Allister’s Listening Tour
As part of his campaign, Allister has been listening to the perspectives and experiences of hundreds of students, parents, and educators. Here is a round-up of some of the perspectives that Allister has been learning from -- perspectives that he will work to amplify as a member of the DC State Board of Education:
"Literacy is connected to a lot of other systemic issues, like book deserts. Books are a luxury item, they shouldn't be, but they are. If I were the parent of a child... I don't want to have to make the choice between buying a $15 children's book or getting dinner."
Lacey Dunham, Writers in Schools Director at the PEN/Faulkner Foundation
"In my condo building, I know people who have moved away because they don't want to send their kids to the schools here. What changes do we need to make to our education system if we want them to stay?"
Lauren D., Ward 2 Resident
"As President of the Maryland State Board of Education, I was the MC for intellectual discourse. Instead of pushing specific ideas forward, I brought in subject-matter experts to make sure that all the appropriate voices were heard and addressing the same problem to be solved on an inter-disciplinary basis. Too often, we talk about silo-ed education issues one at a time as if they are not all interconnected."
James DeGraffenreidt, President of the Maryland State Board of Education
"The emphasis on testing is regrettable. It has been regrettable for 20-odd years, and I'm glad my kids graduated before we began to spend so much time focusing on test prep."
Charlie Ellis, Ward 2 Resident
"What makes the state board important is that we are the direct conduit for constituent voice for decision-making. People are hungry for an agency that is able to hear them, and raise their voices."
Emily Gasoi, DC State Board of Education (Ward 1 Representative)
"You have to see public schools in the same way we see post offices and libraries. But in this town, we see our schools as a thing that can be monetized."
Valerie Jablow, Parent Advocate and Blogger
"The DCPS food service contract is up for renewal after this coming school year. DCPS Food and Nutrition Services is in the process of developing a new RFP for food service vendors. Parents across the city have called for healthier school breakfasts, more scratch cooking, strong nutrition education programming, and improved sourcing of ingredients. It's critical that the vendors chosen are able to respond to these requests."
Lea Howe, Director of School Food Initiatives at DC Greens
"I've been wondering with this pandemic -- if mom and dad have lost their jobs, will there be more people who can't afford the monthly Internet? One of the issues is that there just isn't good data on the need right now. The latest data is from the American Community Survey 2017 -- the data that they collected last school year wasn't good -- some parents were unreachable, some parents weren't asked. Every school did their own survey."
Grace Hu, DCPS Parent Advocate and Co-Leader of Digital Equity in DC Education
"What parents are nervous about is that when we say 'distance learning' they think it will be like it was in the spring. For obvious reasons, spring was extremely challenging with schools facing an unprecedented situation as we shut down. Kids had a Zoom check-in, maybe daily, maybe weekly, depending on the teacher. Every morning we would get an e-mail of here's what your kids need to do today, and most often, kids were off on their own. I have older kids who can read and use computers so we did OK, but for kids who can't read or aren't self-motivated or had no access to technology devices...."
Lucie LeBlois, President of the PTO at Stoddert Elementary School
“From a school social worker's perspective, I have seen how stress and trauma can cause kids to show up to school on edge. Often one dysregulated student may detract from an entire classroom of children trying to learn. I believe there should be a counselor in every school.”
Margo McNickle, Ward 2 Resident
“We need to push the city to make sure every student has a baseline of support. If we can collectively insist that every student has access to baseline support – whether that's technology, social services, mental health services etc. — we ensure a floor that supports every student."
Melody Molinoff, Parent Advocate and Co-Leader of Digital Equity in DC Education
"I've never met a parent who doesn't want their kids to be safe. But remember that safety means a lot of different things: what safety means for some families in one ward, versus what safety means for families and students coming from another ward, versus what safety means for students -- it's important that we don't lump 'safety' into a catch-all."
Abigail Paulsen, Co-President of the PTA at Hardy Middle School