| Party Affiliation | Democrat |
| Profession | Photographer |
| Present Employer / position | Orleans Parish School Board |
| Length of residence in Jurisdiction | 31 Years |
| List of educational institutions and degrees | Loyola University
University of New Orleans |
| Prior elected and appointed positions | |
| Civic involvement and affiliations | Foundation For Louisiana's Truth, Racial Healing Transformation's Advisory Board
Bayou District Foundation's Board of Directors |
| 1. Describe your view about school board oversight of charter schools. What changes do you believe are needed to improve performance?
| • Per Act 91, the District cannot legally interfere with the authority of the charter operator in the operation of the school. The Orleans Parish Superintendent hired by the School Board has the authority to deny renewal or revoke the charter of any school that is failing to fulfill their obligations according to their contract with the District. The Superintendent’s decisions are guided by the District’s accountability framework developed with input from school leaders, multiple organizations, and members of the community.
• Given the restrictions of Act 91, I advocate for making third party supports available to schools that have proven beneficial in helping schools improve student outcomes. However, we are creating an Innovation Zone that would allow for the District to provide different contracted support options for schools and various governance structures other than charters. Like the Accountability Framework, we are developing this with input from multiple stakeholders. |
| 2. What is your vision and three top priorities for NOLA-PS for the next five years? What obstacles do you foresee and what steps will you implement to overcome them?
| • My vision for the District is that we will create a graduate profile as our North Star for delivering on our promise to prepare our students for civic, social, and economic success. Our students will have the experiences necessary to develop the values and character needed to be successful. They will get courses about career pathways to develop a passion for their contribution to the world (see https://career.berkeley.edu/Plan/Explore). We must teach the responsibilities of having children, what it takes to buy a car, house, or have credit? I am talking about in-depth curriculum. They need this information at an early enough age to make the choices and personal investment needed to be successful.
• The obstacles are numerous, from funding to course development, in school time constraints, and their individual unmet needs. I will overcome these by continuing to build a coalition of sincere stakeholders that want a quality of life for all and are willing to own their responsibility. We must bring nonprofits, governmental agencies, philanthropist and the community into partnership with the District.
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| 3. In the Accountability Framework, there is no indication of any input from faculty members. What are your thoughts about giving teachers more input to decide how their performance is judged?
| • As the accountability chair, I am building a relationship with teachers to include them in all conversations about students and those issues that impact them directly. Although we cannot mandate charter schools except any of the ideas that are promulgated by these discussions, I do believe that good work that is inclusive of all stakeholders will be appreciated and accepted. |
| 4. What approaches will you implement to ensure that the needs of special education students are fully met?
| • I have learned to appreciate and value the expertise that we have in our Special Education Department. Their passion for serving our children is exemplary. If any child is being neglected or any school is not performing as well as they should that would be out of the ordinary but not the norm. Please contact us immediately with specifics and I assure you it will be promptly taken care of. That is the norm that I have come to expect. |
| 5. Last year some students were unable to graduate because of improper management of graduation requirements by school administrators. Do you think these issues could happen again and, if so, what steps would you like to see implemented to prevent this?
| • What happened last year was something that no one thought could or would happen. What the District did was send a team in to all schools to verify their records and processes.
• I would like an investment made to be able to access school records in real-time. We should have immediate access to all school data as it is recorded. Having access would allow us to better monitor our schools and students progress. As an added benefit, we could analyze and compare differences between schools that would allow for developing and sharing best practices.
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