Our children are the most important and precious gift we are given. Our children are the future. What we do for our children's education matters.
We need a school system that provides a strong education that values excellence in reading, writing, math, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills.
Our children need safe schools. Every child deserves to be safe when they are at school. For me, this means:
We have an SRO at every school.
It also means that we are tougher on discipline to hold our students accountable, but also to protect other students in the classroom.
This also means that children with cell phones aren't using them to video or record their peers. These things then get shared widely with peers and on social media. School should be a place where it is safe to make a mistake and not live in embarrassment while your moment gets passed around on social media or through text.
Safe schools mean that all children are treated with dignity and respect.
Our children need smaller class sizes. I have taught various class sizes. From 13 students to 24, and everything in between, the quality of education improves as class sizes go down, no matter how excellent the teacher.
Our children need more literacy assistants, and more differentiation for students of all abilities. Currently we have literacy assistants for Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. Our 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms should also have equal time with a literacy assistant. I propose that the part-time literacy assistants be shared among classroom teachers in grades K-3, this is a no-cost solution for literacy.
We need special support for students who don't qualify for special education services, but can have special learning needs beyond what the classroom teacher can provide. These students may get additional reading support from the reading specialist, but there isn't additional support for writing, math, and other content areas. Small class sizes would certainly help with this.
We should promote and celebrate trade-bound students as much as we celebrate the college bound students. Massanutten Technical Center is a phenomenal program for ALL students who are looking for their work passion. Many successful careers come from the training students receive at MTC and we need to protect and grow this program.
A wide variety of electives in middle and high school are needed. The core curricular requirements are rarely the topics that interest students. Our children have varied interests, and schools should provide opportunities to explore a variety of topics.