Here’s what Fort Mill school board candidates had to say on why they’re ready to lead
A stage full of candidates have made their cases for why they deserve an opportunity to lead the Fort Mill School District.
A candidate forum hosted by the Fort Mill School District Teacher Forum brought together 11 of the 12 at-large candidates vying on the Nov. 8 ballot to fill four seats. Nichell Newton was sick and unable to attend but provided a video introduction.
Here is a highlight of candidate responses ranging from teacher pay and recruitment to community partnership and and innovative ideas for improvement.
Click here to see a longer video of the forum.
Wayne Bouldin
Bouldin said an area where Fort Mill can improve, despite leading the state in a variety of academic areas, is the achievement gap between higher and lower student achievement.
“Once you’re at the top, the margin is very small and there’s not much room to move,” Bouldin said. “And it is hard to move that needle. That doesn’t mean the needle cannot move, and that you should not try to move that needle.”
Bouldin said teachers should have significant input on district decisions that impact classrooms.
“They are the trained professionals,” Bouldin said. “They are who we rely upon. It also plays into the teacher recruitment and retention piece of the pie. If they feel valued by giving their input, the retention piece is partially addressed.”
The current state funding model, Bouldin said, makes it a constant challenge in Fort Mill to plan for and serve growth. The model puts strain on taxpayers, largely the business community.
“We do this every year, all the time,” Bouldin said. “And it is a struggle...It does not ever accommodate growth, which our district is hit with every year.”
Michele Branning
Branning said key to student success is individualized instruction, based not only on state or national standardized tests but also on daily classroom testing.
“We are analyzing that data by a student on student case,” Branning said. “Clustering students together that maybe need something that’s remediated.”
In eight years on the board there have been changes to sick and personal days, banked sick time, teacher coaching and team approaches that help with teacher retention.
“We’ve made great strides where benefits for teachers are concerned,” Branning said.
Branning said she’s been an advocate for school funding and related issues for eight years, up to the federal level.
“They know me when I walk on campus,” Branning said. “They know me when I walk in the capital.”
Connie Cullen
Cullen said teachers need more time to have true work schedules and parents, retired teachers or aids should be used to lighten the load.
“Considering that half of our teachers are burnt out,” Cullen said, “we desperately need to look outside the box.”
Cullen would focus on aids in classrooms and other support of current teachers ahead of new programs.
“Our new curriculum sometimes means new staff, and unfortunately that pay usually comes before our teacher pay, which I’m not for,” Cullen said.
Cullen said parents helping in classrooms, or even higher performing students in classrooms assisting peers, could help bridge performance gaps.
“They could actually come in and be tutors for their classmates,” Cullen said. “Because that would actually allow them to understand students that may be not at their level.”
Kevin Glover
Glover said district success thus far comes from an ability to hire and retain high-quality teachers. Teachers should be able to focus on their classrooms.
“Take away administrative burdens and other barriers to teaching, and let our teachers focus on why they got into teaching in the first place,” Glover said.
Glover said the district needs to rethink the entire educational approach, given changes in technology and the challenge to improve when district scores already are high. But the constant, Glover said, is a need for high-quality teachers and to pay them what they’re worth.
“We’re not going to get to the next level of performance by doing the same things,” Glover said. “We’re going to need to shake the box a little.”
Glover said testing educational approaches in different classrooms could help improve student outcomes by improving the process for everyone. Logic, time management, critical thinking and similar skills may be more relevant that before in a high-tech society.
“You have to innovate your way out of it,” Glover said.
Joe Helms
Helms said teachers need to know they’re valued, and he wants to meet them at a personal level to find out their needs. His wife taught, which influences his perspective.
“I know that teacher stress comes home,” Helms said. “I know you’re doing more than just during the school day. It’s your whole evening. It’s emails, it’s the whole thing.
Changes to support growth must include work, Helms said, to change the state tax setup that funds schools.
“This is absolutely putting way too much of a tax burden solely on the back of small business,” Helms said.
The school board should bring different abilities and perspectives together for a common purpose, Helms said.
“It really works a body,” Helms said. “So if you can unify a body to work together in one motion, you’re going to be effective.”
Brandi Jansen
On whether teachers should have more input on district decisions, Jansen said no one stakeholder in the equation should be held over another but teachers are an important part of it.
“They absolutely should have input in their profession. That’s why we hire them. They’re multi-degreed. We have to trust them to teach our children. Now, they’re part of a team.”
Special services would be one area off limits to budget cuts, Jansen said.
“That’s generally the first place either money is taken from or not given to,” Jansen said.
Jansen pointed to school level events where students of varying backgrounds were not only accepted but celebrated, as a model of what the district at large should be.
“We all have a lot of common ground,” Jansen said.
Desareta Jones
Jones said courses that promote technology are important, but also teacher development to support them. Jones said improved communication at the district level is key, too.
“We’re an awesome district,” Jones said. “There are some things that we need to improve on. There are communication barriers, and we absolutely need to work on those.”
Jones said the district should trust teachers to make or help make a host of decisions.
“I would support teacher input involving curriculum,” Jones said. “If the teachers are the ones that are going to have to teach the courses, and if they’re educated, and these are the individuals that we are trusting, then I think it only makes sense that to a degree they should have input on what the curriculum looks like.”
Communication with teachers also is important, Jones said, in funding crunch decisions.
“If there’s something that can be trimmed, the teachers would know because they’re on the front line. They would know better than anyone else.”
Rachele Julian
Julian said the prominent place Fort Mill schools have in state rankings should be an ongoing effort.
“I’m reluctant to say Fort Mill is No. 1 because I feel like this is a continuous improvement,” Julian said. “We can always to better. We can always be better.”
Julian is a big advocate trade school education. Julian said teacher recruitment is paramount.
“We need to absolutely do a great job at recruiting and finding out the techniques, and where we can go to recruit the best, and keep them,” Julian said.
Budgeting is a difficult topic now, Julian said, with recession and its potential impact on the district.
“Focus on the forecasting and budgeting without putting undue hardship on the taxpayers,” Julian said. “We have to really do an assessment to figure out what is needed and where, and what we can juggle.”
Eric Mann
Student success, Mann said, requires a team of teachers, administrators, board members, student and more. Plans should meet students where they area, Mann said.
“Not every student wants to go to college,” Mann said. “Some students may want to go to trade schools. Some students want to go to military, and if you’re like me you want to go to a military college.”
Mann said the district should look to promote its best teachers into the highest paying jobs, find ways to retain teachers and communicate openly with them.
“You bring the teacher to the table so we understand what impacts them right away, so we’re able to adjust that and make development opportunities along the way,” Mann said.
Mann said his background in insurance includes work with school districts, and risk assessment is key to maintaining a strong financial record for the district.
Celia McCarter
McCarter said students perform best when class sizes are small, and the 89% of the district’s $197 million budget spent on personnel reflects that commitment.
“Everything we do in the Fort Mill School District is based off the funding,” McCarter said. “And we have been very key in keeping our student-teacher ratio low. Every decision we make starts with that, because that is our secret sauce.”
Asked how the district could make up funding for needs beyond the budget, McCarter said that one line item is off limits due to class size impact.
“I would never, unequivocally ever, cut classroom teachers,” McCarter said.
Technology is an ongoing need, but McCarter said needs vary considerably by age of student, classes taken in upper grades or even internet access at home. The district did well, she said, addressing internet access during COVID-19.
“Going forward, that’s something we need to consider,” McCarter said.
Lipi Pratt
Pratt said it’s simple math that smaller classes sizes mean more attention to each student, and she enjoyed teaching when classes were small. But she and colleagues worked to give students a genuine experience when classes were larger, too. Smaller class sizes have to be a product of funding.
“Yes I support it,” Pratt said, “but no I don’t think I can pull money out of thin air.”
Pratt’s selection as district teacher of the year almost a decade ago opened her eyes to teacher advocacy.
“Advocating and hearing the personal stories is what it takes to show people what we need and why we need it,” Pratt said.
An initiative that would have lots of promise, Pratt said, is a community mentorship program.
“So that all kinds of kids could see grown people who were like them, that have moved forward in life and been successful maybe in spite of or because of their challenges,” Pratt said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2022 at 8:53 AM.
