POLITICS
TLR is publishing the responses of all the candidates who submitted answers to our questionnaires.
Orange County School Board Candidates Question 1: What is the one most pressing issue for Orange County Schools? How would you deal with it? Carrie Doyle: One of the most pressing issues under the surface is the need for redistricting our elementary school students, which connects with building repairs/changes and pre-K expansion. An effort was made last year while the OCS Board of Education was under transition with an interim superintendent to adopt a redistricting plan, and it was deemed too hasty by the community and discarded. Motivating the redistricting is that some elementary schools are over-capacity, some under-capacity; some buildings are older and in need of costly repairs that rival the costs of building replacement. The over-capacity schools are Cameron Park, New Hope, Hillsborough Elementary, and Efland Cheeks. The under-capacity elementary schools are Central, Pathways, and Grady Brown. Some of these capacity designations, however, are inaccurate because Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance doesn’t recognize classrooms as in-use when they are housing pre-K or EC students. Overall, the district is so far not at a capacity level that triggers the funding for a new building to be built. Despite the uncertainty of the long-term redistricting decisions, I would move forward with gradual expansion of pre-K availability to two pre-K classrooms and possibly one EC classroom per building (see question 2). Redrawing district lines is difficult, because each school community needs to be valued for its unique character. The Board will need to balance maintaining the sense of neighborhood schools that we currently have with better balancing of racial and socio-economic diversity. Another component of the challenge is that we historically haven’t heard adequately from all voices, from all parts of our community. One of the criticisms of the redistricting plan last year is that there were only a couple of parent meetings reaching a small audience before the plan was made. Our new permanent Superintendent Dr. Monique Felder is setting a good example with her district-wide Listen and Learn! events, giving two hours for each school community to talk about ideas, needs, and concerns. We should follow her lead. I would continue broad conversation with each school community to better understand what each school values about its personality and programming, and possibly what it would want changed. For example, we have one elementary school with a dual-language immersion program that has been very successful for its student body. Another school implements a STEM program throughout the grades. A third has a year-round program, while others operate with a more traditional format. If we are going to maintain these different approaches to learning: language-focused, STEM-focused, year-round, traditional – how can we do that in a way that supports choices with reasonable transportation offerings, a reasonable amount of neighborhood character, and also socio-economic and racial diversity? I think there are more creative solutions out there that we haven’t shared broadly yet, and good conversation is vital to dynamic approaches. Bonnie Hauser: In my view, the most pressing issue facing OCS is underperforming students. Parents report that their children are not sufficiently challenged, and there are major disparities in achievement and discipline due to race and income. These issues are front and center for the board and new senior staff. Several actions should help: Tony McKnight: Like most school districts in North Carolina, school funding at the state level, which include staffing shortages, and unfunded mandates. Continuous collaboration with board members, county commissioners, and state legislators to find resources to fund budget shortfalls. Jennifer Moore: One of the most pressing issues for Orange County Schools is teacher diversity. 3 methods that I would you use to actively recruit and retain a diverse workforce would be: LaTarndra Strong: Student reassignment and capital improvements are linked together as the most pressing issue in our district. As OCS continues to defer maintenance of our school facilities, we also have long term capacity concerns because our area is growing so quickly. On top of that, some of our schools, particularly elementary schools, are significantly over capacity while others are under capacity. As the board seeks to address these major issues, the first step will be to engage in two-way discussions with parents and other community members around the issues that affect our ability to serve students in safe, clean schools that operate at a reasonable capacity. We need to discuss as a community whether we are adequately preparing for growth and what condition we are willing to accept for our facilities. As the board engages stakeholders, including city planners and the Board of County Commissioners, we will need to hear everyone’s concerns and vision for how we should move forward. After the facility needs have been assessed adequately and both short term and long term plans have been created for capital improvements and community growth, then the district needs to discuss student reassignment. These are very sensitive issues and we must be intentional about engaging all stakeholders and remaining in constant conversation throughout the process.
Orange County School Board Candidates Question 2: Can OCS successfully address the achievement gap in a microcosm? Carrie Doyle: Student Achievement Committee meeting data show gaps based on measures such as reading skills using the mCLASS assessment tools Text Reading Comprehension (TRC) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). All our students, including 20% of white students in K-1, need to achieve higher levels of literacy skills necessary for academic success. But gaps emerge between subgroups: between white and black students; white and latino students; English Language Learners and non-ELLs; and students without and with disabilities. Data analysis of End of Grade tests for grades 3- 8 also shows that all student subgroups need improvement in math and reading, but the same gaps emerge based on race, language, and disability. Achievement gaps are best closed early, by grade three. Currently, only about half of our OCS kindergarteners experienced pre-K, a strong environment to enhance pre-literacy skills. About 10% of our students benefit from pre-K offered in OCS schools; we currently have a waitlist for three classrooms worth of pre-K students. Adding the three classrooms now to meet our waitlist demands, and gradually adding more pre-K classrooms so that each elementary school houses two would make quality pre-K more accessible and boost early literacy skills. We should also distribute our AIG teachers more equitably, so each elementary school has one full-time. AIG teachers not only serve students identified as gifted; they also spend time “pushing in” content to all classrooms, emphasizing K-2 “universal nurturing” to Bonnie Hauser: Elaborating on the answer above, it will be critical to provide supplemental resources to accelerate growth for students who are falling behind. This includes: Tony McKnight: I think that Orange County Schools is moving in the right direction in addressing the achievement gap in hiring of a Superintendent that has experience in this area, and our new Equity Officer in using data to identify areas to be addressed in closing the gap. All Orange County staff are receiving diversity training to better help our students, and the district continues to recruit a diverse workforce. We can also address the achievement gap by continuing to target literacy and math instruction and identifying students that need additional instructional support. Expansion of our Pre-Kindergarten programs in order to reach students at an earlier age. Working with community partners in creating afterschool programs, and summer programs to give additional opportunities for learning. Continued work with staff, Equity Taskforce, and board student achievement committee in making closing achievement gaps a district priority. Jennifer Moore: The most promising school-related strategies for reducing the achievement gap seem to involve changes like reducing classroom size (redistrict), setting minimum standards of academic competency for teachers, and raising teacher expectations for low performing students. Closing the gap would do more to promote racial equality. I also feel that the district should continue to hire qualified diverse staff who will implement differential instruction to reach all students. LaTarndra Strong: No, not entirely. That being said, I think we are uniquely positioned to address the achievement gap in Orange County Schools because we have a more manageable number of students who are affected by disparities than in some of our neighboring districts. The effects of racism are complex and it’s going to take more work within the greater Hillsborough area (and beyond) than can be done inside the microcosm of our schools. As a community, we need work to create an environment that will produce the kind of honest dialogue about race that will need to happen before schools will be able to break through unconscious biases and structural disadvantages that many children in OCS face. We need to be able to discuss the ways that communities tend to segregate themselves without people being defensive or angry. We have to see these problems and their impacts more broadly. This is not easy work, but I do believe that we are ready to begin to address this work in our district.
How?
help develop early language for advanced thinking. Currently, our AIG teachers’ time is prioritized at our schools with the fewest students of color: CPES and HES, where AIG teachers’ time is assigned greater than 100%, whereas schools with greater racial and socioeconomic diversity, such as CES, ECGES, and PES only have AIG teachers part-time (50% or 80% of the AIG teacher time). Achievement gaps may also be explained by the lack of diversity of our teachers. Only about 11% of our teachers are educators of color in OCS district, while our students of color are approximately 40% of their peers. Climate assessment of teachers of color would add clarity to whether they feel fully welcome, supported, and included in curriculum planning in each school. Participating in mentoring programs for educators of color in rural schools, such as with NCA&T, would help us hire and retain teachers of color. Grow Your Own programs to nurture students of color along paths into education fields, perhaps coming back to OCS district. When our educators of color feel fully valued by our district as a whole, students’ perceptions of their own potential improve. Our Spanish-speaking families likely need improved outreach and communication from OCS to feel fully informed about school patterns and procedures as well as included in decision making. More Spanish-language translators are needed in our school buildings to assist families needing support finding services such as tutoring. Expanding our EC program throughout the district would help students with disabilities more broadly access tools to reach personal goals set in IEPs, which could help close gaps.
Orange county School Board Candidates Question 3: In what ways has the BOCC been supportive of OCS? Not supportive? Specify. Carrie Doyle: Overall, the BOCC has been supportive of OCS when the OCS Board has approached the BOCC requesting funding assistance. A little over a third of OCS budget comes from local funding, allocated by the BOCC. Currently, the OCS budget total is approximately $94,000,000: $3,400,000 federal grants; $48,000,000 state funding; $36,000,000 local funding, with the balance from district Enterprise Funds. Looking at the county budget of $237 million for 2019-20, about 48% of it goes towards the two school districts operating within the county: CHCCS (60%) and OCS (40%). Some of the money for the two school districts is designated jointly, such as for school resource officers, a new joint bus garage, and equity initiatives. The BOCC has approved bond programs such as one in 2016 for $120,000 which helped provide additional funding for school maintenance planning. Of that, $48,000,000 was used towards upgrading OCS mechanical systems, roofing/windows/doors, and a new 500 student classroom wing at CRHS. At the recent joint meeting of OCS and CHCCS Boards of Education, it was expressed that the districts hope that approaching the BOCC with a shared need for increased pre-K classroom funding will be persuasive in approving additional funds going into next school year. In addition to facilities purposes, local funding helps us to increase teacher staffing so that we do better than the state average on teacher to student ratios as well as providing support staff such as school nurses. Although the county spends about half of our budget on schools, it still seems that building maintenance/repairs is prioritized towards non-school buildings. For a 5-year county capital budget of 208.8 million, 45.9% towards school repairs and maintenance whereas 54.1% towards other buildings, parks and infrastructure. Most of our county buildings seem beautiful and well-furnished; I don’t know that there’s a government building in Hillsborough in poorer condition than our school buildings, in terms of leaking roofs, mold, ancient bathrooms. One of the biggest needs for approval for funding from the BOCC is capital funding for a new elementary school building. We are currently not over the capacity threshold needed to trigger that release of funds. However, currently our capacity calculations do not factor in that when a K-12 building retrofits some of its classrooms for pre-K classrooms, that its capacity is affected. For example, Pathways Elementary School is considered below capacity currently, but four of its classrooms provided for pre-K spaces, and one for an EC classroom. I believe that the OCS Board will approach the BOCC to amend SAPFO such that pre-K spaces will be incorporated into capacity calculations, which then would result in an earlier trigger of the release of funds for a new school building. Bonnie Hauser: The BoCC has provided both school districts with a generous per pupil allocation, and some additional support through a small portion of the dedicated sales tax. That has helped to fund higher salaries, additional teaching assistants, and other critical operating expenses. In recent years, the commissioners have worked to increase per pupil funding to both school districts – rather than only increase the CHCCS district tax. The BoCC has not fulfilled its responsibility to maintain school buildings, and as a result school buildings have been allowed to fall into a serious state of disrepair, creating heath and safety issues for students. The county needs to create a dedicated funding stream for school maintenance and repair. In addition, county policies affecting school funding need to be modernized. There are other areas where improved cooperation between the county and school districts, especially in healthcare and social services, would help alleviate burdens on teachers and school counselors. Tony McKnight: Schools Funding -in the areas of per pupil allotments and facilities maintenance of our schools. The relationship between, Orange County Schools, and Orange County Commissioners is very progressive, and collaborative, we are all committed to successful learning experiences, health, and safety of all Orange County students, and staff. Jennifer Moore: Orange County School Board was supportive of implementing the equity policy. I feel that it’s a step in the right direction. The team that collaborated to enforce the equity policy did a great job. However, I do feel that now is a good time to focus on accountability of the current equity policy to assure that all partners in education, board members, and stakeholders accept responsibility to ensure that every student has access to a quality education, qualified staff, challenging curriculum, and full academic support to increase student learning and growth. It’s always important to remember that the ultimate goal is to do what is best for our students to excel academically and socially in a diverse environment. LaTarndra Strong: In my opinion, the Board of County Commissioners has had a hands off approach with CHCCS and OCS in recent years. As the liaison between taxpayers and the school districts, I think it is their fiduciary responsibility to be examining the way that money is being spent by districts and collaborating with the school boards to ensure that capital improvements are being adequately funded, as well as other needs of the students. As commissioners, the BOCC has many causes to consider within the county. Although it may not be simple to shift funds from one thing to another, I would ask for our commissioners to think more about education. I will advocate for them to increase the percentage of funds allocated to education and become involved with issues in the school districts. At the same time, I hope the county commissioners will have some expectations from our school board and district as well, so that they are continuously involved in conversations about closing opportunity gaps, the reality of our capital needs, as well as conversations about how we can partner in other ways, such as making our schools more environmentally responsible, benefits for district employees, and many others.
Orange County School Board Candidate Bios I was also part of the community visioning process and strategy team that set OCS’s current direction for curriculum choice and community engagement. In addition to my work with schools and the community, I have an in-depth understanding of school and county budgets, and funding mechanisms, and am ready to get to work. 
Carrie Doyle Bio: I am a mother of three children raised in Orange County Schools – my kids are now in middle and high school here. My educational background includes degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science, and I worked both as a chemist and as a high school Science teacher before staying home with my children. In OCS, I have served as a classroom reading volunteer and a PTA officer. In the community I have served as a Cub Scout leader, and I’m currently serving as a Girl Scout co-leader, and church Ministry leader.
Bonnie Hauser Bio: I retired to Orange County in 2003, following a successful career as a management consultant and partner with PricewaterHouse Coopers. I started volunteering in our schools over 10 years ago, and serve on boards that collaborate with Orange County Schools, including:
Tony McKnight Bio: Residence: Hillsborough, NC. Office Sought: Re-Election to Orange County Board of Education. Have currently served 12 Years on board in capacities as Chair, Vice Chair, and member. Years Lived in Orange County: 25 years. Top priorities: School Safety, Student Achievement for All students, Pre-K programs expansion.
Jennifer Moore Bio: My educational career spans twelve years’ experience in the North Carolina Public School system as an exceptional children’s instructional assistant. I began my classroom experience in Wayne County, North Carolina. I have also worked in Durham and Orange County Schools. During my tenure I learned to focus on what’s best for all students through collaboration on school leadership teams. Serving on school leadership allowed me the ability to create school artifacts to demonstrate growth as well as individual student portfolios to demonstrate academic success. I also served as vice-president for Orange County Association of Educators where I advocated for public education on the local, state, & national level. These positions enabled me to experience many aspects in the field of education. Currently, I am an academic assistant/ faculty support at Duke University.
LaTarndra Strong Bio: As a resident of northern Orange County and a parent of children in Orange County Schools for over two decades, LaTarndra Strong has laid deep roots in our community. As the founder of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition and a member of the Orange County Schools Equity Task Force, LaTarndra has attended nearly every school board meeting for the last several years. She spearheaded the Mayor’s Leadership Club to mentor Orange County middle- and high-school students alongside former Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens. This program will continue under the leadership of Hillsborough’s new mayor, Jennifer Weaver. Additionally, she is the current Vice President of the Northern Orange NAACP and has previously served as the director of Efland Cheeks Community Center’s summer programs. She has been a foster parent for over 15 years, nurturing children of many different ethnicities with a variety of lived experiences in our district. In addition to her work as a parent and community member, she has a professional background in accounting and is currently an employee of the University of North Carolina. Please visit www.strong4ocs.com for more information.
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