By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
Minority student achievement and budget issues were recurring topics of discussion among Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education candidates at a forum Tuesday night. The forum was co-sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA Council and the League of Women Voters.
Incumbents Jamezetta Bedford, Mike Kelley and Annetta Streater are running for re-election, challenged by newcomers Mia Burroughs and Gary Wallach. Four seats on the board are available.
Candidates were asked about the budget process, gifted education, school safety, the minority achievement gap and more. They agreed on several issues — all five were opposed to a merger with the Orange County Schools district, for example.
Candidates did, however offer different ideas about how to improve the school budget process — a process most involved agree is each year a difficult one.
Wallach said the district should conduct a cost-benefit analysis of all its programs in order to determine where money is best being spent.
“If we can save money, we don’t have to spend money,†he said.
Several candidates stressed the importance of starting the annual budget process earlier, which the board began doing this year.
“The overall discussion has to be a community-wide discussion about where our priorities are,†Kelley said.
Burroughs said she would like to see the county commissioners and school board members work more closely together on the budget.
“We all have the same constituents and I think we can work together,†she said.
The candidates were also asked about the minority achievement gap.
Streater said the district should focus on all of the varying factors that can impact the academic success of children.
“We must also continue to advocate that parents be fully engaged and fully involved in their children’s lives,†she added.
Bedford emphasized the importance of preschool, noting that the district should strengthen its relationship with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute to expand the First School program for 3 and 4 year olds.
“We need to start much younger,†she said.
To help close the minority achievement gap, Wallach said the district should determine “where the resources are needed and then redirect the resources in that direction,†adding that different schools’ PTAs raise varying amounts of money for those schools, creating inequity.
Kelley said the district needs to look at how students are assigned to schools to ensure equity across the district.
“The students who actually show up need to be balanced as opposed to [balancing] those who are assigned,†he said. Sometimes students who are assigned to schools in the district don’t actually attend those schools because they have moved out of the district or attend private schools.
Burroughs suggested that the board use statistics like the number of active parents on schools’ PTAs to balance schools.
Throughout the forum, several candidates spoke in favor of Professional Learning Communities, through which teachers regularly meet to discuss and monitor the successes and failures of their students. The district recently started using the PLC model.
Streater stressed the importance of professional development to improve student achievement across the district. She added that she supports a mentoring program for the district’s new hires so that newer teachers have a relationship with a more experienced faculty member.
Bedford noted that using the PLC model could help to improve the gifted education plan.
Carol Woods will hold a forum for candidates on October 23 at 3 p.m.