Rome Board of Education
What background, expertise or experience makes you the best candidate for this seat? What drives you to want to serve on the board?
I have been a part of the success of the Rome City School System since 1989, when I became a board member. I’ve seen the educational progress over the years, including a higher graduation rate and SAT scores in the top 10 in Georgia. Elm Street Elementary and North Heights Elementary have also been identified as STEM schools.
As a continuing board member, I want to help improve student achievement in grades K-12 and increase the high school graduation rate of all subgroups. Also, I would like to be a part of enhancing communication with parents, staff and the community. The reason I want to serve again on the board is the same as it has always been. It’s all about the kids.
The mission of Rome City Schools is that every graduate of Rome High will be prepared for college or work. My 28 years in post-secondary education provides me with firsthand knowledge of what it means to be prepared for college, and I am the only candidate running who can offer this experience.
In addition, I have led workshops for middle and high school teachers that fostered best teaching practices, and I currently direct a program designed to encourage our most talented math and science students to become teachers. The board needs the perspective I can offer to support its mission.
For the past 30-plus years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to develop strong relationships with those who call Rome home, relationships that continue to grow and relationships whose roots are deeply tied to education as a journalist, a longterm substitute teacher, a volunteer, a member of numerous organizations and a parent.
I believe these relationships, coupled with two traits I adhere to, objectivity and transparency, will allow me to bring Rome even closer together with all seeking a common goal — giving our children all they need to have full and successful lives. This is what drives me to serve.
Describe the type of relationship Rome City Schools should have with Floyd County Schools, particularly as it relates to sharing resources between the FCS College and Career Academy and the planned CCA at Rome High?
The Rome City School System and the Floyd County School System have always had a good relationship with each other. There are several programs that include cooperation between the two. One of these is the yearly paper order. We get better pricing by ordering together. Floyd County takes the bids. Deliveries are divided between the two systems.
Another involves the transportation of students to the Georgia School for the Deaf. Rome City Schools Transportation Department works with the Floyd Transportation Department to divide students geographically for transportation.
The Floyd County CCA is an educational gem. It offers distinctive programs that are taught via firsthand learning experiences by teachers who have autonomy over their classrooms. As a result, students experience maximal learning and have fun doing it. I am deeply passionate that Rome High students should have the same opportunity. Ideally, Rome and Floyd County could combine their resources to provide a common CCA for all students so that community partners could serve both systems without duplicating effort. Combining the talents of both systems will also provide the best educational experience for our students.
The Rome and Floyd school systems has historically worked side-by-side to meet the educational needs of the community, a cooperation that underlines the strong ties the city and county residents have for each other. That relationship must continue and become even stronger, sharing the resources each have in every aspect of the total educational experience, especially when it comes to opening the door to new pathways students can take.
Even more, RCS must connect and share resources with the community’s other educational institutions of higher learning to better serve the children.
With more students coming into the system each year, what must be done to not only respond to the space constraints this poses but to continue to develop educational opportunities and resources for all students?
The completion of the new Main Elementary School, the sixth-grade STEAM Academy and the College and Career Academy will certainly address the space constraint issue, as well as establish opportunities for students to be exposed to all areas of education, from the elementary to the high school level, including career opportunities.
Classroom space will be a recurring issue for as long as Rome continues to thrive. The current plan to introduce a 6th grade academy at North Heights and to increase the size of Main Elementary to accommodate the populations of both schools is a clever solution toward addressing this issue. Moving forward, we need to anticipate additional growth by budgeting current dollars for future expansion.
We must also remain mindful of the importance of the many extracurricular programs that RCS has wisely maintained (band, chorus, theatre, ROTC, etc.) in order to ensure that the resources supporting these programs grows proportionally.
Over the years, Rome City Schools has provided the community with a tremendous recruiting tool when it comes to attracting businesses. With that success comes growth, including the continual rise in student enrollment.
The Rome BOE and the administration must make it a priority to remain ahead of the growth curve and have in place a vision and a plan to accommodate the changes that are certain to take place, including the need for more facilities and the need for more educators, who serve as the keystone to the educational building block.
What are your feelings about using an ELOST to fund capital projects? Do you support the projects in the proposal that is up for a vote this fall?
Besides ELOST to fund capital projects, we can make a proposal to the state under a different proposal for capital funding. We did that a month ago to help with the sixthgrade academy. I definitely support the projects in the proposal that will be voted on in November.
I have always supported the idea of raising money through ELOST because a significant proportion of the monies raised (approximately 35 percent) come from people outside the greater Rome community. It also reduces the need to raise property taxes on our own citizens. I’ve mentioned my support of a Rome CCA, but would like to study a shared program with the county.
I also believe a CCA should be considered separately from the proposed multipurpose athletic facility. Plans for both might be ready for a 2018 vote after the new board is seated. I wholeheartedly endorse the Main/North Heights proposals.
I have always supported ELOST projects and will continue to do so, as I feel the community needs to continually provide the resources and facilities that give our students and teachers every possible opportunity to be successful.
Still, it is vital for a school board to be transparent in seeking extensions of education taxes to make sure the community understands the importance of why all of the projects are needed to adhere to RCS’ sole mission — education.
Much has been said about increasing the number of early education centers for 3-year-olds, like the South Rome Early Learning Center at Anna K. Davie Elementary. Considering those who can’t read proficiently by fourth grade are more likely to be impoverished, on welfare or jailed as compared to students that can, in your opinion, what must be done to improve literacy levels and access to early education opportunities?
Some things are already being done to enhance literacy skills. Floyd hospital is partnering with Rome City Schools by giving one kids book to each family after their baby is born. Each family will receive one book for their child for the next five years. This will give the child a head start on being introduced to books.
Also, there are literacy coaches in the system who serve as resources for teachers and who provide support to help teachers improve reading instruction.
A future goal would be to have early learning centers for 3-year-olds in every Rome City elementary school.
The SRELC is perhaps the most inventive advance to early childhood education ever conceived through cooperation of a school district, college, and municipality. Its success has already been proven by the reading level of its first class who are now kindergarteners across the district.
The SRELC model should be replicated in other elementary schools across the district and fully supported by RCS budget and leadership. The extraordinary opportunities offered by these centers will support the core of the RCS mission during the most critical period of a child’s education.
I firmly believe helping children begin developing literacy skills during early childhood is a key to healthy development and success in their future schooling and lives. At home and in early childhood education settings, children learn important skills that can provide them with the cornerstones needed for the development of later academic skills.
Better — and a more wide-range access to early education skills throughout Rome — is the key to providing that foundation. Just as it is our hope that our children graduate and are prepared for college or work, sit must be our hope that our youngest children are prepared for their educational journey.