School Board Candidates Talking to Themselves

We’ve submitted a list of questions to each School Board candidate, but haven’t gotten any responses just yet. In the meantime, th

e Times-Dispatch has a feature to hold you over. They had better luck by having the candidates write their own questions. Let’s hope this isn’t their approach to improving standardized test scores. Here are the 5th district questions and answers:

Maurice Henderson

Q: How do you prepare a child for the world of the 21st century with 20th century tools?

A: We must zoom out and look at the school as a part of the neighborhood, city and nation. See the school day as one-third of the student’s daily learning experience. We must commit resources that build a nurturing environment where the school hours are the best part of great and caring days for our children. We all know that making this investment early and for all our children pays huge dividends throughout their lives for them and our nation. Our investment must foster the continued development of our education team from the science lab to the athletic fields, so that we are continually nourishing and building the character and self-esteem of our children.

As a society and as a city, we need to make strategic investments to prepare our young people to compete in the global marketplace in the decades to come. High on our list of tactical investments must be the expansion of our preschool support, so that our next generation does not wait for the strides that our city is seeking to make. All of our student must be science literate, and the vast majority will need the skills and experiences built in strong STEM and Career and Technical Education to depart college and career ready. We can not afford to fail our children.

Mamie Taylor

Q: How would you educate the public on the performance of city schools?

A: My plan is to educate my constituents through quarterly meetings. I will push for every school to have staff assigned solely to parental outreach. All of us are in this together, and it will take all of us working together to create change. I will use social media to communicate with our partners; engaging them through email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs; and of course they will always be able to reach me by phone. The message will be conveyed that the public has a huge responsibility to get involved and stay involved for the betterment of our schools and its’ students.