TEA STAAR scores are very low across all grades. The percentage of students in the "Meets academic grade level" fall mostly in the 50-percentile range across the board and in many grade levels considerably lower. Check out the TEA website for yourself here. This is unacceptable, children deserve a better future. Making academics top priority for every child should be our primary goal. Let's explore new methods of learning and retention and revisit proven methods of the past.  What's the saying? "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." If methods of the past worked well, we should consider returning to those methods. Whatever it takes for ALL of Denton students to succeed.  After all, education is why this institution exists. 

Where is the district spending taxpayer funds? Is it on the safety of Denton children and teachers in the classrooms? In the past year, the district has allocated money to bring two medical clinics into our schools, one for teachers only and one for students. However, in discussions of supplying newly state-mandated security resource officers, SROs, for each school, there was talk of difficulty finding funding. There was the suggestion of cutting programs to support the new mandate and even an idea of sharing one security guard between two schools that are side by side, such as McNair ES and Calhoun MS. This is unacceptable, safety is priority in my book! Parents should feel safe dropping their children off at school and students should not have to be concerned about having a school shooter in their hallways. Taking a close look at each department to determine where funding is going and being willing to cut out extravagant and unnecessary spending to find the funds to prioritize our student’s safety must be done.

Teachers are the ones in "the trenches" day after day. Everyone talks about teachers deserving better pay but it seems to mainly be lip service. Denton has many exceptionally creative and caring teachers. Those that give 110% should be rewarded for their efforts beyond a certificate and a "stay-cation at the local Ramada Inn". What if schools ran more like a business? In businesses, excellent employees get better than cost of living raises. What if teachers were rewarded with bonuses for excellence? And every teacher should have allowances to cover out-of-pocket expenses throughout the year. Implementing such a system would not only benefit teachers and inspire creativity amongst the teaching staff but benefit the school system as well.  Teacher retention has become an issue and teacher acquisition is low. This would give the district an advantage over surrounding ISD's. 

On the topic of teacher retention, there has been much complaining from teaching staff on discipline in the classroom. It has even become a large reason for teachers leaving teaching entirely. How can a teacher be expected to do her job, deliver her lesson when she is constantly having to deal with a disorderly student? Discipline policies need to be examined and possibly rewritten to provide a better environment for teaching and learning. This must be addressed before the new school year. 

Let's work together to make Denton ISD better, smarter and stronger.

 "Parent's Rights" should be for all parents not just a select group that agrees with some teacher's, librarians, and administrator's political and social views. Parents' have the inalienable right to raise their child with their personally held religious beliefs and moral values. For a staff member or administrator to infringe one that parent's right to choose what's best for their child is wrong. 

 One such example of this is my personal fight to have obscene library books removed or restricted in the school libraries. Every child has a right to the full privileges of the amenities afforded to students in their school. And every parent should feel confident that their child will not be exposed to obscene material in their school library. Every child at Denton ISD should be able to walk into their school library and choose any book without a parent concerned whether or not the subject matter is age appropriate.