Campaign email: KwameJKbey@aol.com
Age: 68
Employment: Educator, Patterson High School, Baltimore City
Education: B.A., Theatre Arts, Morgan State University and a few credits to finish MAT at Coppin State University
Why are you running for the school board?
I have been associated with Baltimore City Public Schools for all of my life. As a student, as a parent, and as an educator. I refuse to see it remain in a troubled state. I watch my children, the ones I teach and the ones related to me through blood, having to fight harder and harder just to survive. There are systemic problems that need to be corrected, and I feel that I have the perspectives and the clinical realities to turn the corner on a dysfunctional culture.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
As I have just said, I have and am privy to the multiplicity of perspectives and I possess the skills to bring those perspectives into a targeted cohesive vision bringing about actions that will unify our schools and our communities. Together we can create realistic policies that are applicable for today and point us to being the template for education of today and tomorrow.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
President Barack Obama. Grace, Poise and Wisdom, This is couple with the “audacity” to see a brighter future for us all.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
The most important issue facing our board is the opening of the doors of communication and trust. In doing this we can return our schools to the hands of the community where it rightfully belongs. The fact that for the first time Baltimore City is electing representatives on the school board will break the bonds of silence. The elected representatives have a duty that cannot be stifled. They must talk to and listen to their constituency so they can effectively represent the people that put them there. I will begin with opening the doors of two-way communication and push for an audit of our communications systems. You cannot do something well externally which you do not do well internally.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
We see many examples of when the pot boils over, time and time again. We make grand proclamations and promises of further actions. While we in awe watch as the kettle explodes. We spend no time looking at the fire growing under the pot. This fire that is constantly getting hotter is the fire of culture and climate. This needs to be looked at through the mirror of the culture and climate from which our students hale. It is only with a wholistic approach realizing we are all stakeholders and contributors to this culture. We need to lower this heat of tension and grow an atmosphere of combined objectives for not only our children but our entire community.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
I am a history teacher in the ESOL Program. The precarious thing about teaching history is that we are all looking at it from one historical perspective or another. Very rarely is it taught with the objectivity and lack of bias that allows young scholars to freely form their own perspectives. The prevailing trends are carried in the heart of the curriculum, and the result is just mimicking of those presumed facts. History should be taught in a wide open exploratory fashion to help in the formation of young scholars perspectives of the past that will lead to their actions tomorrow.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
Never.
