1.  Do you reject developer donations and donations from people and entities affiliated with the development industry? If yes, have you taken the No Developer Donation Campaign Pledge?

 

Yes, I reject developer donations and donations from people and entities affiliated with developers and related industries. I have taken the No Developer Donation Campaign Pledge. As this is a non-partisan election, I also reject donations and the endorsement of political parties. I feel strongly that non-partisan elections should stay non-partisan. To that end, I am not affiliated with a party. That precludes me from receiving a PDHC endorsement.  However, I will continue to share my responses since you note that “candidate questionnaire answers will be made public to assist voters in helping make their choices on Election Day”, which I very much support.

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2.  What are your thoughts on Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) in Howard County? Do you think they need to be strengthened, weakened, etc.? How, if at all, would you change APFO in Howard County? Are there any cases in which you think exemptions should be made for APFO? If so, in what circumstances?

 

The Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance is a growth management tool to ensure that adequate roads, schools, and other infrastructure are developed at the same time as real estate development. If it was implemented correctly, it would ensure adequate infrastructure development. However, the problem arises in that the Howard County ordinance does not adequately count the number of children being added to the school system.  This happens for a number of reasons, like that units might be used differently than anticipated.  But in addition, the development of some homes, like those in 55+ communities, may have indirect effects on the school system, by making more existing homes available for families with children.  Additionally, it might make sense to make some developments exempt for policy reasons (for example, low-income housing). Ultimately though, whether the county collects sufficient APFO, the county bears the responsibility for providing a seat in a brick-and-mortar school for every child who attends public school. With respect to equity, it is particularly troubling if we build affordable or low-income housing but we don’t build adequate schools for the children living in that housing, which seems to be the path we have taken. With or without APFO, the county needs to find the resources to build schools.

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3.  In the past, the topic of school resource officers (SROs) has been employed as an election-year wedge issue, which has served to drown out discussions on many other topics. What will you do to finally resolve this issue? Do you support the removal of SROs in Howard County?  Why or why not?

 

I am frustrated that SROs are being used as a wedge issue and in particular that it distracts from the real issue of school safety. School safety is essential to ensure a suitable learning environment and a safe work environment for teachers and staff.  We have to find a better way to address school safety without contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. We have issues of violence in our schools with fights that disrupt the ability of students to learn.  We have that in high schools with SROs; we have that in middle schools without SROs.  Whether there is an SRO or not, teachers, administrators, and other staff are being asked to risk injury to intervene in school violence. We need a comprehensive program to address school safety to ensure a better, healthier learning and teaching environment. We need to see if something like the My Teaching Partner (MTP) program would be appropriate for our schools. MTP is available at all grade levels and has repeatedly been shown to increase safety, reduce discipline, and reduce discipline disparities for children with disabilities and black children. We need to address the root causes and that may also require counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses who are as diverse as the school body, serving as positive role models for students. Ultimately, I believe that because of the situation in the schools we need SROs right now and we cannot simply remove them. But I would like us to invest in programs with the ultimate goal of having schools that no longer need SROs.

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4.  Would you support a significant increase in school surcharge fees to mitigate the impacts of new developments on schools?

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It is very clear that the county policy on adequate public facilities is woefully inadequate. It needs to be fixed to ensure sound development, but the county also must remedy the existing deficits that arose due to the inadequacies of the adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO). One way to address this is through the school surcharge fees that increases the contribution from development.  Since development is driving the need for more schools, it seems appropriate that developers should be supporting school development. However, my concern with focusing on increasing taxes, whether school surcharge fees, APFO, or the recordation tax, is that money is fungible and any gains in income purported to be for education may not ultimately end up funding education. While it can be earmarked for education, it may lead to decreased funding from other revenue streams, with money from other revenue streams being diverted to fund other county priorities. Ultimately, we need to prioritize education, and we must account for new growth and development in the county recouping the costs from development. Currently, we do not adequately account for new growth, nor do we ensure that new construction is sustainable with respect to all public facilities, but particularly the school system. With the non-capital budget, the board always asks for what they need, every year.  We need to do that with the capital budget as well. And every year it should be a proposal that would bring school capacity to 100% in a five-year time frame.

 

5.  Why, in your eyes, has one of the wealthiest counties in the country (Howard County) struggled so consistently to fully fund our education needs e.g. teacher pay, hiring adequate number of special education and mental health staff, new school construction and maintenance, etc.? What can be done to change this?

 

Thinking of ourselves as one of the wealthiest counties in the country is one of the reasons we struggle.  When one considers median household income, we are somewhere in the top 10 wealthiest countries in the nation and first in Maryland.  But if you look at our per capita GDP, you see a much different picture where our rank nationally is not even noteworthy, and we rank number four in Maryland. Importantly, funding for the school system does not come directly from income tax and under Kirwan fewer funds will return to Howard County from that state income tax.  So high income wealth does not necessarily equate to high funding for the school system.  In addition, because income is high in Howard County, bargaining units and employees expect higher wages, which is a significant portion of expenses. The result is that the revenue is lower than residents perceive, and the expenses are greater.

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6.  Do you oppose recent attempts to censor inclusive LGBTQ+ content taught and offered in public schools/libraries?

I oppose attempts to censor content, particularly award-winning content aimed at communities in need of content. I am currently reading one of the three books recently assessed by the school system after requests to censor it; the other two books are on my reading list. The one I have started is not about LGBTQIA+ content, but instead on child sex abuse. I know of only one other book aimed at young adult readers that broaches the topic of child abuse, yet I know many people who have suffered at the hands of child sex abusers. Children, and adults, need these books. I know with certainty that we also need high quality books on LGBTQIA+ content. One of my mother-in-laws talks openly about her own need for lesbian content, both years ago when she was a young student struggling with her identity and now as a 70-year-old.  She has only recently truly found her own community and voice through her own writing about Gentleman Jack and Anne Lister. I hope LGBTQIA+ students today don’t find that they must wait 50 years to find their community and voice.

7.  If there is another spike in COVID, would you support returning to a virtual or hybrid teaching/learning model?

 

Our students suffered tremendously during virtual learning.  They suffered because prior to a vaccine being available, going to school during COVID likely would have been worse as it would have overwhelmed our hospitals and healthcare system. But given that everyone can now be vaccinated, there are pharmaceuticals for treatment, and 95% of Americans have either been vaccinated, have had COVID, or both, I suspect the worst is behind us with respect to COVID-19. Virtual learning was not good for families or students, for education or mental health. It was the lesser of two evils. But we also know that history repeats itself.  This was not the first time US schools were shuttered to curb the spread of a pandemic with mass casualties. But while a switch to virtual or hybrid learning should always be a last resort, it could happen again.  Therefore, I think HCPSS should have a new policy that specifically addresses this and other scenarios that may happen. We need to be better prepared for these issues in the future.  We also need to have better policies for mass illness in the schools like we saw just this past winter in December 2021.  In many schools, including my son’s middle school, so many students and teachers were out sick that education was not happening, and students are still behind relative to their peers at other middle schools. In that case, would it have been better to close and extend the school year in June?  We need to have discussions and policies on this, having thoughtful dialogue and informed decisions such that we are not making knee-jerk decisions in the moment. We need policies to address the learning loss that happens in these situations and ensures that all students get the education they deserve.