Paulina Lopez for Person County Board of Education

This is an outline of the issues which I will be addressing in my campaign and during my time serving on the board, followed by an explanation of how I will approach them.

 

• Increasing Budget Allocations for

  • Textbooks

  • Arts

  • Technology

  • Teacher's Assistants (see Teacher Interviews page)

• Listening to and acting upon teachers' concerns, as well as those of the parents

• Replacing outdated/outmoded courses (such as keyboarding) with ones which are more helpful to the students

 

 

Budget

 

Some of the textbooks in our schools are over a decade old; new discoveries are made and information is corrected all of the time. Although it would be financially unreallistic to expect all of the textbooks in all of our schools to be completely up to date each year, particularly since our county has the lowest budget allocation for education in the area, the state of some of our textbooks is rediculous.  I had an AP (advanced placement, for college credit) class with far fewer books than students; these books were around 20 years old, and falling apart at the seams.  That would be disgraceful for any class, but it is even worse when this is an AP environmental science course, as that field is constantly evolving.  As for the arts, it is unfortunately an age-old issue that more funding goes to sports teams and arts get pushed aside.  However, when the marching band uniforms go several years beyond their date while some sports teams receive new uniforms every two to three years, it is not just unfair; it is neglect.  These are just a couple of specific observations from my personal experience in our school system.  The problems are wider than those examples.  Although the laptop programs have been a major improvement in recent years, we are still behind our neighboring counties in technology as well.

 

How can we improve the budgetary situation?  As I mentioned above, our county allocates a much lower percentage of its budget to education than our neighbors.  That is decided by your county commissioners; however, the Board of Education can lobby for increases.  Internally, however, we need to re-examine how we allocate the funds that we do have.  I intend to propose common sense policies to address the needs above.  This could be either a county-wide or school-level requirement that if any core curriculum textbooks (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies) are over 10 years old, no new funds can be allocated for new sports uniforms or equipment until those books are replaced.  That is one example of how this can be done; I want our students to shine not just on the field, but most importantly in our classrooms.  I specificed "sports" rather than "electives" or "extracurriculars" in general because, as previously stated, our arts programs are also underfunded.  Working in an art gallery while I was studying abroad reminded me of how underfunded our arts programs are; there is so much more out there to which we can expose our students.  The exact stipulations and wording of the policy are open to change and discussion; but, something of this nature must be done to improve the state of our classroom resources, to adequately equip our students for success.  It may also do to include computers which are over 10 years old in the policy, as those would be beyond obsolete; although, meeting that requirement should not be a problem.  

 

 

Feedback

 

I am very interested in hearing from our teachers about the impact of past policies and their concerns about future policies, as well as the current needs in our schools, as they are the ones who see and deal with those impacts and needs every day.  I will be talking to as many teachers as I can during my campaign, asking the questions which I have posted here on the Teacher Interviews page.  I expect many of their responses to be similar to each other, highlighting common/overall issues which need to be addressed.  I will add the issues underscored by their feedback to my plan of action.  In addition to using teacher feedback to inform my vision for our schools, I will also be in open communication with our teachers throughout my tenure, so that their firsthand experience can continue to inform my positions on the Board to make the best decisions for our future.

 

 

Education for Our Future

 

Life Skills

 

I support the teaching of practical life skills in secondary school (middle and high school).  This includes areas such as basic finances, applications (job and college), and general maintenance.  

 

Financial education is critical, yet there is almost none in our schools' curriculum.  There was one day in middle school when we had an event in the library where each student was handed a checkbook with a job title and salary on it, and we went around to different stations to find out what kind of housing and so forth we could afford and what we had left for entertainment and savings.  The jobs were randomly assigned (checkbooks handed out of a box); the result was a student crying because she couldnt afford a home with the fast food salary they'd been assigned.  This activity was presumably designed to teach us about budgeting wisely, but it delivered the opposite message to me.  When I looked at my "salary" and the housing options, I thought, with the modest "university professor" salary I had been assigned, I could just afford a small apartment; but, when it was my turn, the people at the table told me that housing is based on gross income rather than net, and that I could thus afford a decent house.  An event designed to teach budgeting was encouraging me to live beyond my means.  Additionally, this was only a one-time event; we need to incorporate financial responsibility into our school curriculum.  If we want to avoid housing crises, we must teach our students to borrow smartly and how to leverage money.

 

The only other financial lesson I remember receiving was in 10th grade Civics and Economics, where we followed a mock stock portfolio, tracking our pretend investments for a short period of time.  Thanks to my dad's initiative in teaching me these things early-on, I had already bought Walmart stock a few years earlier.  However, for any number of reasons,, not everyone has the opportunity to be exposed to these things at home.  For the overall student population, it is a good exercise to introduce them to how stock trading works.  However, like the checkbook day, it also sends a problematic message.  We tracked our stocks for a very short time period; nowehere near long enough to determine if they were worthwhile investments in the long run.  Stocks are supposed to be a long-term investment; watching them daily and trading regularly is a risky business.  Covering how stocks work is excellent, but we need to teach our students how to use them to make more stable investments.

 

As for applications, some students will go to college, while others will join the workforce immediately.  For both, knowing the do's and don'ts of applications, resumés, and cover letters/emails is essential for success.  Although seniors are required to make a resumé for graduation, and some teachers and counselors give pointers for college applications, that is about the only training provided in these areas.  We need to make a point, likely in English class, to teach cover letter/business email ettiquette.  

 

By general maintennance, I mean simple household and daily-life tasks that everyone should know how to do in order to be prepared for those little emergencies.  How to change a tire is one of these things.  As long we have Driver's Ed, that one is covered.  As many of you know, that program was almost cut a few years ago; thankfully it survived, but we need people in power who will keep it there.  Auto shop would cover this as well, but that only applies to those who take that class; students on the college prep track need to know this as well.  Another such thing is how to sew/stitch, to mend little holes in clothing or sew on a button.  Briefly, while I was in middle school, we had a thing called "intermurals" which took place during homeroom; they were are variety of activities involving such simple, household skills, where students could pick which thing they wanted to do, and we had about half an hour to do it each week.  Although I didn't actually get to sew anything together (only to embroider my initials on a square of cloth), the concept was a good one.  Intermurals were around for less than a year while I was in middle school.  Something of that nature could help to address these needs, but perhaps all students should do the same activity, which would change every couple of weeks, so that everyone picks up a range of basic skills.

 

It is also important to promote a healthy lifestyle.  Although we have Physical Education (PE) throughout our elementary and middle schools, it is only required for one semester in High School.  This is, of course, to make more room for academics, which is necessary, however, we should encourage some form of physical activity for the rest of those four years, to help our students stay in the habit of being active.  For two of the years I was in middle school, we had a program called "Take 30", where the class we went to lunch with was extended so that we could have 30 minutes of outside activity.  We played things like touch football and capture the flag.  This accomplishes two things; it helps the studetns to release energy constructively and to be more active.  I think a program like Take 30 would be more helpful in the high school than in the middle schools, as the high school students are not taking PE, and not everyone can do a sport.  It would not have to be a daily thing, but would make sense as a Monday or Friday morning activity.  Or, it could be done as a shorter, everyday thing to encourage daily habits such as stretching in the mornings at the start of first period, and a short walk in the afternoons prior to lunch.  This would only take about fifteen minutes total, but could have a lifetime positive impact on our students' health.

 

Updated Classes

 

Instead of spending time and resources on courses such as keyboarding, which students already know how to do and simply turn to for easy credit, we can instead use those resources to offer new courses in which the students can actually accquire new knowledge and skills.  Some improvements have been made, with Computer Applications no longer being a required course starting with the graduating class after mine, freeing up a class space for students to explore their options or take classes for college credit through the excellent partnerships we have.  Computer Applications is useful to keep available to those who want to take it, however, as it does cover other office programs, such as Access, which students may not have learned on their own.  Offering a keyboarding class, however, simply ties up resources which could be used to offer course such as Computer Programming, or different language courses locally, so that students don't have to resort to taking them online, as these types of classes are better suited for face to face instruction.  It could also be used to offer existing courses during more class periods, to alleviate scheduling conflicts and enable more students to take them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional points which have come up in Q&A:

 

- We need more voter education in our civics curriculum

 

During my time at PCC, I had classmates who thought all elections, including local elections, were run with the electoral college; they thought that their individual votes did not count.  More recently, I have spoken to adults who thought that only certain states had primaries, and others who thought that "early voting" during the primaries meant you didn't get to vote in the General Election in November.

 

One of the questions I was asked was how I think we can get more young people involved in the political process.  During the lead up to the 2008 Presidential election, I observed a great amount of interest in politics amongst teens and young adults.  This seems to be the case in most presidential election years.  The interest is there; it comes down to a matter of education.  Many people simply do not know how or where they can get involved.  This question reminded me of the above encounters which illustrate how a lack of voter education (that is, education about how our elections work) can discourage people from exercising the right to vote, for which so many fought for us all to have.

 

It is imperative for the future of our country that we teach our students about the political process; not just about how presidential elections and bills in congress work.  It is important that new generations understand the impact that state and local government has on their lives.  These things should be included in the Civics curriculum.

 

 

 

- Charter Schools

 

Although Charter Schools are not controlled by the Board of Education, it was a hot topic in my first Q&A, so I decided to include a bit about them here.  Charter Schools are a private option, but receive some public funding; this is a controvercial topic because this uses funds which could be allocated to our public schools.  Charter schools receive outside funding, but public schools do not; public schools have to rely on the funds allocated by the county, and are simply underfunded.  

 

I am not against charter schools receiving any public funds at all; since those parents pay taxes, it seems fair to allocate them some funds to acknowledge that.  However, our public schools are supported completely by the funds they receive from the county, and thus, they must be the top priority.  It becomes an issue when the charter schools send students back to public schools shortly after school starts, after having received the funds allocated for those students; this leaves the public schools with more studetns than funding.  When that happens, it is an exploitation of your tax dollars and our public schools.  Just as the money follows the student to a charter school, so should that money follow the student back to public school if they are sent back.

​

We are working towards the same goal of educating the next generation; the goal is for all of our students to have equal opportunity for success.  To address the issue of potential unfair advantages, I have included Charter Schools in my teacher interviews, in an effort to find out, from the source, what they think they are doing better, and what resources are enabling them to do that.  This often comes back to budgeting, which is the number one issue in my platform.  Again, the Board of Education does not control the county budget, nor the charter schools, but I will advocate for increased education funding overall, but particularly for our public schools, and I will work within the Board to make sure we spend the funds that we do have wisely, maintaining adequate and vital classroom resources with the same enthusiasm which has been applied to sports.