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I would like to be a voice for families with children in our schools and for all of Arlington's residents.
As a School Board Member, I want to:
As a parent, a PTA president, and a neighborhood leader, I think our schools on the whole are very strong, although I see areas for improvement. How well we educate our children is a good part of why Arlington is such a great community.
I have a personal commitment to our schools. My family will be enrolled in Arlington Public Schools through the year 2017, living the life of a school family day-to-day.
I want to continue to make our schools even better while strengthening their ties to our community. In some cases, not everyone has full confidence in their own local schools – which I regard as a problem for all of us.
Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of Arlington families, residents, and teachers, attended hundreds of school and civic meetings and events, shared my ideas, and listened to the ideas and concerns of my Arlington neighbors. Drawing on this experience, I want to lead new efforts to further improve our schools and how they serve all of Arlington.
Top of PageAs a School Board member, I will:
Based on my experience as a school and neighborhood representative, I am convinced that our schools can take better advantage of ideas suggested by parents and members of the community – especially on tough issues like school boundary discussions, school curriculum, and how we design and use our facilities.
I have a lot of experience in consultations and negotiations – professionally, as well as in a volunteer capacity here in Arlington. I believe that our schools would benefit from holding consultations that are never meant (or perceived) to validate pre-existing decisions. Sometimes the consultation with the community needs to be whether change is warranted at all. All of our consultations should be open and transparent– while still goal-oriented – and seek new ideas and common ground.
Ultimately, a School Board member has to make tough calls, and I am ready to do that. I've made tough calls as a PTA president, as a civic association president, and as a professional negotiator, not to mention as a parent.
I think the options we present to our decision-makers will be a lot stronger and have greater community buy-in if our consultations are more proactive and substantive.
In my experience, parents and members of the community tend to be more appreciative of final decisions if they have had a real say in the process.
Top of PageAs a School Board member I will lead efforts to:
As a 17-year veteran of the U.S. Department of State, I've learned firsthand that language skills are marketable, build respect for different cultures, and increase academic proficiency in other areas, including English.
Over the past months, I have spoken with hundreds of parents and members of the community about the idea of giving a greater emphasis to language learning. The broad level interest and support has been striking. Arlingtonians seem to understand that given our international professional orientation and our international composition, we should be setting the standard in this area. The last APS survey showed that foreign language instruction is one of parents' most desired components in our current curriculum.
As a School Board member, I will set a goal of having every graduating student proficient in at least one language besides English, working to incorporate that goal and associated indicators into our Strategic Plan. I will then work to meet that goal, giving flexibility across schools and grade levels.
Clearly, learning languages at an early age is academically advantageous. But I don't think we should make the best the enemy of the good – especially given the existing level of mandated activity during the elementary school day. I will work to support, but not require, additional elementary school language programs like Jamestown's innovative after-school language program. Elementary immersion programs – while great – are not the only means of promoting language proficiency.
I will look to expand our now-modest efforts to provide opportunities for students to learn languages that are less commonly taught, using distance learning programs as needed.
I also want to explore the possibility of partnering with the U.S. Department of State -- whose state-of-the art language training center is in Arlington -- to provide part-time language instructors when they are not teaching my colleagues.
As a School Board member I will:
Along with the skills and enthusiasm of our teachers, I think that class size is a primary factor in how well our schools educate our children.
Lower class sizes allow teachers to individualize instruction for each child. Also, smaller class sizes provide a better setting for teachers to address the needs of children with special needs and special gifts.
As a School Board Member, I will ensure that all of our schools are actually meeting our current class size standards. Parents like me who regularly distribute flyers into teachers' mailboxes can tell you that there remain some classes that exceed our target numbers.
Once we have fully implemented our current goals, I will want to bring together educational experts, parents, and members of the community to see if we should further lower our target class sizes. Such a consultation will necessarily take into account the resource implications of even lower class sizes.
Yes, and as a School Board member I will:
I'm concerned about the fact that most Arlington teachers don't live in Arlington, and that in recent years the percentage of teachers living in our community has dropped.
It's no surprise that this is closely related to the cost of housing.
I don't suggest that the School Board can alter the housing market. But I think having teachers in our neighborhoods is so beneficial that I want our school community to engage more and provide more incentives for our teachers to live here.
An anecdote may illustrate my own perspective: a favorite teacher of our son Zack lives nearby, and when our son is out skateboarding or visiting our nearby shops, they occasionally run into each other. I'm convinced that those chance encounters are good for our son, a good thing for that teacher - in part because our son will see him as more than a classroom teacher -- and enrich our neighborhood.
Talking with a number of teachers, it is also clear to me that teaching requires a lot of personal commitment - and that there's a big difference in a teacher's day as to whether he or she has a ten-minute commute or a traffic-clogged hour-long commute.
We should provide teachers and staff with more information, ensuring they have quick access to public announcements of any reasonably priced housing that appears on the Arlington market. Early action is one key factor in securing housing in a competitive market like ours.
I also agree with the Arlington Education Association that we should expand the Live-Where You Work program, which provides a relatively modest loan to teachers who want to purchase a home in Arlington.
And I'd like to lead our schools in partnering with Arlington nonprofit housing organizations and the business community to see what additional cost-effective tools we might use to further encourage teachers to live here.
As a School Board member, I will work to:
As a past civic association president, I am sensitive to the importance of strengthening ties between our schools and our neighborhoods. One important and cost-effective way to do this is to ensure that all of our school facilities, including both sports and building facilities, are available as much as reasonably possible to Arlington community and recreational groups.
Welcoming community use of our facilities helps ensure that as school enrollment numbers rise or fall, we can continue to make effective use of our buildings and grounds --- and financially justify keeping our facilities open.
We have been fortunate in the recent past that Arlingtonians have supported our school bonds and budgets. Sharing facilities shows taxpayers another value for their investment.
Educational uses of our facilities will obviously continue to come first, and we need to make sure we maintain high standards for safety and security.
In my own experience, it seems that it is sometimes difficult for community groups to access our schools outside of the school day or during the summertime. My fellow members of the Facilities Advisory Council and I have worked recently to identify ways we can help our principals to address the management issues that come with extra facility use. These potentially include providing financial incentives that help our principals share in benefits of helping the local organizations that so enrich our community.
As a parent, I like the idea of improving the connection between our schools and our Arlington community. And as a past civic association president I like the idea of entrusting a neighborhood leader to hold the key to the local school – whether figuratively or literally.
As a School Board member I will:
A host of studies increasingly show that exercise and good nutrition help children live healthier and happier lives.
I want to work within our schools and in partnership with Arlington County to promote fitness and good nutrition, including by making it as safe and welcoming as possible for children who walk or bicycle.
I've worked for years in Arlington to help make our streets safer for children and all our residents, including by leading transportation safety efforts on behalf of the Swanson Middle School PTA, chairing the Arlington Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and chairing the Arterial Transportation Management task force, which recommended a number of projects to make our arterial roads safer.
I want to identify new crosswalk, sidewalk, and traffic calming projects in school walk zones where current conditions don't meet our safety standards, and build them as a priority.
We can do more within our schools to foster fitness, ensuring that elementary schools grant allotted recess time every day, and by offering high school students new options for fitness classes that would appeal to them –climbing, in-line skating, bicycling, even kayaking is a possibility -- and would help instill lifelong exercise habits.
Our schools also need to do more to encourage children to eat healthfully. We currently send mixed messages – teaching within our classrooms about the benefits of good eating habits, while offering foods in our cafeterias and vending machines that are unhealthful. As a School Board member, I will work to ensure we do what we say we should do.
As a School Board member I will work to:
I view Arlington's diversity as a resource. For example, at the Drew Model School -- a diverse and high-achieving school -- special programs and great teachers seem to have helped narrow gaps in academic achievement among sub-groups of children, while promoting an environment that celebrates diversity. I want to try to replicate these successful efforts. I will also support our programs that help English language learners acquire English proficiency, and I will ensure that all our children have access to challenging academic programs.
I think that early access to education is key. I want to expand the number of preschool sections for both the Virginia Preschool Initiative program and the Montessori preschool program, both of which have been successful in preparing children for academic success.
As a School Board Member, I will promote additional teacher and family training that provides greater awareness and tools for helping children achieve who might otherwise be at a disadvantage academically. I joined my fellow members of the Advisory Council on Instruction in recommending the expansion of several specific programs that would do this.
Finally, I think that keeping class sizes to a minimum is also a key factor in ensuring that teachers can individualize their instruction for every student, which I believe over time helps diminish gaps in academic achievement.
Individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities deserve every opportunity to grow intellectually to their fullest potential. I will work with Arlington teachers and parents to ensure school curriculum meets the needs of every child.
Students suffering from mental illness, likewise, deserve understanding from Arlington Public Schools. With proper treatment, I believe every individual suffering from mental illness can lead a normal and productive life. Parents and the entire public school system must work together to support our students living with mental illness.
Yes, absolutely. These policies are critical to the fairness and effectiveness of our school system. Arlington must ensure that we have policies in place that protect our students and staff by prohibiting all discrimination in our school system. Our schools cannot reach their full potential unless all students, faculty, and staff are fully valued without regard to their sexual orientation.
Read Ed's response to the Virginia Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club candidate's questionnaire.
I am a strong proponent of providing families everywhere in Arlington with outstanding educational opportunities at their neighborhood schools. I am also committed to providing families throughout the County with additional opportunities at "option" programs and schools.
As a School Board member, I would support every one of Arlington's current elementary, middle and high schools and programs.
My family has a personal commitment to both our neighborhood schools and our "option" schools and programs. Our son Jamey and daughter Gina currently attend Drew Model School, an elementary school with Countywide availability, and our daughter Robbie attended the Spanish language immersion program at Key Elementary School, which enrolls children beyond the immediate attendance boundary. Robbie now attends our neighborhood high school, Washington-Lee, and our son Zack attends our neighborhood middle school, Swanson.
In the case of Arlington Traditional School, I am committed to ATS's current program and its Countywide enrollment availability, while advocating dialogue for a stronger relationship between ATS and the surrounding neighborhood. (My wife and I, though we live near ATS, have chosen not to apply to that particular program for our children.)