Arlington school board Seat 4 candidates in May 7 election
Anita Scott
No campaign website provided.
Age as of May 7, 2022: 43
Occupation: Middle School Assistant Principal
Education: Master’s in Educational Leadership (2018)
Have you run for election office before (Please list previous office sought):
No.
List highlights of civic involvement:
No response.
Have you ever been arrested, charged with a crime or otherwise been part of a criminal proceeding? If yes, please explain:
No.
Have you been involved in a civil lawsuit or bankruptcy proceeding? If yes, please explain:
No.
Why are you running for this office?
I began teaching Reading at the Middle School level in 2012. Every day, each time the bell would ring, my students would moan and groan as they exited my class. They didn’t want to leave; they referred to my class as the best of their 8 classes. Their joy and grievances taught me that whatever culture and accountability I was establishing in my classroom needed to be duplicated, not because my students said so, but because their parents and scores said so. The very next year, I moved into becoming the 8th grade team lead so I could impact my classroom and the 8th grade hallway. I began mentoring new and veteran teachers. My first year of teaching, the students scored higher than 80% on their Reading STAAR test. When I moved into becoming the 8th Grade Team Lead, again the students scored higher than 80% on their standardized tests and the Math and Humanities classes scored high as well. My goal was to positively impact instruction and behavior, not just in my classroom, but every class on the 8th grade hallway. After 4 years of teaching at the MS level, I knew it was time to impact more than a classroom and more than a hallway; it was time to impact a campus. I have been serving as an Assistant Principal for 4 years now and have watched the ebb and flow of education, particularly with the egregious setbacks of the pandemic. My first year as an Administrator was the first year the primary school where I was serving was fully built out to 5th grade and that year, 5th grade Math and 5th grade Reading boosted of a passing percentage of 80% and higher. We lost momentum the very next year due to the pandemic. The very next year standardized testing was optional. I am back at the MS level and running for office in order to see AISD regain what we have lost due to the pandemic and we can only gain with a concerted focus on academics and accountability. With the threat of radical racist indoctrination and a multi-gender narrative boldly attempting to infiltrate our curriculum, we will only continue the downward slope of academic loss with a duplicitous interpretation of what education really is.
What are the biggest challenges facing AISD?
The biggest challenges facing AISD are the biggest challenges facing any school - closing the chasm we are calling a learning loss. As educators, we know that the pandemic didn’t create a learning loss; the learning loss has been stalking children for decades upon decades. The learning loss only unearthed what classroom teachers and administrators have known for years: 38% is the average for 3rd grade students who pass their standardized reading tests. 8% is the average of students who graduate and are college ready which is different from college accepted. I think it is unfortunate and fortunate that the pandemic has America on a tract to accelerate closing the gap from the learning loss; that is the biggest challenge facing AISD.
What would your top 3 policy priorities be?
- Keep our schools as places of education, not indoctrination, as agendas from special interest groups do not fit within the TEKS.
- Stop the threat of radical racist ideologies and protect the 2 genders.
- Increase teacher pay so our teachers feel like, not just public servants, but public leaders.
Why should voters choose you over your opponent(s)?
I appreciate my opponent’s insight, experience, and extensive resume history. At the same time, I am the only educator running for School Board of Education in Arlington. For far too long, school boards, both municipally and statewide, have embodied representation and qualifications that have not mirrored School Administration. School Administrators must have 1) 3+years teaching experience 2) a Master’s in Education and 3) a Principal Certification. Conversely, to serve on a school board, the criteria is 1) a United States citizen 2) over the age of 18 upon the time of submitting the application packet and 3) no record of felony. The disconnect between the criteria for School Board and School Administrators is a chasm that has – in many ways – negatively impacted school’s initiatives and strategic priorities. Vision setting has been created with metrics and benchmarks that are fully operational in the business world, but not often in the world of academics which has habitually and inevitably created teacher burnout, teacher attrition, superintendent turnover, low performance in too many districts and over-promises with under-deliverance. For far too long, our teachers have asked for goals that are SMART, but the goals have mirrored metrics that are dissonant from what teachers can realistically perform. It’s time for an educator to sit as a Trustee who can represent the voice of the teachers, administrators, students, and the community.
David Wilbanks
Age as of May 7, 2022: 57
Occupation: Consultant, Private Equity
Education: BS Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1987
Have you run for election office before (Please list previous office sought):
Yes. AISD School Board Place 4 (the current office I hold and that I’m running for re-election for)
List highlights of civic involvement:
Member of Rotary Club of Arlington, served on AISD Education Foundation board member, Reading Partners volunteer, PTA Life Member, and Butler Dads Club board member.
Have you ever been arrested, charged with a crime or otherwise been part of a criminal proceeding? If yes, please explain:
No.
Have you been involved in a civil lawsuit or bankruptcy proceeding? If yes, please explain:
I was the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against the company that acquired the software company I founded.
Why are you running for this office?
To serve the students, teachers, and parents of AISD and make sure all students leave AISD exceptionally prepared for college or career.
What are the biggest challenges facing AISD?
We face two:
- The learning loss from COVID has been significant across the country and AISD is no different. We all need to come together and lift these kids up so that this short-term loss does not turn into a generational loss.
- We were facing a dearth of new teachers before the pandemic and we have even less in the pipeline now as teachers have elected to leave the profession. This labor shortage will have a disastrous effect on our ability to recover from the last two years and impact the quality of education for future generations of students unless we act now.
It is imperative that we remove everything we can off teachers’ plates and let them focus on the one thing they are passionate about — teaching our students. The best way to get our kids back on track is to maximize the amount of time teachers spend on teaching and minimize or eliminate the administrative burdens. Let’s try treating them like the professionals they are for a change.
What would your top 3 policy priorities be?
- Eliminate the administrative burdens on teachers so they can focus on getting our students back on track.
- Continue to fight in Austin for real property tax reform. It is not fair that homeowners bare the brunt of financing public education in this state. We received some relief in the 2019 session, but we have more work to do.
- Focus on student outcomes and hold staff accountable for getting our students back on track.
Why should voters choose you over your opponent(s)?
I have the experience and leadership needed to steer AISD back on track after the seismic disruption to education we have experienced over the last couple of years. Our students’ future depends on proven, steady leadership to get us there.
The Star-Telegram did not receive a response from Daphne Jackson.