Vote411: South Bend school board district 4 has three candidates

The Tribune is partnering with the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area and the American Democracy Project of Indiana University South Bend to publish candidates' answers to questions on the issues. The League and IUSB's ADP operates Vote411.org , a website with information about the candidates and their positions on key issues. The site also includes other tools to help navigate the voting process.

The Tribune has agreed to run candidate answers unedited, meaning any spelling, typographical or grammatical errors are the candidates' own. The Tribune is publishing only some of the questions from a selection of significant races. Additional questions and answers are available at Vote411.org .

Three candidates will appear on the ballot for South Bend School Board, District 4.

Stephanie Ball

Education: Masters in Public Administration, Indiana University South Bend

Email: Ball4District4schoolboard@aol.com

Carlos Leyva

Occupation: Pre-College Program Recruiter at Holy Cross College

Education: Holy Cross College, B.A.

Email: cleyva1@icloud.com

Campaign Phone: 574-210-0911

Facebook: www.facebook/CarlosLeyvaforSchoolBoard.com

Annette Malone

Occupation: CEO Reality Hair Concepts LLC

Education: masters Leadership

Email: Amalone265@yahoo.com

Website: Amalone265@yahoo.com

Explain why you are running and share your top two priorities if elected.

Ball: I really want to see the continuation of my work and as the current Trustee in the 4th District, my two areas of emphasis for the next four years will be ensuring that our students have the best leadership and resources available to help them thrive and continuing to build on the work set in motion in our current strategic plan. I plan to work to retain and support consistency in leadership of the Corporation. Our current Superintendent has done tremendous work as the longest serving Superintendent in our District in over a decade. The incoming Board will be tasked with selecting the next leader of the Corporation. I also look forward to evaluating our progress on the current strategic plan, which is shaping what the next decade of the will look like. I am excited about continuing the work and seeing our students thrive!

Leyva: Public education is the most important asset for a community. The future of the SBCSC is bright if problems are resolved, but we must first admit that there are problems. That can start by being transparent and having open communication with stakeholders, parents, students, teachers, administrators and the community. I love South Bend and our public school system. I am a product of South Bend schools. I grew up on the Westside, and have resided in the same neighborhood my whole life. I was an AmeriCorps member. We know representation is important, yet we currently do not have a Latino or Latina on the board. My top two priorities are literacy and community engagement. Every family and teacher wants their child and student to succeed. An innovative and comprehensive approach will address the needs of the students and the community.

Malone: I am running for school board because I see there is a need for change. I have sub off and on for about 30 years., within the 30 years I have seen a lot of changes in the school system. For example, the phones in the classroom are cheated students out of a quality education. The teachers are teaching and some not all are doing air drops that has know value to them with the phones. The phones in my opinion should be put in a sleeve during instruction time for at least 20 minutes after that then let the student make the choice of being productive or not. Too priorities making sure teachers are getting their fair chance to teach in the classroom without the big debate about the phones being out during instruction time! Focus on a plan of getting more minorities to teach and raising teach pay.

With the loss of the arts magnet at Clay High School, what is your opinion of the magnet schools program and what does “magnet schools” mean to you? Should the magnet school program be evaluated to identify its strengths and weaknesses and to determine whether it should be retained or replaced by a new educational model? (If yes, do you have any alternative models in mind)?

Ball: Generally, magnet programs were created for three purposes 1) to provide highly focused academic programs that would “draw” students into a building and/or back into the Corporation 2) to help create racial diversity in a building and 3) to align with future workforce needs of the region. I believe that an assessment of the current magnet programs is overdue. We should evaluate whether the magnet school concept has achieved any of the above three goals. Anecdotal opinions about our magnet programs are that they actually draw the highest academically performing students away from their geographically assigned feeder schools and we may be inadvertently hurting school integration efforts as required by the Consent Decree.The magnet program should be analyzed to determine the cost per pupil spent compared to non-magnet school students.

Leyva: I am grateful that the arts magnet program at Clay High School has not been lost, but moved to Riley High School. Originally magnets were created at each high school and students had to apply. All high schools offered the same general education courses with a magnet influence. However, later the SBCSC used open enrollment, allowing any student to attend any school of their choice. Thus you had some schools with high enrollment and others with low enrollment. Magnets are capable of changing to suit community needs. All programs, including magnets, need to be evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses to determine if they should be retained or replaced. However, any and all changes must involve input from the entire community. It must be transparent and planned well in advance for the public to buy in for alternative models.

Malone: I am very pleased with the magnet schools in place the problem as I see our district does not have enough students graduating with any type of two year degrees compared to surrounding districts. I believe Todd Cummings can do a better job of making sure this happens respectfully .

How can schools balance the need for maintaining order and discipline with the desire to approach student behavior through a lens of empathy and understanding? And what can be done to address the outsized rates of detention, suspension, expulsion, and other forms of discipline experienced by minority students?

Ball: South Bend Schools currently implement restorative justice practices as one of the tools in the tool belt of building a culture of care in our schools. Socio-emotional learning strategies are being implemented and evaluated in each school and steps are in place to ensure that our practices are fair each and every time they are implemented. There has been a growing conversation about creating an alternative school to work in a more targeted way with the 2-5% of students who repeatedly cause disruptions in the classroom environments. If we want to explore an alternative school, I recommend an emphasis on a k-8 offering. There are other districts with alternative school programs in place that South Bend Schools can look to for guidance. We can also foster more community support for our students through increased partnerships.

Leyva: It is evident that the Department of Justice is concerned about discipline. SBCSC recently addressed the discipline policy that the DOJ mandated. SBCSC never meets deadlines. This plan was due in March and was only recently given to the DOJ to approve. Teachers are burdened with large class sizes that reduce their effectiveness of dealing with students. Often times, behavior issues stem from a student reaching out for help. In order to effectively deal with students struggling with disruptive behavior, a wrap around service and support system is needed. Students have to feel comfortable and safe. Parents need to be advised of the Discipline Code of Conduct prior to the start of the school year. Mental and emotional needs of students have to be addressed. I am an advocate for more social workers and mentors in the schools.

Malone: There is no one fixed answer for me to give but what I do believe intervention through the summer and school year with parents and students , meaning special programming to keep them on track. This can include self discipline, learning love language, engaging with one another in positive manner and leadership skill building. This is just to name a few meeting parents where their at goes a long way especially when relearning the things mentioned above. Parenting is not easy but with a sold foundation readiness and prayer it will work!

IREAD-3 results show that one in five Indiana third graders struggle to read. South Bend’s fall 2023 numbers were even worse with only 58% of third graders demonstrating proficiency. What specific actions do you recommend to improve students’ reading skills, particularly now that state law will require students who fail the test be held back?

Ball: I believe the Corporation can create an easy to use literacy enrichment supplement that parents, community groups and churches could adopt in their settings to continue the work that happens during the school day. The Corporation could implement more touch points with parents about their students’ literacy status throughout the year via letters, text messages, auto dialers etc. The Corporation can partner with the St. Joseph County Public Library to promote an understanding of IREAD and how caregivers can increase literacy skills by hosting informational sessions at local branches. The Corporation could work with area not-for-profit organization to promote early literacy by promoting the Dolly Parton Foundation Imagination Library. The Corporation can seek out grant and foundation funding to deepen our focus on increasing literacy.

Leyva: We cannot let our third graders fail. SBCSC is tracking data, but the real issue is using that data correctly. Not only identify, but to help those students who are not succeeding. Higher literacy rates is a must. Every family and teacher wants their child and student to succeed. Providing teachers with the right support and resources is a key to success in literacy. An innovative and comprehensive approach that addresses the diverse needs of students is also important to improving literacy rates. Teachers need technical assistance, funding, and more resources. We must develop an instructional timeline, have early intervention where we identify struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade and provide targeted support, engage students in regular reading activities to improve fluency and comprehension. I advocate Science of Reading.

Malone: It starts at home with parents being engaged with their student (s) learning some may not understand what this looks like, therefore the teacher can help assess the student learning style and give the parents the tools to help them succeed!

At the beginning of each school year, parents complain that school bus plans are inadequate and poorly communicated to families. Is this a fair criticism and what can be done to address the issue?

Ball: It is a fair criticism and it is also part of the normal start of the academic year. I feel this year the district had more hiccups due to our new feeder school re-alignment that caused more transportation changes. A few things that can be done to improve communication is to work early and often with families (mail, text, email, social media, public meetings) about any new processes or procedures in transportation. The Corporation should work as hard as possible to ensure that students are arriving in a timely fashion to school every day. I believe we should be working to lower transportation costs by reducing transportation that is provided on the high school level. We may need to partner with TRANSPO, employ crossing guards and create pick-up hubs as a way to increase routing efficiencies and reduce costs.

Leyva: It is a fair criticism. Being a bus driver is a tough responsibility. In the past children have been picked up late or not at all. And it has been going on for years. This failure is at the administrative level. For example, bid packages for drivers to bid on routes were sent out in July, but kept getting extended. In fact, many drivers started this school year without contracts. SBCSC must start this process earlier than July. There are added problems when new facility plans are created and not enough time is allowed to successfully plan the details. Our bus drivers are good employees and are just as frustrated as our families. I will advocate for community advisory boards to provide input on school and administrative decisions. We must work together to build a strong community relationship of trust and transparency to help families.

Malone: The busing system has been an issue from the beginning of time. I can say it is getting better now than in the past years. Bus drivers need more pay they are the key figures of getting kids to school and home. I would like to suggest a parent organization with parents to get involved and do share riding and with this the corporation can supply gas Vouchers and car maintenance for free to help with this issue.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Vote411: South Bend school board district 4 has three candidates