Nancy Cox for School Board

Greetings!

First, thank you to all of you who supported me in my bid to serve the Durham community as a School Board member. Thank also to my fellow candidates – it is not easy to put yourself up for the challenges of running for an elected office and I respect you for your commitment to serve. Finally, thank you family; we are a great team.

I would like to use this final post to share several specific goals for which I look forward to your feedback and support:

-Reconvene or establish a new group, representing all key stakeholder groups, to continue to examine the School Budget prior to the start of the new school year. I would like to suggest Mr. Steven Unruhe, teacher at Riverside, as a chair or co-chair. A key goal of this group will be to create Budget Topics that each School Improvement Team, and other representative groups at our schools, such as PTA Boards, should discuss, each month, via the leadership of the Principal. This way, when January rolls around, many more folks will have a working knowledge of the budget and know how to proceed to develop the new budget.

-Using leaders in the community, who have prior experience with providing training for members of the School Improvement team, as well as using other resources, such as NCPTA’s manual on the role of SIT members, and the free resources offered by the NCDPI – provide comprehensive training for members of School Improvement Teams at the beginning of the School year.

-Encourage the School Improvement Teams to invite community representatives, to serve on the SIT as either voting members or as advisors, from the business, non-profit and faith sectors.

-Include an elected student representative to the SBDM at the high school level.

-Create SIT topics that should be discussed each month to insure that the work of the SIT are being done. Mandate that minutes be made public and reviewed by upper administration and the Board as part of paperwork required with School Improvement Plans. This will increase the role of key stakeholders in decision making at the school level and from the bottom up to the district level.

-Create a task force to put into action our Policy on Family and Community Engagement. Look to the model provided by the National PTA via the work of Joyce Epstein and at Johns Hopkins University.

-Re-invigorate, tighten-up, and make public the work of the state mandated, Raising Achievement, Closing the Gap committee.

-Whatever structure is used to execute the work of the Board, for example, the current work committees: Administrative, Curriculum and Support Services, move the meeting time to either early in the am or after 5pm. Advertise the agendas further in advance to allow the public to prepare to participate. Tighten up rules regarding community participation at these meetings. Make the minutes easier to access on the website and consider a subscription email for those who would like to receive both the agenda and minutes. Consider broadcasting these meetings live as is done for the monthly Board meeting.

-Consider a subscription email for those who would like to receive the agenda and handouts for Monthly Board meetings in advance of the meetings.

-Consider allowing public comment, via submitted emails, both prior to the Board and work meetings, and even during these meetings, but in time for scheduled public comment.

-Consider the formation of, and active participation in decision making, of a student advisory council.

-Consider the formation of a parent advisory council with representation by the Council of PTAs.

-Consider a quarterly meeting of the leadership of each of the current advisory councils, Business, Faith, RACG/Community/non-profits, Principals, Teacher Council and invite parent leadership, as well as representatives from our two Durham universities, city and county leaders, and students, so that areas of collaboration and support can be identified and implemented.

-Consider new models of engagement of the community when considering new policies, and programs, and to discuss topics such as capital improvements and budget creating, to replace the current model of “leadership” on the stage, and community in the audience. Consider whether it may be time to move beyond the Kitchen Table Conversations to a model that allows for greater control of the conversation by the participants.

-Create a task force, which will include students, to increase the quality of our school lunches. The Student Health Advisory Council, SHAC, may serve this purpose and this should be considered.

-Create an opportunity for the Board and Administration to learn of the many groups in our community, formal and informal, who are working to support students and families with the goal of identifying ways that the School system can support the work of these groups. Opportunities to hear from these groups may include, as invitees to the Be Our Guest events, should we choose to continue this forum, or as presenters at Work Meetings of the Board.

-Create an opportunity for the PTA Council to offer a training to principals on the role of the PTA at our schools, and the role of the principal in supporting this separate, child, advocacy organization.

-In cooperation with key stakeholders, host an annual, State of our Public Schools Forum, similar to the Forums held by the former Durham Public Education Network, meant to inform and garner input into the initiatives of the Board and District.

-As we continue to refine our grading policies – convene a task force to examine the role of Homework in advancing student academic achievement.

Sincerely,

Nancy Cox

Proud member of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education