Brittney Guyer

April 17, 2013

Brittney Guyer
Dr. Janet Reid
Diversity
It is officially election time for the local school board members of our small, diverse
neighborhood. As the public relation director, it is my job to form the six members of the official school
board. I would like for this new recruit of school board members to represent and have a voice for all of
the local neighborhood members. Our neighborhood is comprised of thirty-three percent Hispanic
people, thirty percent African-American, twelve percent Native American, fifteen percent white, and ten
percent other races. The adult population ranges from forty percent of the population being age forty to
forty-five, thirty percent being fifty to sixty, and thirty percent retirement age and older. Out of these
adults, only ten percent earn 50,000-60,000 annually. Forty percent earn salaries ranging from 35,000-
45,000 annually, and twenty percent work minimum wage jobs. The other thirty percent of the
population are receive unemployment or live off of social security or retirement checks. With these
diverse demographics of the neighborhood, composing a school board that represents all people and
needs equally is a very challenging task to complete.
In order to select our school board members, we hold an election so that each member of the
neighborhood can be a part of the selection process. To run for the six school board member positions,
the candidates must meet a certain criteria. They must be at least eighteen years or older, be a
registered voter, not have been a convicted felon, and they must physically reside in the school district
for which he or she is a candidate. If the election process brings forth a group that equally represents
the neighborhood, it would show the ideal school board. This board would be made up of one middle
class Hispanic man in his early forties, one wealthy Hispanic woman in her late fifties, one popular,
middle class African-American man in his early thirties, one African-American woman who works a
minimum wage job in her late twenties, one sixty-five year old Native American who receives social
security, and one middle class white man in his early forties. Once elected as a school board member,
you will serve for two years until the next election takes place. If re-elected, the member can serve six
years total on the school board until he or she is no longer eligible to be a member. These members
would all have either attended schools in this specific school district or have children or grandchildren
currently enrolled there. This fact will help the members have an inside look at the problems and issues
that need to be addressed in the schools.
During the first year that this ideal school board was elected to serve, they were faced with the
following problems: gangs, bullying, drugs, and teen pregnancy. Each of these issues relates and impacts
the other. The goal of the school board is to create new ideas of prevention for the issues and
implement them into the school systems. In order to help prevent these issues, the school board must
first start by educating the teachers on how to recognize signs of children who are being bullied or
bullying. Once teachers know the specific signs and actions of bullying, they are able to help prevent
these actions before they spiral too out of hand. Bullying leads to gangs and drugs. Because people do
not fit into the everyday world around them, they begin to fin d acceptance in gangs and completion in
drugs. Instead if gangs, the schools should offer many different clubs or unique extracurricular activities
to help the students find their sense of belonging. Drugs are used a lot when students have emotional
problems or self-esteem issues. If guidance counselors are hired for the students to be able to go, talk
to, and trust, students may no longer feel the need to abuse drugs in order to get the sense of being out
of the real world. With teen pregnancy, the school board realized that they could not stop students from
having sex, but they could give them the tools and information to know what they are doing , how to do
it safely, and what the consequences could be in the future. The school board put new, mandatory sex
education classes in the schools in order for students to be able to make their own informed decision
about their future. Measuring success would definitely have to be a task continually done throughout
the years. The first year after implementing these changes, you could compare the new found data such
as how many girls are pregnant or how many students are talking to guidance counselors to the
previous years statistics. You could also do a survey throughout the schools asking students like if they
feel their teachers are more aware of the bullying going on in the classroom or if they feel like the extra
clubs and activities are helping them feel as if they have a place to belong and a reliable group of
friends. After placing such helpful strategies in their first year of office, the school board was then faced
with four very different challenges their second year.
The second group of issues that the school board had to face was low tests scores, low teacher
morale, poor attendance, and little parental involvement. Although these issues did not directly deal
with the students lives like the first four, they can still show problems that need to be dealt with in their
home and personal lives. If students feel like their parents do not care if they make good grades or
perform well in a sport, they will not have that goal and desire to do their best in order to make their
parents proud. In order to help boost parents involvement in their students lives, the school board
decided to create a team of already supportive parents to become friends with students parents in
which show no interest in their childs school life. Also, the school board is going to require the teachers
to reach out to all of their students parents via email or newsletter and weekly tell what they student is
learning that week and simple tips to help them continue to learn at home. To help improve the schools
low test scores, the school board decided to build a period into the day where students must go to
different classes daily that will help them better understand the areas in which they struggle. For
instance, if students are having difficulties understanding math, he or she could choose to go get help in
math during this free period. During these free period classes, teachers focus mainly on the basic
standards and concepts that will be on end-of-year tests. The school board decided that the issue of
poor attendance could be changed by offering rewards such as a free day off school or even cash money
for they students who miss one or no days the entire year. With these incentives, students will be more
likely to attend school because they want to win the prize in the end. Also, the school board decided
that to help with teacher morale, they were going to have mandatory themed functions once a month
or teachers to come, dress up, and get to personally know the other teachers they work with daily. If
teachers create this special bond, it will affect the schools atmosphere. With these four issues, seeing
success is obviously clearer. Improved test scores and attendance rates can instantly be seen when
compared to the previous years statistics. You will also easily be able to tell if more parents begin
coming to parent-teacher conference or get involved in parent organizations at school. If the teacher
morale changes, a visible change will be seen throughout the entire school. By implementing these
changes, the school board hopes to raise the bar to a new level in this school districts standards and
expectations.
After two years of successful service, this ideal school board worked together to make the most
changes and impact the most people throughout their school district. Visible changes were observed in
the childrens behavior and self-esteem patterns. Statistics in teen pregnancy, bullying, gangs, and drugs
rapidly dropped over the years. Test scores and attendance rose to new levels. After two years of
service, each member was re-elected and continued to make meaningful changes within their school
district.