Questions & Answers
In this section I'll post the questionnaires I receive from various organizations and my answers. I’ll also post my answers to some of the questions I receive from individuals. See my Contact page for my phone, address and e-mail.
Washington County Teachers Association & Washington County Educational Support Personnel
Here are the questions I received from WCTA/WCESP and the answers I submitted .
Washington County Teachers Association & Washington County Educational Support Personnel
Here are the questions I received from WCTA/WCESP and the answers I submitted .
School Board Candidate Questionnaire 2024
1. Please provide your general and specific thoughts on how the county can address the unmet needs facing our schools. Detail how you would prioritize available state and county resources in your budget deliberations.
The county can address the unmet needs facing our schools by recognizing that the BOE budget request is truly needs-based and acknowledging that by, at a minimum, fully funding the budget. The BOE must continue to meet jointly with the commissioners as well as one-on-one with individual commissioners. These meetings can be used to enlighten the commissioners as we try to move them toward that funding goal.
I fully support the budget priorities set by the BOE for FY2025:
Salary and Compensation to Attract and Retain Staff
Safety & Security, Mental Health, and Behavioral Supports
Meeting the Requirements of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future
Combating Inflation
2. There is considerable room for improvement in addressing educator recruitment and retention. Class sizes have increased because of cost-cutting measures and/or due to hiring freezes, layoffs, and retirements. Many support personnel positions have been eliminated. And Maryland is always challenged with filling educator jobs because we import nearly half of all certificated teachers from prep programs in other states. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated these shortages. At the same time, the Blueprint calls for the hiring of 15,000 additional educators to provide more individualized attention to students. How will you address critical concerns with educator recruitment and retention?
I support improving salaries and compensation to recruit and retain staff.
I support grow-your-own initiatives at the county and state level.
I support investigating alternative pathways to professional certification.
Attracting, supporting, and retaining teachers of the highest quality is extremely important to the success of our school system. Showing our current employees respect, treating them as professionals, and compensating them for that professionalism is an important part of recruiting and retaining employees of high quality. To increase our employee candidate pool, we must reach out to potential candidates through community networks, continue to expand the current HR recruitment efforts, and ensure that all WCPS workplaces have a positive culture and are welcoming to diversity.
3. As a Board member, are you in favor of allocating public funding to home and privately schooled students?
Oppose
I’m not now, nor have I ever been in favor of public funds being used to support home and privately schooled students. Our public schools exist to provide a high quality, free education to all children. Under law, parents have the option to homeschool or to send their children to a private school of their choice. The costs incurred in doing so should be the total responsibility of the parents, not the taxpayers.
4. Do you support or oppose local autonomy to develop evaluation systems in compliance with statute and regulation?
Support
It is my belief that any educator evaluation system used must be research-based, valid, fair, and transparent. Further, I believe that it is best when an evaluation system is collaboratively developed, and it goes without saying, aligned with curricula, and focused on instruction and learning.
As a retired WCPS teacher and administrator for thirty-five years, I place high value on rigorous and relevant professional development. Over the course of my career, I benefitted from excellent professional development offerings. As one who had as her responsibility the planning and delivery of professional development for teachers and paraprofessionals as well as the observation and evaluation of both, I understand the importance of having an evaluation system carefully designed and implemented, and I recognize and support the need to have collaboration in the design and development of it.
5. Do you support or oppose efforts to overturn school districts mutually agreed upon, statutorily compliant evaluation models in pursuit of one-size-fits-all models developed by federal and state agencies, rather than local education agencies?
Oppose
I do not support these efforts. I am not in favor of one-size-fits-all models.
6. As an elected Board of Education member, how will you work with WCPS, WCTA & WCESP to implement the Less Testing, More Learning Act?
I believe WCPS should collaborate with WCTA & WCESP whenever state or federal law allows for changes to standardized testing. As a BOE member I will advocate for collaboration.
7. Do you support or oppose public education employees’ rights to bargain collectively?
Support
I was an active member of WCTA/MSEA during my 35-year teaching career at WCPS and during that time served at least once as a member of the association’s negotiating team. I have and will continue to support the right of public education employees to bargain collectively.
8. How familiar are you with the WCTA & WCESP contracts?
Familiar
As a retired WCPS teacher and administrator and a member of the Washington County Board of Education for the past 11 1/2 years, I’m very familiar with past and current WCTA and WCESP contracts and the negotiation process used.
9. What changes, if any, would you like to see? And how would you honor the negotiated agreement, especially in tight fiscal times?
The Board of Education’s negotiations with the employee groups of WCPS are to be done in good faith. During my tenure, that’s the way I have operated – always with respect and in good faith.
If ever times become so tight financially that the prospect of not being able to honor the negotiated agreement of the WCTA and the negotiated agreement of WCESP arises, my position would be that this requires sitting down together and working collaboratively to prioritize and find viable solutions.
10. How will you address increased needs for mental health support for students and educators in the wake of the pandemic?
These issues are not for the Board of Education alone to address. What is needed is the commitment and collaborative efforts of state and local government officials and community leaders, partnerships, the creation of joint initiatives, and the allocation of additional resources. Appropriately addressing these issues will require the involvement of the entire Washington County community.
For the Board of Education and WCPS this means keeping these increasing needs a priority, providing behavioral support personnel, appropriate numbers of school counselors and social workers, access to school psychologists, appropriate professional development for staff, and demonstrating consistent, strong issue advocacy.
Addressing the need for mental health support in our schools is one of the BOE FY2025 budget funding priorities.
11. The pandemic further illuminated the immediate need for reliable, affordable access to technology for all students and educators in our state. How would you propose to eliminate the digital divide?
I support state and federal efforts to improve broadband access and supply devices to students in need.
I support the WCPS technology plan that supplies devices to students.
12. The WCTA & WCESP associations support honesty in education. To encourage critical thinking, we believe educators should have professional autonomy and should be afforded the deference to teach the truth in their classrooms, schools, and districts. Do you support or oppose this position?
Support
13. How will you support diversity, equity, and inclusion for all students throughout the county? What specific policies do you support whose goals are focused on providing equitable access, opportunities, resources, and supports?
As a member of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education I helped develop the model equity policy used by many Maryland LEAs to write their state-required local policy. I was part of the team that wrote the WCBOE equity policy. I have served as the BOE liaison to the county’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee since its inception.
I support the WCPS Office of Equity & Excellence and its full-time supervisor position. I support WCPS’s diversity hiring initiatives and the community scholarship for minority students entering the education field.
14. Do you support or oppose local efforts to create and support community schools in areas of concentrated poverty? Do you support the transformative model of community schools or the wrap-around service model of community schools?
Support
15. As a Board member, what would you do to ensure that parents and families from all faiths and no matter where they’re from are welcomed and supported in our schools?
Parental involvement is key to a child’s success in school. Parents are the child’s first teacher. I encourage and support parental involvement.
I support the WCPS International Welcome Center at Pangborn. There is a real need for additional EL teachers and support staff, and I support the addition of those positions as a BOE budget priority.
16. As a Board member, are you in favor of contracting out custodial, cafeteria, and maintenance services rather than have those services provided by Board of Education employees?
Oppose
I oppose privatizing or outsourcing positions currently held by BOE employees.
17. What are the top three things you would like to accomplish in the next four years if you are elected to the Board?
I’m committed to:
- providing each WCPS PreK-12 student with the appropriate educational rigor, opportunities, resources, and support needed for their academic success and social and emotional well-being;
- providing safe and secure learning environments for students and staff;
- hiring and retaining the best teachers, administrators, and support staff and paying them a competitive wage.
Additionally, through the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, I’m committed to improving public education for all students in Washington County Public Schools. This can best be accomplished by working with other BOE members and stakeholders, especially employee groups, to develop a greater understanding of the Blueprint, working closely with the superintendent and stakeholders to prioritize and make funding decisions, and working with our legislators to fine-tune the Blueprint.
electMelissaWilliams.com
Committee to Elect Melissa Williams : Kelli Albright, Treasurer
Committee to Elect Melissa Williams : Kelli Albright, Treasurer