By STU CLAMPITT
Two at-large Noblesville School Board candidates reached out to The Reporter to talk about why they are running and what they hope to improve if elected.
Misti Ray and Melba Kiser both announced their campaigns in the pages of The Reporter. You can read those initial announcements at the following two links:
Kiser
Ray
From meeting at various community events, they found they have common ground in, as Ray put it, “pretty much everything we stand for.”
“I would say we are becoming friends,” Kiser told The Reporter. “We were not friends before we each decided to run. But what we have are the same goals and the same objectives. That is to put kids first, to have transparency to the parents, and to be sure we are providing the best education to our kids and really represent what the community needs.”
Ray said she felt compelled to run because she sees a great deal of “noise” creeping into the classrooms.
“There is a lot of distraction within the school and it is losing its focus on academics,” Ray said. “I’m finding more and more ‘noise’ in the classroom that is distracting form the kids learning. I am a substitute teacher and an involved parent. I have three kids that have either gone through or are still in the school district. One has already graduated. By the time my youngest graduates I will have had a child in Noblesville School District for 30 consecutive years. That’s not counting my own Noblesville K through 12 education.”
Kiser is a grandmother who wants her grandchildren’s generation to have the same quality of education and opportunity she is grateful for in her own life.
“I have grandkids who are going to be going through the Noblesville school system and I had been seeing that the education in the United States was really falling down,” Kiser said. “I am an immigrant from Cuba and a naturalized citizen. I was lucky to have received a fantastic education here and was very lucky to have my parents bring me here. But I have seen that the education is not going to be preparing our kids to be self-sufficient and to be able to achieve their goals. I want my grandkids and future generations to have the same opportunity that I had to be self-sufficient and to build their dreams.”
The specific examples she gave come down not only to falling test scores, but also to her belief that schools are not teaching fundamental life skills.
“If you look at the ILEARN scores for the last 10 to 12 years, you will see that the proficiency levels have fallen in English reading and writing and mathematics,” Kiser said. “Kids are not learning how to do their finances. They are getting into a lot of debt. They are not being prepared for future career goals, whether that would be going to college or just to earn a living. We have 30 to 40 percent of our kids who are not proficient and are not going to be able to have good-paying jobs and careers that are going to let them really build their dreams.”
Ray told The Reporter she sees too many non-academic responsibilities being added to teachers’ plates by administrations.
“Our teachers are teachers,” Ray said. “They are educators. They are not counselors. They are not psychologists. They care about their students. They know them. They get to spend a lot of time with them. So sure, they can tell when a student is not having a good day. But they don’t need to play the role of the psychologist or enter politics. There’s no place for that when you are trying to teach reading and writing and math and science. They are getting distracted with everything that is not academically related.”
Kiser agreed, citing examples of surveys taking up days of classroom time at the beginning of each school year.
“I have spoken to several teachers in different schools who feel that there is too much stress placed on some of these social studies and other surveys and too much of the school time – we are talking about days, often in the beginning of the school year – that is spent having the kids take these surveys that really have nothing to do with teaching them what they are in class for,” Kiser said. “That’s a big issue for the teachers. There is too much emphasis placed on specific standards as opposed to giving them an overall education in the subject matter.”
Ray agreed and cited an example from a specific survey she had access to.
“I have a screenshot of a few questions of a survey that was given to a student,” Ray told The Reporter. “One of the questions reads, ‘I will tell a lie if it will keep me out of trouble.’ Then it’s multiple choice: It’s very much like me; mostly like me; somewhat like me; a little like me or not like me at all. How is that related to their academics? Unfortunately, that provider that this quiz is coming from, on their website it says, ‘Our commitment is to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.’ We’re pushing this stuff and it has nothing to do with what they are actually there to learn and what the parents send their kids to school for. There is a reason we have hundreds of students being pulled from Noblesville Schools within the last two years to go to private schools.”
If you would like to learn more about these candidates and what they stand for, their online details are below.
Click here to visit Misti Ray’s campaign website. Click here to visit her campaign Facebook page.
Click here to visit Melba Kiser’s campaign website. Click here to visit her campaign Facebook page.
The survey question has a lot to do with academics. We must teach our children values such as integrity. All of my college courses had a section on academic integrity that warns about plagiarism and other forms of cheating.
We should teach our children about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Our pledge of allegiance mentions liberty and justice for all. The “for all” part is where equity, inclusion, and diversity come into play. We don’t talk much about our National Motto. It translates to “Out of many, one people”. We should teach our children that they can succeed if they work hard in school.
Yes, there is a reason that many children are being pulled out of public school — but it’s not because of what Ms. Ray is implying. It’s because the GOP declared war on public schools decades ago. It’s even in writing. The great intellectual Noam Chomsky talks about it in the Netflix documentary “Requiem for the American Dream.” The Republicans don’t want free public schools for the citizenry. Jefferson wanted them, though. Which is ironic, since he helped start the Republican Party. The only schools they want are religious private schools which will teach a curriculum with which they agree. They don’t want public secular institutions because they don’t want a truly educated public exposed to free thinking and a multitude of ideas. The American people would be smarter and better understand when their elected representatives are disingenuous. The U.S.Chamber of Commerce became concerned and the American Business Class agreed that there was a danger in an excess of democracy. The only danger that could come from that would be the GOP would have to be transparent about their actions. For my part, I smell two candidates carrying the torch for Trumpism and repeating those talking points, so I will NOT vote for either of them. And I am appalled that they would even consider jumping on the platform of a man who has openly admitted to sexually assaulting women. I guess they don’t care about women. So, would I trust either of them to be fair and decent human beings and a good choice for the school board? No. We don’t need anymore political hysterics and chaos and we certainly don’t need it in our public schools.