What I Will Do If I Am Elected to the Guilford County School Board-Implementing the Say Yes Student Support Programs

I have decided that I am going to alternate on my blog between posts about "Why You Should Vote For Me For Guilford County School Board" and posts about "What I Will Do If I Am Elected to he Guilford County School Board." I want to cover each of these topics in depth because I believe it is important to show substance in this age where we all we seem to get his headlines. Indeed, when I have spoken to various groups about my candidacy, I typically get a 3 to 5 minute period of time to give my spiel just like my opponents also get. 3 to 5 minutes is not enough time to get to know me and what I stand for as a candidate.  Therefore, I want to use this blog to give those who are interested a better chance to know what it is that I stand for and what I will do if I am elected to the Guilford County School Board. After all, I have nothing to hide and I want to make sure everyone who votes for me knows who I am and what I stand for when they go to their polling place.

So, what will I do if I get elected...

I will make sure that the Say Yes Student Support Programs are Implemented in a Responsible Manner.

Almost everyone has heard about the Say Yes scholarship program, which is intended to provide last dollar scholarships to all degree earning seniors graduating in Guilford County during the next 4 years.  However, the Say Yes to Education Program is meant to provide so much more to our community than just scholarships.  The Say Yes to Education Program is a tremendous opportunity for most students in Guilford County, but in order to maximize its potential it will need School Board Members that are willing to dig into the details and act as proper stewards of our resources.  It will need School Board Members who are willing to support Say Yes but not just give rubber stamp approval to all things suggested by Say Yes.  If I am elected, I promise to help implement the Say Yes Education Program in a responsible manner that will help Say Yes live up to its potential and provide all the extra benefits, in addition to the scholarships, that all of our students deserve, while also providing an independent viewpoint to make sure that only the Say Yes proposals that will work in an efficient and effective manner will be implemented.. 

With my interest in understanding Say Yes in mind, I attended the Say Yes information session at Weaver Academy on the evening of January 12.  There was a good turnout for the event.  The local director for Say Yes, Mary Vigue, gave a short presentation on the Say Yes program.  Ms. Vigue described her vision for what the Say Yes program will be and described how Say Yes is operating in other locations.  According to Ms. Vigue, Say Yes has three different arms which she defined as (i) Systems and Structures, (ii) Student Supports, and (iii) Scholarships.  The Scholarship Arm of Say Yes is currently being implemented in Guilford County and 2016 Guilford County graduates will be eligible to receive those scholarships.  The Systems and Structures Arm is further behind in its development and the Student Supports Arm is even further behind than the Systems and Structures arm.  Indeed, I asked Ms. Vigue when the Student Supports, which she also referred to as the Wraparound Programs, would be implemented. In response to my question, I was informed that it would be a couple of months before the timeline for implementation for these programs would be put in place.

I have provided all of this background so that I can stress the fact that the Say Yes Program is still in its infancy and there are still major decisions that need to be made with respect to Say Yes.  As an aside, I want to acknowledge at this point that I understand Say Yes is currently a completely private program supported by private donations rather than by any taxpayer dollars.  As such, Say Yes is free to do what it chooses with its money.  However, as Say Yes intertwines itself with our School District, our City, and our County through the implementation of these programs, the School Board is going to have to have the right people to participate in the implementation process for the Student Supports.  Also, the School Board is going to have to ensure that the programs are available to all Guilford County Students.  Currently, as is well covered, charter school students are not eligible to participate.  Furthermore, Guilford County students who are in the Guilford County Occupational Course of Study are not eligible to participate.

Getting back to the Student Support programs, I think it helps to explain the Student Support programs a little further.  According to my discussion with Ms. Vigue and her presentation, the ideas for specific Student Supports will be developed by yet to be developed task forces that will examine our school district and will look for areas where Student Supports are needed.  When those areas are identified, the task forces will come up with program ideas to address the areas of need. As the task forces come up with the programs, those programs will first go to the Say Yes Operating Committee for approval.  If approved, Say Yes will work to bring those programs to the School District, the County, the City, and other groups and encourage those groups to put the programs in place.

One important note is that Say Yes will not fund the programs.  Rather than being a program operator, Say Yes sees its position as that of a facilitator that comes up with the program ideas and works with others to put them in place.   Because Say Yes is not going to pay for the implementation of the programs, someone is going to have to do so and in many cases I expect that Say Yes will ask the School District to be the one to pay.  With that being the case, our School Board is going to have to have members who are capable of vetting the programs and determining whether it makes sense to implement the programs. In this vetting process, the School Board is going to need to determine if the program is economically feasible and is going to have to determine where the money is going to come from for the implementation.

If I am elected to the School Board, I will take an active role in this implementation and vetting process and will do all that I can to ensure that only those programs that will make a difference in a positive manner at a reasonable and responsible cost will be enacted.  In that role, I will ensure that we are not taking away funds from existing programs that are making a difference in our school system in order to implement other programs that Say Yes recommends, which programs will also make a difference, just because Say Yes recommended implementation.  Indeed, I will see Say Yes as a valuable tool at making recommendations but not as a final word on what we should and should not do.

In sum, we are lucky that Say Yes has chosen us as a Say Yes community. Say Yes has the potential to be an invaluable benefit for us. However, in order for it to be such a benefit, we need to be active participants in its development.  If I am elected, I promise to be one of those active participants.