Campaign email: TSTAFFORD21613@gmail.com
Age: 68
Employment: Part-time executive director at Beginnings Youth and Family Services, a nonprofit
Education: Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Leadership from Wilmington University in Delaware
Why are you running for the school board?
The short answer would be I feel that our school system is letting down too many of our communities. Particularly our communities of color, our communities of poverty, and just overall, I want to improve education for all the kids in the county. You look at our county ranking, we are at the bottom of the list and have been for several years even before COVID. And it seems like we’re just not moving in the right direction to make corrections to those deficits that we’ve created for our kids…I just want to give all kids access to quality education. That’s the short of it. And right now, in my opinion, only certain kids are getting access to quality education…We can’t continue to do the same old thing and expect that we’re going to move from the bottom by continuing to do this.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
My experiences in education and the fact that I’m still working with kids. So I’m not drawing on other people’s opinions of what’s needed. I’m not drawing on what used to be. I mean, I see this day in and day out in their after-school program, low reading levels of our kids. For example, a pre-K or kindergarten kid who went through a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old kindergarten program in the county came to us last year or even this summer and did not know their ABCs, could not recognize their letters, could not write their name legibly. So I see the results of what is or is not happening in the school system. So I bring a fresh perspective…We have the experience on the board, but many of them are far removed from what actually is happening in the schools.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
Pastor Joe Kelly. He is an integral part of an organization called Bond Servants. And the reason why I would select him is because this man gives 100% where the need is. Doesn’t matter what the color, doesn’t matter what the faith, doesn’t matter if you were a prior criminal and you got your life together and you want to do something in the community. He finds funds to support those things. He is one of many leaders that I admire that walk the walk, you know. We got a lot of people that can talk, good at the gift of gab. But when the action is needed behind the talk, they’re not there. And this guy, he is just, I mean, amazing.
What is the most important issue facing your school board, and what would you do about it if elected?
I think one of the biggest things facing our school board right now is teacher pay. Granted, we don’t pay the money that Queen Anne, Worcester and Talbot pay teachers. We just don’t do that. But I don’t think money is the answer to the issues that we’re having. I think for the most part, the biggest thing facing us as a system is that we do not make decisions based on data. Let me explain that. We don’t own our data. We put it out there. And we’ll say well, 92% of our kids are reading below grade level. But when we give our presentations at the board, we focus on this 23% that showed growth…Until we’re honest with ourselves about what the data is actually saying to us, we’re just going to be spinning wheels.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
I think that we should do whatever we can to ensure the safety of the kids on the way to school, to ensure the safety of the kids once they get to school – and not only just the students, but the teaching staff and support staff. Anybody who works in that building should feel safe coming to school. What I don’t endorse is that our school system has just spent $1.5 million putting in weapons detection systems in our middle and high schools. I think that the $1.5 million would have been better used to the number one for school safety, is to purchase scan wands. Because once those metal detectors are no longer useful, what are you going to do with them? You’re going to scrap $1.5 million worth of metal? If you had gone to a wand system, you would have been able to deploy those people anywhere in the building that you wanted them to be.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
I had an opportunity to sit in one of my foster daughter’s classes, history class. The teacher who was teaching that class was teaching something on slavery. His comment to the kids is that slavery was not as bad as people say it is. Slaves had food, they had housing, they had clothing. They weren’t living on the street. And I’m sitting here thinking: you have got to be kidding me. So I immediately went to the principal and had a conversation with him, that I think he needs to have somebody checking on this young man and what he was teaching…So I do have concerns about us avoiding what I call those critical race conversations. And when we talk about history and how it’s taught in our school system, that’s one of those courageous conversations that people are afraid to have.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
I think we have to be careful about everything that we put in front of our kids. And we have to be concerned about some content and the age level at which we introduce certain things to our kids. I think books should come with warnings, just like cigarettes, that say this book may contain x number of information or material or concepts, so that people know when they pick that book up, that there may be something in there that’s offensive. But to say all books filled with LGBT material should be banned from all schools? I can’t say that, because we do have a growing population of transgender and LGBT individuals who are attending our schools. I don’t think it’s fair to exclude materials for them to read about themselves, but I don’t think it’s something we should just push on all kids.
