Thank you Bessie heron.
And okay, can you hear me? Okay, thank you for that question. I know we speak of chronic absenteeism, but we need to know why. We we have data, we know where those students are. We know the ones who had the the problem with coming to school. Let's go out and find out why. And if there's a need if there's a need in that household, we need to have social work services or some kind of service support wraparound services to support that family. Thank you,
you. Thank you originally has
I agree with what's been said we should figure out what's the reason and so during the pandemic I was one of those individuals that went out to canvass to knock on doors to x individuals. Why were they Okay, so I think that we should revisit that to knock on doors we have 3000 students that are missing since the pandemic knocking on those doors figuring out why are our students absent, what are the needs of those students as providing wraparound services to ensure that we can close that gap and that we can ensure that our students are in school and that they are actually learning?
Thank you. Let's use McClendon.
Yeah, I think right now we have to have an urgency around getting to the students that are missing, right we need to go to their last known address we need to get to their last known phone number we need to get in communication with whoever we can get in communication with to understand where our students are. I think we just need to get some work done in this area and I think the first thing is just doing some examination of where the students are and trying to find that out. So I feel like we need to act with urgency and we need to create a plan now where we're actually moving to find these children before it's too late.
Thank you Alia more
you are distorted again.
Do you want to give it a
second we can ask Angelique Peterson Mayberry to respond and then you can we'll come back to you.
So Angela Kimi say I really want to come in our attendance agents that we have in the schools because we know that they're doing an amazing job. Of going to identify where these young people are. I was out of school the other day and attendance agents were going to his homes and picking students up. So you know, we don't want to make we want to make sure that we don't walk away from this conversation thinking nobody's doing that. Yeah, so Are you okay, campaign we knocked on almost 50,000 doors, and we have resources to pay some parents to do that. Right. So from the district, they were already doing that, but it's not enough people. I know Miss Moore did it. There were several people who were able to do that. So when you unpack why they're not in school, we should know why they're not in school. We know they're not in school, because really what are they coming to school for? So we got to think about what are we doing to keep them in school because a lot of them are decision makers. They're not the parents.
Thank you, Miss Moore. Wondering if your your mic is,
is that better?
That is much better. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Um, yes, this conversation about chronic absenteeism should have been with the board and Dr. Vt prior to them, putting that 700 million for facilities because I said it and I'll say it again. If enrollment does not go up, those current attendance agents could lose their jobs. So that unless we find another way in the budget or come up with some extra funds, the current attendance agents that we already have will be gone. So therefore, who will go door to door and then as far as the parents that were paid, I do believe that the district should continue that but once again, be paid.
Thank you. I was tailor your response.
Yes, I think that we do know some of the dead for why children aren't in school. But what are those disparities we know that our events that happened prior to getting to school so having a health club, for example, they provided physical health, mental health, which is very critical at this point in time, dental health social worker that has a parent advocate and someone who could reach out to help facilitate resources in the community to connect with families, what will prevent some of the things from occurring that are deterrence to kids school.
Thank you.
My joy has the next question.
Name one thing you would do to increase teacher retention.
We'll start with Iris Taylor.
I don't think it's one thing. All professionals there are multiple things that keep their their salaries. You need to have a work environment that's conducive for you to be able to do the work. So you have adequate supplies, you have adequate resources to to build a job, there is an opportunity for development and then we can spicing up the the the the offer by having periodic incentives, whether it is discounts on homes in the city of Detroit or other other elements that will be added to but first we have to have an environment that's conducive for them to be able to do their work.
Thank you. Next Angelique Peterson Mayberry.
Agreed. I know everyone is gonna say wages and as you talk to teachers, a lot of teachers will say wages but it's so much more than that. Because when you think about it, if that could get them here, then what keeps them here? And so work environment does make a difference. And I think when we talk about culture is not just our students, but but it's the culture of everyone who comes into the schoolhouse and sometimes that's parents, sometimes that superintendent as board. I think it matters what the culture is. And if there's accountability when there is culture that is not aligned to what we're seeing, we're going to do co politically as a district. And so work environments of course, wages of course, but I think it's a lot has a lot to do. What about feeling valued, recognized, rewarded, and culture we don't hold teachers in reference like we used to, and that's not just in Detroit that's across the nation and we got to do it.
Thank you. Hello. Now go to Alia more.
Yes, as I've stated before, this one point $27 billion could have hired more academic interventionists on contingent contracts, it could have hired more paraprofessionals and it could have ultimately partnered with enough community organizations and groups that specialize in mental health.
I'm sorry if you
take the load off the teacher with a pair of pros and the academic interventionalist. They are prepped and so the district has increased for pay, but offering mental health services as a discount is also a plus.
Thank you Next we'll have Latrice McClendon, same question.
Thank you. I believe that we need to let our teachers do what we've hired them to do and that's to teach and so we need to provide opportunities in our classroom for our teachers to have support staff whether it's paraprofessionals therapist, whatever we need in the school to take the load off of them. Number one, and I think we need to care about the quality of quality of life for our teachers and we need to have incentives for housing and of course we're working on the pay but additional pay we need to make our teachers feel like they are able to have a quality of life is in in dpscd in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Thank you Next rigidly Hudson. Yes,
teaching is one of our most honorable professors and I believe that one competitive pay is very important, especially as we're talking about our superintendent being one of the most highest paid in the state. I believe that our teachers should be right along with him in that and as well as inviting them to the table when we're making decisions because at the end of the day, our teachers are the ones in the trenches that our decisions are affecting and so we should always invite them to the discussions and we should also talk to them about making decisions on behalf of our students and so, increasing teacher pay, but not only that, but creating a space that boosts their morale. Thank you.
Thank you that's yours. Yes, I
think we need to get back to making teachers feel like they're needed. feel respected, feel honored. We need to put out a survey to find out what is the need of the teachers. What is their interest, what's keeping them here, and then we need to go from there. But we definitely need to bring back because they are so worthy and they need comparable pay.
Regina Inc Campbell
thank you for the question. Teachers are so so so important and so valuable. They manage a lot have to deal with parents, board, administration, students and community along with pay pay incentives for those who are doing extremely well. Considering the conditions, making sure that they have other incentives as has been said before. In the survey, as Miss Harris mentioned, ask them what they want and each year evaluate how we can do more. There maybe is more with a doing a 401 K maybe it's more around putting in insurance costs for supporting their family. Thank you.
Lastly, we'll have Monique Bryan.
I'm gonna say we need to have more funding in the classroom. We have a lot of teachers instruments. They're going without additional resources to my organization raise money to purchase instruments to purchase performance were the things that they really need Peters go without, with their like parents. They don't want to see their students. So can we get some funding in these classrooms so that they have the resources that they need? And yes, hey is good when my new teacher is making as much as my friend teacher. That's not true.
So our next questions are coming from the audience. Thank you for your responses from Amy. What are you going to do to protect teachers from the type of interference over LGBTQ content? Or fictitious claims about CRT critical race theory? Relatedly How do you intend to protect trans students? We'll start with Monique Bryant.
Just training and distributing information to parents, with parents understanding some of these issues. These talks should be happening at home for a lot of students even before we get to school, and so to have dialogue at home, but we need access to that information. And then let's go move forward to working in schools with student groups and teachers. Same thing knowing
information. Thank you Regina and Campbell.
First, I always like to ask the groups that we're talking about what do they need and what do they want? Then also look at best practices around the country. This isn't a new topic or issue who's doing this already and who's doing it well. Bring it back forward and let caregivers parents administrators make some decisions about how do we implement this into the school for you no choice even though parents and caregivers have a choice to say, well, we want this curriculum for our child or not. But again, look at some best practices. Ask people for what they need and learn from one another.
Thank you, Bessie Harris. We need to teach
about diversity we need to explain diversity. We need to meet the students where they are we need to make them feel inclusive we need to talk we need to hold parent forms where we talk about that and of course have school wide workshops where we talk about that but they need to be made to feel inclusive and not separate.
Thank you, richly Hudson.
I agree I think that we should engage our parents, our administrators and individuals that are who played an important role in our students activity and we should ensure diversity inclusion is there regardless of the students orientation, you know gender whatever the faith is a prefaces we should ensure that they are included we should ensure that they are received a voice and that they are represented in all spaces and so we should be the ones to provide that for them. Thank you.
Thank you. Let's Reese McClendon. Yes, I think that
there should be a zero tolerance policy on harassment and discrimination. Right. And I believe strongly that education is also important not just for our students and parents but also for our staff who are in a school interacting with our students. We need to make sure they have opportunities to learn about the diversity and different types of people so that they can appropriately manage, you know, they can properly manage any issues that may come up but I believe that we should have a zero tolerance around harassment, discrimination. Thank you.
Thank you Alia more. Yes, can you hear me?
Okay, thank you. I do believe that all employees, all district employees should go over a training and have to put your personal beliefs as well as you know, whether it be religion or to sex, but have to teach you how to put that to the side and actually just focus on the students learning. And then also the district, along with the board could create different forums that are specifically inviting certain groups out so that they can be heard and come together. Thinking needs to be visited in policy as well. And the district created an aspect respect model, and so they can kind of coordinate that model into making sure that these students are not discriminated against.
Thank you. Angelique Peterson, Mayberry. Thank you. So
the district does have a zero tolerance policy, but I think it's more about accountability when that policy is not being followed. Coming from, you know, the corporate space of working in automotive, I'm a diversity equity inclusion officer. And a lot of times there's a lack of education. So once you teach people now you have to hold people accountable. They cannot use the excuse that they didn't know any more. For some this is a new conversation. And so young people should be able and the Alliance should be able to bring their whole selves to school, they're come to learn. So bring your whole self to school and not be treated differently simply because you don't look like or have the same preference of somebody else. But when that doesn't happen, there are consequences for that.
Thank you that it's time. Iris Taylor.
I think cultural transformation has to be sure that being inclusive is is one of the priorities and that is at all levels and clearly being transparent and being accountable for the policies that the board has set forth and with the expectation and the respect that should occur on a daily basis. And every student should have an opportunity every day to thrive. And that's what we have to ensure
Thank you. My joy has the next question.
This question is from Pamela.
How will the district handle the funding funding gaps that will resurface once the COVID-19 The COVID Relief dollars run out
next year to start with Iris.
We do not have equitable funding in the state of Michigan and so the per pupil funding that we have does not take in place take into account the specific needs of the population for which they are funding. So we have to allow to lobby for policy changes legislatively to improve overall funding for school in the first place. And in addition to that, we'll have to look for some of our community partners to also step up and say here are certain gaps that we will permanently not just today, but will permanently or at least over the next 20 years sort of help to try to fill that
gap. Thank you.
Next Angelique Peterson maybe.
So my internet went on for a second. My joy. Can you repeat the question, please?
Yes,
the question was from Pamela. How will the district handle the funding gaps that will resurface once the COVID really dollars ran out the next year?
Okay, thank you. So I think I'm Dr. Taylor started going in the exact same direction where I was going we know that when we advocate things change, we still collectively together to advocate for an elected school board game post emergency management and we have one. So I think that understanding I want people understand what we were able to do with the dollars that we had. But we know that our district has large a larger number of special education students, which requires almost double what it requires to educate and so when you think about right now, not being funded for that, so you are pulling funding from your general fund to educate those people. This is something that has to happen at the state level is beyond what the city and the district can actually do.
Thank you, Leah more Yes,
I am just a stakeholder but I attend meetings with the board every month. I am not sure what this board is currently doing to advocate because that will be a proactive moment. We do not need to wait until this money is gone because it is pretty much gone. 700 million of it is sitting in the sky for the next 20 years. And I have not heard this district talk about a plan B when partnering with many local businesses as possible and creating a space where we can
thank you Latrice McLennan
Yeah, so you know, just to get to the point, you know, I think it's going to take time for us to advocate and really get equitable funding here in our in our city and there is going to be a gap and I think that we need to work with our business communities. There are a lot of businesses and corporations who get tax breaks, who have a philanthropic goal, and I think that our schools should be partnering, or these organizations should be partnering with our schools to provide resources and maybe even some community benefit plans there so thank you
rigidly Hudson. Yes. So
as stated before advocating is most important thing as a student as a staff member and then as one that's in the community, going to state legislator going to even national on a national level to advocate for equitable funding, which I have done with the governor has just made the largest investment plan and public K through 12 education. So it's all about advocating beyond just the title. It doesn't take a title to serve and then noticing that the people and the power of the people is far more stronger and greater than the people in power. So letting them know that we hired you to make decisions on behalf of us the people and being sure to hold them accountable for it. Thank you.
See, here's Yes,
equitable funding is a must and we must lobby from our stakeholders because Detroit is only as good as the school district and we got to lobby for our school. District
Okay, next we'll have panelists Regina and Campbell.
I agree with what everyone has stated, you know, definitely advocacy at the state level for more dollars and I also agree leveraging other partnerships and relationships to be accountable for other type of investment into our schools across the district.
Thank you. And then lastly, Monique Bryant. Yes, I
agree with the African part of it. I also realized that 50,000 of our school aged children in Detroit are attending schools that are not dpscd so those funds are missing within our district. I also can tell you that there are plenty organizations and individuals that would love to provide resources in this district. What we have to do is look at our policies that restrict them restrict the funds to use to support school opportunities for students. And that should happen sooner than later.
Thank you. The next question from the audience is from Taiwan who for those of you who are currently or previously on the board, if you were not able to raise the school standards to an appropriate level, why should we give you another chance for those with no previous experience? How will you be more effective than previous members? We'll start with Monique Bryant.
Well, I'm already doing the work that should be done every day. Advocating
volunteering, raising funds,
providing resources and opportunities and being engaged with the
I think the last 510 seconds was a blurb if you'd like to finish, being engaged with who
I'm already being engaged with, with the community establishing networks and networking opportunities. So the same the same things that you should have. Bringing to the board is what I've been doing the last five years in this district.
Thank you, Regina, and
so I'll have a ban on this Detroit Public School community board but I have been on Hamilton elementary school board I've been on other boards, both my professional personal experience between teaching and being a community. I can do the job I'm also one I'm not a politician. I'm not looking to be a politician. I'm very intentional around funding, watching where the money is and accountability and making sure that I reach deliverables. I'm always about accountability and reaching goals and so my knowledge and experiences can add some value to the board and hold us all accountable. Thank you,
Bessie Harris.
As I stated earlier, being approachable, being visible, going out to the schools, letting people see me in the community letting them build that, as one candidate said that, that feeling of trustworthy, you have to be trustworthy. And so being visible and approachable in the schools in the community, I think is a good start. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you originally had yes bringing
experience and also bringing engagement to the board, providing transparency, accountability, as well as accessibility to every stakeholder in the community, which I have had some experience as a student as a staff member, also as minister of the gospel, being involved in the faith based community as well as one that has sat on several boards of organizations across the state of Michigan. So being able to bridge those gaps and to bring everyone to the table to provide the best for all of our students, staff, and community. And so I'm willing to do that and I'm willing to bring that to the table. Thank you.
Thank you. Latrice McClendon same. Yes. So listen,
I'm a parent with real stake in the game. I have three children who actually attend dpscd Right. This is not a game this is real life. And if our school has failed and my children fail, right? I feel like there needs to be a parent's perspective that I can bring that someone who steps into school every day who understands what our children are actually going through. Secondly, in my day job, I run a billion dollar community strategy. I understand what it's like to look at all those zeros when we talk about funding. It's important that we have somebody that understands the accountability and working with that much money to ensure that we're putting the money in the right place. And lastly, I just want to say check our check everyone's track record. We have I have getting millions of dollars to our students in Detroit and also putting stem labs in schools. Thank you. I'll stop talking. I appreciate it.
Thank you Alia more.
Yes, I am a parent first but if I am elected to this board, I will bring parents I will bring teachers and I will bring students because already quite active in all those areas. And then again, I do attend four board meetings a month. So I do hear the conversations and engagement from the board and Dr. VD and I also feel as a stakeholder I have been disrespected from the floor. So I have that opportunity to sit at the table with and given respect.
Thank you, Angela Peterson, David.
Thank you again. I know this is last question. So thanks again for hosting this and you know, I just want people I want you to walk away knowing that there are partnerships. There are hundreds of partnerships that the district has with the external community, and that's because they've been able to see something different. They've seen transformative work be done. They've seen funds earmarked for exactly what they said they were going to do, and so they're investing back in the school district and so we've seen evidence of that we know COVID put us out of standstill, but we can't keep using as an excuse as we turn the corner. Get back to the work of Reading, Writing arithmetic and learning beyond our classrooms. So what does that look like? Whether you sit on the board or not? If you have resources, you should be breaking them because at the end of the day, the students are the benefactors. So thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
I was Taylor. I have skill
sets of an administrator and a leader I have said on many community boards and I have run out of more than a $4 billion operation and I believe that these skills are are critical and staying focused and being goal oriented. And our most important thing is that we have to stay focused on the reform. We have to have clear strategies and be accountable and transparent and engaging and supporting to do that so that every child every day in every classroom has an opportunity to thrive and access to great public education. And I believe I have the skill sets to help facilitate the resources necessary to make that happen.
Thank you. Thank you that was our last questions. We want to thank all of the candidates who joined us for both panels and helped us to learn so much more about them. We want to thank the audience that joined us and provided us with such great questions to ask them I also want to thank my joy Reed Nash for joining me. You can look forward to coverage of this forum on Chalkbeat. Tomorrow, look out for that Chalkbeat has also created a candidate guide for the dpscd School Board race that's available on their website, Detroit that chalkbeat.org and a W e t.org. So thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And just don't forget to vote November 8.