001e good evening everybody uh my name is Richard forston I am the vice president of the ainx school board our president Michelle wall could not be here this evening she is not feeling well uh with me at the table to my far left is one of my fellow school board members Miss tashiba Graham and then in between the two of us is our superintendent Dr Burrows Dr Matt buroughs tonight we're here as we do every spring before an a school board election tonight we're here for a candidate forum and our goal this evening is to kind of review what it is to be a Schoolboard member and all the fun things you get to do for no money and um and then we will hear from our candidates we will give them each a 4minute
002uh period to kind of describe them themselves and describe why they're running and why we should vote for them and then that'll be followed with questions uh from the board so with that why don't we go ahead and get started let me say we've got uh two uh of our four candidates uh here this evening here at the uh Schoolboard uh Chambers if you will we have uh Candace oino Candace osino and then with us via Zoom I think we've got Britney Murphy right mford excuse me mford so thank you for joining us um I understand that you had some scheduled vacation so I'm glad that you could at least join us through Zoom there are two others uh who aren't here uh at the moment um we have uh Tim Johns who is running
003and Norm Abrams who is seeking reelection neither of them are here at the moment but we did say we'd start at o' um so with that um why don't we start as we always do our school board functions with the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of aliance 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 okay so um those of you who are watching at home right now you can see on the screen we've got it says Board of Education candidate forum and we've just got a brief PowerPoint uh to walk through that uh will explain or review uh the school board election process what it means to be a school board member and all that sort
004of good stuff so Steve you want to go to the next slide you have the clicker click along there we go okay so um every this the second Tuesday of every May is when there are School Board elections so that means the Schoolboard election will be Tuesday May 14th um the polls open at 7:00 a.m. and they close at 8:00 p.m. and there are seven polling places Bunker Hill Elementary Olive be loss uh this building Marian uh profit Training Center townend Elementary Cedar Lane Elementary Old State Elementary and Middletown High School um so i' I've already given the names of the four candidates who are running Norm Abrams Timothy Johns Candace jino and Britney Mumford keep clicking us along here mat yeah you are not the AV assistant um and just by a way of
005reminder and I think this is always a good thing that for us to all remind ourselves about um the school district has both a vision statement and a mission statement um our vision is to provide a worldclass education so that our students will contribute as leaders in a global society and then our mission statement is to create an educational system where each student is engaged Ed supported and successful we have a number of core values first and foremost our single uh most important guiding principle or core value is to always do what is best for the students and so you'll hear us say that a lot at Schoolboard meetings and then flowing from that we've got a number of other values we hold a high expectation of Excellence we work to inspire trust we always
006try to communicate with transparency which is why you're watch at least I hope some of you are watching this uh via uh YouTube and we now of course do record all our meetings and broadcast them out on YouTube for those of you who can't make it here so there's a lot of transparency we act in a very fiscally responsible way I think um if you have seen any of our referendum presentations or you've tuned in to some of our board meetings um you'll know that we spend the lease per student uh of any of the districts here in Newcastle County um and yet I think we're getting really good results and in fact I think we might even be the best school district in Newcastle County um we Foster leadership at every level we actively
007engage with our community um we recognize others and we cultivate mutual respect for everybody so those are our core values first and foremost we do what's best for the students um and the district motto of the world is our campus and District beats is something you'll also uh hear us refer to from time to time uh collaboration and creativity critical thinking um and communication and that's the way we engage folks um so to run for School Board of course the filing deadline has now passed but to run for Schoolboard you need to be a citizen of the United States and live in the district you have to be at least 18 years old uh or older uh when you're elected um as I say you have to live in the district you cannot be a
008paid employee of the district and um you cannot have been convicted of uh embezzlement or fraud um so tonight we're here for our candidate Forum as I said earlier we're going to um give each of our candidates four minutes uh to speak um other things to be a Schoolboard candidate you have to P pass a criminal background check and a child protection registry check there's a couple of ground rules that we we're going to go over um I don't think that they're all that surprising or shocking but it's important that everybody know what the ground rules are um there's no campaigning for school board in the schools and no candidate is to request that students or employees of the district contribute or work for their reelection um although people obviously you know teachers and employees
009of the district can volunteer you just can't ask them uh to do it um we do not allow for the distribution of campaign materials uh on school board on School District uh property we can't post signs on School District property except starting at 5:00 the night before the election you can put out yard signs and other signs they have to be at least 50 ft from the entrance to the polling place if you're going to put out signs um but only starting at 5:00 the night before the election so if you put something out a week before the election we're going to take it down not because we don't like you but because um we're just not doing that until the night before the election ction um moving on um talked about the fact that
010campaign materials aren't to be distributed uh in the schools although if you rent what you can do you can rent a school room or a room for a campaign event or a campaign meeting you could obviously bring in your materials to that meeting but you don't then go around the halls and start trying to hand them out or you know put up signs or stickers anywhere um political materials are also I'll say allowed to be used in as classroom teaching AIDS in a nonpartisan way that's really not an issue for candidates uh Middletown has its own rules about posting signs um and delot also has rules about posting signs you can't post signs along roads until it's 30 days before the election and they have to be at least 10 ft off the edge of
011the pavement so wherever the the paving ends you got to go 10 ft beyond that otherwise Del Dot's pretty ruthless and uh they will come along and they'll pull your signs and um then they'll send you a nice letter saying that you owe them I think it's $50 a sign it's some outrageous sum oh it's 100 they tell me yeah it's gone up so moral of the story just don't get your signs pulled um so now I want to shift focus a little bit and Toba feel free to join in if if you want to emphasize something I'm saying um and just talk about what the function is of the school board there are five of us in app quinic um who are elected by the voters uh as the kind of the board of
012directors if you will uh for the school district we each have a term of four years um we do not get paid it is all volunteer um but it's important work which is I think why you see people interested in wanting to do it um and what are our primary responsibilities just like the board of directors for any company or Corporation the school board sets the vision the goals for the district um we adopt the policies and set the direction and priorities um for the district and then we monitor those goals we monitor those priorities to make sure we're making progress we hire and in and evaluate the superintendent um we're also involved in hiring other administrators um we oversee the finances um so we adopt an an annual budget we monitor the budget as
013the year progresses to make sure we're still on Target and on track and uh things like that and again uh if you been watching our meetings for the last uh couple months you've seen that we had to cut the budget recently because when the referendum failed in December that meant we were going to have a short fall and so we had to cut that's you can't spend money you don't have um and then one of the other things we do of course is we um negotiate and oversee the the contracts with our teachers and our other employees um a second going in the wrong direction so question what makes an effective School Board member um I think there's a lot of different ways you could go with the answer to this question and I presume
014that uh our candidates will tell them why they think they'll be an effective Schoolboard M um my own view is that you always get out of something what you put into it and so you know when I show up at Schoolboard meetings I have a notebook which is all the materials that are going to be discussed at that particular meeting and I'll have gone through them before we get to the meeting um you just have to be involved and be engaged um you know I'm not going to read that definition we can get to the next slide or can we I'm sorry is that the last one no need your so here's just a uh a list of uh some of the things that will help you if if you're School Board member if you're
015if you're the person selected um you know again we're trying to set a vision for the district we want to communicate with the community um the five of us I think even though we're five separate individuals I think we all listen to each other we respect each other and we work as a team and we recognize that whatever decision the board makes we're going to support that decision because you can't have uh people pulling in different directions um we adopt a fiscally sound District budget um and you know I like to say we never forget that we're spending other people's money sometimes I think in Dover they forget that and again on this list you'll see it probably should have been the top bullet point but it's number five we focus on what is best
016for students that's always always always what we do and then the last item on this we Advocate at the local and state level for public education and that takes a lot of different forms so sometimes we're down in Dover um lobbying on legislation lobbying for funding changes in funding changing in changes in funding formula um our current board president Michelle wall um was a big booster of a midyear unit count and uh you know ordinarily and historically for years your funding was from the state was set on the number of students you had enrolled on September 30 of the school year uh and the fact that you continued to grow after September 30 didn't matter you were still stuck with the money based on the number of kids you had on September 30 uh here
017in AP quinic we continue to grow after September 30 we've gone up about what uh 30 40 students since the September 30 unit count in 2020 3 CL 85 85 okay so we and so the good news is since there's now a second un count that's done uh at the end of January we can get additional monies for at least some of those students who come in after September 30 it took many years uh to get that legislation uh passed and there it is again the primary goal is to focus on our kids and the success of our students all right so we're going to give um candidates as I say a few minutes to speak and that's where we are so uh let's shall we just go alphabetical here that means I got to
018remember um I'll just yeah Candace that makes you first so Steve can you put up like a 4 minute timer well I'm indifferent so Britney do you want to go first okay she's giving us a thumbs up is your speaker on it is yes can you guys hear me yes we can hear you let me know when my time starts all right it has started um good evening my name is Britney Mumford and I'm running for Schoolboard thank you to the Schoolboard members for for organizing this event and having us all here this evening um I am a variety of different things but um number not number one but I'm a big wrestling fan I'm actually the first female referee in the state of Delaware and my dad and I go to the NCA tournament
019every year so I am zooming in from Kansas City Missouri I am not on a super warm exciting vacation I am watching a wrestling tournament so I appreciate you all letting me join you um remotely I am running for school board for three main reasons uh one I think one is a refocus on improving math and literacy skills ainc does lead the state but uh to be fair that that's not saying much right now we still are operating at about 48 um percentage Proficiency in English language arts and 40 in math and I think some targeted ways that we can do that are ensuring that our teachers get access to the professional development programs that they need to incorporate the science of reading program science of reading is a curriculum that the state passed last
020year that's had really amazing results across the country and super excited um for it to get to work in the state of Delaware and additionally some targeted tutoring programs as well um secondly I want uh the school board to play a more active role as the state undergoes redefining or possibly implementing a new funding form fora I love that Mr Fon brought that up our formula in the state of Delaware is from 1942 it's extremely outdated and it's based on what adults need to run the system not on what our students need to learn we need to break away um from the unit count entirely and go to a resource or student focused system um secondly I'm a mom I have a one-year-old who is going to go to schools within the appic school district
021I am a product of public education myself I've seen the power that public education can have in people's lives and I want it to continue to create possibilities for this generation and for future Generations I think we're we're falling short of what our kids need and we need a reset on what the priorities of the district and to be totally honest the state are when it comes to education in my day job I work in education policy I work with national researchers um National policy collaborators and I also work in at the state level um down in do advocating for improvements to the Delaware education system so education is something that I'm very familiar with it's something I'm very passionate about and I will bring that passion to the school board as a as a
022policy Advocate and as a mom um you can find out more about me on my Facebook page feel free to send me a message I live right up by Port pen I'm happy to talk through any ideas any concerns that you may have I am a very transparent person I'm an open book I love meeting folks for coffee and having discussions so please reach out and I hope to earn your vote on May 14th all right and you did it with 42 seconds to spare so excellent thank you um Candace yep okay I guess my time Starts Now hi um I'm Candace Hino I am running for school board and there are a lot of key points and um I'm a very multifaceted different kind of person so first off I've been in Delaware for
02320 years um we moved here in the year 2000 when our oldest daughter um was 1 years old um I was College Bound but then I decided to start a family and um have my daughter first that little girl from year 2000 when she was 1 is now 24 years old and just graduated from the University of Delaware and so um even though I've been a person who's always supported everyone I feel like it was my time now that my daughter's older to kind of give back um education is in my blood um I am come from a afro Latino family Puerto Rican the sent um folks from my family went to New York um and then we've been in Del for all that time um I am the daughter of teachers um education is
024super important it's not just about what you learn in the um School room but also what you do at your home I'm a big advocate in bringing education in everything that you do whether you're you know walking with a preschooler and Counting the steps as they go up or using as many words as possible so that you increase your child's vocabulary and I feel like that's a perspective that needs to come into the school district somebody who um who's raised a child with limited resources when I was younger um me and my husband we got married as um we're High School sweethearts he's in the room with me we'll be married 20 years um and it's been a long road of um you know working with very little to Growing our career taking care of
025our child where we were in our early 20s then having our second daughter um you know she had some health issues when she was first born and then also on top of all that um you know breaking away from that cycle of poverty mental health and also um learning disabilities and so when I come to you I come to you as someone who has lives life and has a huge journey in being someone who's self-reflective self-learning and always wanting to do better for my kids and for the kids that are all around me and the biggest thing that I see in a lot of what we're doing and Appo quinic does a great job um but I know we can do better in supporting kids who have learning disabilities um I know that we can
026do better with kids who are just neurode Divergent in general and then also supporting mental health I love the programs that Apple quinic started doing with the monthly meetings and supporting parents in that way and I would love to be able to grow that with using the resources that we have I know we have I an americore member from back in the day I was a public Ally and I know using our assets are super important so just when I say that we want to do stuff to bring more tutoring to school to support parents to help folks in mental health I know that we can do that without spending extra dollars because we have resources and educated and wonderful people here in our district whether they be parents or neighbors that can come and
027bring that support and I would like to bring the assets we have and en and enrich the students experience and give them those wraparound services so they can be successful um and so this is why I'm running um I'm someone who works at the University of Delaware and I see how education and how folks who have access to certain education can do better and some don't and so I want to feel and I want to create a systems where all students of all socioeconomic backgrounds can um grow and make the best of their lives and do amazing things and so that's why I'm running and I hope you would vote for me okay well thank you very much um so I've got some questions that I thought I would throw out to Shea you have
028a question or two you want to ask I have some questions I have questions from myself and also from our president you want to go first sure I I've got some questions from Nelle dwit who could not be here tonight so I'll start with a question from her um and to avoid being too long-winded because we there are some questions that you know we could spend 20 minutes talking about and that would not be enough time to cover the topic so we'll ask that you try to take no more than a minute to answer the question but you know if you're in the middle of an answer and it's going to need a little more time I'm not as strict as others are in U cutting people off so question number one and since we
029started with Miss wford um why don't we start with you Candace what specific initiatives or changes do you believe are needed to enhance educational outcomes for students well I'll I'll be brief but um I mentioned this before when I was introducing myself um using the resources we have in our school um I have um friends who go their children go to the district and um you know single parents um and you know there's two households and sometimes it's not the easiest to support a student if they're not doing well in math or science and then we have students in our appicon School District that have more resour more resources or able to do better in math and science and so why are we not taking those students in making study groups that and giving kids
030the opportunity to support each other when my mom was teaching for 30 years in New York she used to always teach in all the level she could whether it was in the classroom and then if she needed to support kids in a group in a peer group I mean there's so many ways to help kids and I feel like having kids help each other whether it's one grade you know high schoolers helping middle schoolers or middle schoolers helping Elementary School I think if we made those more formal programming and we were able to support kids in that way then then parents don't feel like they have to come out of their pocket for um you know tutoring I know as a mom when I was young parent I you know had to sacrifice time and
031effort and even my income to make sure that my daughter was hitting her marks in science and doing well um but if we can as a community support each other and then those students who are doing better in one subject with it's math for science maybe they're not doing as well in another subject and then they can support each other in that way so formalizing tutoring groups and peer study groups I think would be great at a lower level whether in elementary or in Middle School okay without using a lot of resources all right Britney I'll repeat the question what specific initiatives or changes do you believe are needed to enhance educational outcomes for students um so two and a half things one thing is one and a half so one tutoring yes but specifically
032high dosage tutoring it's been proven to be extremely effective all across the country so frequent tutoring in small groups for our students um that is led by an instructor it has increased outcomes and helped students catch up after learning loss from covid and summer programming and these specifically for are most struggling or our lower performing students um opportunity funding is something that the governor's office um has mentioned they would like to see used for programs like tutoring or like high dosage tutoring and the state is actually forming a tutoring task force to figure out how the state can get more funds to districts to implement these types of programs so specific and targeted programs like those and additionally uh the Schoolboard being an active member in the change to the funding formula one of the
033problems that we have is that students our our lowincome our multilanguage Learners and our special education students do not receive targeted additional resources through our current funding formula if we had a a weighted student funding formula that focused on getting those students the specific resources that they need to learn then we would see an improvement in student outcomes as well okay great thank you tashiba sure so um my first question is is on behalf of our president and her question is um or more of the statement first part School Board is a volunteer role have you volunteered with the school district before and if yes in what capacity so Britney why don't you start this time so no I have not volunteered with the school district before uh we recently moved to Middletown about a
034year and a half ago I have a one-year-old and I was pregnant right before that so those are my those are kind of my excuses um I am an active Community member I have volunteered in previous communities um in a variety of different ways I am active in the Delaware wrestling Community as well I volunteer at the Beast of the East every year and I work political campaigns up and down the East Coast for free because I'm a crazy person um I guess but I I I I apologize for not being a more active member of my appoquin community more recently uh that is not something that is indicative of who I am as a person or who I would be as a Schoolboard member thank you Candace um so I have volunteered in my
035daughter's school um at dances um doing ticket sales fundraising um at the Black History Fair the last two years um so I try to as much as I can support the school through booster club as well um and then before we moved to the aponic school district um my daughter was at Charter School of Wilmington and we were living in Newark and so whenever I could support you know in going to the school to support the kids in their activities um selling you know treats I would try to do that as well um and just being a support to kids in general so if my daughter had you know kids who needed support help someone to talk to just providing resources and I'm a big advocate for volunteering um the reason I'm even in this
036room is because of public allies it's an americore program that I did TW um 10 years ago which led to my career um working there now and we learned all about the importance as an americore member of giving back to your community in all these ways so I continue to do that as my career and as a parent thank you question um have you been actively sharing the importance of the upcoming referend om with your friends and neighbors and if so how um so me first um yes I have so um I voted in the last referendum in December and right before I looked up how you calculate it and I had some friends kind of say oh I don't want my taxes raised and and then I think people were on not really understanding
037how to calculate it based on on um your a certain value of your home um and I was explaining that to people that basically it's not as much as you think and also look at all the safety issues that it would affect because I know for me my daughter's in agw waters um and having that space in the back of the school where the buses can can go would avoid so many things um that is a very busy Corner um where um the cedo lane campus is and anytime there's any issues accidents whatever it affects the whole street um so if we can avoid less dangerous things on that corner so that the the school buses can kind of have a space to go and students have a space to go then we can avoid
038having everyone whether they're a student or a parent or whoever be affected by the traffic and get through 896 I think we can all agree that that would be helpful um and so you know that is something that I kind of talk to my friends and family about first of well it's not that much like do the calculations correctly here's how you find it and also hey you know you love you you love kids you and maybe your child's not in the district but here's how it would affect me and my child and kind of giving people that perspective um connects them to the to what's happening thank you Britney same question so yes I have uh I've added it to my personal Facebook page my campaign Facebook page and I've been knocking on doors
039last two weeks and talking to folks about it at the door as well which has given me a a unique opportunity to address some direct concerns which has been mostly good sometimes scary if I'm being honest um but for a lot of folks it is a decent amount of money and they're really concerned about it and they want to see the impact that their money is going to have and they want to know why they should do it so being able to have those really real conversations with folks one-on-one and best address those concerns has been I think beneficial for you know my attempt in helping to get the referendum pass but also given me a look into you know what people want from their Schoolboard member and being able to be that liaison between
040the public and the school board and just making feel more making folks feel more comfortable about their vote in April so I've really enjoyed I know it's kind of crazy to go through a Schoolboard election with a referendum looming at the same time but I've really enjoyed that because of the your the unique perspective into what actually being a school board member would be like and the unique opportunity to connect with voters and people as well sounds good thank you great thank you so I'm just gonna throw out a question that would not hopefully anticipated um you're starting to see articles kind of in literature and the Press suggesting that that schools should not allow students to have smartphones during the school day and so um we'll start with Britney I mean do you think
041that's a good idea bad idea why or why not I think it's a good idea and I think it's a bad idea um I think that there is an opportunity to create restrictions on smartphone access during the school day that would potentially you know help limit students from being on phones during class which is a hugee problem but I think for parents especially with the rise in certain types of violent activities at schools in the United States being able to have that instant access to their children is something that's really important to them and a lot of them would not react kindly to being told that students could not bring their devices into school what I think we need to focus on because one of the other main issues when it comes to devices in
042schools is cyber bullying and the things that students are actually doing on those phones and the things that we have access to one of the things that we can do is make sure that we're over educating our children about how to act on the internet the types of things they're looking up and just cyber um I I can't think of the right word right now like e ethics is the word that's coming to me it's not the word I want to use um just how students should act when they are using their devices I do not think that outlawing device usage at school entirely is the correct answer ISO um yes so I I'm feeling similar to Britney and that that um anytime you try to tell anyone in human nature that they can't have
043something especially middle schoolers and high schoolers if anyone is apparent of that um you will understand it's not always um something that you can really reinforce and I think it would put undue pressure on um Administration and staff to kind of monitor do you have it do you have your you know your phone or your device um and so even with not a formal like you can't have your device in school I already know that that's become an issue and takes up a lot of teaching time so I think the best way um to deal with smartphones in the school is not to just ban them but to continue to educate um students and parents on the usage of that device and then also kind of promoting you know and making things more exciting and
044fun sometimes um as adults we use our smartphones in meetings right um I know I've been to tons of conferences where they're like okay pull out your phone and go and do a survey everyone let's see what everyone says you know their favorite ice cream is and then you'll see a word bubble and you'll see chocolate and vanilla and you know and so I think instead of um and I'm not saying the smartphone should replace or you know you know books and learning and teaching I think that's super important but maybe finding ways to kind of implement it into the school while at the same time blocking out um sites using you know the network so that they're don't have access to things that are going to be too out of out of what they're
045doing at school um and so that they can focus in school but I think it would be more of a distraction to tell um kids and parents like they can't have their device because of safety and communication um but there's a way to kind of merge it to involve it in school and then also kind of take it and segue to the lesson so okay both both fors and I'm going to ask another question from uh our board member Nichelle dwit I guess we'll start with um Miss Rino how would you address issues of diversity equity and and inclusion Within our district um can um Michelle elaborate a little bit um did she say a little bit more about now I mean I mean that's how she put it so I she could be here
046tonight but how would you address issues of diversity equity and inclusion within our district so there's a lot of directions you can go on that yeah yeah absolutely so this is actually super important to me um you know um the work that I do in public allies is you know my full-time job is to um give people a voice um who necessarily wouldn't have a voice in the nonprofit sector by giving them a an apprenticeship um and we you know are very big on diversity inclusion and I live it and work it and work it every day and teach it every day um but when it comes to students I think the biggest thing is giving students context of and and you do that through history and education so you know I take as a
047parent every opport Unity to talk to my daughter about her history you know I am um a Puerto Rican descent and also U my dad is African-American so I have both stories of at people of African descent in Puerto Rico I talk to her about you know stories of family of coming to us and how hard that was for my grandmother when she first came and language barriers to my dad being um a Seventh Generation african-amer in United States and how um his family in the South migrated to the north in that whole story and so I think how you create um diversity inclusion is showing folks how we all have things in common you know no matter what you know race or ethnicity you are what language you speak we all want the best
048for our kids we all have these amazing crazing stories that show perseverance and um if you teach kids these his this history and this context of the folks of of Delaware the folks of the United States and how we've all over come um then that is a great way to get students to kind of understand like oh so that's the context of why these things happen is that that's why we have HBCU and Del stat is there because you know um schools weren't always integrated and students needed a place to go if they wanted to go to high school and Beyond and then there is more of an understanding of why um that diversity inclusion is important because we're still building on um the very complicated history that the United States has had and you
049know specifically Delaware I know that schools didn't integrate here until 1981 I mean that I was born in 1981 that's not that long ago it's only 43 years um and so uh I think all those those contexts of knowing where we came from how far we've come and then the the little stories of like you know our grandparents and how they've overcome um in the context of education and the world um and access I think are all great ways to to promote diversity inclusion okay thank you for the record we did integrate before 1981 but anyway um miss wford you want the question again how would you I'm okay okay um so first I just I want to Echo everything that Candace said uh she is such an amazing story and I think yes telling
050our stories is a huge piece of it fun fact schools in Delaware were never technically desegregated housing was was segregated and that's what caused our schooling to be segregated it's just a fun fact about the court case but um so yes telling our stories sharing the actual Real History of the United States is extremely important the state went a long way with um House Bill 198 that required the teaching of African-American history but it didn't provide a heck of a lot of context and some districts have done a great job and some have done a really cool job so making sure that Appo continues to go to do a good job in integrating African-American history um Latina history LGBT history the history of the history of all of the Unique Individuals that make up the
051Appo District need to be a part of our curriculum but then additionally and this is where the school board um can really play a bigger role is increasing diversity within our educator pool one of the the best ways that uh children have you know learned that they can be anything they want to be is by seeing themselves in their teachers and in their administrators and making sure that we make it um we create divers diversity not in just our educator pool but also diversity in the pathways that lead people to become Educators so that working moms um who don't have the time to get a regular four-year bachelor's degree that are looking at potentially like night programming and different Pathways to become Educators have those opportunities and those access so that we're really seeing all
052different types of people within our school system in places of power um and doing all of the great things so that our students can see that you know they can see themselves in the people that surround them okay great thank you Sheba yes so both of you have spoke of tutoring so that aside um what would be something a unique program or initiative that you would um pursue in an attempt to increase student engagement and enjoyment and learning do I have an unlimited budget in this scenario yeah yeah yeah this is meant to be a little bit lighter than our questions so far so you can pretend we have all the funds at like one of the school districts in the north and we have we're all happy so yes love this world um one
053of the things that I would like to see the school district do um would actually be piloted after a program that is done in Denver public schools I think it's called Den I want to call say that it's it's called Denver leaps uh and where they provided families it was means tested but they provided uh families with let's say, doll that families could use for educational enhancement activities not for tuition only for educational enhancement activities so things like um after school programming the boys and girls club uh soccer lessons we know that kids learn a lot through Athletics painting a variety of different programs to really enhance their experience and embrace the idea that learning does not happen in a vacuum it doesn't just happen within the four walls of a school there's a variety
054of different ways and paths that our students can take to learn and encouraging them but really enable enabling families to sneak seek out those opportunities can you repeat the question one more time please yeah so uh tutoring aside the high dosage tutoring that the both of you spoke of what is like an initiative that um you would pursue in an attempt to increase student engagement and make learning fun um money is you know no obstacle because we we're talking like successful referendum and all that yeah when life will be all good all right next month I know right the referendum will pass for sure um so I think that um and this is totally um a little bit selfish but um I think more more um unconventional um Sports programs specifically I'm thinking of um
055like skateboarding and rollerblading and roller skating um it would be so cool if we had a place where um students could um do that together and and and compete and learn different um just be able to express themselves in different ways um other than the typical Sports of soccer and and football but like cuz some students feel like okay I'm not the most athletic and but I do want to move my body and I do want to you know get involved in a team so if we could have an opportunity for students to do um unconventional Sports and other sports that are a little bit different and then um be able to um have a place for them to do that um and then also provide you know food and snacks and all that for
056the students so that even if they don't have the money um or the resources to um you know go out and H and have you know that that extra time um that you know like you know when you're going out and you're doing a club after school I remember being a kid and being like oh man I don't have money for a snack and there's no school lunch so how am I going to eat um so that when uh all these hours after school I'm not starting starving and when I get home I have a headache and then I have to do school work so you know providing that dinner and snack and and also staff to kind of support students in their mental health Journey too because I think the biggest things that um
057middle schoolers and high schoolers need is just more support systems and more places that are more uh unstructured fun with a little bit of structured activities um so in a perfect world they would have food they'd have some staff and some folks that support them and some resources um and just a place to kind of just lay it out and have a good time and get themselves moving thank you question I've got one question I'm saving I'm going to say for the end but uh do you have any other questions no all right well so why don't we do this um I'm gonna ask a final question and then we'll give you each three minutes just to make a final uh pitch to the voters as they say and my question and so people are
058probably going to roll their eyes when I ask this but whenever I interview people I always like to ask him what's your favorite movie and why so when as the book so Candace so favorite movie or book all right favorite movie or book I will we'll combine accept a friendly Amendment okay oh my God I love so many movies so that one's a tough choice do I pick a musical do I pick a dramatic comedy um if you pick my favorite movie you get bonus [Laughter] points um so you know the one that comes to mind for me is gladiator from the year 2000 Russell Crow um that's such a good movie I didn't pick a musical the whz that was my second choice but um I love Gladiator because of the Underdog Story um
059someone who who's been counted out um that you know and also someone who may have achieved some things and then gets knocked down it has to kind of rebuild and so I've experienced that many times in my life you know I came from parents who were teachers who were you know um you know successful but we had mental health issues you know alcoholism in our family you know um people who had schizophrenia you know in our family and so that even though we had achieved these things you know um it was tough but I know that even though you might come from a mixed background where you have some things going good for you and other things that are a little harder um and even in my own life as as a parent you know
060it's been a challenge but I always know that you know I can be Marcus Aus you know and make the CL you know that that Proclamation that I will come back and I will retain and I will do what I need to do for my family and my kids and so if you have that passion if you have that love for family community and for making the folks and your kids better I think that's the biggest thing and you know when you count out kids um you should never do that because when you do that you end up realizing that you are missing out on big opportunities for kids who could do amazing things in the world um and so I try never to count anyone out and I and I just hope that um
061you would give me an opportunity to support you and give all my love and passion and support um to your students and be a voice for the Latino um folks folks who don't speak you know English as their first language to folks who you know at one point didn't do so great financially and had to build themselves up um to the teen parent and then to the I guess what you would call regular age parent now that my daughter um you know I had her a little bit later in life um so I have that big gap but um you know anything that's happened any issue I've had in life I've I've always found a way to problem solve um along with my husband of we going to be 20 years we've been married we
062met in high school um so no matter what I think the great thing about that Gladiator movie is that we keep moving forward and we believe ourselves and we overcome despite our circumstances all right well in the words of Russell Crow we are entertained and and you'll be happy to know that that they're actually working on a second Gladiator movie so couple years maybe that'll come out all right Miss Mumford what is your favorite movie and why so sorry you can say book I struggled with do I want to say something that's gonna make me sound really smart and thoughtful or do I want to be honest and I landed on honest my favorite movie is Armageddon it makes you laugh it makes you cry it makes you think it was a big thing in
063my family when I was growing up so I kind of like imprinted on it and it just makes me feel like this very nostalgic happy way um I my husband will not watch it with me he has never watched it with me all the way through and we've been together eight years because after about 25 minutes he's really tired of me quoting every single line and no longer wants to continue watching the film and so that is my favorite my favorite movie my favorite book is called a little life I read it recently will not go into what it's about it is um it will break you as a person but it is totally worth it and I just want to tout it because I think everyone should go read that book it's absolutely life-changing
064Armageddon is the movie with Bruce Willis yep sure is yeah okay that is a good one that year was um best picture that year was Shakespeare and love which I guess is you know much better better like cinematic event than Armageddon but I disagree Saving Private Ryan also came out the same year it also did not win best picture people were that's considered a major upset to this day okay so that brings us to our final three minutes we'll let you each make a closing statement Steve if you want to set the clock and why don't we start with uh Miss Mumford you got three more minutes but you don't have to use it all but three minutes just to wrap up or if there's something that didn't come up during the course of questions
065that you want to emphasize or bring to our attention uh it's the floor is yours awesome so just first and foremost thank you again to the board for hosting this event um and to uh Dr burrow and thank you to everyone from the public who has joined us I know that everyone's you know you're making dinner for kids you're cing them to and from soccer practice and taking the time to become an Engaged and and educated member of your community on the election is is a big commitment so I appreciate that if there's anyone that's watching it now or anyone that watches it later on YouTube again that has any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to me uh because I'm really smart my phone number is on my organization's web page it's
066as my personal phone number is also my work number so I'm a super accessible individual uh feel free to text me shoot me an email at Mumford for Appo gmail.com and we can find some time to get coffee uh we are currently in my day job working to change the name of our organization from Delaware can to Delaware kids can and I think that's just really embodies as as well just who I am as a person kids can they need us to give them the tools and the opportunities but every kid can learn and I sorry I really just love that that's one of the values of the Epic quinic School Board is that we're always doing the best for the kids because that's really why we should all be here and that's absolutely why
067I am here because I believe in the students in a quinic and I want to continue uh to make their lives and their educational experience better all right well thank you very much misso I um also I'm really grateful for this time um I was super nervous coming here and and talking um so officially um I've been someone who's always promoted you know for others and supported others so I feel a little bit awkward talking about you know what I can do and how I can support um especially since this District does and has done so many great things for my daughter and I want to be able to give back um to the district that gave us so much you know we just uh being able to pick out of the good high schools
068and the the the teachers that are at AG water who really care um it's just such an amazing experience you know um Co hit us hard you know my daughter had to do sixth grade you know totally virtually fifth grade as well um and I just remember how mental health just really affected my family and really affected you know my kids and all the kids around her um who've had disabilities and learning and you know in my own family we've had that um just really struggled and so just know that I'm the kind of person who is in a parent who knows what it is to struggle through and I want to find ways to support everyone who um wants their kids to be successful you know whether you have a lot of money a
069little money whether you have a lot of time or a little bit of time um you know as parents as families we want to be able to give our kids everything and sometimes it's tough to do that um and so just know that if I am on Schoolboard that I'm going to be thinking about okay what is a better way that I can support parents or they can support kids and what other things can we do that would support kids so that we don't have to spend a lot of money but we can use our assets and resources um I'm a realist I know that the budget is tight and so for being a nonprofit I know what it is to work with a small budget so I'm willing and committed to take a little
070bit and make a lot out of it so you know I ask for your vote if you um I humbly would accept it if you did that thank you all right well thank you both for uh being here tonight thank you both for throwing your hat in the ring um it is very um it's a very brave thing to file to run for office and put your name on the ballot and when you go in on April 23rd and are standing at the voting machine and your name is there that takes a takes nerve um but it's a good thing and and so the school board thanks you both uh for for indic ating your desire uh to serve and and I will say I thought you were both um did a very nice job
071answering the questions both seem enthusiastic qualified and all the things that we look for in board members and and I'll just conclude by saying that if either of you have any questions of us after tonight you know we're all very accessible accessible and I know tashiba is very accessible and those of us who couldn't be here tonight are are very accessible as well so don't don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions or concerns after tonight and otherwise uh the election is May 14th there's another election though that I need to mention that happens before uh May 14th there's this other thing that's happening on April 23rd um so please uh turn out and vote Yes for that I we have a whole pitch and Matt and I have done it many times now
072we could probably do it from memory but uh that would make the meeting go even longer uh for the record uh upcoming meetings the financial advisory committee is meeting Tuesday March 26th in the finance conference room down in the Tony martio Administrative Building our next regular board meeting is going to be Tuesday April 9th here at 7 o'clock and then we're going to have a workshop on the 23rd uh here in uh these Chambers as well uh while we wait for the successful referendum results so again thank you all for coming tonight thank you to our two candidates both for being here but more importantly for being willing to serve and you know it's a shame that that uh only one person can can be elected and thank you everybody else who who attended in
073person as well with that we are adjourned all