Campaign email: ashleykearneyforschoolboard@gmail.com
Website: www.ashleykearneyforschoolboard.com
Age: 32
Employment: Education Manager, local education agency
Education: Master’s in Education, Johns Hopkins University
Why are you running for the school board?
As a lifelong educator, I saw firsthand how safe, joyous, collaborative, rigorous and predictable learning environments provided the foundation for student and adult success. I am running for school board to ensure (1) all students receive an equitable and quality educational experience; (2) educators feel supported, respected and prepared to deliver with and for families; (3) families feel proud and at ease sending their students to school, and (4) our education system prioritizes continuous improvement in teaching, learning, and leadership with excellence as the standard.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I believe that classroom context is a value-add to any board providing oversight of a system where successful cycles of teaching and learning is a core component of organizational success. My experience includes recent classroom and leadership experience, which is extremely important given the changes and challenges in the education landscape since the start of the pandemic. With multi-level experience leading as an instructional coach, managing a congressional education portfolio, serving on executive boards of local education councils and coalitions and currently managing collaborative work projects in learning and developmental sciences, I am well positioned for the board.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
I admire Congresswoman Alma Adams’ lifelong commitment to education and how she has used those relevant experiences to help shape meaningful policy. (Adams is a North Carolina Democrat). She consistently promotes a quality education for all students. When I was managing a congressional education portfolio, I did not work for her office but was privileged enough to see her in action through committee and caucus work. Each time was inspiring. She proved to be a bold, consistent and unwavering leader and warrior for education, and the intersectionality of issues impacting education.
What is the most important issue facing your school board, and what would you do about it if elected?
The most important issue facing the school board is school safety. I say this broadly because safety is the catalyst for a positive school climate that directly impacts academic performance and can include all issues ranging from nutrition to the school-to-prison pipeline. More narrowly focused, I would establish a school safety workgroup to work as a collaborative partner to the existing school safety task force to ensure consideration of ongoing problems of practice, strengthen multi-tiered systems of integrated supports to be used to inform comprehensive student-centered safety plans in partnership with targeted community school efforts, and root MCS (Managing Crisis Safely) training in learning & development sciences.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
School safety is one of my top issues on my platform. In addition to the aforementioned, I would ensure intentional emphasis and supports to ensure schools are on the pathway to reach Optimally Safe School Status, Common Sense Schools status, and increased district membership in the M.A.S.R.O (Maryland Association of School Resource Officers) to ensure co-creation of best practices with relevant context as a necessary stopgap to long-term approaches.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
Based on the descriptions of the Maryland State Standards and Framework, each standard emphasizes inquiry, and I believe that to be a positive approach to allowing students to become critical consumers and empowered learners.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
Libraries should include a range of books that allow students to explore, learn and make meaning of the world around them and/or reimagine a world.
