My "elevator speech"

The South Bend community has passion and energy to bring to bear – and an eagerness - to make a difference in our public school system. But many citizens feel unheard and unwanted in our current way of doing things. So the question is, what do we do about it? Also, what else can we do enhance our children’s futures? Here are a few ideas:

Form a New Partnership

School Board meetings can be tough to get to, and some citizens have felt ill-treated. Let’s return to having half the meetings in neighborhood schools and later in the evening – enabling folks to clean up and grab a bite after work first. When we meet, let’s observe the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Enhance outcomes in our Primary Centers

Full day Kindergarten is a must and it should be focused on enhancing learning skills. We also need to work with the State to eliminate policies (Kindergarten as optional, the earliest age cut-off date in the nation) which create First Grade classes with huge disparities in students’ abilities. Only when we can assure ourselves that our children leave Primary Centers ready for the next step, can we then properly evaluate programs for our older children.

Create a “Teach For South Bend” program

Some of our schools seem to be doing quite well, while others aren’t enjoying the same level of success. Clearly the challenges are greater in some of our schools. Let’s ask the business community to join us and create a fund to reward teachers willing to take on the most challenging assignments. Let’s also create a mentoring program to help these teachers be successful.