Three of five candidates will advance to the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
The five candidates include two incumbents, Wanda Brownlee Paige and Maxine Drew. Another incumbent, Dr. Stacy Yeager, did not run for re-election.
Also running for the KCK school board are Rachel Henderson, Angelynn Howell and Diosselyn Tot.
Asked what were their ideas to help students improve their academic performance after losing ground during the pandemic, Tot said it was important to bring in resources that the students need.
Students are still in the middle of the pandemic, she said. Mental health resources are some resources that are needed. Providing information that is needed, bringing in organizations and community members will highlight resources they may not know about, she said.
“Everybody’s dealing with so many different outcomes from the pandemic,” she said, “that we should be able to provide different alternative ways children can interact with their school district, and be able to get all the needs that they need with different structures.”
They should be able to leverage connections to organizations to provide programs after school to help them with math or reading, or experiences for them to further engage and see what else they can bring forward for the years that are coming forth, she said.
Wanda Brownlee Paige, an incumbent, said the first thing they should do is provide counseling, and there are funds available from the district’s federal Esser account to provide additional counseling and trauma training to help them cope with what they just experienced.
The first year was rough, but to come back again and deal with the Delta variant, the district needs to offer counseling for students, teachers and families as well, she said.
Paige, a retired educator, said the district needs to recruit teachers so that it can reduce the teacher-student ratio to 1 to 15, or no more than 1 to 20, so that teachers can work better with a smaller, intimate group.
She also said the human resources department needs to be revamped, so it can go out and recruit staff.
“If we provide the counseling, provide the enrichment programs after school – we have the money,” Paige said. “We could have a chess club.”
They need to show the students how to deal with stress and also provide that for the parents, she added.
“If we recruit teachers, reduce our class sizes, provide the counseling and work on our HR department, we can make a difference in our district, and also offer something to our parents, and offer something to our teachers as well,” Paige said. Some things, like the school calendar, are stil somewhat antiquated, and they have to step up to the 21st century, she said.
Angelynn Howell said the district has a program online that can help students catch up. She suggested expanding Wednesdays. Instead of class being dismissed early on Wednesday, students could stay for the whole day, including some after-school tutoring. That would allow them to catch up and graduate on time, she said.
“I would say for our students, that they have the opportunity to be online and take those classes that they missed, but also be there at the school so they could get the help they need,” Howell said.
“Just being online and trying to make up work doesn’t necessarily mean you know what you’re doing if you don’t have someone there to explain it to you and help you,” Howell said. “Our students have gotten behind because they don’t have the support they need.”
Support can come from parents at home, in the classroom with their teachers, or additional help.
“We need to let kids know you’re at school so you can learn,” Howell said. Students need to understand that it’s OK to ask for help with their work.
“Increase the Wednesdays so that they have that additional time,” Howell said. In the evening, if they’re behind, kids could stay until that 5:30 bus comes and work with teachers in the building, she said. If the school can help parents to help their children with the homework, that also could help the children graduate on time and become productive members of society, she said.
Rachel Henderson said prior to the pandemic, a lot of teachers were talking about teaching to the test.
“I would like to see us challenge the systems that are in place,” Henderson said. She mentioned that the district requires more credits for graduation than the state.
She asked how they could build more soft skills that would make the district’s students more attractable in the work place, lessen the hours to make sure the students were truly ready to be the best, and make sure they were truly ready to be an assistant manager or forklift driver.
“It’s looking at those policies that we’ve created that in big picture sound really great, but we continue to miss the bar, but we continue to have those as the bar that we’ve set,” Henderson said.
More hands-on opportunities, including internships and leveraging opportunities with community partners will help students see future jobs, to see themselves in positions, she said. They can use the 8-hour day to make sure students see things that they wouldn’t usually see when they are not with the district.
Maxine Drew, a retired educator, said education has changed since the pandemic, and the board must try to maintain consistency within the education.
“Whatever we put into place as a board, we have to be consistent with it, because we have to recognize that there are going to be some positive things that come up, and there are going to be some negative,” Drew said.
“But if we stay on the path of producing a positive way in which our students can be educated, if we stay on the path producing a positive way in which our teachers will engage in teaching, if we stay on the path of producing a positive way in which parents will be actively engaged to work, we are going to be able to build our human capital, to be able to bring about greater success,” Drew said.
“Will everything work? It may not. But the thing that we have to do is to keep pushing forward, to keep moving, to be able to have a favorable outcome that will be consistent, and not only will our students see it, the parents, the community,” Drew said. “And we also need to engage all three of those entities within so we can bring about a change.”
“We may not have 100 percent of success, but in listening to everything that everyone has said here, if we work together, we will be able to bring about change in our school district,” Drew said.
To see more of the candidates’ responses on issues, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNORUC3ZalE&list=PLMfeRPiOepX1K6tFoAenGCa4wHYYk6Xtt&index=1.
To see a candidate questionnaire from Maxine Drew, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/maxine-drew-candidate-questionnaire/.
To see a candidate questionnaire from Wanda Paige, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/wanda-paige-candidate-questionnaire/.
To see a candidate questionnaire from Rachel Henderson, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/rachel-henderson-russell-candidate-questionnaire/.
Polls are open Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. To find your polling place, visit Voter View at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView, or call the Election Office at 913-573-8500.
To see other election stories, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/category/election-2021/.
To see videos of Election 2021, visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMfeRPiOepX1K6tFoAenGCa4wHYYk6Xtt.