RISD candidate forum at LHUMC

Six candidates vying for two spots on the Richardson ISD school board answered questions last Thursday at Lake Highlands United Methodist Church in a forum moderated by Dallas City Councilman Adam McGough. Also watching from the audience were former trustees Luke Davis and Lanet Greenhaw and current trustees Justin Bono (running unopposed in the Place 6 race), Eron Linn and Jean Bono.

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I posted a few of the candidate answers here Friday morning, and here are a few more – especially those in which they differentiated themselves from their rivals.

Question: What is the role of trustees in community engagement?

“Trustees are a vital link to the community and community engagement is one of our most important jobs,” answered incumbent Dr. Kristin Kuhne. “It has to do with face-to-face meetings and being responsive when the community comes to you with concerns. I’ve been to hundreds of meetings and attended hundreds of events. I’ve answered hundreds of emails, phone calls and texts.” She emphasized working in a more strategic way to seek citizen input “on the front end.”

“I’ve observed numerous community engagement sessions,” said challenger Lynn Davenport, “and what I’d like to see more of is meaningful community engagement. An example is when our freshman center in Lake Highlands was considered for an early college high school. We had many meetings, and our former superintendent led those. The district does a good job of getting the word out, but in the end they end up doing what they wanted to do to begin with. The trustees might engage with the audience, but in the end they do what they want to do, whether that’s what the community wants or not. So I want community engagement that’s citizen led.”

Question: How would you improve teacher retention?

“I lead a job ministry and I’ve been talking with teachers,” said Davenport. “I’ve been listening to feedback from them and I’ve been asking ‘what is it about the job culture?’ The feedback I’ve been getting is that there’s a culture of fear – not on every campus, and some of it is anecdotal – but teachers want to teach. Let the teachers teach. How do we do that? We don’t waste their time on meaningless professional development. It has to be something they can use in the classroom. Don’t waste their time with excessive meetings that take them out of the classroom.”

“Teacher retention is a problem in RISD,” said Kuhne. “It’s something that I brought up in my first campaign. But I will tell you that RISD is not alone in this. I travel and I work with school districts all over this state. This is a problem that all school districts are facing – it’s a national trend and a state trend. 7% of teachers leaving are baby boomers retiring, 3% are being promoted internally. We have plans and we are very focused on being an employer of choice. Three years ago we put a Retention Task Force together and we are listening to teachers about what they wanted – career pathways to stay in the classroom. We put compensation plans in place so that they can be recognized for being a master teacher, department chair or specialist. That will incentivize teachers to stay in the classroom.”

Question: Given the numerous languages spoken and the socio-economic diversity in RISD, how will you represent all of the students and parents of RISD?

“This is a question that hits home for me,” said Ben Prado. “My parents didn’t speak English well when I was growing up and I remember they weren’t as engaged as I wanted them to be. There’s an increasingly changing demographic in RISD, where the majority of students are not Caucasian, but Hispanic. No one on the board is Hispanic. I think we need fair representation.” RISD needs to find ways to reach out to all of these communities, not just English and Spanish-speakers, continued Prado, so that all feel included and engaged.

“Several years ago,” said Karen Clardy, “Lake Highlands High School started Multi-Cultural Night because we thought we were missing parents who did not speak the English language and we wanted them to be involved. We had great turnout, and every year it gets larger. We reached out to these kids who work hard and want to be part of the school. We need to communicate.”

“In [my wife] Julie’s 2nd grade classroom at Forestridge Elementary there were 7 languages spoken,” said Joseph Armstrong.  “Currently in her Dobie classroom a large majority speak English as a second language. Specifically I would start at the elementary level. By the time we get to the high school level, we’ve already failed.”

“I’ve travelled the world and I’ve seen these cultural differences,” answered Eric Eager. “You have to reach out to the community, but you have to be the first one to reach out. You have to ask questions and listen. We want to make sure they take advantage of the many opportunities we have, and one way is to reach out and include them.”

Queston: If we were to start from scratch, what are the 3 things you would consider when redrawing boundary lines?

Before the district makes a decision for residents, said Prado, RISD needs to hire a consulting firm to survey its citizens and find out what they value most in neighborhood schools.

Eager agreed that community involvement was needed to make a collective decision, especially since the choices will have “multigenerational impact.”

Clardy also agreed but urged caution, since people “moved into a house expecting their child to go to that school across the street.”

Armstrong was unanimous in advocating community input but said RISD needs to be proactive, rather than reactive as they have been, to population growth.

The RISD school board election will be held Saturday, May 6. Early voting begins April 24.