ELISSA MALESPINA QUESTIONNAIRE



Name: Elissa Malespina

Town: South Orange

Years living in district: 20

Children in district: 1

Occupation: Educator



Why do you want to be on the school board?

I recently had the opportunity to listen to inspiring speaker and author Wes Moore speak at an educational conference I attended.  He challenged the members of the audience to advocate for children, asking, “Who do  you choose to stand up for when it isn’t easy, but you know it’s the right thing to do?”

My answer to that is simple.  I choose to stand up for the parent, students, and teachers of our district. I choose to stand for the underdog -- the underrepresented students who need that little bit of extra support or the parent who needs help navigating the educational maze.  Above all I want to use my knowledge and experience as an educator, a parent and active advocate to help our district and its students be the best they can be. It’s been a roller coaster ride the last few years, and by changing the culture and climate on the board, in our administration and in our schools, we can allow our schools and all the talented students we are charged with educating to truly shine.    



What is your top priority for the district?

So much can be solved if we address our district’s communication shortfalls.  These shortfalls are most evident between the district and parents, but communication needs to improve throughout the system.  As our district attempts to address its issues, it often looks to reinvent the wheel or slap a shiny coat of paint over the problem rather than address the real underlying issue. No parent should ever have to write emails that go unanswered or spend hours trying to navigate the district’s phone system and website to reach a teacher or administrator. No parent, community member, or educator should ever have to go to a board meeting and speak their mind during the “public speaks” portion only to get no response from administration or board of education members.  We need to stop talking around the same issues over and over again and tackle them head on.  We need to get back to a place where we can apply common sense to decisions rather than over analyzing data.  We need to have the courage to ask tough questions and make bold moves but also be willing to identify when those moves are wrong and make an adjustment.  In the not too distant past, our schools were at the top of their game.  I believe we can get back to that place if we follow these three Cs - communication, common sense and courage.



How would you cut costs without cutting education? -

The board needs to make a real effort to identify areas where our schools and our towns can generate across-the-board savings for fixed costs such as employee benefits and facility maintenance. NJPAC, SOPAC and Seton Hall University are also widely untapped resources that if courted could benefit our students, teachers and parents greatly.  Next, our out-of-district costs for educating students with special needs are astronomical and our goal needs to be keeping as many students in district as possible while providing them with equal or better services than they are receiving elsewhere.  Finally, we need to be active beyond South Orange and Maplewood.  We must become leading advocates at the state level to help restore funding and level the playing field for districts like ours that feel the budget crunch the most.  It’s an uphill battle, but we’ll never get anywhere if we are reactive rather than proactive on this issue.  



What is your opinion of Dr. John Ramos and did you support his hiring?

I am cautiously optimistic. It is very early to judge, but I have been happy with some of the things I am hearing Dr. Ramos say. I like his focus on getting back to the basics - something I have been advocating for- and I am very happy that communicating more effectively with parents seems to be a real priority.

Based on his previous record, I was not initially in favor of hiring Dr. Ramos and expressed my concerns before the Board during public comments. Many of my issues were directed at the board which did not conduct an open and transparent search as it had promised. I did not and still do not feel that all stakeholders were involved in the process like they should have been. Hiring a superintendent is one of the most important jobs that the Board of Education has. It was a great opportunity to unite the community in the decision making process but unfortunately that did not happen.  

That said, I am excited to have him as part of the SOMSD community and look forward to working with him and seeing what we can accomplish together.  



How will you improve district communications with residents and parents?

This is an area where I can really make a difference.  I am considered a leading expert in the field and have consulted with districts nationwide on ways to improve their communication.  Make no mistake -- our district has been abysmal at this recently.  What’s frustrating is that our district does a poor job on all fronts, whether it’s fostering open dialog and transparency about district programs, returning phone calls and emails in a timely manner or timely promoting the great things that happen every day in all of our schools.  We’ve been too focused on protecting the message rather than sharing it and being reactive instead of proactive.  

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet to fix everything.  Although I’m usually very supportive of tech initiatives, I’m not convinced that the Let’s Talk software Dr. Ramos supports to the tune of $19K per year is the answer.  Even putting the cost aside (although this money could do wonders to support programs in our district which routinely get their funding slashed), the software is only as good as its implementation.  If Dr. Ramos wants to get back to the basics, let’s focus on them first before we go down the road of another expensive project.  It’s not hard to return a phone call or e-mail within 48 hours.  Let’s start there.  The culture and climate in our district, especially at the administrative level needs to change.  Listening to Dr. Ramos, I’m happy that he shares my sentiment and that’s important because the change needs to start at the top.



Should the board increase to two meetings per month to avoid late actions?

This has been a huge part of SOMA 2015’s platform, and is something we’ve been advocating for.  If we are going to have a more open and transparent process, one meeting a month is simply not enough.  Some of these meetings can last upwards of 4 hours.  We can’t expect anyone to vote with a clear head on budget, policy or personnel matters at midnight after a full day’s work and over 4 hours on the dais.  Increasing the frequency of board meetings to twice a month will allow for more sound decision making, more timely action and most importantly, a better means of addressing issues and concerns before they spiral into bigger problems.  



What would you do to reduce the number of standardized tests for our students such as NJ ASK and PARCC?

It’s no secret that my husband and I joined many other parents and opted our son out of the PARCC exams this past year and will continue to do so.  My son also prepared a speech of his own and presented his thoughts to the board of education on this issue - something I was very proud of him for doing.  As an educator, and as a parent, I know that a student is way more than the score he or she gets on a standardized test.  This is an area where our education system is failing our students and by extension is failing our society.  By focusing so much on mandatory test prep, non-tested areas of the curricula suffer and our students are learning to regurgitate facts rather than think through how to attack a task or a problem. Colleges are starting to take note as well, giving less and less credence to these types of test scores.  We must put our district back on a path that focuses on educating the whole child and supports year to year growth rather than focusing on an individual test score.



How would you change math placement in the upper grades?

Math placement remains as one of the last leveled areas of our curriculum and historically there has been little to no ability for students to move between levels.   There is a policy on the books to allow for exactly that called “contract for choice,” which is one of the many that have not been followed properly in recent years.  Even parents who are active advocates and students who advocate for themselves find navigating the math program confusing and the math program administrators to be unhelpful.  To make things even more interesting, the math program is one of the most racially segregated programs in our district. If we’re ever going to make a dent in the achievement gap, we must make access for all students a priority, and this starts with enforcing and publicizing the policies that are already on the books.  



There have been many complaints about team coaches being dismissed, how would you make sure fairness is exercised in such hirings and firings?



No child should ever feel unsafe or bullied in our schools by another student, educator or coach. When students and parents come before the board in droves, month after month to speak about a problem that is occurring, it is my job as a board member to engage the administration, understand all sides and make what I feel is the appropriate decision given the information I have.  It is equally important to when a coach is recommended for dismissal, to listen and engage in the same way.  Further, it is the board’s responsibility to create effective, enforceable policy that clearly dictates how incidents are investigated and how the results of those investigations are shared.  Although these types of issues are often complicated by privacy surrounding personnel proceedings, I believe that if we formulate, initiate and implement a solid system for dealing with such situations and can communicate that to the public, we will find ourselves in a much better place.  



Anything else you want to say?

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am very passionate about education. I’m excited to have the opportunity to bring my passion and drive to the board.  I have chosen to run with two equally passionate women who share my love for and my concerns about our district.  If elected, Marian Raab, Shannel Roberts and I will work hard to build our schools back to their former glory and to provide a safe, challenging environment for ALL students.  

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