001hi good evening my name is Ron I'm the president of the Council of homeowners associations here in Farmington Hills and in conjunction with the League of Women Voters um and the committee to improve uh voter participation uh we are glad to convene here tonight the uh candidate forum for the Farmington Public School District um candidates that are running to uh for what is it the six year um six year chair uh chair on the on the board so without Much Ado uh I will pass you to Christine Allen from the League of Women Voters she will read you the rules of the evening and she'll moderate the whole evening thank you thanks Ron welcome to this forum for the Farmington Public School District Board election today is September 24th 2024 this forum will be featuring
002The five candidates who have filed for the Farmington Public School District vote for not more than two for a six-year term sponsor this forum are the League of Women Voters Oakland area the Council of homeowners association and the committee to increase voter participation my name is Christine Allen I'm a member of the League of Women Voters Oakland area I am not a resident of this District the League of Women Voters is a trusted National nonpartisan political organization our members do the Hands-On work to safeguard democracy while we never endorse a candidate we are directly involved in shaping the important issues that keep our community strong as a League of Women Voters member I have the opportunity to contribute in a leadership role such as this one that has a great impact on local state and
003even National issues if you are interested in learning about how you can make a similar impact I would encourage you to visit our website at lwv.org the league League of Women Voters does not endorse any candidate or political party views expressed in this for Forum are for of the candidates and the sponsors take no responsibility the format of this form Forum has been established by the League of Women Voters and the other sponsors we ask that the audience remain silent during the Forum please turn off all cell phones and other electronic devices please do not record or take photographs thank you we ask candidates answer the questions with their views only and not interrupt another candidate the questions are asked to all candidates and do not single out any one candidate all candidates will be
004answering questions submitted by the audience and screened for duplication and appropriateness by Julie Finn and Cindy ponin pages are Susie Brown Rose Kristoff Mike Allen and Karen bis they will be circulating with pen and and pencils or paper and pencils for your question questions please turn your questions into the pages the format is as follows all candidates will be given 1 and A2 minute for opening statements in alphabetical order closing statements will be 1 and a half minutes in reverse order candidates will have one and a half minutes to answer each question in rotation until extend unless extended by the moderator all candidates will be allowed equal time to answer questions our timer is Diana piles the candidates here tonight are TR Carr Danielle deu Claudia Hinrich and Thomas Hull also running is Vanessa Gwyn
005we will begin the one and a half minute opening statements with Mr Carr thank you thank you I want to thank the Council of homeowners association the League of Women Voters for making this forum possible why am I running for school board that's the first question people always ask I would begin by stating that uh I have a lifetime commitment to public education I'm a retired academic serving at University level my wife is a retired school psychologist our son teaches at Oakland University so you might say that uh public education is an integral part of our DNA we're committed to public education we're committed to Quality education one thing sometimes people ask me is what are my goals for being on a on the board of education I would defer that answer to a little
006bit later on but say my first priority my first priority is to be able to Be an Effective member of the Board of Education I'll be one of seven members so that means I have to be able to build a relationship with other members on the board I don't know there two of us will be elected so I don't know who's going to be elected so my goal you know my ultimate priority is to build a relationship so that I can work with the entire board as a team you one thing that uh I I I think the board would benefit from is a team spirit being able to work together and that's what I BR what I would bring to the Board of Education my commitment is a commitment to respect my commitment is
007a desire to work together and to build a cohesive effective team for the residents the students of Phan Public Schools thank you Mrs Dew good evening my name is Danielle and I'm running for public school board because I believe it's a crucial time for our Educators and families to prepare children with the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to our rapidly changing world we need leaders who can challenge the existing policies and procedures to drive results for our students while managing relationships with multiple stakeholders with a passion for my community and education I aim to use my skills and experience for the benefit of our community my professional background in analysis strategic planning and cross functional collaboration combined with my masters in public administration uniquely qualifies me for this role I believe that by implementing
008strategies based on transparency and good data we can advocate for the support of our teachers and students that they need to achieve the desired outcomes thank you uh Mrs hinck good evening thank you for this opportunity to meet with you tonight I'm running for re-election because I recognize the importance of experienced leadership as we are tasked in selecting a new superintendent to continue the gains the district is making in raising student achievement meeting the needs of all students and making Farmington Public Schools a premier School District I'm a 49-year resident of Farmington Hills my four children are all graduates of Farmington High School and three of my grandchildren currently attend Farmington schools as a retired educator with the 40-year career teaching high school and college mathematics I bring to the board table an understanding of
009the importance of allowing our teachers to focus on teaching and learning I also recognize that teachers need time resources and support in the work they are doing to meet the needs of all Learners in the four years I have served on the board I have worked collaboratively with fellow board members to set goals and focus on that focus on student achievement I'm currently treasur and chair of the finance committee I've also served as vice president for two years in addition I serve on the board of directors for the Oakland County Schoolboard Association my experience will be valuable in leading the district to continue the work we are doing to ensure that every student feels welcome respected and has the support and resources needed to develop their passions and interests and they prepare for their future
010thank you Mr Hall hello my name is Thomas Hall I want to say thank you for to the uh legal Women Voters and also the U counil of homeowners um the reason why that I am running for a school board is because my deep passion for the well-being of our children and my commitment to building a stronger more transparent and thriving school system as a longtime resident parent and advocate in this community I know firsthand how to critically create a safe supportive and high achieving environment for every student my my goals are my prior my priorities are achievement safety and transparency we need that in our times right now in which that our children are the focus of everything that we do in this school district I have been a um president of farm Health
011since for 2005 I also am a member and president of the farmon African-American parent Network called fappin for short supporting all students through the tutoring sat act boot camps financial literacy workshops College fairs and advocacy for parents and students I also was a uh coach for the YMCA Farmington Hills CTIC Center and Je Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield together we make our schools even stronger and continue building a bright future for our students thank you very much we will begin the question segment of our Forum we're going to jump into one of the tough questions right away school shootings have become an unfortunate reality for our times how satisfied are you with the current practices what else needs to be done and we'll start with Mr Carr school safety is a major issue for
012us in the in the public sector um I have a lot of experience in as mayor of Hazelwood back in Missouri dealing with safety I think one of the issues that we have to be aware of is we want to build a positive relationship of trust with school resource officers that are interacting with the students on the daily basis I think we have to be able to be effective in looking at mental health issues that are affecting students today students today face significant pressures uh that we did not face uh back in the day and students are having difficulty being able to cope and to be able to express their uh their dissatisfaction without making the immediate step to school of violence so I'd say what we need to do is to explore options now
013I am not exactly sure exactly the strategies that are followed by Farmington Public Schools one of the things I would do if I'm on the board is SP some time in dialogue with the superintendent with the staff and with the police in Farmington Farmington Hills talking about what are we doing and what can we do better I do not come with a series of pre-ordained steps priorities that we can implement but rather an attitude of saying what can we do how can we do it better and I think we can make our schools safe thank you Mr Carr uh Mrs Dew I do believe that I've seen a lot of practices that have come out in the last several years that Farmington and Farmington area schools have taken in um that are really great measures
014as far as building safety and processes that are put in place if issues arise but I do agree that there needs to be more of a focus on the mental health aspects the community aspects the engagement with students teachers and other staff that creates that community that supports the students and everyone else that's engaged in that process of learning dayt day so that the communication of their wants needs desires frustrations all of those things are seen felt heard and that those things that exist for them each day when they come into school are transmuted across all of the different District areas um so that everyone's kind of on the same page sometimes we see that one school deals with these things better than others certain districts certain States Etc I believe that learning practices can
015be shared um and that everyone can come on to the same page for how to approach those things I do believe that like I said that we've made some really great measures there's always work to be done I believe in continuous Improvement um so that's definitely something uh that I think that we should look into thank you Mrs Hinrich um yeah since I've been on the board um we've been addressing school safety uh our one of the uh initiatives um that the board I was on created was uh community dialogues and our first dialogue was on school safety and it was a real we had a group of parents came and said um we want metal detectors in the school and we'll raise the money to pay for them the police chief came and talked
016about you know um the advantages and disadvantages and so there's a lot of things out there um at our last board meeting or since since I've been on the board um uh position for director of safety it's a half safety and half athletic director has been um initiated has been developed and so Allison Robinson is in charge of that and as a matter of fact at the last board meeting um she gave a report on the safety initiatives and the things that's going on in our district um we've invested in the Alice training um we've invested in training of all of our staff on the importance of social emotional learning um and uh inreasing counselors and support staff for our students is um so important uh the also um the things that we're doing is
017not uh one and done as far as the Alice training but um that was a big thing last year and this year all the new staff was trained on it and also this year we trained our um support staff our our um our new needes and on that safety also um so yes safety is a is a high priority um one of the things that I've been asking the superintendent to look into is in Oxford the US this evolved security system thank you thank you Mr Hull safety is one of the is actually the number one priority in schools the data that was collected by the Farmington Hills Farmington Police Department has show was that we have put some things in place that are unseen and which that are helping protect our our children in
018the school system I believe that having a mental check for every child and also the safety and the the the safety and also the comfort that if they do see something they will say something and I believe that's the number one way that for us to actually address this school shooting because I know at least one person when there's a school shooting or anything like that there are someone that knows about what's going to happen but they don't feel safe to actually report we had to address that with every student uh actually we're putting together or we want to have a dialogue with the Security Experts with the parents in the community and and ask the questions and tell the questions and and and get some answers in which that we are able to feel
019comfortable with our kids our kids are number one priority they need to be protected and that we need to equip them with the tools and and priority and safety actually to do it thank you um we will start the next question with Mrs Dew and the question is kind of a compound question um coming from two different places uh what are the most important qualities and characteristics are you looking for in the next FPS superintendent and how can the school how can the board support the superintendent while holding him or her accountable and this will go to Mrs Dew as far as the qualities and characteristics um I mean you know first and foremost you want them to be qualified from an educational and experiential backgrounds but I think we also want someone who fits
020into the focus of the community the things that we've identified the ability to um have the equity and Innovation as foundational as part of our education those are the things that we've said are important to us from an educational standpoint for across the district so having someone that can embody that that's a good communicator across different levels we have lots of different stakeholders right you have families you have students you have teachers um you have different um respective City officials and things like that so they're going to need to be someone that can talk to all of those people and coordinate the efforts and bring the community together as far as holding accountable that's part of the board's role is to be able to work with them to set forth um those policies and how
021they enact them so I think the again open dialogue is really important the ability to be you know quote unquote a team player is great um but really being being able to bring someone on that embodies the things that our community wants to see in the education of our students is going to be critical thank you Mrs Hinrich um can you repeat the question just so that I get both parts of it no problem what are most what are the most important qualities and characteristics you are looking for in the next FPS superintendent and how can the board support the superintendent while holding him or her accountable um yes uh this is my second superintendent search so um the qualities really our our strong leader collaborative leader um focus on student achievement focus on student
022safety um focus on Innovation um communicate uh with all of our parents all of our families um just strong communication skills um we um have opportunities to gather input from the community for the qualities and so one of the one of the important qualities I think of a good superintendent is to be able to listen um to the needs of the and be in tune with the needs of the community and the teachers and the staff um as far as holding the the superintendent accountable um the board meets with the superintendent and sets goals with the superintendent and so it's not a um they're they're developed in collaboration um as far as focusing on safety student achievement Innovation and all the things that are important um that focus on our um our mission and our
023value our profile of a lifelong learner and the board also evaluates the superintendent and we also meet regularly with the superintendent to have um in interm evaluations it's not just a one-time evaluation but a constant communication with the superintendent thank you Mr Hall so the uh qualities and characteristics of a superintendent we need to have a person who is highly qualified I don't care he or she or or um I I don't care of that particular uh demographic however what is this person trained in what's there what are they showing what best practices in achieving a high high score ing community and also the transparency and safety of the kids I need we need somebody who are very sensitive to the community because each Community is have their own culture have their own um heartbeat
024I should say that we need to know how the community feels and have a dialogue that's very approachable uh we need a a superintendent that will give us the answers that we need and we need to have that hold themselves accountable to whatever they their goals are as board members we are there to set those goals and to help with those goals which the superintendent needs to accomplish and we need to advocate for to have a successful board and by doing that that's we just need a super uh superintendent that would be very very open to change and also the needs of the community thank you Mr Hull and Mr Carr That's a topic I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the past several months the superintendent needs a set of skills and
025the superintendent needs the ability to pull together a team that can flesh out areas uh where they're lacking number one the superintendent needs to have a solid grasp of budget and finance we have a budget of $180 million that he will present or she will present present to the board budgeting and finan a crucial skill HR and Personnel being able to select principles being able to select assistant superintendent correc advisers that's a critical skill for a superintendent policy making policy decision of all kinds of decisions we have to make cell phones other things uh hours of operation those are things somebody an understanding of how to make policy how to be able to listen to so the policies are responsive to the needs and values of of of the public curriculum the superintendent needs to
026be well adversed in curriculum how to promote a curriculum that will help students to achieve academic Excellence public and community relations being able to build relationships with parents with taxpayers and the business community that is in fact essential so what I'm saying is that no one individual will possess all of that skills but we want an individual who does have the ability to understand those skills and put together a team that can effectively manage a district as complex as Farmington Public Schools thank you um the next question and we will start with Mrs Hinrich uh what are your thoughts on the separation of church and state as it relates to schools h okay all right I'm just trying to process this and think this um I think it's in our Constitution that public schools church
027and state are separated um I think that uh you know we're obligated to follow the laws [Music] um [Music] I'm understanding studying about different religions is not the same as as promoting religions I think as public schools um we need to be open to all face all religions and have an understanding of them because our community is made up of such a diverse in our community we have such a diverse community and we have so many people of different um face and backgrounds and so the the goal of public schools is to educate people so that they are educated in um the world world that they live in thank you Mr Hull so when when we get into the subject of separation of religion church and state there's a reason why there's a separation of
028that um with the with the schools that we should be able to be very sensitive to everyone's beliefs even if they don't have a belief we should be sensitive to that and by having a person who can express their their freedom of religion and their freedom of thought without being persecuted and without being ridiculed or being forced is a is a very essential safe safety that we have to instill into our schools with the long the kids needs to be able to express themselves while they're able to learn as well it's a whole makeup of the child so by supporting whatever type of of best practice of them actually being educated we need to explore that and we need to promote that we shouldn't promote one particular religion without other uh particular religion but we
029do need to to actually acknowledge one's beliefs and also have a a support system for them thank you Mr Carr that's a critical question for us to answer I go back to the Constitution and The Establishment Clause uh Constitution says that the state shall not establish a particular religion so that's one thing that's becomes a guiding principle as we look at the relationship between church and state and in the school so we do not want to establish a particular church we do not want to establish a particular Faith now having said that there are some ethical standard standards ethical values that are common to us that uh across uh this this great nation of ours and so we want to be able to understand that I guess as as I as I look at this
030issue there's really no easy answer other than to say we we want to be able to allow the freedom of expression uh that does not affect the academic and the learning environment of students in classes it means that we do not not take a particular position to Advocate or to U uh criticize a particular Faith or particular religion but it means we want to create a ability of students to understand critically and effectively the impact of faith on their lives and to understand to respect the faith of others that's the challenge and I think the pH Public Schools can effectively meet that challenge thank you Mrs Dew um excuse me so the foundation of education does not need to be rooted in any particular religion in order to create children who can be good communicators
031critical thinkers compassionate part of our community and self-actualized so I believe that keeping the church and state separate until they can learn and understand those Concepts and make those decisions for themselves is a good practice thank you um the next question will go to uh Mr Hull stem education is important how do you think the district is doing in the area and do you have any ideas for improvement I believe stem education is very critical especially for the future of of these students um for their education what trends are going and what industry is heading we need to continue to provide stem information stem classes that will encourage everyone everyone the opportunity to actually partic participate in stem as a u Farmington African-American pair Network member we partner up with the robotics teams at at
032the high school level and actually do cross promotion to encourage these kids to actually get an interest in the stem steam stem programs and also to get their feedback on how can we actually approve and improve their sting stem programs I believe that students are telling us what we need and I think we should actually listen to them because they're ones that's going to be in the future for that and they need to get all the tools and everything they need in order for them to be able to be successful inside the school system that we provide thank you um Mr Carr stem is really critical for the future of our students it's really critical for the future of of our state and of our region one thing I would say is that I met
033with one of the hackbot students at one of the community dialogues and the hackbot student a very very professional very effective young man so we're not getting the support we need to engage in robotics to to engage in these kinds of experiences compared to other schools and I think that's really true human etics a large company here in farmton Hills bills crash Dy so actually they're not very dumb that cost $100,000 minimum up to over a million dollars a copy stem requires the knowledge of physiology engineering Electronics everything I believe the district can do a better job in allocating resources to help students with a gift in that area not every student's gifted but for those that have that ability we should do that I know we had a steam Academy at one time that
034was theoretically designed to emphasize science engineering Tech technology math I don't know that it still does I I think it it has elements of that but I think my concern would be to do a solid evaluation looking at what are we offering in terms of equipping our students to compete in a very technologically savvy World technology changes at at a very fast pace and we need to be able to do that so I would support and Advocate a significant expansion of stem education within the Farmington Public Schools thank you Mrs Dew man do I wish that there was a focus on stem when I was in high school took me a really long time and several different career paths before I ended up where I am which is actually in science and technology not a
035place that I was promoted to go or not a place that I really knew existed until probably about 7 or eight years ago when a friend of mine said that they thought that they would I would be really good at this because I have a great logic mind I thought I didn't like physics I thought I didn't like math until I got into college and I found I love statistics I love Applied Physics I didn't get the chance to see these types of things when I was in Middle School and High School there was maybe a cad drawing class or something like that that was offered but it was not well promoted I love the fact that this is something that is becoming more talked about and more explored as someone who's worked in Workforce
036Development I've been able to see the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are rapidly moving into that space and it is critical for us to set up an educational pathway for these students to be exposed and excited about these opportunities you have kids that are naturally drawn to these types of topics who have gifts in these areas as mentioned and it's amazing to see how rapidly things can change how difficult it is for us to keep up with that and how to marry those spaces in between so that we are creating Pathways for these students to find these amazing job opportunities and be prepared for the Futures that they want thank you Mrs Hinrich um yes so how is the district doing and do we have any areas of improvement that was a question yep
037for okay all right well we do have a steam Academy um two of my grandchildren go there fortunately my oldest grandchildren was son was a kindergarten the first year it opened over at um before it moved into the duncle building um but they have a waiting list every year so one of the things that um is a district initiative and the district needs to and our board has been saying to the district you need to make sure that these things are moving out into the other middle schools also so that those opportunities are available so Equity across the district and across all buildings is really important as far as the maker space the robotics team comes to our um board every board meeting and talks about lack of space and and we agree when we
038set our goals with the superintendent um one of the goals for the superintendent was to um find some space for the needs for the robotics team um our our students only have one one freshman year of high school one junior year one senior year of high school and so we we see a need for long-term in our facilities but in the meantime to find some temporary solutions in terms of shortterm and so that's one of the goals and one of the things that we're really pushing for um we have millions of dollars in bond money and um you know the district really um has to look at how how we choose to spend our money um as far as the improvements and and what we can do as far as shortterm in addition to long
039term thank you next question we'll start back with Mr Carr the question is how important our early childhood education programs such as Head Start to subsequent Student Success does more need to be done or more invested Early Childhood is really a critical area for You children's development it's where they learn basic skills it's where they earn the approaches of how you learn you know we're not going to teach them uh uh advanced math at least most children will not learn advanced math but they understand the ability of how to learn how the world Works what the environment in which they live so I think it's really we do have a some really childhood programs uh I think there's room for improvement uh again uh I've gone to almost every board meeting for the last two
040years I've tried to keep track of all the programs that are in operation here in Farmington Hills I do know that early childhood is critical I do know that it lays a foundation for children develop an inquisitive mind I do know that it lays a foundation for them to devel velop Advanced skills what I would like to do is spend some time with the board with the new superintendent with their cabinet looking at what are we doing now and how can we do it effectively I'm not in a position now to be prescriptive saying this is where we need to go uh because that is an area of of knowledge uh that I think escapes most of the citizens in the city we know we have early childhood but how can we do it better
041and that's what I want to know and that's that would be Prime Focus if I'm elected the board's work the fellow board members and the superintendent to say what can we do and what can we do better thank you Mrs Dew so I love our Early Childhood Program my son actually attended there and still talks about it to this day and I think that that's an attesting to how great it is because he's nine so he still remembers his teachers there he still remembers his time there um and it's just amazing to see how some of those core memories can come out of something so young for them and that that does ignite that passion for learning right that's the idea with early childhood education is that you are setting foundations for them pre-social behaviors
042empathy things like that yes your ABCs yes you know triangles squares Etc but for them to be excited about learning at a young age and to be able to carry that forward is critical and it's great that we have a program that does that here I would love to see I know that there and I don't know all the specifics the new funding that's coming out from the state level that's expanding the funds that are available for the year four programs and so if that's something that's going to be able to be implemented here that we could expand our program um and extend it to more community members so they can take advantage of that and be ready as they go into kindergarten prepared excited to learn I think that that would be phenomenal thank
043you Mrs Hinrich um yes uh I I agree with everything that's been said um our Elam Early Childhood Center is really a state-of-the-art facility and we have um Head Start we have great start Readiness um one of the things in that building is you when you go into the building you can't tell the difference which children are in the tuition classes and which children are in the Head Start classes because um the space is Equitable for all the students and that's really important to provide those resources and those opportunities um we've also instituted in our district an early five program uh for children that aren't ready for kindergarten so that they have access um in the district for that year before kindergarten before they start kindergarten so I'm a big support with that um I
044think that one of the things that I would like to see is um that we have more partners with parents as far as parenting programs um because parents are the first teachers of children but with today's world than the demands on families um you know families need help and our school district should be a place to get help and it's a it's a win-win situation when the the school district and the parents and the parents have the resources available and the support available good question thank you um and Mr Hall so early childhood learning is is very crucial children need to learn and have fun at the same time and by incorporating fun associated with learning at an early age is very very very important for the development of a child's interpretation of what school
045with with school with learning how to so be sociable and also with having child early learning that we can identify certain deficiencies in wish that the child may have that we need to be addressed at an early stage before it becomes harder to correct later on in school we don't want to find out when the child gets into kindergarten or first or second grade that they may have a reading disorder and we need to address certain things as early we can have certain techniques and and skill sets in order for the child can actually be able to be identified and be able to use that by investing in childhood and getting the parents on board and wish that is very critical for the success of a student to teacher and parent and community so we
046definitely need to continue to invest in our younger Learners thank you um and this question is like a three-parter because it comes from a couple of different places um so maybe we can do a minute and 4 seconds a little bit of extra time to answer this um please comment on the trend of restricting student access to library materials what are your feelings on broadening parental influence on books textbooks subjects taught and are you concerned that more outside influence will limit students exposure to and discussion of certain controversial topics and I will read this again if anybody needs me to read that again you the last sentence yeah I I'll go from the top again just so you can get the whole thing okay cuz they're pretty related um comment please comment on the Tren
047trend of restricting student access to library materials what are your feelings on broadening broadening parental influence on books textbooks and subjects taught and are you concerned that more outside influence will limit students exposure to and discussion of certain certain controversial topics can you read the third one again the third one is are you concerned that more outside influence will limit students exposure to and discussion of certain controversial topics and we will start this with Mrs Dew um okay so as an elected board member it would be my responsibility to Advocate on behalf of the community so I think that being able to share concerns thoughts opinions with the board is important that being said I am not particularly an advocate of that but that is my personal opinion that does not mean that that is
048what the board would decide right so again the purpose of the board member is to bring the views of the community to Advocate on behalf of the community as far as restricting parent influence again those things go hand inand it's hard to say that you're not going to listen to what the community is going to say if it's about restricting the job is to listen the job is to Advocate the job is to share all of those thoughts as far as is outside influence a concern that it would be limited I guess so it really depends on what the board would vote in those cases right so it's hard for me to really answer that I guess in a in a diplomatic manner that doesn't take my own opinion into account this isn't about my
049thoughts about it I would say it's great for students to have the opportunity to understand different perspectives different viewpoints different cultures things about history those are all really critical to the learning process it can be difficult to have those discussions but I think that those are really critical to the Le in process and it's something that they should have access to thank you Mrs Hinrich um yeah this is really a a big question so um when my kids were younger I taught Catechism classes and one statement that really resonated with me and stuck with me um when uh the priest um came in and he said why wouldn't you try and influence your children because everybody else is trying to influence them so if you look at the media look at TV um you know
050all social media access that children have to all sorts of things everybody's trying to influence our children um the parents are the first educators of their children and they're the per first influences of their children okay so um the the family values and the values are set in the home so the parents um hopefully have the biggest impact on their children um our role as a public school district is to provide access to education for all students um we're be a our role is to make sure that all students feel welcome all students feel safe all students feel respected All Families feel welcome um students have a place where they can talk to someone there's an adult in the building that they can go and talk to um that's kids can't learn I mean our
051our role is to educate children but if there's outside stress factors then children are not going to learn so um as far as the trend of restricting student access to library materials um you know again libraries I believe all books belong in the libraries but the the family values and the home values so the parents are the ones that are going to restrict that access um broadening influence all right time to stop thank you um Mr Hull Banning books are are I would say is a detrimental to the society that we actually live in by Banning books we're we're robbing our children of school of thought and therefore when we do that we're cheaping their experience in life however there are some age appropriate materials that may need to be discussed with the parents and
052wish that that children may not be somewhat ready to um to be explained in a manner in which that their parents may feel that they need to be able to do the certain things uh I can recall a incident when my son was probably in the third grade and they were talking about the hon River he went ahead and grabbed a book from the elementary school library that said the heroin Trail he thought it was the hon River so with that it it I explained to the my child say I don't think this is appropriate book for you to read at this particular age level and therefore that particular information I believe that should be discussed with the parents and everything else with the U with the community and I believe that with the outside
053influencers you have to understand what their agenda is and what our culture is thank you Mr car this is an important question and I think it deals with certain presuppositions that are involved first thing we understand that the school the library system has a limited budget and so we have a limited budget my I'm a PhD my PhD is in research public administration I value access to literature I value access to all kinds of information universities have largely uh expansive ability to acquire information that's open to all students and faculty in the public schools we don't have that kind of resource we have 100 $8 million but a lot of it goes to salaries a lot of it goes to Athletics a lot of it goes to buildings A lot of it goes to buying
054materials Library material should be curriculum driven I would believe that we should have the best Library resources available to support the curriculums being taught within the public schools so that would not involve uh uh restricting access to materials provided that material is appropriate for the curriculum being delivered to children in elementary junior high senior high levels and of course the materials open will be expanded as it move through the educational curriculum I think part of it we want to encourage students how to learn how to use the library one of the things that I did as a University faculty was teach my students how to use the library how to use the internet and that's what we want to do rather than focusing on specific materials we want to encourage the students to understand how
055they can gain that information even if it's not available in the school library thank you uh the next question is what are your plans to make a smooth path to access and attend Early College Programs which allow students to be to obtain a college degree while in high school and this first question this goes to Mrs Henrik H can you repeat it what the first part of it what are your plans to make a smooth path to access and attend Early College Programs which allow students to obtain college degrees while in high school um I think we already have that in place as far as early college programs and so I think the the most important thing is getting the information out to students as far as what's ailable to them um and that's you
056know communication with parents with families with students so that they're aware of all the programs that they have and Define their path and so that's um you know the communication piece and uh you know um again I guess it everything comes down to economics because um counselors we have limited counseling staff and so you know if we had if we had more counselors and we had a better ratio of that then students would have more individual attention but I think it's more of of being awareness and partnering with the um with the community college and I think that um coming from the State Department of Education there's a big push in that area and so I think that we're going to see some improvements in the future and we'll definitely take advantage of the resources
057and the support that we have to expand that thank you Mr Hull yeah so the school path to access to Early College I believe we should broaden out to early trade as well we need to get a make sure we have a partnership with the local schools local colleges local Co um trades local unions and encourage the ones that are not the general type that will actually are chosen for these particular programs and encourage them um I noticed that for certain demographics they're not a lot of kids are are not even told about orc or pushed or I should say not pushed but encouraged to ask hey you need to look at go taking these the advanced placement courses the AP classes the uh IB courses that we actually offer in wish that these kids
058may not feel that they may qualify may not feel like they're smart enough to be able to take on these particular courses but we need to show them that they this is possible and make this a norm culture in which that we can actually encourage our kids to feel this is the norm normal way and and with having counselors there enough counselors to actually encourage these these kids and get them the help that they need in order to have individualized success plan thank you Mr car I'd respond in three ways number one is we want to be able to expand the opportunities for advanced placement courses for college credit and our son graduated from high school with 36 hours of credit he began with Calculus 3 and as a freshman in University so part of
059is being able to expand college credit courses a second area is an expanding Technical Training that's available to our students not every student is going to college nor should they go to college but they need technical skills so we talked about the hackbot Ser being able to deal with mechanical engineering being able to deal with electronics so we need to be able to expand our offering in the areas of technical education because those are skills that are going to be increasing demand in the future think of computer science uh my nephew uh wanted to be an an engineer but he wound up owning a computer company uh without a college degree at the same time we need to emphasize What I Call on the job training internship programs so that our current students have the
060opportunity to deal with internship programs during maybe their junior senior year so part of their time will be spent working in a specific career path which will equip them to have a meaningful career after graduation so again it goes into into three areas one is college credit which I support one is Advanced Technical Training so they can begin to understand the jobs that are important and third is on the job training that's what we need to do thank you Mrs Dew um I actually was a benefactor of this type of program myself as well and it was something that was brought to me by a student counselor um and I went through that program while as in my Junior and Senior year of high school I really loved the opportunity I was able to take
061advantage to propel myself into my college education at an early rate um and I think that this is a really good opportunity as some of the other people spoke um the ability to work in your community and understand some of the Workforce Development needs that are there how you can partner with other Community Development programs to create a pathway to Technical Training and other opportunities I think it's a really brilliant plan um I think one of the other things that comes back to the stem question is being able to help kids understand some of the pathways that they have at an earlier age so they can start to go in those directions I know for me even being part of that program I went in I think with the General Studies at decided you know
062going into that program and that was difficult I didn't really know what pathway was the best for me being able to give them exposure and opportunities to different educational Pathways and topics at a younger age can help prepare them for being able to take advantage of those early college education and Technical trade Pathways thank you we'll start the next question with Mr Hull academic performance in Michigan in particular and the US in general has been poor FPS is improving based on the recent data what would you do as a board member to accelerate overall performance especially near term in our high schools so with the academic scores on the FPS I start off with the with my three priorities which is the achievement safety and transparency the reason why I say that because we we
063need to make sure that our kids are physically safe and mentally and physically therefore they will F they will start to perform and to receive instructions without any type of distractions or any other concerns that they actually dealing with that would follow with that that we need to make sure and encourage our kids what's the best curriculum for these particular students was all students do not learn the same we have different types of of modalities in which that we're accustomed to that we can actually learn some people are uh visual Learners some people are physical or or CTIC Learners some people are audio um Learners so by tapping into those particular modies in which that we can actually teach our kids I think that will help us be able to convey that information to the
064students so they could be successful all kids are we need to invest in in just extra extra individualized programming for these particular kids and help them achieve what they need to achieve thank you Mr Carr academic achievement is an issue for Farmington Public Schools uh I at one of the early board meetings I attended they presented a goal of trying to move 55% of the students to uh be performing at grade level well at least 45% of students not performing at grade level it begins with establishing goals and that's why the superintendent needs to have an understanding of curriculum and the Board needs to be able to support that to be able to look at what types of curriculum work what types of curriculum do not work now we have excellent teachers in farming and
065public schools I've have been a citizen member of four teacher committees one on collaborative and professional learning one on uh Innovation teaching one on health and wellness and one on the culture of equity and learning so I I I sat in uh and just listened to the teachers they have real concerns but one of the issues I think is that goals have to be topped down the teachers will Embrace those goals once they're established we have not seen at least I have not seen at any of the board education meetings a clear anunciation of goals of where we want to go as a district in terms of curriculum and doing by grade level that's where we need to place our emphasis is establishing goals that will work thank you Mr carer Mrs Dew improving academic
066Improvement near-term in high schools that's difficult you've got kids that are nearing the end right of what is allotted for their public education there's so much that can lie beneath they data like that that it is really important to do some research analysis and understand what we're looking at sometimes data like that is not really great data right it just is telling you one piece of information just by itself that you can just pluck out of anywhere and try to create a narrative around these are real people that have real lives and a lot of different things going on I think it's really important to make sure that the data that we're looking at is Broad it's inclusive it's specific it can give us information that we can actually use to create smart goals and
067pathways on how to reach them I don't think we want to put a bandid on something like this and creating improvements in the near-term can look at something like creating those goals having enrichment programs but it does require us to back up to the earlier years ahead of that because again you have these Pathways that you're creating right you have excitement around education you have ways that children are learning that need to be tapped into you have other like cross community things that need to be addressed so the data okay so we're off on our reading but that's not enough information to really create a plan and a strategy we have to dig deeper and we have to do that so that it actually serves the kids that are here now and the ones that
068come in the future thank you Mrs Heinrich um yes standardized testing is just one measure of learning um one of the things that I guess student achievement is something since I've been on the board for four years is something that we've been working on and um one of the things that the district is doing um as a result of our our board goals as far as improving in student achievement and working with the superintendent in in setting the goals is the um the district is rolling out a strategic planning five-year District dashboard um that's aligned with our um our um strategic planning goals as far is the Innovation for teaching and learning um as a teacher I know that when you focus on learning then the test grades are going to follow and so one
069of the things that we're doing in the district is empowering the teachers and looking at good teaching practices and putting things in place to support teaching and teaching practices so that we have um a five-year goal as far as what we have as far as um the students percent of high school students in in CTE courses um students profession on the mstep on the um the uh act um another thing we've done is we' partnered with um uh Varsity Tutors for the students to provide free tutoring because students that have um test preparation do better and so that's equal access to every student to have access to those test preparation Services thank you next question what is your view on privatizing school services and this we'll start with Mr Carr I think you're looking at
070if I understand privatizing School Services you're looking at Transportation Food Service uh physical plant those kinds of things in some cases it may have a role but another case I think we want to deal with accountability uh privatization we may lose accountability we want to be sure that our bus drivers respond to us not to corporate and so uh but that means if we're going to uh have our uh transportation services provided by employees of the district we support them with uh uh adequate salaries driving a bus is a full-time job two times a day and there's a hole in the middle when you're not working so it means if we're going to do it ourselves we owe obligation to support them appropriately the same thing for Food Service uh sometimes Food Service can be
071contracted out but the question I always have is what about the quality of food what about the menu items that are selected and will it meet the nutritional needs and the appetite needs of our students the third deals with physical plant we want to be sure that we have people in the schools that we can trust people that will be around our students be around our faculty so that we can control who they are if we contract out sometime we lose that that capability so what we some sometimes do is we look at Contracting out as a mechanism to save money but at the same time there's a probably a cost in service probably a cost in the quality of care that we give to our students and to our staff so I'm not really
072a big advocate of uh Contracting out for these kinds of services thank you Mrs Mrs uh Dew I understand the cost benefit and the thought behind privatizing the Serv but I do agree um with the loss of some modality of control one of the biggest things that I think is really important is the community aspect so I love the fact that our bus drivers are people that are in our community I love the fact that our lunch AIDS are people that are in our community I we moved to this area I grew up from a young age with that type of um system in place moved quite a number of times off to that and lost that but when my husband and I located to this community that was one of the things that we
073really liked about that and the fact that that can enrich a child's life as they go through the educational process it seems like a small thing but some of these kids they know their bus drivers and they have them for an extended amount of time their lunch AIDS people that they see um the janitorial staff and things like that and you're also giving jobs to people that are in your community as well the likelihood that someone in a contracted service maybe lives down the street from you is probably lower than if you have someone who works directly in your school um and you might get the chance to know them I kind of love that aspect I think that that's a really great part of the community um I do understand a cost benefit um
074but I do believe that those values can outweigh some of that thank you Mrs Hinrich um yes our business is working with children unlike Corporate America and so children are are what our focus is um as far as uh the services all our employees from our bus drivers our um support staff our kitchen staff um everything has interaction with students by keeping those Services inhouse we have better access to background checks to screening to knowing who is coming in daily contact with our children and we also have opportunities to provide training um the district this year as far as school safety all of the um noon supervisors and um playground staff was um trained in as far as safety school safety Alice training and interventions and also providing those important social emotional support um opportunities
075for students the district did try um resourcing out janitorial services and it did not work out well and we went went back to now we have a hybrid system where it's um all the supervision is inhouse and so um as far as the economic benefits you have to again you have to look at the cost of things but as far as knowing who is in contact with our children I think is that what separates us from the corporations thank you Mr Hull so when you're doing a when you're doing privatizing the school services that um that we're accustom having in housee we lose the essence of what the school district is by hiring folks that that don't share our same values we had several incidents in this farmon school district that it came out of
076contract houses so when we we when when school system systems are Outsourcing their services they're running the risk of the people that they hire do they still have our same values are we are we having the same people that that we know you know Mr Johnson the custodian and Mr Johnson knows all the kids know what who are who are they and and another set of eyes now when you put a stranger um in this particular role people don't have that relationship with them so although the bean counters or accountants um will say well this makes fiscal sense it may have but you know are we looking over profit over people and that's how I feel about uh privatizing our services thank you next question uh we'll start with Mrs Dew um who are you
077endorsed by no one okay uh Mrs Hinrich um I'm endorsed by Teresa Rich mayor of Farmington Hills I'm endorsed by Terry Williams Schoolboard president I'm endorsed by Richard Lerner [Music] um CEO of um Farmington area Goodfellows I'm endorsed by the Michigan Education Association thank you Mr Hull I'm endorsed by the Democratic Farmington Farmington Hills uh Democratic Club I'm endorsed by Vicky baret I'm endorsed by samtha struck off I'm endorsed by by uh city council member um um um I'm endorsed by many many many people in the community and wish that uh you know Jackie belare bware she she's uh endorsed me uh many uh many folks that I've um failed to mention right in front of my hand I'm sorry Sor right Mr Carr I've been endorsed by a number of individuals that recognize my
078experience and leadership in the area I've been endorsed by state represent Samantha stoff by former mayor uh Vicky Barnett by former mayor uh Dr Ken Massie by every member of the Farmington Hills City Council Michael Bridges mayor protim Dr Randy Bruce represent Jackie bware John aldred uh William dwier uh Valerie null I've been endorsed by the uh Michigan uh the teachers the staff and the transportation workers of Farmington Public Schools the uh local mea affiliate so I've had a lot of endorsements but I think it because I built a relationship with individuals over time showing have a commitment to our neighborhood our commitment to our schools and I have the skill set necessary thank you um the next question we will start with Mrs Henrik Hinrich uh what can the board do to foster a
079positive culture and climate with the school Community um that's one of the goals since I've been on the board of education and so I think communication is the big thing um we've instituted the community dialogues um we reach out to the community members to find out what kind of topics um that they want discussed and brought to the community dialogue um what can the board do um be responsive to um emails as far as replying um the board president replies on behalf of the board but the board President also seeks input for the board from the board members and the view is represented by all the board members um uh going out and participating in community events I go over to um the fappen Farmington African-American parent Network every Saturday and um help out by
080tutoring um the students that are there uh I'm just but I think I think the big thing is um listening and and um being responsive as far as um being involved in the community thank you Mr Hull so to create a positive climate you we have to keep one thing in mind the only the only thing that we need to keep in mind is the children what are we doing for the kids everything else doesn't matter if you're if if you're getting into any type of disputes or or or discussions how's this benefitting the kids and that's why we're here that's the reason why uh there's a education board was formed because a lot of the parents want to make sure that the kids are put first with that saying we need to always be
081open and approachable by the public by the community members on what needs to happen in our school system what they want to see we need to continue to form relationships with the with fellow board members in which that we may not agree on a lot of things but we can take something from each person and find a find a the right way how to be able to create policy for the children so having other outside influences or maybe having other things other agendas that's that's not part of being a board member thank you Mr Carr part of our function is always to put children first and that's one goal that we have but once we do that we have to look at building relationships with each other so that we are accountable to each other
082and we're accountable to our public I think one of the strategies that would really enhance that within the farman public schools would be they have uh three subcommittees personnel budgeting and finance and community relations much of the discussions occur in those meetings that are closed to the public I can't go I've asked several times can I go to the subcommittee meeting they said no that's where we make decisions they report them out to the board well then we're not really accountable so I don't know what's going on and that's where the real work is done if there's tension if there's disagreements I believe one of the best mechanism M to open up quality accountability and working relationships is to shine the light of uh the public involved so that we can attend those meetings we're
083not going to be members of the committee so that people could come and listen as we as the board talks about budgeting as a board talks about uh policy decisions as a board talks about community relations then they begin to see the importance of everything that the board does relates to the public so I believe that we want to build that relationship of trust among the board members and we demonstrate that we have that trust by opening our subcommittees up to the public so they can see how we work together that's the challenge thank you and Mrs de I believe that engaging with the community to create a culture of trust is critical and part of that is transparency that is the feedback that I've gotten from people that I've spoken with quite extensively is
084that they don't aren't able to see behind the doors they aren't able to see what's happening they don't understand what's happening and some of that is about educating people about what the processes and what the role is I think sometimes it's like a a box right and they can't kind of see what's inside with it they that makes them uncomfortable um and the less information that they have the less they feel like they can trust you so I think engaging them in the process to understand what it is that the board does what the policies that we have how we make those decisions things like that I think is really important because that just elevates the understanding and helps them understand just what the process is and empathize with the day-to-day kind of procedures and
085things like that um so the transparency is really really critical and that helps to feed into the trust um and hopefully it can build from there thank you okay and I'm looking at the time and so this is going to be the last question from the audience at this point um um and they want to know do you support the millage voters are being asked to vote on in November why or why not and Mr Hall we'll start with you so with the uh millage I I support the millage due to the fact that with this millage running out that we need to make sure that our funding is put in place in order for us to continue as a as a as a functioning School District these this millage they provide a lot of
086um services in which that if was taken away that it's POS that the school will equate to running the school for 50 days that if we didn't have this particular millage it provides many of the services that we're accustomed to and that with the very small impact to our to our taxes and for the for the reward that we receive is is we can't measure it so with that I do uh Pro um I do agree with this millage and I do support it thank you Mr Carr yes I support it because I believe the millage uh will provide about what 50 55% of the operating budget for Farmington Public Schools so we need to have uh that that that millage in place one thing to understand to think about the millage is it's it's
087a renewal it has to be voted on as a new a new millage but uh it really does continue support at a level that is consistent with historic historic values in Farmington Hills we need that because it allows us to maintain quality schools housing values jobs and provide more critically it provides a quality educational opportunities for for our students that's why that's why I support it I think it's an integral part of uh having a viable School District thank you Mrs de I do believe that millages help us achieve above and beyond what some of the standards are that we have and will give us the opportunity to continue to improve on um the things that are important to our community especially around education so I support thank you Mrs Hinrich um yes I support
088the millage the millage is a re ual um the millage really um 20 27% of the district's Revenue $49 million comes from this this District millage renewal um so it's not an increase in taxes um as far as the per P the per pupil funding allowance um it allows a district to continue for the full per pupil funding allowance allowed under proposal a so it's really um important as far as fiscal responsibility um uh all the things that we want to do in our district and all the things we're doing um school funding is moving in the right direction but it's not where it needs to be and it's um something that uh I support as far as on the local level to do everything possible to guarantee that we have the full school funding
089that's allowed under the laws thank you that concludes the time for questions candidates will now be given one and a half minutes to make a closing statement in the reverse order of the opening statements beginning with Mr [Applause] Hull the reason why I'm running because I care about the children I have currently three kids three children that attend Farmington Public Schools what I've learned over the many hours of dedicated volunteer hours that I have put into this district is that we're not that different we all want a place that our kids feel safe that our kids are high achieving and our kids is have transparency on what the board is doing I take many I have many discussions with many parents through my network that I belong with and they want to be able to
090advocate for their children and with the with the climate of Outsiders and and even certain school of thought here that we had to listen to our kids because they one that's going to be in that's going to receive this education and I have a pulse on the community and this is what they want this is what they they need for their kids and I'm here to help make that possible and keep that possible with the uh being a board member of the schools thank you Mrs HRI thank you my experience as parent grandparent teacher and School Board member has given me a wealth of knowledge to draw upon in serving as a leader and moving the district forward in raising student achievement meeting the needs of all students in making Farmington Public Schools a premier
091School District my priorities priorities are a safe environment for students to learn adequate resources to meet the needs of every student and support for teachers to focus on teaching and learning as they Empower every student to implo to explore and develop their passions and interest and prepare them for a future Beyond Farmington schools during my four years as a board member I worked collaboratively to move the district forward in developing the profile of a long lifelong learner that is to provide every student with Equitable Equitable experiences it's been a long night to become a compassionate Community member a resilient Problem Solver an empowered Communicator a strategic communicator and a self actualizer as a parent I would say as a teacher I would say to parents your child my student we're on the same team in
092helping your child to be successful as a school board member I say to you our children our parents our community our staff we're all on the same team working to ensure that Farmington ensures every student with a safe environment to learn and adequate resources to ensure that they are able to develop their passions and interests and to prepare for their future thank you thank you Mrs Dew why me as I mentioned earlier my education work history and passion for the cause all uniquely qualify me to take on this role but that's not why I'm here I am here because I hold the best interest of our children and our community in my heart and I invested in putting my skills to work for all of us I am a great listener and Advocate what does
093that mean I know how to communicate and collaborate with compassion I'm great Problem Solver I am research-minded and I excel at making data-backed strategic decisions I have a background in Workforce Development and public administration which means that I understand how to ensure effective execution of public programs for the benefit of our community I hope that you all will choose to support me in my dedication to serving our community by electing me to a seat on our school board this November thank you Mr Carr as I reflect on the past I've attended every board meeting almost every board meeting for the last two years I serve on four teacher committees I've have invested the time to understand and to gain insights into farming Public Schools earlier I talked about the skill sets required for our superintendent
094I believe some of those skill sets are important for our board member as well I understand budgeting and finance have developed and administered budgets in excess of $80 million the municipal government I uh understand HR and Personnel the importance of how to search for uh appropriate personnel I was on search committees for University presidents provos and Dean so it's really critical I understand policy development I was a president of the S of the Missouri municipal League policy committee developing public policy of the entire state so understand the critical nature of developing policies at a local school district that affect the lives of 9,500 students and all of families here here I talked about curriculum I understand curriculum the importance of a curriculum to help students learn in terms of accreditation in terms of understanding the
095needs of various academic disciplines math science English social studies art in terms of community relations that's my life I live in the public sector somebody said what's your hobby I said my hobby is local government I deal with schools I deal with with that that's where I find excitement that's where I find my skill set to be to be to really come into play so I love local government I love schools I love education and my goal is to put our children first that's what I want to do I have the skill set necessary to work with the current board members and the new board members to build a team so that we can really move this District forward we have challenges and I have the skill set necessary to do that so I ask
096for your support and your vote for me for Schoolboard thank you very much the League of Women Voters would like and and Farmington Hills koha would like to thank the audience the candidates and tv10 for making this forum possible for further nonpartisan information on these candidates and and other candidates on the ballot visit for vote411.org when available the video of this forum will be on lwv a.org website the video is copyrighted to the League of Women Voters and must be used in its entirety the League of Women Voters is funded by contributions from concerned businesses and citizens our membership is open to women and men over the age of 16 remember early voting begins October 26 through November 3rd or you can vote at your own precinct on November 5th democracy is not a spectator
097sport good night