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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