Issues
Mental Health
Problem:
Between 2004-2014, there has been a 37% increase in the diagnosis of clinical depression in adolescents nationwide. High school students and parents in Pearland ISD report high levels of academic stress and continued episodes of bullying, resulting in dysfunctional and dangerous behaviors for our children. In 2015-16, PISD cut behavioral health coordinator services, which has left the district scrambling after a spate of adolescent suicides. As a result, the district has turned to a Christian counseling center for help. Depression and suicide are serious medical issues that must be addressed by counselors who will not prioritize their faith as the final authority in client interactions. PISD is diverse in both culture and religious beliefs, and we must provide secular counseling services that respect the beliefs of our children and do not impose religious values on our children that parents may not share.
Cause:
Stigmatizing mental health issues and failing to teach people to recognize signs and symptoms of common problems.
Solution:
Increasing awareness and mental health and counseling resources in a culture of acceptance will help students develop the tools to manage their stress better and to recognize when they or their classmates need professional help.
Policy:
I support mental health screening, education, and high-risk intervention through school based mental health programs that empowers teachers, students, and parents.
Overcrowding
Problem:
Some of our Pearland ISD schools are overcrowded, with student to teacher ratios at Dawson High School, Pearland High School, and Turner High School higher than the statewide average of 15.1 in 2016-17. Pearland ISD has grown from 20,034 students in 2013-14 to 21,624 in 2018-19, reflecting the rapid growth in our community. According to PISD, Dawson High School has already exceeded capacity and is closed to non-district transfer students. Turner High School representatives are recruiting middle school students away from Dawson to help alleviate overcrowding. PISD was recently rezoned in 2016 to address overcrowding.
Cause:
Failure to anticipate the growth in number of students. Over the past three years, Dawson High has added 109 students, Pearland High has added 61, and Turner High has dropped 15.
Solution:
Anticipate and prepare for future growth, while properly assessing whether the 2016 bond has solved the problem.
Policy:
I support comparing actual student population sizes to forecasts, updating our forecasts in near real-time, and maintaining a list of priorities for spending.
Educational Equity and Representation
Problem:
There are persistent gaps in academic achievement by economic status and racial category. A state-wide culture of testing and accountability undermines the potential for public schools to holistically develop healthy students and healthy communities. The misguided over-reliance on technology to replace teaching discriminates against economically disadvantaged students in PISD (nearly 30% of all students in the district).
Cause:
The “at-large” nature of the school board reinforces a lack of representation among school board trustees in a district that is 11% Asian American, 15% African-American, and 35% Hispanic, resulting in policies that may not serve students and families from these communities. School board meetings can be inaccessible to many parents, students, and teachers to advocate for change. Present board leadership has not made whole child health a priority. A culture of classism is tolerated and even supported by implicit and explicit expectations and opportunities.
Solution:
Increase representation and access to school board members. Student-centered shared decision making.
Policy:
I support drawing districts for school board positions to ensure that we capture the demographic changes in PISD in representation. I support changing school board meeting times to evenings or weekends to ensure greatest community participation, publishing school board meetings and elections on the district calendar, ensuring language accessibility with stakeholders, and promoting a culture of voting among students, parents, and teachers. I support responding more meaningfully to concerns by stakeholders, i.e. the call for changing how GPA is calculated, considering health in changing school start times, availability of non-European AP language courses.
Active Citizenship
Problem:
While students are some of the most important stakeholders for district policies (i.e. on school safety, school finance) they are actively excluded in decision-making.
Cause:
There seems to be a cultural reluctance in PISD to support a system that centers student civic engagement. Some measures are even punitive when students attempt to address valid concerns about the systems that should serve their developmental needs. Students are also overwhelmed by an unnecessarily competitive academic environment that is neither healthy for their physical, mental, and emotional health, nor congruent with the aim of developing active citizenship, a key function of public education.
Solution:
Civic engagement offers rich, problem-based learning opportunities, proven to be much more effective than traditional instructional methods when the goal is social / emotional / and cognitive skill development rather than an achievement oriented model. These experiences also cultivate in students a sense of ownership over their lives that will allow them to thrive in postsecondary pursuits, making them attractive university applicants and community leaders.
Policy:
Revisit all structures that deny students opportunities for meaningful civic engagement. Create opportunities for students to engage with the school board, local and state government on education.
Evidence Based Practices
Problem:
Pearland ISD is too quick to embrace practices that confirm biases without evidence. As an example, in 2013, district leadership launched the grit campaign. Grit culture wrongly suggests that an individual can be taught by educators to ‘persevere’ or ‘work strenuously despite failure’ with catchy slogans and a handful of school assemblies. Teachers know that this is untrue. Our conversations with students and parents demonstrate that grit culture in PISD blames the victim rather than empowering them to challenge systemic barriers.
Cause:
District leadership in PISD adopts some practices without evidence (grit) and fails to adopt other practices with abundant evidence (i.e. whole school, whole community, whole child model).
Solution:
Promote responsible policy-making through community engagement and use of evidence.
Policy:
Require that any district wide initiatives be discussed in open session with intentional inclusion of teachers, students, and expert evidence based input with source references from our community (i.e. neurodevelopmental pediatricians). Ensure that the state mandated School Health Advisory Council is comprised of members that reflect the district’s diversity, as multiple perspectives on health and wellbeing will naturally organize the conversation around practices proven to work with diverse student populations.