Campaign email: james.millerccpsboe@gmail.com
Website: www.miller4ccpsboe.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Miller4CCPSBOE/
Age: 39
Employment: Johns Hopkins – Senior Director, Finance
Education: MBA, Finance – Loyola University Maryland
Why are you running for the school board?
First and foremost, I am a parent. I have three beautiful daughters who attend Carroll County Public Schools. I believe a strong family foundation builds confident children, and confident children can change the world. If we have learned anything through the pandemic, parents deserve a voice in their children’s education. I am a parent who fought hard to ensure my kids had a chance to attend school, mask optional. It is something I am proud of and, if elected, I will ensure parents have a voice in their children’s education.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
We need a diverse board in order to have thoughtful discussion as to how we move forward and keep Carroll County schools the best in the state. I have spent my entire career in health care finance. I am currently a senior director of finance for a large health care system here in Maryland. I believe my background will be advantageous as we work with a tight budget, year in and year out. Currently, 88% of the CCPS budget is allotted toward salaries and benefits. It will be important that the next board has a strong finance background to ensure every tax dollar allocated to CCPS by the county commissioners is spent wisely.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
I would say local (state legislative) delegation Justin Ready, Haven Shoemaker, Susan Krebs and April Rose. They have always put Carroll County first in Annapolis and fight hard for our county to have a voice. I also applaud their efforts during COVID to get our schools open and push back on the state’s endless mandates. Without their efforts I am not sure we would have opened schools or allowed mask optional when we did in Carroll County.
What is the most important issue facing your school board, and what would you do about it if elected?
We need to focus on academics that are age-appropriate and get back to education. Even after two years of successful summer learning, our students are still recovering from learning loss. Closing that gap and creating confident students fosters lifelong learning.
Additionally, the state’s restorative justice policy has gone too far to protect bullies at the expense of our students receiving a quality education. I will work with the MSDE (Maryland State Department of Education) to change the state’s policies and give power back to local school districts to hold bullies accountable for their actions. No kid should be scared to go to school and face endless bullying.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
Carroll County has a tremendous partnership with the sheriff’s department to ensure our schools are safe for our children. I would like to see the SRO program expanded so schools don’t have to share resource officers. More importantly, we need to focus on ensuring our kids have the support necessary to keep them from getting to a point where they want to hurt themselves or someone else. Focus on identifying students who are struggling and intervening early. As mentioned earlier we also need to hold bullies accountable so our kids can go to school free of the fear of being bullied.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
I believe we do a very good job teaching history in CCPS. I want to ensure that continues if elected. I believe it is important we teach history as it occurred so our kids can learn from who occurred, good and bad. Part of why we teach history is so we learn from the past; continue the positive and not repeat the mistakes.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
Books need to be age-appropriate. I find this question interesting as it gets asked a lot. Many people are quick to judge when books get removed from schools however, this has been going on for years. There is already a long list of books that are not allowed in schools and I believe we must continue to monitor what is being presented in our schools to ensure they are age-appropriate. Removing inappropriate books from schools is nothing new yet, for some reason it has become a hot topic of late.
