At-Large Candidates
Katherine Fansler is running for an at-large position on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board. With 12 years of teaching experience, Fansler wants to be an advocate for educators. Since she understands how policies affect the classroom from the perspective of a teacher, Fansler has centered her campaign on issues concerning teacher pay, school choice, and the involvement of teachers in policymaking. If elected to the school board, Fansler will work to ensure that the decision-making process is transparent for those who have a stake in education. “I am running for the school board because I am a teacher and I understand, first hand, how decisions made at the board level actually look when they filter down to the classroom level. My experience is that very often, the results are unintended and involve wasted time and resources. With respect to equitable access to a quality education, research shows that the quality of the classroom teacher is the single greatest in-school factor having an impact on student learning. Yet our lower performing schools - those with a high percentage of low SES and minority students -- have teachers with the least experience and also suffer from the highest turnover rates. This means that the quality of the classroom teacher is significantly eroded in our schools with the highest need. I have a plan to mitigate that - too detailed to go into in this format, but as a classroom teacher, I am confident that I will be successful, given the opportunity to serve.” Elisabeth Motsinger is also running for an at-large position on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board. Motsinger has served on the school board since 2006, is a physician assistant, and has had three children attend Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. Motsinger encourages the placement of the best teachers in underperforming schools and working with Common Core standards. If re-elected, Motsinger will make “excellent education” her top priority. “I'm running because I believe we must have an excellent education, every day, in every school, for every child. And right now we don't. I also think that critical thinking skills are essential skills for all children and should be an essential component of education. College students have both the most to lose and the most to gain by voting. The world you inhabit is modeled by the decisions made by elected people so it is so important that you pay attention to the vision they hold for the future and to the choices they make.” German Garcia-No response Robert Barr “I was raised in a single parent home in a high poverty area. My mother only had an 8th grade education, but through programs like Upward Bound and community involvement through faith-based organizations I was able to achieve some measure of success. The programs mention helped my mother navigate through the educational system and provided positive role models for me." Educational Background: Masters in Secondary Education from Wake Forest University (1999) and Bachelors in Education (WSSU 1988) He has taught for 14 years and his platform is as follows: "parental engagement and community involvement. Helping all kids, but giving some attention to those in high poverty areas.” John Davenport, Jr.-No response District 1 Candidates Mark Johson “Very briefly: the achievement gap is a nationwide issue that can be solved one school district at a time. College students should definitely be concerned about the achievement gap because it will have consequences on the future of the entire nation. I am running for school board here in Forsyth County to focus the school system on closing the achievement gap. My experience as a Teach For America corps member will help me enact proactive policies targeted at improving early childhood literacy... which will have the greatest impact on closing the achievement gap. We need leaders in all school districts who understand the achievement gap and want to put in the work it is going to take to close it.” Past experience-TFA alum in North Carolina at West Charlotte HS, board member for the Crosby Scholars and United Way of Forsyth County, Chair of Young Leaders United Three important areas of focus-five point plan (improve early childhood literacy for all students, retain and attract teachers, quality of education, preserve and improve school choice, smart financial policies) District 2 Candidates Lori Clark "I hope the reason you all care about education is because you can testify as to what it has done for you! I hope you will vote because you realize it is a privilege and your duty as a responsible citizen. If you end up staying here in Winston as a taxpayer/stakeholder - even if you don't have children ever or you do have children who don't attend public schools, your taxes will go towards the public education system and you should care that it teaches children how to read, to be a good citizen, and prepares them to live in our communities and be active and productive. I care about the school board race and am running for a seat because I believe in education - just like you who are involved in SFER. I believe that much good goes on in public schools today (I am a grad of this system myself, my son is in it now, and I have been an active school parent), but we don't hear about the good, and improvements still can be made! We can work on the achievement gaps - yes - and I believe that all students can achieve at high levels if we expect much and set the bar high. I believe teaching is a high calling and our communities and homes have forgotten to value both teachers AND education. We can help that at the local, state and national levels by fostering (begins in the home) a love for what education can offer. We can also do that as member of a school board by supporting teachers and raising their pay. If we raise the pay, we will attract more people to the profession - a big need right now. As well - I will continue to support choice for parents and students - as many choices as possible - because choice raises the bar for all (you may know that our system here has a "choice" plan that has been a model for other systems to study). We need more people (perhaps like you?) who are willing to run for School Boards across the country. It is a job of public service, and needs willing people who love education, see the potential, have been involved in it themselves.....:)" Dana Jones-No response Laura Elliott- No response Deanna Kaplan is a democratic candidate in District 2. She received her undergraduate degree from Meredith Collage. She was the former president of the Thomas Jefferson Middle School PTA, and is a board member on the Booster Club and Friends of Benner Children’s Hospital. She is mother to five kids. Kaplan supports state of the art technology for schools, parental school choice, and resources to close the achievement gap. “As a lifelong advocate for public schools, I will work hard for our students to ensure that they have equal access to high quality education which includes state of the art technology, the resources to close the opportunity and achievement gap that exist with so many children in Forsyth County, more efficient use of classroom space and much needed resources such as textbooks. Parents and teachers should not have to constantly supplement our classrooms with items that should be readily available to all. All children need to be proficient in reading by the time they are in the third grade. We need to focus on the first 2000 days of a child's life (birth to age five) to make sure every child is on track by the time he or she begins kindergarten.” Jeannie Metcalf-No response David Singletary-No response |