Questionnaires were sent to all Place 4 and Place 6 Garland ISD Board of Trustees candidates. The questions, along with the Place 4 candidates’ responses, are below:
Daphne Stanley – Place 4 Garland ISD Board of Trustees candidate
Why do you want to serve on the Garland ISD board of trustees?
I want to bring an understanding to our community of how school programs are decided, how the financial structure of the district works and how Bonds and School Taxes are being spent on the children and Staff of our district. I have raised two young men and now working on raising a granddaughter and the differences I have experienced is not necessarily a positive difference. The School Board agendas are brief and not meant to alert the community of
changes/challenges being faced by the district and often times left out of the decision making process. I want parents, taxpayers to know what curriculum is being taught in our schools and why. Within the district as well as neighborhood campuses, how our tax dollars are spent.
Summarize past experience that qualifies you for this position.
I advocated for my son and now my Granddaughter within the schools and private sector to assess, diagnosis and support their learning disabilities.
Successfully held Board positions, most currently I serve on the Garland Symphony Board of Directors as Secretary and past President. I have served on the Garland Parks Board for 1 year. I serve on our Church Council for Fellowship. I work with volunteers to manage many outreach programs, congregational activities and much more.
Most importantly, I will bring to the board a perspective that is not currently represented. A perspective of a Parent/Grand Parent of an honor student and a learning disabled student and challenges that both bring to the table.
What improvements do you most believe need to be made in GISD? How would you begin to make those improvements?
Removal of the STAR testing, current focus is on college readiness and not for measuring students learning. Return the teaching back to the Teachers. Currently the use of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) does not allow the opportunity to revisit areas of concern throughout the day.
School Ratings – an accountability system that includes local metrics along with state measures.
School Financing – Revise the Cost-of-Education Index to today’s standards. Simplify and build transparency into the current complex funding system. Let taxpayers know where their money is spent.
In each of these, I believe by opening dialogue with Administration and Individual Campuses we can influence change that we can then lobby for with our Legislators.
Do you feel that GISD offers enough programs for special needs children? If not, how would you begin changing that?
I have a child with special learning needs but we have many other forms of special needs with the district. The access to the programs has not been the issue, it is the testing and qualification of the programs that can often be a lengthy process that results in at risk kids falling even more behind while the process works its way though. We need to shorten the process or allow access to intervention tutoring until the process completes. I also believe that we need parents as the subject matter for special needs – I would be willing to pull together that group to address these concerns in more depth.
Do you feel that more needs to be done to combat bullying? What would you do to help with this problem?
Unfortunately, no I do not. Bullying is a problem not only in our schools but also in all social media platforms. We need to empower campus staff/teachers to address bullying as it happens and not allow the bullying to continue while an investigation is conducted. I also believe that parents needs to be brought into the investigative process to come up with a true scope of the problem and the resolution. Parents as well as our students need to be educated as to what is bullying. When speaking with Parents – it is surprising the wide and diverse responses to what bullying is. I believe this topic should have far more support and seminars than almost any other topic.
Jed Reed – Place 4 Garland ISD Board of Trustees candidate
Why do you want to serve on the Garland ISD Board of Trustees?
To pay forward all the benefits that I and my family has received from the Garland ISD. My parents came to the Garland ISD and the Tri Cities area in 1951 to begin their professional careers and served the district during their entire professional life. I grew up in the GISD and attended Watson Elementary, Kimberlin Elementary, Memorial Junior High and South Garland High School. I returned to the GISD to begin my own teaching career after college and taught at Jackson Middle School, O’Bannon Middle School and Lakeview Centennial
High School. Following a 15 year break in service, to work in the Lewisville ISD, I returned to Garland in 2007 and continued to work in the district until I was elected to the GISD Board of Trustees in a 2016. I am seeking to return to the Board to continue my service during this pandemic period because I believe that I can provide tested knowledge, experience and leadership to the post-pandemic recovery that must focus on the instructional deficiencies that have resulted in the district since March 2020. My experience as a long time teacher, campus leader and central office administrator is key to providing knowledgeable input in the development of a multiyear recovery plan without undue delays of having to “learn what all the options mean”.
Summarize past experience that qualifies you for this position.
- Resident of the Garland ISD for more than 60+ years
- Raised in a home head by two long time Garland ISD educators
- Attended Watson and Kimberlin Elementary, Memorial Junior High
- Graduate of South Garland High School
- BSED, Texas Tech University
- Masters of Public Administration, Texas A&M Commerce
- 60 plus post Masters hours in Educational Administration, Business Administration and Human Resources
- Teacher in the Garland ISD for 18 years
- Teacher, High School Assistant Principal, Assistant Personnel Director, Director of Human Resources in the Lewisville ISD
- Director of Elementary Human Resources in the Garland ISD and Executive Director of Human Resources in the Garland ISD for 8 years
- Leadership Garland I
- Leadership Rowlett
- Rowlett Board of Adjustments and Park Board member
- Sponsor, Rowlett Student Advisory Committee
- Served on several committees with the Garland Chamber of Commerce include Garland Economic Steering Committee
What improvement do you most believe need to be made in the GISD? How would you begin to make those improvements? How would you begin to make those improvements?
Addressing the ramifications of the loss of face to face instruction since March of 2020 due to the pandemic’s impact on the operation of the school district. Addressing the instructional loss to our students will take a minimum of two years, based upon my analysis of both data and the general predictions of key educational experts from across the country. The development of a focused recovery plan will not allow time for individuals with limited understanding or training in the vast needs of a Pre K-12 district to start in May an provided quality input for implementation in the fall of 2021 if we can achieve 100% face to face instruction at that time.
Understanding the educational needs of the students, the pressures and expectations on the teachers and other staff members must be immediate and not a process of learning for a school board member at this moment in time. Beyond the impacts of the pandemic on each individual student the ongoing issues of school finance must be addressed. The development of a budget is impacted by decisions made in Austin and in the Garland ISD. On the local level we must do a complete programmatic review of all activities of the district to address the budgetary impact that resulted from the voter’s rejection of the TRE in November (such a study should be part of the annual budget process). The board will have to make serious decisions as a result of the decrease in local funding plus the impact of any negative funding that might come out of the current legislative session in Austin. Understanding the programs, costs, staffing and budget process are skill sets that I have developed over a professional lifetime including my previous 4.5 years on the board which would allow immediate engagement in the process. One final area would be to address he decline in general district student enrollment that has been occurring over the last decade.
Do you feel that GISD offers enough programs for special needs students? If not, how would you begin changing that?
Due to the pandemic the district must concentrate its focus on reclaiming significant losses in district support to a vast range of our special needs students that could not be delivered during the COVID shut down or through digital instruction. These needs are the most pressing for a segment of our student population that is heavily dependent on face-to-face instruction due to the need of instructional, motor skill development or behavioral guidance/support. The re-evaluation of all our special needs students to restructure and implement their individual educational plans (IEP’s) will require intense focus and potential revisitation overtime depending upon the progress of the students. Recent state/national analysis has placed this group of students as some of the most vulnerable in their ability to recover from the impacts of school shutdowns and digital learning approaches. The realignment of the growth potential for our special needs students must take precedent over other aspects of the programmatic offerings within the Special Education curriculum.
Long term planning to offer greater opportunities in curriculum options, once the immediate instructional loss has been addressed, could include but not be limited to career development programing, increased sports, physical development teams and greater inclusion in fine arts/performing arts and socialization activities. The district should also continue the long term plan of expansion of the district’s dyslexia program as determined by the number of students in need and the availability of funding.
While not specially meeting the needs of identified special education students the district needs to provide ongoing support to the marginal student who is having difficulty with learning but does not qualify for specialized intervention in a formal sense. This shadow child should not be lost in the system between those identified with specialized needs and those students of greater abilities due to other social/economic/high expectation performance support.
Do you feel that more needs to be done to combat bullying? What would you do to help with this problem?
The use of the term “bullying” is word that is used in the public as a very broad brush to describe various levels of interaction between individuals that may or may not fall within the guidelines provided by legislative requirements, Texas Education Agency directives and expectations of local board policies. When the term is applied to a particular situation the first course of action is to determine if the “incident” (s) meet the definition or if the issue is a different level of harassment than bullying or if it is an extreme form of aggressive behavior. It is very important to determine this on a case by case bases. The education of all aspects of the school community (employees, parents, students, community members) is important and necessary due to the rapid rise of bullying allegations. More information can be found on the District web site and includes a “Digital Bullying Notebook” to address bullying issues in a digital world: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SUDKeziLvHwm08DN5xsy0tXs9uuE389AEvQkffKcTmQ/edit?usp=sharing
Whenever an allegation is made an investigation must take place to find out the facts and determine what type of situation has occurred and the number of times such actions have happened. One isolated event does not necessarily establish a “bullying” situation unless it is possibly extreme in nature. Persistent events over time are important to determine and to establish “cause”. Bullying is the act of influence or intimidation to get someone to do what they are told to do. Significant social or physical pressure could be part of that attempt to “dominate or control” another. If the person being intimidated is being impacted physically, emotionally, and academically it must be addressed rapidly. Policy guides the level of intervention and out comes towards the “bully” which is individually applied.
Everyone must be trained in the key signs of and consequences of bullying. It must also entail the instilling of individual self-worth in the hearts and minds of each individual so that bullying can be address by each person should the signs begin to occur.
As a Board member I would support ongoing training of all employees, students, and parents. I would also stress the concept that any allegation must the rapidly addressed while also believing that we must empower everyone to stand up for what is right.
David Larrick Smith – Place 4 Garland ISD Board of Trustees candidate
Why do you want to serve on the Garland ISD board of trustees?
I care! I believe service is the greatest duty/responsibility we have as citizens and I accept that responsibility. I have spent the last 30 years as an active and engaged citizen (20) in North Texas and (10) in Brooklyn, NY. Running for GISD school board is a natural evolution of that engagement. My focus will be to help get students and staff back to school safely based on CDC recommendations and work to address the academy recovery and equity that will be needed so that all students can catch up after COVID-19 and thrive. I will advocate
for more (SEL) social emotional learning and (FCS) family consumer sciences to help our students to become critical thinking fully functional members of our society who can make their contribution through entrepreneurialism, traditional career paths, university/college or military readiness.
Summarize past experience that qualifies you for this position.
- Formal student instruction:
- Head Coach Brooklyn College Student Forensics Speech and Debate Team (1992-1995)
- Classroom Teacher in GISD (Rowlett High School 2000 – 2001)
- Community/Citizen Activism and Business Development:
- Educational and Business Development Consultant (2001 – present)
- Founder SMITH Foundation for Excellence (2006 – present)
What improvements do you most believe need to be made in GISD? How would you begin to make those improvements?
Immediate Issues: COVID-19 Response
Making sure the educational environment is safe for all parties involved: teachers, staff, students and families.
Long Term:(3) Things:
1 – Academic Recovery and Equity – Many students in our district have fallen behind for many reasons, equity of resources in one of those reasons. We need to address these issue to get them caught up.