The Post About the Board of Education Race

Today is the first day of Early Voting. I suspect that many who are reading this now have already voted by mail. Just in case you are planning on going in person, I’d like to say a few words about the Board of Education race.

Longtime readers of the blog know that I am squeamish about making endorsements. I don’t consider myself to be an endorsing body and it feels like hubris to me. Still, as a community blogger with a lifelong interest in education, it would be foolish to suggest that I have no opinions on the matter.

Here are five* areas of concern for me as we choose from the current BOE candidates:

1. Do they actively support students who don’t look like them and who don’t live in their particular cachement area? Do they understand the needs of LGBTQIA students and families?

2. Do they support intellectual freedom both in choosing library materials, classroom libraries, and in the teaching of history?

3. Do they respect teachers and are they committed to work with them collaboratively?

4. How knowledgeable are they of our current backlog of capital improvement projects/deferred maintenance and what do they bring to the table to help address these challenges?

5. Do they honestly know how the whole dang thing works?

You may think I’m joking about that last one. I’m not. During the last several years there have been multiple instances of board meetings essentially breaking down because one or more members didn’t truly understand the process they were engaged in. No, I’m not going to name any names. But I am going to suggest that voting for someone whose opinions really vibe with yours will be a completely ineffectual choice if they don’t know how to do the job and/or aren’t the kind of person who is committed to learning and mastering it.

With all of the above taken into consideration, here are the BOE candidates who look good to me:

D1: Meg Ricks

D2: Antonia Watts

D3: Jolene Mosley (running unopposed)

D4: Jennifer Swickard Mallo

D5: Andrea Chamblee

These folks bring a combination of skills and experience that can contribute to their work on behalf of schools, students, and families in Howard County. They support the essential mission of public education. Their backgrounds show that they are willing to work both to learn and to get things done on behalf of others.

I hope you will strongly consider these candidates as you cast your ballots. Our schools need the best we are able to give them.

Village Green/Town² Comments

*This started as a list of three and kept on growing. If I had to do it over again I would include Special Education as well.

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