Blog

As a person who nearly passes out when she is asked to get up and speak in front of anyone, even a group of friends, the thought of sitting on a stage for two hours and answering questions is unimaginable to me.  Sitting in the audience and watching Adam do just that was equally as nerve-racking – but I was also filled with pride for him.  It takes a special kind of person to put aside any doubts, nervousness, and fear, and go onstage with eight other people – who all did an excellent job – and speak.

Adam may not have been the most comfortable candidate up on that stage, but he brought up some great points last night; some ideas that the other candidates didn’t have, and some that they piggybacked off of when he was one of the first to answer a question.  That’s definitely one advantage of electing Adam to serve on the school board.  He has a talent for cutting straight to the heart of an issue, for seeing things from a little different angle than the rest, and coming up with alternative solutions – all with a smile on his face and attempting to unite people instead of dividing them.

Examples:

One different perspective we have from others on the panel is on the Mental Health Initiative that HSE has undertaken with the city of Fishers.  As Adam mentioned last night, mental health in the schools is something we’ve been dealing with on a daily basis for the better part of four years with our son.  He struggles to manage his ADHD and anxiety, and it has literally taken a village to get him to a point where he can get through a day of school without a complete meltdown.  He’s still a work in progress (although who isn’t, really?), but we could never have gotten this far without the help and guidance of the principals, counselors, teachers, and staff at New Britton, and more recently Harrison Parkway.  They could very easily have labeled our son a “problem kid” and shoved him in a corner, but instead they worked with our whole family to get him the help he needed.  Our son is NOT the only child in this situation, and the schools don’t have the resources to handle them all.  In fact, I distinctly remember sitting in a meeting with no fewer than seven people from the district trying to come up with an education plan for our son, and his second grade teacher was fighting back tears as she said, “I just wish we had unlimited money to get help in every classroom”.  HSE’s teachers and staff genuinely want every single student to succeed.  How INCREDIBLE is that?  Partnering with the city to connect the schools with mental health professionals is key to getting more kids safely and successfully through school.  Adam has the first-hand experience to use this new initiative to its fullest.

Another question was centered around HSE21.  Adam was selected to answer this somewhere in the middle of all of the candidates.  He was the first – but not the last – to mention that HSE21 is NOT the 1:1 iPad initiative.  They are connected, but HSE21 is an inquiry-based learning method.  The difference between Adam and the other candidates is that he believes the principles of HSE21 should be taught first, and the iPads should be a secondary enrichment tool to aid what is already being taught.  We should not rely so heavily on screens and technology to teach, especially at the elementary level.  Actually, growing up in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, it is the same principle we had: kids should definitely be exposed to every tool available to them, whether it be computers, laptops, iPads, etc.  But we can’t throw away the building blocks that allow them to excel with those tools – keyboarding, writing, researching, and thinking critically to name a few.  It’s the same as expecting a doctor to perform surgery without having gone through pre-med.

Adam was also the first of the candidates to mention that we need to stop tying teacher performance to the standardized tests – but again, he wasn’t the last.  I think we can all agree that ISTEP testing is an enormous waste of time and resources.  The worst part is that EVERYTHING relies on whether these kids pass or fail a test – school ratings, teacher bonuses, etc.  How can we expect teachers to actually educate our kids when their livelihood is centered around getting them to pass a test?

Another interesting question that Adam answered from a different angle was that of including gender identity as a protected group within the school system.  This is something we have talked about at great length at home.  While the other candidates focused on how important it was to single these individuals out and make sure they had protection, Adam came from the opposite angle and said that we need to remember that every person in the school system has a right to be treated equally.  Not this group or that group, but everyone.  The district already has these guidelines in place, and we will simply have to follow whatever federal and state guidelines apply.  It most likely won’t change how students or faculty are treated currently.

One final example of how Adam sees very different solutions to problems came at the very end, when the candidates were asked about helping teachers who spend so much of their own money for items they need for the classroom.  While the other candidates discussed working with the PTO, using more of the referendum money, and adjusting budgets to help teachers with the out-of-pocket expenses they incur every year, Adam had a completely different approach.  He said we need to come up with ways to invest in classroom assets that will last for multiple years.  Despite what the leadership in HSE may think, there is a finite amount of money out there in our district.  If our school fees are doubled and our property taxes are increased, we have less money to give for PTO fundraisers.  There’s just no way around it.  As adults, we are forced to budget our money, and there sadly comes a point where there just isn’t any more to give.  One example would be school supplies.  At least in our kids’ school, we have an extensive – and expensive – list of school supplies that we are required to purchase every year.  For the past three years, our kids have come home with TONS of unused supplies… and this sometimes includes their books.  This would be the perfect opportunity to carry over supplies to the next year.  We as parents could save hundreds of dollars each year by reusing school supplies from one year to the next.

It took a while to decompress after last night.  I’ve never been to a candidates’ forum before, and it was definitely a learning experience.  We are so fortunate that Adam was able to be a part of it.  The takeaway?  We have a strong group of candidates to choose from this year, and I think the voters will have a tough decision on November 8.  What they will have to decide is whether they want to continue electing candidates who all agree on the “one way” to solve the issues our school system faces, or do we want someone with a different perspective and the ability to find creative solutions?  If it’s the latter, they need to vote for Adam.