001Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Board of Education candidate forum for 2026. >> [snorts] >> In our usual fashion, we as we start every meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. So, as I mentioned, welcome to our Appoquinimink Appoquinimink Board of Education candidate forum. I am Dr. Tasheba Brown. I'm going to have the floor initially as I go through our presentation, and I'm actually going to start with some information about election day for our our general public. So, as we all know, our 2026 school board member election will be held on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. Voting will take place from 7:00
002a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the following locations: Bunker Hill, Cedar Lane Elementary, Marion Proffitt Training Center here, Middletown High, Old State Elementary, Olive B. Loss Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and Townsend Elementary. For this year's cycle, we actually have six candidates running for two of the open seats within our district. We have Ms. Elena Brenner, Mr. Shawn Connolly, Ms. Michelle Duweit, Mr. Richard Forreston, Mr. Mark Heck, and Ms. Brittany Mumford. Here in Appo, we are guided by our vision and mission. And so, our vision statement tells us that the vision of Appoquinimink School District is to provide a world-class education so that our students will contribute as leaders in a global society. Our mission statement guides us and tells us that the mission of the Appoquinimink School District is to create an educational system where each
003student is engaged, supported, and successful. Vision and mission coupled by our core values, which include always do what is best for every student, hold an expectation of excellence in the world-class education that we provide, work to inspire trust in our stakeholders, communicate with transparency, act in a fiscally responsible way, foster leadership at every level, actively engage our community, recognize others for their contributions to success, cultivate mutual respect for everyone. All of this underpinned by our district motto, which is the world is our campus, accompanied by our district beats, engagement equals collaboration plus creativity plus critical thinking plus communication. So, to get to the qualifications, clearly you guys have all met this because you are here in front of us. But, for the purpose of our public, I will just read the qualifications of said candidates.
004Must be a citizen of the United States and must reside in in the district. Must be 18 years of age or older at time of election. Live in the district for which he or she is a candidate. Cannot be a paid employee of the district subject to rules and regulations of the board. And must never have been convicted of embezzlement. More information is provided by the State of Delaware Department of Elections at the following website. Additionally, each candidate has had a and passed their criminal background check as well as their child protect child protection registry check. Of note, campaigning in schools campaigning in the public schools by school board candidates or supporters of individual candidates is prohibited. No candidate may request that students or employees contribute or work or work for their re-election. Of note,
005as it relates to posting and distributing campaign materials, the board prohibits the posting or distribution of campaign materials associated with school board elections on district property with the following exceptions. Campaign signs may be posted at school buildings after 5:00 p.m. the night before the election. Signs are required to be at least 50 ft from the voting location. Sticking with campaign materials, campaign materials may be posted distributed in a school rented for a campaign meeting or being used for an all candidate forum. Such materials may not be posted until after the school day has ended and must be removed at the end of the meeting. Used as classroom teaching aids, non-partisan lesson or discussion. Municipalities have their own rules regarding signage, including their size and placement. Next, under the category of our actual forum, what is
006the function of a school board? So, our community elects a school board of five trustees to oversee the local school district and make certain the desires of the community are met. >> [clears throat] >> School board members are elected to a term of four years. What are some of the primary responsibilities of a school board? They set the vision and goals for the district. They adopt policies that give the district direction to set priorities and achieve its goals. They hire and evaluate the superintendent. They adopt and oversee the annual budget. And we manage the collective bargaining process for employees of the district. What makes an effective school board member? An effective school board member plays an important role in keeping your local schools on track and setting policies that affect your child and your school.
007The school board sets the vision and goals for the school district and holds the district accountable for results. Effective school board members contribute their unique talents while collaborating and working as a team with other board members. Additionally, what makes an effective school board member a school board member is providing clear vision for the district, communicates actions to the community, works as a team, adopts a fiscally sound district budget, focuses on what is best for all students, advocate at the local and state level for public education. Of note, the primary goal of of the Appoquinimink Board of Education is the success of all students. I I feel inclined to just read that one more time. The primary goal of the Appoquinimink Board of Education is the success of all students. Each And so, one of the
008last comments I wanted to make also is upon meeting with Dr. Bros, each candidate will receive or has received copies of the district's vision, mission, core values, motto, and beats, all shared in this presentation as I just reviewed, along with our strategic plan and a profile of a graduate and annual report. Excuse me. Dr. Bros also provides literature from the National School Board Association and the Delaware Department of Elections, including FAQs about school boards, what makes a good school board member, candidate procedures, guidelines, all which have been shared today. So, as we jump into the actual forum, each candidate will have 4 minutes to speak and let the public know why they are running for the open seat of Appoquinimink Board of Education. We will have a timer, and then as we move into the
009questions, you will have 2 minutes to respond to the question. So, we will allow you obviously to finish your thought, but we will ask you to be very mindful of the time as well, you know, we will interject accordingly. So, 4 minutes for intros and then 2 minutes for uh responses and assuming we have time at the end, we'll give you all an opportunity um to ask us a question. And so, without further ado, uh we will get started with board candidate introductions. In no particular order, we'll start with Ms. Britney Mumford. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Uh good evening. My name is Britney Mumford. Um in my day job, I serve as the executive director at Delaware Kids Can. We are a statewide nonprofit that works in education policy at the state level. So,
010I spend a lot of time at Legislative Hall talking about education reforms that I think will improve the outcomes of students up and down the state. I am a mom of two children, a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old. So, my house is just never-ending madness, to be completely honest. And then I get to leave my house and go to Legislative Hall, which is a different kind of never-ending madness, if I'm completely honest. Um so, bringing those two things together, running for school board is a natural fit for me. It's an opportunity to do two things that I love, education policy and working to ensure that the students of Delaware have a bright future. I am a product of Delaware public education. I had a phenomenal experience when I graduated from Caesar Rodney at a in a
011year I will not name long, long ago. And I hope that all students have the same opportunities, access, and experience that I did. But unfortunately, they don't right now. Delaware education is not what it was in the late '90s, early 2000s. Things have not been super great for quite a while, and I think that we need to be honest about that. Um if we're just looking at some numbers, the English language arts proficiency in Appoquinimink is still at 52% with 65% of kids measuring that they are growing um on grade level, our math proficiency proficiency is at 42 with the progress of growth at 60% of those students actually, you know, meeting growth on grade level. We've done some really amazing things in the last few years. We have, you know, 25 pathways, great immersion
012programs, early childhood centers that will hopefully continue to expand as the state opens up funding for additional seats in the near future. Um and we've done a great job at shrinking class sizes. I think that's that is great for both students and teachers and parents and everyone alike so that kids can receive the most individualized education possible. However, in the last few years, we have not seen the level of fiscal responsibility that we expect from our board. Um because we did trust our board, this community voted to pass a referendum in 2024. Since then, a lot of different things have happened. One is we went through property reassessment, which we all know has been extremely difficult specifically for New Castle County. Last August, the state legislature underwent, you know, discussing a series of bills related
013to reassessment. They invited the districts of New Castle County to be part of that discussion and have seats at the table, and Appoquinimink Appoquinimink did not participate in those discussions. Tomorrow up at Legislative Hall, there are two bills being heard in the House Education Committee on the ability for this body, this school board, to raise taxes during an assessment year. A bill that directly impacts the people that are sitting in this room, and I know for a fact that the other candidates in this race haven't discussed those bills with the legislature. One of the core tenets of a good school board candidate, as we just saw, is advocating at the state and local level for this body and the students in Appoquinimink. I would argue that that has not been done as well as it
014could be, and we have not been given or given fiscally sound decisions. I am here because I believe that the school board can do better, not just for the students. Um I'm a big believer in improving math and literacy scores, but also in, you know, delivering the trust and transparency and accountability that we were promised and that we expect expect from our elected officials. I hope to be the kind of school board member that my children can point to and look up to, that they are proud of, and that the community is proud to have elected to serve in this seat. So, I ask for your vote, and if you have any questions after this evening, please don't ever hesitate to reach out. I'm an open book, and I love to talk about education policy.
015So, thank you very much. Thank you, Britney. Mr. Heck. Um Ms. Mumford. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, there you go. Uh my name's Mark Heck. Uh a little bit background about myself. Uh I'm a retired from the military 35 years. Worked for Al Grimshaw starting in 1986. Uh nice to see a familiar face in here. Um I I I retired in 2019. Um I've been a member of the Dover Federal Credit Union's Board of Directors for 7 years. Um I was on that board, I was the uh supervisory committee chair. And basically, what the supervisory committee chair does with a with a uh credit union, um is when the bank examiner comes in and gives you findings of what's wrong with the organization, you're the guy that's got to fix it. So, I'm very familiar with
016a lot of the the the financial problems, which I'm sure a lot of people at home and a lot of people here uh is addressing. That's why I think there's six candidates running for running for a school district uh seat. Um so, I think that skill set bringing it to the school board would be helpful. Um like Britney talked on, another one of the issues we see affecting the um uh the school district is some of the poor scores. And as I talked to Dr. Burrows earlier today, while those scores are higher than the state average, um they're still it's it's like I I used an example. It's like saying you're the best football team player on the New York Jets. Um so, that that can be problematic. That can be problematic. So, I am
017a teacher, uh a JROTC instructor at Glasgow High School. So, everybody say boo now. Um >> [laughter] >> in the Christina School District. Um so, I know what teachers go through. I see it every day. I I I I interact with students all day long. Um I I I know what it's like. I know all the As a matter of fact, I went to a school board meeting, and we were talking about literacy programs and where we came in literacy programs. We up went up four points on our literacy skills or whatever, um which is good, which is going the right direction. But like Britney was talking about, math is still woefully woefully thing. And I'm hoping I'm hoping that I can bring the experience of working in a school district um with students, with
018the other teachers, the the the the uh teaching staff, um that some of that will help. I I'll have a better understanding. I won't be at this level. I know what it's like at this level, too. And I think that's what a lot of Sometimes uh teachers, you know, and administrators, um there's a disconnect some sometimes there. And I hope that even though I'm in a different school district, um cuz I have to be, um that that in the trenches with the guys actually helps. Um I also talked to Mr. Burrows. I don't know if probably none of you remember, but I ran for school district 10 years ago. And I had to drop out after about a month. Um and at the time, it was I was getting ready to retire, and my commander
019called me in the office and said, "Hey Mark, we need a guy in Kuwait, and you're the only guy who can fill that position." Back then, the school district positions were only 3-year terms, and I had to say it would be I couldn't feel comfortable leaving a position if I got elected back then to say, "Hey, a third of my term, I'm going to go away and be stuck in Kuwait somewhere." So, I withdrew. So, um I it's I met with the union uh group, and when we had our discussions, it's like, "Wow, it's nothing's changed over 10 years." So, hopefully hopefully, as a union member, too, I can bring bring some down in the trenches where the people actually road meets the road, that I can help in with the skill sets in my
020finance and whatnot, that will assist in in helping the things that some of the things Britney touched on. So. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Heck. Mr. Forston. Good evening. Always a little frustrating when someone some people cast aspersions without knowledge of all the facts, and I don't necessarily have time to correct all of those. I'll try a little bit later on. But my name is Richard Forston, and I am a product also of the Delaware public school system. I graduated from McKean probably a little earlier than Ms. Mumford did, in fact, a lot earlier, I'm sure. But I'm also a firm believer in public education. And I want to thank I want to start by thanking everyone who is here tonight, including all the candidates, as well as the general public and everybody who's watching at
021home on YouTube. I will say start by saying that sometimes I think public education gets a bad rap and that the conventional wisdom about public education overlooks a lot of good things about that. And by the way, by that I mean this. I mean, the opportunities available in publication in public education today are head and shoulders above the opportunities when I was in school. When I was in high school, we had no AP classes. Today, we have all the AP classes except essentially except for those where there's no demand for them. Uh we have approximately 25. We have dual enrollment classes, meaning that you can not only get high school credit, but college credit when you're taking a class. We have language immersion starting in kinder guard kindergarten, and that program [clears throat] has been
022phenomenally successful. Those kids are amazing. Our high school course catalog is the envy not only of other school districts, but of small community colleges, and goes far beyond what was available 20 or 30 years ago. But like everything else in life, you only get out of public education what you put into it. And my point is that if you're a student, and you work hard, you can achieve great things. And if you are a parent, and you ride herd on your students, and you make sure they do their homework, and you go to parent-teacher nights, and get to know their teachers, your students can achieve great things. The opportunities are there, and if taken advantage of, the sky is literally the limit. But do we need to do better? Of course we need to do
023better, and we're working on programs and solutions to do better. But my point is simply the world is not all doom and gloom, and we need to remind ourselves of all the great things that are happening in public education. And by the way, there's an independent rating service called Niche. It's there on the internet, n i c h e, which ranks school districts nationwide. It ranks Appoquinimink in the top 4% of all school districts nationwide, and it actually ranks our teachers in the top 3%. And so I especially want to thank our teachers uh that. Um as it happens, for those of you who don't really know me, I am an attorney, and I do a lot of land real estate and land development work. I also do legislative and litigation work. And so those
024skills and knowledge have, I think, been helpful to the district and to Ms. Mumford's point earlier about stuff in legislative hall, last August, when the General Assembly was looking at the reassessment fiasco, um I actually had drafted some legislation, and provided it to different legislators for their consideration. It wasn't used, but the point is we were involved in making our voice heard. I'm also active in the community with charities and other organizations, the Everett Theatre, the Ministry of Caring, Goodwill, and others. And I have built up relationships with a lot of elected officials on both sides of the aisle. Education to me, of course, is a uh non-partisan issue, because after all, we all want to make public education better. Um am I out of time already? Geez. Well, I'm out of time. I've done
025a lot of great things. I'm happy to talk to you about in further detail. Uh we mentioned immersion, we mentioned the change I change in school start times, smartphone limitations. Um we broadcast our meetings. And why do we do that? Because during COVID, we started doing it so we could get the word out. And that was on my initiative. I also got a grant for us during COVID of 625,000. I'm out of time, but I'm happy to talk >> Thank you, Mr. Forrester. Mr. Connelly. Hi, my name is Shawn Connelly. Um I'm a telecommu- telecommunications engineer. I do design work, but also troubleshoot the network. Um My wife's educator, so that's my inroads to what's going on in in education. I care about education myself. Um >> [clears throat] >> kind of I'm sort of
026like a lifelong student. I take college classes. I just got a master's degree last year, so education is very important to me. Um I have three sons who are all products of the Appo school system. They all graduated. Two graduated with degrees, and I have one in school now um looking to get his degree. So um as was said earlier, public school education, especially in Appo, was good for my children. Um and there was no choice of me sending them to uh private school or here. Here was was fine, and I I was I was glad with that. Um I'm running because I want to advocate for the children um and the teachers and and the parents. Um We have a lot of transplants coming to Middletown. There are some behavior issues that need to
027be addressed. Um I understand how to address some of those behavior issues, and I have ideas, and I will of course I'm going to go with with the school district is um has has in play already. Um Not knowing exactly what I can do until I get an an inside of things, I'll I'll learn more about the job, and then and then make decisions based on that as far as the best needs for the children, um the parents and the teachers. Um I am a also a a member of the Communications Workers of America um union, so and I'm a union rep, so I know how to um handle associate and deal with management, handle associate problems. Um That's basically it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Connelly. Ms. Brenner. Good evening, and thank you for having
028me. Um my name is Elena Brenner, and I'm really glad I got to go last. And I don't think I should get that little bit of time, but I'm not going to fight about that. Um I am a retired teacher. I taught for 23 years at Delcastle. I'm a retired English teacher, but I'm retired, so I'm not correcting anybody. Don't worry about it. Everybody goes, "Oh no, English teachers." Yeah, I'm not correcting. I promise. Why am I running? Um I moved to Middletown in 2000. We moved here from Illinois. And I did a lot of research before we moved here as to where did I want to put our family. We had four children ranging from first grade to ninth grade, and I wanted them in the best possible district. And we chose the Appoquinimink
029district as a result of my research. I want Appoquinimink to always be the district that people choose because we are the best district. And I want to work hard to make that happen. What prompted this? Um and I'm not trying to cast aspersions. I promise. Um But the fact is is that there has been a lot of financial upheaval, let's say. A lot of uncertainty, a lot of angst. In just the past few years, we've gone through a reassessment. We went through a referendum. And then we did the 10%, and then our utility bills went through the roof, and they tripled our tolls, and now they're talking about raising our property taxes at the county level. And I think that as a community, we need to step back and go, "Hold on." And review, and
030thoroughly look and and try every possibility before we come running back to the community and saying we need money. Uh people are hurting, and you know, the word that keep I keep hearing is affordability. Well, I'm a retired teacher. You talk You think you're broke when you're teaching, try being a retired teacher. Then you're really broke. Um I can't afford more. I I My income is not going up. So as my taxes go up, that's a concern, and it's not a concern that I hold by myself. I am not saying that the district will never have to go back to the community and ask for a referendum. I'm just saying it really should not be our first thing. I'm a retired teacher. I can't tell you how many times I was given as a teacher,
031I have 30 years of classroom experience, how many times we were given a directive by the board, and nothing personal against I'm sure the people here, they're awesome. I mean, they're nice people, but they haven't been teachers for the most part, not like we were. And when you get that directive by people who have never done your job, and have no idea what they're asking of you, while you're already pedaling as hard and fast as you possibly can to do the very best for your students, it's just like, you've got to be kidding me. I think it's important to put somebody with 30 years of experience in the classroom on the board. Let's get that teacher perspective on the board. Let's make that a voice that they hear. I'm also a parent. All four of
032my kids went to the Appo district. Okay, two of them went to Delcastle for high school, but two of them graduated from Middletown. Uh my daughter was an '04 graduate. She was part of the the problem when Appo High School for Middletown High School opened, and it opened over capacity because the state wouldn't let us build to our anticipated need. They only let you build to what we actually needed at the time. Thank god that changed. >> [snorts] >> Um Let's keep Appo the premier district, and let's work together to do that. Working together as parents, as educators, as community members. You don't have to have a kid in this district to have a voice at the school board. Because everybody's involved, and the whole the whole community benefits when we work together. And I
033think I I can be a strong voice for that. And I thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Brenner. So candidates, just as a reminder, as we move into the questions, we'll give you 2 minutes to respond, and the countdown will be on the screen. And so I will kick us off. We will rotate amongst us three that are present here on the board this evening. And so I'll kick us off with the first question, and I'll start with you, Mr. Connelly. And the question is for everybody. The board consists of five volunteers, bringing a variety of experience, perspective, and goals to the table. Although the presence of diverse backgrounds is extremely beneficial, it can lead to conflict amongst board members as it relates to voting or agenda items. Question, how would you handle
034conflict with another board member? Would you be able to support a majority decision made by the board even if you did not vote in favor of the agenda item? So, I'll start with you, Mr. Conley. Depend upon what we're discussing. If it makes sense, um and data backs up the decision that we're voting voting on, I would Sorry. Um I don't have a problem working with the board or and and I would Sorry, I'm a little nervous. Um No, it's okay. Um I can restate the question if that would help. Okay. Uh I'm just just thinking about the answer. Um I don't I don't I can talk to people. I don't have a problem um disagreeing with someone and and um coming to a decision. Okay. Mr. Forston, same question. So, I appreciate the question.
035I think anybody who has watched our meetings over the years has seen from time to time that we don't necessarily all agree 100% but then again, I don't agree with my wife 100% of the time. Um So, I don't think there's anything surprising there but I think we've always always tried to set a good example of having respectful discussions. You know, not raising our voice, not shouting, um you know, listening to everybody who speaks. Everybody gets the chance to speak. And then after everybody has spoken and said their peace, we'll vote and we'll make a decision and we'll move on. And there have been times when there were votes that went four to one where I was the one. But that's okay. Um and I don't think it it's ever been the case that there
036have been any hard feelings or any disrespect between any uh board members uh during any of those uh discussions. And in terms of what do you do going forward? I mean, we were talking earlier about financial responsibility and whatnot. I mean, I have always been a strong advocate for financial responsibility. And again, people who have watched our meetings and remember votes leading up to referendums will recall that there have been times when I have said that the referendum the board wanted to support was for too much money. Um But nevertheless, I mean, the board made a decision and you know, I mean, that's our chance to go out to the voters and and seek that money. Um twice I uh referendums failed, we came back with a lesser amount and then they passed, which is
037what I think always should have happened. And it's all worked out. But again, the key to I think to the board's success over the years has been its collegiality and its willingness to work together. Nobody is on social media making snarky comments about other board members or about others involved in the public process. Nor should they ever do that. Totally unhelpful. Um We're all here for the good of the order. Thank you, Mr. Forston. Ms. Brenner, same question. As a teacher with 30 years of experience, I can resolve all of the problems. Um very good at resolving conflicts. And how you do that is you find where your common ground is. And you work together from there. You find where you agree and then you work your way to where you don't agree and get
038that process to where you can get it to where everybody's at least getting something out of the out of the process. Uh at no time are you ever going to get everything that everybody wants. It's not possible. But if everybody gets something, then you're fine. Um conflict is is a part of human nature. Uh you can't get three people to agree what or what the order on a pizza. So, how do you work it out? You work it out. Okay? You act like adults and you work it out. You discuss it. You talk about it. And once a decision is made, it's made. Um and that's when the board goes forth as a unified um body and supports the decision of the majority. Uh like Mr. Forston, I don't always agree with my husband. But
039once a decision was made, we went forth as a team pursuing that decision. Because that's as That's how a team works. Sometimes I won that one, sometimes he won that one. It's okay. We both ended up winning in the end. Uh same thing with the board and we have to keep in mind, what's the goal? Goal is the betterment of our students, our classrooms, our teachers, and our community. And if we all have the same goal, then we'll find a way to agree. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brenner. Mr. Heck. Well, uh Believe it or not, for three or four years I was in the military, I was assigned to uh do mission work with work with foreign nations. Um there's a lot of uh conflict with the different board members in those situations. In
040in fact, for six months I was trying to organize Israelis and the Palestinians working together back in 2013. So, that was a treat. Um but I I I I agree when I worked for the Dover Federal Credit Union, uh we took votes, nine members. Um Just like Ms. Mumford just said, like when when the board makes a decision, when it's a vote, um you got to stand by the other the other members. You can't look like you're disunited. You can't go out and attack everybody else who didn't vote the way you you voted for. You have to show um unity. Uh if you want to see disunity, just turn on the TV and watch what's going on in the world today and you you'll see all you can possibly want. Um but it's important, especially
041to the people the people in the community. It does not help the teachers. It does not help parents if a board sows discord among one another and whatnot. You you like she said, you have to have a unified message and get it across. Like yes, there are going to be people on both sides of an issue that either get what they want or what they don't want. But for the sake of the community and everybody involved, you have to show united front when you go out there. You like I said, you you can't Mr. Forston talked about making snarky comments on like MOT without rules and all that. Like that does not help. That does not help. Um like I said, you might not like what the vote came to and the decisions it made
042but you have to show unity because at the end of the day, it's all about giving the kids a better education in a district that isn't sown with discord. So. Thank you, Mr. Heck. I'm going to hand it out to Ms. Mumford. Thank you for the question, Dr. Graham. Um as I mentioned before, I work in politics, which can often be a dirty word. But one of the fastest things or earliest things you learn in politics is is how to compromise. The best policy from comes from, you know, high levels of discourse from people who might have vastly different ideas of how we get to the same goal collaborating. So, I think we start there. We start with collaboration. I also um have the I'm lucky enough to sit on the Public Education Funding Commission,
043which I think we'll talk about a little bit more in the future. But just as an example, we were tasked with developing a and recommending a new public education funding formula for the state of Delaware. About two months ago, we voted on our final recommendation or what was to be our final recommendation. And I was one of two folks that voted no on that recommendation because honestly, I thought it didn't go far enough. I don't think it's bad policy. I just thought we could have done a little bit better. And since then, I've done everything I possibly can to get what we did what did pass over the finish line at Legislative Hall because that's what we agreed on as a body and that's now the goal to to get what we accomplished what we
044all agreed on over the finish line because that was where the consensus was. So, I'm not a stranger to being in the face of disagreement and still having to move forward. Also, to to echo a bit of what um Mr. Forston said, I watch school board meetings up and down the state and the level of just respect and congeniality on the Appo School Board is unmatched, especially in New Castle County. So, I'm I'm hopeful that we can continue that level of respectability moving forward in the face of disagreements because at the end of the day, we're all adults and as previously mentioned, my husband and I don't disagree a little bit. We disagree a lot. Um but we still are able to keep a peaceful and happy household for our children by working as a
045team. Thank you. Mr. Higgins, I'll yield to you for the second question for the candidates. Thank you, Dr. Graham. You're welcome. For person For For For For excuse me. From personal experience, the uh intricacies intricacies of public education finance is one of the most if the most difficult uh undertaking I have I have to go through as a school board member. What working knowledge do you bring to the table that will help you get up to speed quickly and efficiently? And how would you work to strike a balance between ensuring high quality education and then managing of the financial burden on the taxpayers? Who do you want me to yield to first? Um Let's go to uh Ms. Mumford Uh thank you so much for the question, Mr. Higgins. So, as I mentioned, I have
046had the opportunity um to have a seat on the Public Education Funding Commission, which for the last two years has been immersed in drafting and recommending a new formula for how we fund education in the state of Delaware. So, what formula we use to get state dollars to the districts. And I have been working on that issue at my nonprofit for even longer than that. It's an issue that that's extremely near and dear to my heart. I've spoken with experts all over the country. I believe that I'm pretty well versed in the subject. Um what we have fought very hard to do is develop what we call a weighted student funding formula that treats the students in our district like unique individuals with unique needs and gets them the unique resources that they need. You'll
047hear the word unique a lot when I talk about funding formulas because funding is not funding programs is not a one-size-fits-all um situation. So that is work that I do in my day job that I have done for years now. So I don't think the learning curve is is quite as high for me there. We also are are talking on that funding commission about what we call equalization, which means like how how does each district leverage their local tax dollars effectively and equitably compared to their other districts. There's a lot of talk at the state level right now about how we change that formula to ensure that districts are not having to put too much of a burden on their local tax bases and I'm a big believer in reform in in referendum reform in
048its entirety. I think that's the direction that we need to be heading. Most districts across the country, most states across the country have headed in that direction as well. I also believe that when we talk about fiscal responsibility, once the state changes the funding formula at the state level, the amount of dollars that are flexible at the district level is going to increase vastly. So the number of power and responsibility of our school board members is going to be infinitely more than what it is now. So having folks folks in place that are familiar with that process is extremely important. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mumford. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Higgins. Ms. Brenner? Would you need me to re- read the repeat the question or you okay? I'm good. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> This
049is probably one of the areas that I am not as strong as Ms. Mumford in. Um and I would absolutely admit to that. Um although I am very uh fiscally conservative and I like to as a mom who raised four children, three of whom were boys and they were all teenagers at the same time, I know how to stretch a dollar. So uh you try to feed three teenage boys that are all playing football at the same time. Yeah, that's a financial challenge. So it's not that I'm immune or or ignorant of financial challenges. Um I'm also a quick study. I've been doing a lot of uh reading. I've been reading about the alternative funding proposal. Um and I see a lot of potential in it, a lot of good stuff there. Um I think
050it I I like the ideas that are coming with it. Um and by the time I'm sworn in, I promise you I will be up to speed and I my word is something I take very seriously and I am a pretty quick study. So. Thank you. Mr. Conlon? Um yes, in my industry, um technology constantly changes. So we always have to be um ready and um willing to um adapt to that. So we're always um learning something new. Um I handle budgets um with my design work and I have to be cost efficient with those budgets and I have to answer for them if there are costs overruns. So I I know I know how to handle money. Um for both professionally and personally. Um as far as uh financial burden on or the local
051tax base, I don't want to put any more burden on the tax base than there already um there already is. And if there's other avenues that we can generate revenue to help support education, I would um look for those avenues and see if we can get them done. Mr. Forston? Uh thank you. Um again, anybody who's been watching our meetings for the last 15 years knows that finances are a very critical issue for us here in Appoquinimink. I'm not sure I don't mean to sound cavalier about this. The funding formula that they're redoing down in in Dover at the General Assembly, that determines how much money we get. Once we know how much money we get, the question then becomes how do we best spend it? That's what the board is in charge of. That's
052the critical thing that the board needs to focus on. How do we spend that money? And you know, again, you've heard us say at the board a lot of times we we live on a shoestring here because uh when Ms. Brenner was mentioning all the financial upheavals, reassessment, uh electric bills and all this other sort of stuff, I don't think I mean we say this, but I don't think people I don't know if they care or they just don't hear it. We have the lowest tax base of all the school districts in New Castle County by far, meaning that when we have a tax rate and you multiply it by the tax base, we generate less revenue than any of the other school districts. And we also um have the lowest operating cost per student
053of any of the other school districts. So I mean we are I think as careful as we can be with our finances. Um and I mean I I won't say anything more about that. Equalization was mentioned. Equalization is huge because what happened, for example, in 2017, there were cuts to education spending. Our district lost $1.8 million in funding from Dover. It's never been restored. But the but they cut it based on the number of students and not your tax base. And so we didn't do it, but if we had wanted to make up that 1.8 million by increasing our own taxes, then we would have had to have raised our rate more than other school districts in uh New Castle County. So equalization is critical. It hasn't been done. It needs to be addressed. Uh
054we harp on that a lot at school board meetings. But the I think the big biggest thing I bring is I'm already in this immersed in this and know our finances stone cold. Thank you, Ms. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Higgins. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Forston. Mr. Hack? Well, uh as finance, I I I don't know about being squared away on the finance part of it. Misappropriated or spent wrong way with 4.9 million or whatever. However, that being said, um it it we are we are responsible to all the voters in the district. All right? Now, there's there's there's a lot of people that have a real vested interest are the parents of students who are coming in in the in the in the district. Um and what not. So so they're more willing to
055to pony up to pay for their child's education. There's a large group percentage of us that like Ms. Mumford was describing, she's a state employee. She doesn't get a cost of living increase. And all those things that are hitting her, she doesn't get. And there's a big group of voters out there that were responsible for demanding their funds and what wisely. Now, we we've heard about you know, the state taking over finance and that's the goal. At the at the end of the day, we're going to take the power away from the referendum referendum's going to disappear because the the state knows better than the than the voters in the district. When voters turn against a referendum because they say because it's too much money, we hate going back and asking the voters, "No, you
056got it wrong. We know better. Vote for the referendum." Um but you you can't go back to the voters and keep asking for more and more and more. Um and and the field basically remains the same. Uh I don't like it when when everybody doesn't have a voice at the table. And when the state takes that away from you, it's good for us because as a school board, you can say, "Oh, that every 5 years, 10% 10% 10%." I mean that's the goal. And then occasionally, you'll throw a referendum in the middle. Um So the way to do that, Mr. Forston probably knows, individual line items where you can cut where you cut what doesn't work and what does need or whatever. Um but there has to be a balance. We we just can't keep
057taking more and more and more. Like I said, probably the state's going to give that up and just take it over and referendums will be a thing of the past. So Um it's Thank you, Mr. Hack. That is your time. Thank you. Uh yield to you, board member Abrams. All right. Good evening, everybody. Listen, I have a few questions before I get to my questions. I have a few questions. Um it'll just lead up to everything just by show of hands. If you could just give me one second. I'm just personally looking at what you're saying. No follow up to that. You can Just by show of hands, um have you volunteered at any time in our schools? Do you have knowledge of the state of Delaware education funding system? Is that an easy one?
058Has any one of you worked on a school district committee? Do you have kids currently in the Appoquinimink School District? I do. My grandson's in next year. So by show of hands, how many hours do you think a typical school board member commits each month? 5 hours? You can raise your hand when you think you've got it. 5 hours? 10 hours? 15 hours? 20 hours or more? Is more than 20 hours? So my question leads into this. Serving on the school board requires a significant time commitment. Board members can expect to spend 20 plus hours each month committed to their role, attending board and committee meetings, responding to emails and phone calls, preparing for meetings, and studying legislation in order to stay up to date on the evolving landscape of public education. If each If
059you were elected, how do you plan to manage your schedule in order to stay dedicated to this role? I'm just going to write down so I can start listening. Well, that one's easy for me. I'm retired. Um I retired uh 2 years ago to take care of my husband who uh does have some health issues. Uh thankfully now he is doing better, which has freed up more of my time. But I remain retired. So, uh my time is my own and I plan on being a very active board member. I want to be the board member that visits different schools and talks to the kids and talks to the teachers and say, "Hey, what's going on? What's good? What's you know, what's the problem? What do you need?" >> [clears throat] >> I want to
060be the the one that shows up at community events and talks to people and going, "Hey, I'm a board member. What How can I help you? What What are your concerns?" Um so, being retired really opens up that time for me. I also plan on going down to Legislative Hall. I was just at a retired teachers event. I'm a member of the DSEA retired organization. And I was talking to their legislative uh person, uh Mike Grapentine, and and I told him, "If I win, uh you and I are going to be buds because we're going to get to know each other really well. I plan on being down there and I want to advocate for our students, for our district and say, 'Hey, we need legislature to support us, not make it more difficult for
061us.' Uh we need your your help. Uh the goal is the kids. The goal is our community's future, our state's future. We want to keep recruit and keep the best teachers. We need your help in that. Let's be partners. Um and since I'm retired, I have the time to do that. So. I have time. My My kids are grown. Um I raised them to be successful young men and I'm going to hopefully help other parents do the same. So, I have all the time in the world for this. Is it Forest then? Uh thank thank you. Um yeah, I agree that 20 hours is a low estimate on the time that uh it takes to really do the job well. Um I will also say in response to your question about kids, my wife and
062I were never blessed with kids. The only thing I'd change about my life if I could. But in terms of being able to devote time to this in the 15 years that I've been on the board, I have never missed a school board meeting. I've never missed a school board workshop. Um period. Um in fact, when COVID started, I was actually in the hospital for um I had gallstones and gallbladder removed. And that's the first meeting that we had via YouTube and the internet. And I was president at the time and I chaired the meeting from my hospital bed. I spared people what I looked like, so I kept the camera off. But the point is um yeah, I've always been here. I've been down to Leg Hall. I've met with county officials. I met
063with legislators. Um and done all of the kind of political advocacy that uh you would expect a school board member to do. I know a lot of them on a first name basis anyway. Um and then the school events, I go to school plays, I go to sporting events, I go to the science fairs and the other uh shows. Um I think all of that's important. I've toured schools. I've met with teachers. In fact, you know, I think sometimes the best conversations I've had in the last 15 years have been with the teachers because Elena Elena, you're right. I mean, it's they're the frontline troops. They're the ones who are in the trenches, so to speak. And so, they often have I think the best insights and best ideas. Um but it's all there. I
064mean, I've been doing it for 15 years. No I've never missed a meeting. I don't plan to miss any meetings in the next 4 years. Thank you. Mr. Rack. Well, I want to join the ranks of Mr. Mumford. I'm Mr. Mumford. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot your name. Hey, he just took 30 years off me. Hey, there you go. That is So, I want to join the ranks with you. Um I probably got 1 more year left as a teacher in Glasgow High School. Um because I hit retirement age there. Um so, that's good. Um also, I've been married 39 years. There's not a whole lot going in my house nowadays, so I got to I got to I got to slave free time >> [laughter] >> to to come and come and sit on
065on these things. Um and like I I I I don't use a lot of leave at work, so I got like 49 50 days that I have that I can burn. So, the trips to Legislative Hall and things like that, especially summers. Um I never missed a board meeting in the 7 years I was at Dover Federal. And we had all sorts of events, you know, be it we did our different banks locations. We went down to the nation's capital and we would lobby our congressmen down there for certain legislation. We went to Legislative Hall legislation down there. So, I'm I'm aware uh the school board probably takes a little more time than the Dover Federal Credit Union or whatnot. Um but like I said, with my with my current trajectory where I'm at, it
066should be no problem. >> [cough] >> Thank you, Mr. Mumford. I'm sorry. Thank you for the question, Mr. Abrams. Um so, I am not retired. I have two small children and just with a for a little bit of levity, I saw a quote the other day and it said the best thing about being a working mom is that you always feel like you're doing two things poorly. Um and that that cannot be more true. It's like when you're cleaning, you feel like you should be feeding your kids. When you're feeding them, you feel like you should be working. When you're working, you should be playing. It's there's there aren't enough hours in the day, but I have the same number of hours in my day as Beyoncé, I've been told. So, I think the the
067important thing is that I mean, you keep the main thing the main thing. Uh you decide what's important in your life and what you dedicate your time to and I would not be sitting at this table if I did not know that I had the allotted time in my schedule to do this and do it well. I don't believe in doing things halfway. I am blessed that I have a flexible schedule in my daily work schedule. My boss lives in Nebraska. Don't tell him I said that, but it allows me to have some flexibility with where and how I spend my time and opens up pockets here and there that other working moms might not necessarily have. I think the important thing isn't how much free time we have currently in our schedule, but whether
068or not and I believe everyone at this table is dedicated to maximizing the the time that they spend serving as a school board member because that's really what it is. It's service. I'm not getting out of anything out of running this position or running for this position. It is a volunteer position. I'm doing it because I believe I can make a positive impact in our community and in the lives of the 12,000 students in Appo. And I wouldn't be running for it if I wasn't committed to doing it well and doing it to the fullest extent of my abilities. Thank you. Thank you. Is that everybody? Thank you, Ms. Mumford. Um so, next question I'll bring forward for the panel. Um what are the key goals that you hope to achieve if elected? Just one
069in particular in no particular order. Mr. Forest, and we'll start with you. Well, I think we started this year, but I think the single most important thing that the school board and the school district need to focus on right now is um reads. And we had a presentation about that. I mentioned it at the start of the school year this school year. There's nothing more important, nothing more critical to my way of thinking than learning to read when you're in first grade, second grade, third grade because that sets the table for the rest of your academic career. Um if you can read, read well, read a grade level, then you know, as you get older in your school years, I mean, more and more of the instruction comes from reading. And if you're struggling in
070reading beyond third grade, then not only are you struggling in reading, but you're going to struggle in the classes that depend on reading. It is absolutely critical that we get reading right uh in those first three early years. The other thing I'd like to see, we talked about um high school curriculum this year and we had a presentation about that recently. Um you know, you heard me say earlier that um public education like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. And so, I think we need to find more ways to I'll say motivate and get kids more engaged throughout their high school career. Um you know, when I look back, well, we had only seven classes a day when I was in high school, 28 credits during my
071high school career. In Appoquinimink today, you can take 32 classes during your high school career. You don't need 32 credits to graduate, but you know, there are so many great classes you could take in addition to your pathway classes. You could take a class in photography. You could take a class in art. You could take a class in drama or music or cooking. I know my wife wishes I had taken a class in cooking. Um so, use that opportunity. Um one of my friends likes to say, "Youth is wasted on the young." And um sometimes it is, but if we can get our young people to focus on the wonderful opportunity they have so that they take more of these things, I'd like to see that. But reading literacy comes first and foremost for me.
072Thank you, Mr. Forest. And Ms. Mumford. >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. Thank you for the question. Um I agree with Mr. Forest and completely. I think early literacy is one of the areas where the state has really done pretty much all that it can. We passed a series of early literacy packages a a few years ago focused on curriculum alignment and and new standards and we've seen some of the early literacy numbers start to move a little bit, but now at the district level, we really have to double down on the implementation. We have to work to ensure that we are providing the right professional development for our early literacy instructors. We have to work to ensure that the early literacy coaches that are paid for by the state are being brought to and
073working with the teachers in the Appoquinimink School District. I think that Mr. Forston is right when he says, you know, it's so important to learn to read by third grade. We always say you learn to read up until third grade and after third grade you read to learn. And that's extremely important. If you're not set up for success in third grade, that's one of the only research-driven data points that we have as a society that shows whether or not a person will at some point in their life spend time incarcerated. So the ability to read by third grade can cannot be stressed enough. It's extremely important. I also think we're in the middle of a teacher shortage not just in Appo, not just in Delaware, but nationally. So as we continue to attract and retain
074good talent in Appoquinimink, I also think that it's very important that we're ensuring that we diversify our teacher pipeline. Right now we have almost 80% of our teachers are white and only 40% of our students are white. So having students be taught by teachers that look like them drastically changes their experience, their level of engagement, and the trajectory of their life moving forward. And I'm not just talking about diversity of race, but diversity of background. Are we getting business leaders to come in and teach get their their their licenses so that they they can teach business classes? Are we getting real-world scientists with experience to come in and teach science classes? So that's important as well. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mumford. Ms. Brenner. Um key goals for me, um and I'll come back to
075the reading in just a moment. My key goal is to rebuild trust within the community so that when we do have to come back and say we're sorry, but we need money that they trust us to use that money and that we have done everything we can not to ask for it up to that point. I think that the trust right now within the community is damaged and I want to rebuild that trust within the community. I bring a classroom first philosophy and I have had that philosophy my entire career. If it doesn't touch the classroom, why are we doing it? Because the only thing that matters is the classroom. That's where the rubber meets the road. That's where it all happens. That's where kids learn. That's where the magic happens. And if we're not
076putting that as our top priority, then what the heck are we doing? We have to create a classroom first mentality. It has to hit the classroom first in supplies, in teacher retention, in support for those teachers. Um as far as reading goes, absolutely we need to do that. And I think we need to look at other areas, not just in Delaware, but around the country. There's a thing called the Mississippi miracle and we're being beaten right now by Mississippi. And that's not a bad thing. I'm sure they're nice people, but dang it if they can do it, so can we. What are they doing that's working? Let's not be afraid to look around and see what's working for others and see how we can implement it here and make it work for our kids. That
077just makes sense to me. Um and finally in the last 20 seconds, um I want partnerships. I think that we need to build partnerships not just with parents, but also with the community. We have a YMCA. We have all kinds of uh service groups. Why aren't we tapping into those resources to support our classroom first philosophy? Thank you, Ms. Brenner. Um Mr. Heck. Did you read my website? Because I think that's one of the biggest things is rebuild trust with the community. I we talked about finance. We talked about like literacy and how low math scores are all that. I think though if we build the trust back into the school board, a lot of these things that are that are issues, we can we can attack more successfully. I believe or not, there is
078a lot of angst for at least from the people I've seen out in the community uh with what's going on. Now, the reality is how many are going to show up in the booth? Probably not a lot. There's probably going to be 1,200 voters that all sit home complain about how bad things are or whatever. If you get 200 votes, woo, you're in. Um So get the community involved, but I think a lot of the reason some of the involvement is down, they just don't have faith in the system. And when when we come up with these things with like money shortages and and low test scores or whatever, it's hard to instill in them like, "Hey, if you just give more, these these scores are going to get better. If you just give more
079to and believe or not, some of them will. Like I talked to Mr. Burrows today, you know. It it wonderful thing when I came to the school board meeting, the the school did went up like four points. And four points is a lot in a school district of going up in reading and that's a wonderful thing, you know. So, you know, part of that thing is he brings us bring us something with math that we can increase the math scores by four points. But it all starts with the trust. And if we don't get the trust of the general everyday Joe out there that is forced to see his property tax go up another $400, it's going to be for naught. We're still going to be those same son of a guns that that that
080they think we are or whatever. And and we just got to get the community involved and and get that trust back. Thank you, Mr. Heck. Last but certainly not least, Mr. Conley. What are your key goals? Thank you. Um to make sure the kids have a strong foundation in reading, writing, and math skills. It's good to have 20,000 other classes and languages and things like that, but if you don't have those um down pat, you're going to be poor on the other things, too. So um I will also like to >> [clears throat] >> try to encourage a nurturing environment for the kids in school where the kids can learn and the teachers can teach and they have the classroom management under the under under wrap where both goals are being accomplished without any distractions
081within the classroom. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Conley. And so with that panel, we um are going to conclude. We thank you all for your courageous steps in moving forward to run for election. We wish you all well on the campaign trail. And for the public, there are two seats open. This is the result of the reconciliation of the requirement of five-year terms versus four-year terms. So this is the first year and the only year that we will have two seats open. So we encourage you to come out on Tuesday, May 12th and vote for your two top school board candidates. Hopefully as you have heard them present this evening and I'm sure as they are campaigning campaigning, they will be on lots of different forums. And so I encourage you to follow their social media
082and to engage with them directly. And so as a reminder as I said at the outset, voting is Tuesday, May 12th. It will take place from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And the following locations are included at Bunker Hill, Cedar Lane, Marion Profit Training Center where we are, Middletown High, Old State Elementary, Olive B. Loss Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and Townsend Elementary. Of note, not all of our schools in the district are voting locations. Um we do not have anybody signed up for public comment, correct? Um and so next we have our establishment of meeting dates. The Financial Advisory Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31st in the board room of the Marion Profit Training Center. And our next regular board meeting next regular Board of Education meeting is Tuesday, April 14th
083at 7:00 p.m. in the board room of the Marion Profit Training Center. With that, we are adjourned.