Campaign email: friendsofcarolmueller@gmail.com
Age: 67
Employment: I am retired from teaching at the middle, high school and at Harford Community College where I taught Math and Earth Science.
Education: Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. My cognate area was Agricultural and Extension Education.
Why are you running for the school board?
I am running to retain my seat on the board. I have dedicated my life to education and want to continue the work I have started to improve the educational experience for the children, families, staff, faculty and community. I started my tenure on the board two weeks prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns. I want to work with the school system to learn from the experience and help children recover from the learning loss that occurred.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I care about education, the children and the community. This will be my second term on the board, and if elected would be one of the only experienced people on the Harford County BOE. I have worked hard to get the training needed to be an effective board member. Since my appointment to the BOE, I have joined several committees at the state and local level and am actively involved. Safety and mental health are very important issues in the schools and the community, I want to work to improve the responses to these issues.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
Mother Teresa is one leader who I admire. She gave up everything to serve mankind and God. While alive she aspired to provide dignity to other human beings and worked with the poorest of the poor providing value to their lives. She gave joyfully and did not seek recognition although it was given to her. It has been said that she provided friendship to the friendless. Her life made a difference to so many and I hope that my life will have made a difference someday.
What is the most important issue facing your school board, and what would you do about it if elected?
Which issue is most important depends on your perspective, but some of the most pressing are school safety, mental health, bullying and increasing trust with the parents. These can be achieved through initiatives like the parent advisory council and school-based PTA’s, partnerships with local law enforcement, and increased training for staff and faculty to recognize and refer children to professionals for mental health issues and bullying concerns.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
Local law enforcement involvement in the schools and training for children, staff, faculty and administration can be a great place to start to address school safety concerns. When looking at past instances of school safety disruptions, there are always lessons to be learned. We already practice things like providing only one access point into the school buildings, but students need to be trained not to open doors to let others in among other things. Providing training so responses become habits can save lives.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
Over the decades the way history is taught has evolved. There was a time not long ago that the only history taught was from the white male perspective. The way history is taught has changed and now more people agree that we need to have a balanced approach to history, providing students from different backgrounds an opportunity to see how people who come from similar backgrounds to them have contributed to society. This does not mean that we can’t teach about white men, but that we need to see the people who are in our history are people who did things that were good and bad. They were people. While we still have work to do in how we teach history, I believe we have been moving in the right direction.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
While I agree that parents should be able to control the books their children check out from the library or study in class, I do not think that books should be banned. When I look at the lists of books people object to having in the classroom, I notice classic novels I read in school. It should not be up to me what students can or cannot read, but I do feel that parents should be involved in what their child studies.
