District 24 school board candidates hold online forum

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The four trustee candidates vying for an open seat this year on the Valley Stream Elementary School District 24 Board of Education discussed their stances on a variety of issues in a remote video forum held on May 28.

WIth the June 9 election date rapidly approaching, and mail-in ballots already in the hands of most residents, the candidates were largely in agreement on a variety of topics, with the occasional diverging viewpoint, during the expansive, two-and-a-half hour talk that touched on issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, how to best work with other individuals on the board and standardized testing among many others.

Candidate Anthony Cruz organized the discussion through Zoom, fielding various questions from residents as each contender touted their qualifications, which they believed made them best suited for a seat on the board. Cruz, a recent Central High School graduate, highlighted his role as the first student liasan -- a position he helped create -- to the Central High School District Board of Education, noting it gave him first-hand knowledge of school-board operations. Cristina Arroyo emphasized her academic and professional background in leadership and policy consulting. Melissa Herrera spoke of her extensive involvement in the PTA and Markus Wilson noted his roughly 25-year career as an attorney during which he at one point worked for the New York City Education Department. All except Cruz have children attending district schools.

Perhaps the lengthiest and most divergent discussion centered on the coronavirus, which has upended traditional teaching methods and created a $13 billion deficit in the New York state 2020-21 operating budget, threatening the state aid typically owed to school districts and creating a likely possibility of cuts to programs.

Arroyo said that should cuts become necessary special priority should be made to ensure the safety of students and teachers, maintaining equal-access to instruction for students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and preserving social-emotional counseling infrastructure, particularly in light of the stress the pandemic has caused.

Herrera acknowledged that while it would be an unprecedented challenge, she ruled out the possibility of cuts, noting that programs, once they drop, are often difficult to bring back. Instead, she suggested leaning more on ties to community actors such as local lawmakers and groups such as the PTA, and seeking ways to find additional funding and cost savings through partnerships, grants and fundraising.

Wilson said that while he was confident current board members had crafted a budget for the upcoming year that has at least partially accounted for shortfalls the coronavirus might create, he too acknowledged schools would likely have to get creative when it came to finding alternate revenue streams, and suggested that without cutting them altogether, some programs might have to be reduced.

Cruz suggested crowdsourcing resources and ideas from local entities such as the chamber of commerce and village, also noting that partnerships could help reduce costs.

“All of these ideas don’t just stop at the Board of Education,” he said.

With regards to remote learning, Herrera said district staff had done and admirable job cobbling together remote teaching lessons within the time span they had, and had provided students the devices necessary to continue their studies.While she said she hoped school buildings would reopen in the fall, she again suggested the district would need to consult more with parents to better individualize the system should remote learning need to continue.

Arroyo said that as a college-level teacher, she has realized that remote instruction requires a very different skill set than is traditional for school teachers, and suggested more specialized training to help them adapt.

“Remote learning and teaching is a completely different monster,” she said, and suggested that the district prepare for a likely transition period in which some students would return to in-person instruction while others would remain home out of fear of infection.

Wilson too praised district staff for doing what it could to continue instruction, but acknowledged that remote learning would likely have to continue through the fall, and that it has been suboptimal for many, particularly younger students. The priority, he said, would be a need to plan for a safe return to the classroom when the dangers of the virus subside. 

“We’ve gotta be prepared to work with the teachers, students and parents to provide a safe learning environment when this is all over,” he said.

Cruz agreed with Arroyo that teachers would need additional training in remote teaching should it need to continue in the fall, but expressed worry about additional costs expanded digital learning might incur.

Standardized testing, a hot-button topic on Long Island where test refusals remain high, was also a lengthy subject of discussion, as well as the concept of tying teacher evaluations to test results. 

Cruz said that as a recent test-taker and someone who is pursuing a degree in education, he found standardized testing was not a good determiner of teacher or student skill. Wilson said that while he has had his children take the state tests, he too did not agree with using them as teacher evaluations. Herrera, who said she refuses to have her children take the tests, emotionally recounted an instance in which a teacher had helped her daughter in socializing. Such skills, she said, could never be quantified in test results. Arroyo said she has also refused to have her children take the state tests, but noted that it was an issue of faulty methodology, adding that there should be ways to evaluate teacher performance, but that the format and use of scores did not properly serve that purpose.

Teacher evaluations, however, have not been tied to state test results since a 2015 moratorium on the practice. The passage of a state law in 2019 made that moratorium permanent. But the testing discussion also moved past teacher evaluations and into ways they could be improved.

Herrera and Cruz said they wondered how the tests could provide usable information when they are taken in the spring and the results come out in the summer, when the children are already moving onto the next grade. Herrera suggested moving to more dynamic tests such as the NWEA, and Cruz said educators should be more involved in coming up with the tests. Arroyo said the tests could be salvaged, but that implementation needed to be rethought.

“Much of the reasoning behind the tests is to make it consistent, but that shouldn’t have been the number one priority.” she said. “When you design for the average you’re not helping most students. Nobody’s average, really.”

Other questions dealt with managing group dynamics while working on a seven-person board. Arroyo said her background in conflict management and consulting has provided her with collaboration skills, but also noted that dissent can be a healthy part of a functioning board. Cruz said his time as a student liaison gave him a great deal of experience in bridging divergent interests, while Wilson said he was aware how important collaboration and compromise is while working on a board. Herrera again referenced her work with the PTA, noting that tensions can run high in the organization, but that often they come from a place of deep personal investment. Still, she said that she would be willing to compromise. “It’s important to realize that decisions made for the greater good don’t always come from you as an individual,” she said.