DORCAS LIND QUESTIONNAIRE



Name: Dorcas Lind

Town: Maplewood

Years living in district: 12

Children in district: 2

Occupation: President &Founder of Diversity Health Communications, LLC



Why do you want to be on the school board?


The talent, vision, and passion of parents and educators in the SOMSD is powerful and far reaching. Our public schools and associated communities have the potential to serve as a role model of academic excellence for the state and the country. I am prepared to contribute my professional and personal skills to support the district enter a new era, and thrive under the leadership of our new superintendent, Dr. John Ramos, who encourages all of us to think about how to prepare for a world yet unimagined.

Growing up in NYC, I attended public elementary schools and experienced significant barriers to my academic growth and achievement. In the fifth grade, I was fortunate to have an Assistant Principal recognize my potential and guide my journey into a prestigious private school which allowed me to blossom and engage on a dynamic and rewarding educational journey. While I am deeply grateful for this experience, I have always held a fundamental belief that the young people of our nation should not all have to be “lucky” or “in the right place at the right time” to receive a stellar education.

I chose to become part of the Maplewood/South Orange community because of its diverse and inclusive heritage, and am committed to investing time and resources to help contribute to a high quality, effective, and responsive public school district that meets the academic and developmental needs of all students in our two villages.


What is your top priority for the district?


Our district has been plagued with various issues around access and equity. When there are districtwide dynamics that inhibit our students from reaching their fullest potential, it hurts all of the children in our community. We also struggle with incomplete, ineffective, and sometime contradictory communications. Different schools have their own processes and approaches to engage parents and guardians in the everyday functions and activities of the school. However, critical pieces of information, including but not limited to budget details, district and school level policies around special education and placement, and decisions around testing and leveling procedures and measurement, are often complex and buried within district documents that are inaccessible to parents who want and need basic and clear information to support informed decisions on behalf of their children. Given this context, my priorities for the district include:

1.    Effectively shepherding implementation of Superintendent Ramos’ Access and Equity policy across all schools in the district

2.    Identifying a fiscal approach that will address the $20 million deficit without diminishing quality education in the classroom, in the art studio, in the field, or on the stage.

3.    Delineating a plan for how the district will manage the 20% increase over the past 10 years in elementary school enrollment which serves as the development pipeline for our two middle schools and CHS

4.    Identifying a clear path forward for Seth Boyden and district plans for redistricting

5.    Establishing a district wide master communications plan to ensure transparency, accuracy, timeliness and access to all relevant district news across and within district schools.



How would you cut costs without cutting education?


The first step in cutting costs is to have a clear understanding of what they are and how they add value to overall learning in the district. Clarity of budget allocations and spending will enable the board to identify where costs can be saved, where there is over spending, and where there are gaps to be filled. One of the ways to enhance learning is to effectively utilize resources that already exist in the district. This is especially important as the district struggles to address a daunting $20 million deficit. There are a few opportunities for cutting cost without jeopardizing learning:

1.    One approach to increasing learning and increasing opportunities for greater educational access is by identifying, hiring and cultivating teachers with dual certification. Teachers who can be nibble and move fluidly between language arts and special education, for example, will offer greater mastery of the skills needed to manage inclusion classes and reduce the need for additional training and supplemental professional development classes

2.    Along these dual-certification lines, athletic coaches have tremendous influence over students. There should be support for content teachers to become coaches or co-coaches within the district. For example, some districts in the tristate area support content teachers from math, science, and language arts to obtain certification in coaching sports as a supplement to their academic subject certification. Such an approach supports the belief and evidence that students are engaged and succeed in school when they experience connection and relationships with teachers and coaches who follow them from the classroom into the field.

3.    External consultants have been a tremendous drain on district resources and do not always deliver the “solutions” that lead to the best results within the district. These range from curriculum and training consultants to legal consultants hired to address issues of access and equity that we fundamentally should be getting right without their intervention simply by following the law. There are numerous talented and qualified specialist and administrative leaders already within the district who, in collaboration with the Superintendent and the board, can identify issues and develop informed action plans to address and solve district wide problems.



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


The hiring of Dr. John Ramos was the right and wise decision for the district. In his short time as superintendent, Dr. Ramos has astutely observed that our district spends a lot of time reacting to issues which can often be the cause of conflict and adversarial exchange. I share his vision of working in a proactive vs. reactive mode in order to allow for purposeful planning and execution. Ramos’ focus on service and fostering a culture of learning vs. a culture of schooling aligns with my personal beliefs about how education should be managed. Specifically, I support Ramos’ view that the district must:

·       Agree on core competencies and how they are measured

·       Effectively assess what outcomes matter most

·       Identify mandates tied to funding and those that are more flexible

·       Ensure that all students are being challenged and engaged in order for them to reach their fullest potential

·       Ensure teachers across the district have what is needed to effectively engage students in learning that leads to new ways of thinking and increased innovation in and out of the classroom



How will you improve district communications with residents and parents?


Recent efforts to improve communications from the district have been encouraging. I’ve spoken with families throughout the two Villages and many have experienced positive uptake of the Let’s Talk online tool developed to solicit feedback and offer key stakeholders a place to express ideas, insights, complaints, and concerns about what’s not working, or compliments about things the district is getting right.

The larger issue I have observed is the lack of a master communications plan that outlines the how, who, when and why (or why not) the district communicates about critical issues. Currently, communications are piecemeal, with traditional letters, emails, web posts and mobile texts used to communicate everything from the resolution of the civil rights investigation to whether or not there will be a school closing due to inclement weather. Parents do not have a clear understanding of which communications are district or school level, and PTA/PTO organizations deliver communications inconsistently across schools in the district. One of my main objectives, if elected to the board, would be to drive development of a master communications plan that focuses on:

·       Increasing transparency and access to all district policies

·       Establishing and supporting consistency and timeliness in district responses to community inquiries

·       Standardizing district communications across issues and topics

·       Creating templates and procedures for school level communications to reduce inconsistencies in how different sets of parents receive information based on which school their child attends

·       Identifying key channels to disseminate information more aligned with when and how parents need to receive it

·       Eliminating the black hole where fundamental questions about logistics, disparities and challenges such as:

o   “My child has an IEP but continues to receive limited intervention or accommodation even after I have spoken to the teacher and the principal several times.”

o   “It’s 90 degrees in my child’s classroom, when will they install an air conditioner?”

o    “There have been 3 fender benders during drop-off in the past two months. When will there be traffic support and real interventions for better school drop off/pick up plans?”

o   “My child participated in an intensive summer program, worked with a tutor and is ready to try a more challenging math class, how can he (we) make this happen?”

…do not get lost in the system, fueling further frustration and hostility across the district.



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


If I am elected to the board, I would first assess the current processes and procedures that are in place to determine the underlying causes for late actions that have occurred. There are several critical questions that need to be addressed. For example:

·       Why has the once-per-month schedule been inadequate? Are there current behaviors or dynamics within the board that are hindering effective collaboration and decision-making?

·       Is access to critical information cause for delays in decision-making?

·       Is the board resourced properly as far as a divide and conquer approach in order to present, assess, debate and act upon issues in a timely fashion?

·       What are the consequences for late actions?

After assessing the context in which late actions have occurred, I would then suggest moving to a pre-read scenario where all board members have increased opportunity to review topics and presentations in order to best utilize discussion and decision making time during monthly meetings. If late actions continue to occur, I would support a reevaluation of the board schedule.



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

With respect to testing, the role of the board should be to identify those mandates that are tied to funding, and help clarify “mandates” that are more flexible and have lesser impact on allocation of district resources.  In collaboration with the Superintendent and school leaders, the board should lead the effort in determining the appropriate amount and level of testing and assessments in which students should participate, with the least amount of time and resources spent on teaching to – and preparing for – unnecessary, unproductive and sometimes harmful testing.


How would you change math placement in the upper grades?


A student’s ability to perform and excel in mathematics should not be contingent upon how she tested twice during 5th grade and middle school. For the majority of students, excessive standardized testing creates stress and anxiety that distracts from deeper learning and serves as a disincentive to pursue further topic exploration. This rigid approach rewards early and skilled test takers and punishes a wide range of students including those who may not have reached their potential early on or have limited access to support that would enable them to be better test takers. I would actively work with the board to identify alternate approaches to math placement that do not follow the rigid leveling system that categorizes students well before they have the maturity, opportunity, or access to fully realize their math potential.



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


Athletic coaches in the high school setting play a critical role in the educational experience of many of our students in the district. Coaches serve as models for values and behaviors and can often be the gateway to further education and increased participation in organized, collegiate sports. Whenever there is a complaint about the manner in which a coach is conducting him or herself, steps should be taken to investigate the complaint through internal and external means in order to ensure all sides of the matter have been sufficiently vetted. It is absolutely essential that student’s experiences must be acknowledged and respected AND that individual coaches do not experience character assassination while open investigations are underway.

Recent policy attempts to address differences in coaching “styles” has caused much frustration and clouded the issue of appropriate and legal behavior. The board must serve as a fair and neutral entity and make hiring decisions based on indisputable evidence of exceptional coaching skills, and a track record of integrity – and firing decisions based on the absence of these factors. If elected to the board, I would encourage the most rigorous assessment of both students and coach’s actions and behaviors to determine if and when a coach has crossed the line, and whether specific intervention is required. 

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