PRIORITIES
“We need to come back as a community to elect a solution-based School Board that makes decision for the benefit of the students and not personal agenda.” -Gary E. Bradley-Lopez
LIST OF PRIORITES
Students First
Many times we have had board members who focus on the community (as I will), Focus on the teachers (as I will), on our superintendent (as I will), but the board lacks a focus on students and representation. As a board member I will, along with other groups ensure that I am the Advocate for students. Students deserve a voice on that board and what better than a student representing students.
How To Solve:
Always ask, “how will this benefit students?”
Resurrect the District Student Board and have board member at their meetings, and ensure they are given a time slot to report at the board of education meetings.
Give Students a seat at the table where Deputy superintendent, Assistant superintendents, Chief Financial Officer, and District Chief of Police sit.
End School-to-Prison Pipeline
Many students in KCKPS end up in the prison system. A lot of it is due to the systematic practices by the school district such as petty suspensions, out of school suspensions, standardized testing, a lack of one-on-one connections to teachers, behavior policies, and resource officers at schools used for disciplinary measures. This is not just a major problem in the district but in the United States. Urban school districts across the nation struggle with the same issue to keep our students out of prison. Break the Pipeline Campaigns have dealt with this issue in St. Louis, or policies changes in Chicago, are two ways this issue can be handled, so that students are no longer in an oppressive system.
How To Solve:
End out of school suspensions or change the grade that students can get.
Alternative discipline practices.
Ensure Police or Resource officers are last resort, not first response.
Improve staff-to-student ratio.
More emphasis on Career and College prep.
Implicit bias training for resource officers.
Reform behavior policies.
Put less emphasis on standardized test.
Prevention and intervention programs for students at risk.
Organize schools, community, and juvenile justice reform to bring awareness to the prison pipeline.
Investing Conversations with Human Resources
According to the last Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that Kansas City, Kansas Issued, KCKPS is one of the top 5 employers of the city. However, in all of the largest employers of the city none have a majority of employees that reside in Kansas City Kansas or Wyandotte County. Many come from outside of Wyandotte County. In order to be representative of the population of the school district we need to hire more teachers that reside in the same neighborhoods as our students, and hire more teachers that look like our students.
How To Solve:
Review Hiring Practices.
Invest conversations with HR through our superintendent.
Recruit College Students that were or are from Kansas City, Kansas or Wyandotte County.
Recruit at Historically Black Colleges and University for teachers of color.
Mandatory Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Training
Due to the vast amount of languages and rich cultures that KCKPS is representative of, it is important that our teachers can be culturally conscious and sensitive to our students. As the district continues to grow, and teachers aren't from the community it is important that these ideals are in our schools to build healthy student and teacher relationships.
How to Solve:
District should hire a firm or consultant to train teachers.
Or
School should have a designated teacher who is trained, then trains fellow colleges.
Or
District should create and hire a Manager of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity for the district, who trains schools, and is under human resource department.