<body><div>Name as it appears on the ballot: Jordyne Blaise<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=223pY2_0w9c9yEn00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=223pY2_0w9c9yEn00" width="388" height="440" ></figure>Age: 38Party affiliation: Democrat Campaign website: <a href="https://www.jordyneforwake.com/">https://www.jordyneforwake.com</a>Occupation &amp; employer: Self Employed, Business Owner- Consulting FirmYears lived in the area: 101. What are the three main issues that you believe the Wake County Public Schools Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming years?<ol><li>Aging Infrastructure</li><li>School Safety (addressing staffing shortages, ensuring access to mental health professionals)</li><li>Student Mental Health and Well Being (directly correlated with academic achievement and overall success)</li></ol>2. Employee pay across the system has been a consistent concern, and while the board was able to raise wages for many workers this year, underfunding at the state level will likely persist. How can WCPSS remain competitive in terms of compensation, and how can the school system support its lowest paid workers who make less than $40,000/year on a 10-month pay schedule?Thankfully the county commission has prioritized funding our public school system so that the board could raise wages for workers this year. However, chronic underfunding from the state legislature will continue to hamper WCPSS’s ability to remain competitive and retain great employees who are not earning enough to live in the cities and towns in which they work. The system can support its lowest paid workers by advocating for increased pay, finding creative pathways to increased compensation via grants, increased benefits, or other retention incentives that can reduce the overall cost of living for workers.3. Do you support the Biden administration’s new federal Title IX rules that ban discrimination based on gender identity and expand protections for LGBTQ students? Please explain your position. Yes. As a former Title IX coordinator I know first hand the impact these protections have on all students, especially LGBTQ students. In 2020, Fourth Circuit courts ruled that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause should be interpreted to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ students―a position that aligns with the Title IX rules. Further, these rules offer important protections for pregnant and parenting students, and protections against gender based violence and sex discrimination. The recent updates to Title IX offer important updates to due process and ensure schools have a responsibility to respond to instances of discrimination and harassment.4. Do you support North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships (otherwise known as vouchers for private schools)? Why or why not? How do you think they impact public schools?No. I always support parents making decisions that feel right for their family, but I do not support public tax dollars going to private school vouchers and diverting students and money from public schools when they have no accountability for how they spend the money or what student outcomes they produce. Further, private schools are not required to provide special education services- funneling money into private schools will have a disparate impact on students with disabilities. The legislature should prioritize funding schools as they were ordered to under Leandro, which guarantees every child in the state the right to a sound basic education.5. WCPSS administrators just released the first draft of a new school reassignment plan for the 2025-26 school year that will populate four new schools in southern and southwestern Wake County. Do you support the draft plan? What, if anything, needs to change in the plan?Wake County grows by approximately 50 families a day, and as a result, student reassignment will continue to be an issue and in many ways a challenge for families. Reassignment plans will continue to be necessary so long as Wake continues to grow. I support ensuring that reassignments cause as little disruption as possible, that any plan has a robust community engagement that seeks feedback from impacted families and meets them where they are; and balances addressing the need for building new schools while also considering maintenance and improvements for older school buildings.6) What is the role of School Resource Officers (SROs) in schools?The role of SROs in schools, as governed by the current memorandum of understanding between the Board of Education and local law enforcement agencies, is to promote a safe and secure environment on WCPSS campuses, help provide a safe, inclusive and positive learning environment for all students and educators and report concerns relating to student discipline to school administrators when applicable.7) The ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ law seeks to give parents more control over their children’s education. How should WCPSS balance compliance with the law with students’ rights to privacy and teachers’ ability to provide a sound basic education?The WCPSS should comply with this law as they do any other state and federal law. As the Parents’ Bill of Rights adds requirements for parental consent on a myriad of topics, and expands the right of parents to review instructional materials the role of the Board will be to ensure that we have plans in place to comply with requests in a timely manner that do not further burden educators- including teachers, librarians and other school staff. The Board must also work with WCPSS administrative staff and the Department of Public Instruction, which sets academic and curricular standards, to ensure that we are in compliance and also adequately prepare our students to be academically and personally successful.8) How should WCPSS deal with efforts to ban books in schools?WCPSS has a process for the selection of instructional materials to ensure that they are age appropriate, and a process for parental objection to instructional materials should a parent have an issue with a book. The larger issue with book bans is that they seek to stifle expression and thought. The American Library Association reported that in 2023, books representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts. A parent has the right to ensure that their child is reading books that they find appropriate, but restricting access to reading materials for other students is problematic. Book bans are censorship and not only stunt students’ learning and curiosity– but also have led to terrible working conditions for our librarians and media specialists. 9) Recently, Durham Public Schools implemented a Universal Free Lunch program that provides nutritious free breakfasts and lunches to all of the system’s students. The Wake County school board, on the other hand, voted to charge more for meals this academic year. Was this the right move? Should WCPSS follow DPS’s lead and find a way to provide free meals to the district’s students?WCPSS is a larger school system than DPS and the Federal dollars used to fund free lunch programs in both school systems simply do not stretch as far in Wake County. However, I fully support Universal Free Lunch in our school systems as one in five kids and teens face hunger across our region. With adequate funding from the state legislature to fund things like teacher salaries, more of the supplemental funding WCPSS receives from the county commission could be directed toward lunch programs and infrastructure improvements.10) Research has shown an achievement gap for Wake County Schools students based on race and socioeconomic status. What specific policies would you support or what actions would you take to help close the gap so that race and socioeconomic status don’t persist as predictive factors? Closing the achievement gap is a challenge that requires broad community action and coordinated efforts to create meaningful and lasting change. So, let’s start with something that WCPSS doesn’t have control over but is worth saying out loud: ensuring access to high quality preschool for every child can cut the gap in half. That being said, I would support policies that focus on expanding early literacy programs, and identifying ways to increase access to instructional time which has been shown to increase learning. Other efforts include maintaining and supporting the Office of Equity Affairs and efforts in the Strategic Plan that specifically address closing the achievement gap.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Candidate Questionnaire: Jordyne Blaise, Wake County Board of Education, District 3

Occupation & employer: Self Employed, Business Owner- Consulting Firm. 1. What are the three main issues that you believe the Wake County Public Schools Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming years?. Aging Infrastructure. School Safety (addressing staffing shortages, ensuring access to mental health professionals) Student Mental Health...