Platform
Chadwick Howard: a catalyst for change.
What is our focus?
Education First in Craven County
Education First in Craven County means building relationships with businesses and community organization to support our school system. Having taught for the last ten years, I have also had multiple jobs outside of my career. Using these relationships and building a partnership with community members, I look forward to furthering community engagement in our school system. Not simply as a token, but real engagement that furthers curriculum and extracurricular involvement. It’s time to leave common core behind and think about career engagement. Both technical and collegiate paths can be rewarding for students, and often a technical route may be a very rewarding choice for many students.
Financial Accountability
Financial Accountability means using our resources in a way that is responsible to taxpayers. We shouldn’t ask taxpayers for additional funds unless we are sure we have a plan in place to use those funds in the most responsible way. All too often we go to our county board or state tax payers asking for additional funds with no plan in place to use those funds in the most responsible manner.
Secondly, once we receive those funds we need to report how those funds are being used back to the public. I often hear the complaint from citizens that it is difficult to acquire information regarding expenditures in the Craven County School System. We need a transparent process where disagreements are discussed publicly and financial issues are dealt with in a forthright manner.
Parent Involvement
As one of our main stakeholders, many parents do not feel like they are welcomed in our schools. We need parent groups and committees working hand in hand with our teachers and administrators. A definite prerogative of mine will be to make sure that each school has parent representation when it comes to the operation of each school in Craven County. If parents felt as though they had a say in our schools, many would not send their kids to private schools or homeschool them. Craven County has one of the highest percentages of homeschooled kids in the state. We have to ask ourselves why is this? Mostly I think it is because we don’t allow parental involvement. We have to change our way of thinking and get parents involved. Parents can be our strongest allies in the school system.
School Safety
School Safety obviously is an ongoing issue throughout this country and in North Carolina. North Carolina schools are some of the best protected in the country thanks to our Resource Officer Program. I look forward to working with local law enforcement experts to make sure our schools are safe. Secondly, I look forward to engaging the newly formed school safety task force in Raleigh about their findings and initiatives. It is of the utmost importance that we keep an open eye and mind on how to best protect the kids that enter our schools statewide, and on a day to day basis. Upgrading school security systems may be something that needs to be investigated on a regular basis.
Classroom Size
Classroom Size is something that seems to be a low priority in this state and often in this county. We spend countless dollars on improving technology and initiatives that many teachers consider gimmicks, but we rarely look at the ever increasing sizes of classes in this county. When talking to our experts in the classroom and even students you will often hear the concern that many classes simply have too many students and behaviors. Smaller classrooms equal better learning and less behavior issues. Giving teachers the opportunity to work more with students on their individual needs is paramount to classroom success. Anyone who tells you differently hasn’t talked to a classroom teacher.