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I am running for the Board of Education to be a voice for Anne Arundel County students. As a mother of four with a diverse background in psychology, education, human resource management and contracting, I am directly aware of my children's experiences and involvement in our public schools in dealing with the challenges our students face.
Many of these problems are not unique to our country, but that does not mean we can not start solving them locally. I want to focus on our policies and our budget of more than $ 1 billion.
With the shift to more standards-based education in recent decades, spending on administration and central office has grown much faster than spending in our classrooms. While attention has shifted people to the numbers, students and teachers are encouraged to perform their tasks rather than being supported in pursuit of a quality education. The result has not been the graduation of students who are better prepared for college and the workforce, which reduces the achievement gap, or even ranks first in other countries developed.
The result has been the development of overly stressed, overworked and confronted students with a continual increase in mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, addiction and even worse.
It is time to take a critical look at the budget and put the dollars back into the walls of our schools. Teachers must be our number one priority. My experience in human resources management tells me that retention is a profitable practice.
We must value our teachers by paying them a competitive salary and allowing them to determine the needs of our students. We need to have a sufficient number of guidance counselors and psychologists in our schools to meet the many unique needs of our students. We must also ensure the safety and well-being of our students by providing safe but non-custodial facilities, healthy air and water, nutritious and appetizing foods and better nutrition. opportunities for movement, fresh air. access to the sun
If we are able to level the playing field by ensuring that the physical and psychological needs of students are met, we will see significant progress in academic achievement and a reduction in the achievement gap. This can be accomplished not only with adequate staffing in our schools, but also by promoting greater opportunities for community involvement.
One of the challenges our county faces is finding enough teachers with similar racial and cultural backgrounds to those of many of our students. Although we must continue to increase the diversity of our teaching staff and our school administration, opening our schools to greater community involvement can help ensure that every student thinks they can succeed.
I have been attending school board meetings for a few years now and I share the opinion of many concerned citizens that I have encountered on the campaign trail, namely that there is a lack of accessibility and transparency regarding our board of directors. of responsibility with our administration.
I want to trust our community that the school board is here to serve our students and that every student is truly valued as a developing citizen who is and will be an important member of our community.
I was so encouraged that the June primary voters seemed to indicate that it was time to make new voices heard on our council. I will bring vision and leadership, and I will be accountable to the voters. I will ask our administration to use existing research and identify best practices around the world when implementing the vision of our council, a vision that must be focused on a healthy educational experience. and meaningful for each student.
Melissa Ellis is a candidate for the Anne Arundel County School Board in District 4.
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