Special election, Celina Record

Celina ISD to hold special election Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Apr 15, 2016 0 The circumstances surrounding this year’s Celina ISD Board of Trustees election are a bit unusual. Because a pair of incumbents – Vice President Chuck Hansen in Place 1, and Choc Christopher in Place 2 – are running unopposed to retain their seats, the board voted at its March meeting to cancel its general election. However, a special election is scheduled for May 7 to determine who will fill Place 4. The seat currently belongs to Brooks Barr, who was appointed to fill the vacancy created in June 2015 when former board member Tim Looper resigned. Barr, who is running for a full three-year term, will face challenger Wendie Wigginton for the seat during the special election which will be held as part of Celina’s general election. Early voting begins April 25. In advance of the election, Barr and Wiggington weighed in with their thoughts about how Celina ISD should continue to grow and move ahead as the city’s population explodes, as well as how to handle other issues facing the district. Brooks Barr (incumbent) Length of residency in Celina ISD: 13 years Education: Sam Houston State University, teaching degree Career/Occupation: Formerly a teacher and coach for 12 years; currently a partner with Thrivent Financial. Family: Melissa (wife); Brittany, Taylor, Bradon (children) Celina ISD experience/involvement: Elected to CISD Board of Trustees, May 2006 Re-elected to board May 2009. Appointed to board June 2015. Other Community Involvement/Accomplishments: Teaches college and career class with wife at First Baptist Church of Celina. Officer of the Celina Quarterback Club Wendie Wigginton (challenger) Length of residency in Celina ISD: 1.5 years. Education: University of Phoenix, Bachelor’s degree in business; Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Juris Doctor (with an emphasis in international business) Career/Occupation: Lawyer/Compliance Manager for Raytheon Family: Corey (husband); Brandon (stepson), Trevor (son) Celina ISD experience/involvement: 2015-2016 Vice President of Fundraising, Celina ISD Primary PTA. Other Community Involvement/Accomplishments: Fundraising activities for national charities including St. Baldrick’s Foundation and National Multiple Sclerosis Society Initiated a neighborhood women’s group Why are you running/re-running for the Celina ISD Board of Trustees? Brooks Barr: I love the Celina schools, the kids and the staff. I want to give back. I want Celina to be the best, not just at athletics, but at everything. We have an opportunity to be like no other. We moved to Celina because of the atmosphere, not to change it but to be a part of it. I want to keep that alive. Wendie Wigginton: I am running for a position on the Celina ISD School Board because I believe that I bring a perspective in my professional and personal experience as a parent that allows me to address parent and educator concerns regarding growth and changing curriculums that allow me to partner with them to find solutions that best serve our children in the long term. What professional/volunteer/school experience makes (would make) you an effective school board member? BB: I have a degree in teaching and taught for many years. My wife is a teacher; my daughter, Taylor, wants to be a teacher and my son would like to teach and coach. It is in our blood, as they say. WW: I have extensive experience (professionally and personally) in planning and strategizing growth requirements to include space and personnel that I think can be utilized to insure we have in place the facilities and the teachers to maintain the quality level of education Celina is known for. I believe that the role of a board member is to be the speaker for his/her community. I participate in community activities and know that the parents have many different areas they are concerned with. What will growth due to the class size? What will the new influx of families associated with the big company moves to Texas mean to our little community? As we continue to grow, what facility changes are being planned to support that growth? Prior to relocating, we lived in a school system that was required to do more with less. I am familiar with the struggles that growing communities face, and I want to help Celina ISD and my community to plan our future growth requirements to continue to insure we are providing a top-notch education that will continue to attract families to Celina. Incumbent: What have you learned as a school board member that enables you to better serve the school district moving forward? BB: I have learned a lot. Serving for the five years I have, I have learned that it is truly a team concept. The board must work well together to get things done. We all have different thoughts and ideas, but we must work together to get CISD where it needs to be. I have lived in the community and know the community. We are ever-changing as far as numbers but we can keep what Celina is all about. Challenger: In what ways could the Celina ISD board better serve the school district/community, and how would you ensure that happens? WW: I believe that the best way that the CISD board can serve its community is to actively solicit participation of community members and parents. The key is transparency and active communication. I think that some of the best ideas about how we address areas of concern come from parents and our teachers/administrators. It is our job as a board to listen to their concerns and work with them to strategize ways to respond and fix those issues. We have a very diverse community, getting more so every day, with lots of life experiences. Engaging those parents and community members comes at no cost to the school district and represents an opportunity to involve them in improving the education we provide to their children. What are the main issues facing Celina ISD, and how should the school board/district go about addressing them? BB: Growth. We are in a growing phase. We will be building school after school in the years to come. I have served on the board when we built the high school and I learned from that. Along with growth in students will be growth in teachers. We need to be able to attract and retain high-quality teachers. We have made great strides in this by raising the pay level. WW: As our population continues to grow, I believe the biggest issue that faces the district is how we ensure that we have adequate facilities and resources to support the educational requirements of that growing community. To do that, we need to be proactively taking the information that the statisticians are saying represent what the community will look like in 2020 and even 2030 and be looking at plans to address that. As the diversity of our community continues to grow with the large companies moving into the area, we need to look at the resources we have in our schools to address the needs of all community members. As an example, we have a growing Spanish-speaking population. We need to begin looking at where we can make changes in how we communicate information to parents to insure that we address that non-English-speaking part of our population and other diverse members of our community. How could Celina ISD make better use of taxpayers’ money? BB: I will say that we have done a great job in the using of the monies we have. People have to understand that we don’t have any industry, mall or big stores to help in this area. We have rooftops, but that is not enough. We continue to look for ways to better spend what we have without the waste. CISD has been very wise with money and looks for ways to be even better. WW: The school district and the board have an obligation to use the taxpayers’ money in a way that benefits all students in the district. I believe that there is not enough emphasis by the district, and in turn by the schools, to address a multitude of special needs that exist in our student population. And those special needs are not only for those students with a medical diagnosis, but on the other end with students who are gifted that need additional curriculum or programs to help advance their potential long term. For example, the current curriculum is geared toward teaching to the STAAR test and doesn’t offer much room for flexibility for our teachers. The problem with that is when you have high- performing children, a lot of that basic information comes very easily. That means that for those students, the learning experience actually is lost and long term they have the potential to become disengaged. Continuing to introduce and expand in the areas of STEM (science, technology engineering and math), arts, music, drama, and job and life skills expands their long term opportunities. In what ways could the district better prepare students for higher education and careers? BB: Celina has done a great job so far. We have had students go to top-ranked schools around the country. Could we do better? Sure. Money becomes an issue at times. We could add some additional classes and some classes for those not wanting to pursue a higher education but get into a trade. Again, as we grow and have additional funds, these should begin to happen. WW: The most important thing we can do to better prepare students is to find a way to strengthen the connection between the classes they are taking in high school and their future careers. One way they can accomplish that is to offer students a wider variety of courses to prepare them for a career, whether it requires a degree or a professional certification. This ensures that we are making the students more employable graduates and more engaged students in the process. The school district also needs to look at ways to align the high school curriculum, graduation standards and assessments with the expectation of postsecondary educational institutions and employers. One way this can be accomplished is by partnering with local businesses who employ our graduates and look at educational opportunities that these employers believe would make them more attractive candidates. What level of importance do you place on the use of technology in the classroom? How should Celina ISD improve/implement technology in schools moving forward? BB: This is of utmost importance. Technology is all around us and used in just about every field. We have done a great job in this. All high school students have a laptop while all junior high students have IPads. Teachers are learning more ways to integrate technology in the classrooms. It will be very important that we stay ahead of the game and not try and play catch up. WW: I believe that technology is a powerful tool to help schools meet the needs of evermore-diverse student populations. It allows our teachers to use a variety of learning platforms to meet individual students’ academic strengths and weaknesses, while engaging their individual interests and motivations at their varying paces of learning. By offering it in the classroom, you close the gap between those children whose family financial situation doesn’t allow them access to such tools. Further, it allows all students the opportunity to become technologically skilled and literate in the software applications that are utilized in modern workplaces. I believe that CISD should engage in blended learning which allows teachers to use both the technology and traditional teaching methods to improve the learning opportunities for the students. Doing this will allow students to continue to engage with their teachers while utilizing the testing and preparation methods being seen in … post-secondary institutions across the nation. How would you rate community/parental involvement in Celina ISD, and how would you help improve it? BB: We have a lot of support out there. We need to continue to join with the city, communicate with each other. I would also invite everyone to a school board meeting to hear what is going on. We have a special place here and want everyone that moves here to join us in this journey. WW: I believe that parent/community involvement is not as strong as it could be. It is important to me that we find ways to increase parent participation, and the way that we do that is something I have implemented into my campaign strategy. I believe that we cannot engage parents and our community if we do not communicate openly and honestly with them. I have, as a part of my campaign, promised to talk to as many CISD parents as possible to gauge what they believe is important to their child’s success and where they believe we are failing to meet those needs. I believe by having that information I can work with other board members to look at ways we can use existing state/federal funds, if available, to meet those needs. What should the relationship be between student/classroom performance and teacher/staff compensation? BB: We have done a great job in the last few years evaluating our teachers at every level. I believe that teachers should be evaluated and held accountable for the job they are paid to do. There is an evaluation process put together to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher. If they cannot meet the criteria for this, then they should either be put on a plan or not asked to come back. So, if the question is should a teacher be paid more/less based on the outcome of the state testing, no. Should they be paid to do their job? Yes. WW: The research shows that some of the most important factors in student success are the teachers and teachers’ expertise. Teacher compensation has in the past been based on length of service and level of education attained. The more recent systems forge a collaborative effort between teachers and administrators that builds trust and honors initiative. To do that, the district must devise a fair and equitable compensation system that attracts talented teachers and retains them. Establishing financial incentives in addition to the base pay can create positive changes in teacher practices and student outcomes. Couple that with opportunities for professional development and a supportive organizational structure, and CISD will have engaged teachers and thus more productive students. What should be CISD’s top priorities in coming years for ensuring it keeps up with the growth? BB: We need to build. Having the experience from the building of the high school will help me in decisions on the future schools. We need to work close with the city to make sure we are building, or looking to build, in the right areas. We also need to continue to raise the compensation of the teachers. This will help us get those that will help lead us in the future and then retain them. WW: CISD must find ways to work collaboratively with the city, county and other entities to plan for our future growth and development as a community. To do that we have to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to understanding the impact of our growing community as it relates to our student population needs. It requires evaluating our current physical and human resources and making decisions about the long term needs. That can include analyzing what state and federal resources that might be available and working within our budgets to provide as stable an environment as we can for our students. It will certainly include acquiring new or upgrading our existing school sites while attracting and retaining the right teachers to insure we are providing a quality education to our growing population of students. As a board member we have the ultimate responsibility of insuring we provide a school district that meets the needs of all students, and that would be my primary goal if elected.