1. List who has been compensated to provide services to your campaign. List your campaign managers. Note current cash on hand in your campaign account, and your donations received and spent. You only need to note figures that are not included yet on campaign finance filings.
1. No one is compensated
2. Eric Greenberg as treasurer
3. Current cash is about $1000
4. Most spending is for signs flyers and FB advertising
2. List organizations/groups/committees (both education-related and not) of which you are an official member.
– River Hill Village Board
– PRES PTA CAC chair
3. In what areas of public education do you refuse to compromise, due to strong beliefs? How would you make changes in these areas? Give examples of how you collaborated and compromised with colleagues who disagreed with you.
HCPSS has compromised too much in its budgeting for providing Special Education services. I know about this firsthand through my struggle to get services for my two children. As a former Special Ed student myself (I am dyslexic), I am acutely aware of how critical support impacts student achievement. Today, I successfully run a company that employs over 180 people. If I had not received reading support, (which HCPSS does not currently provide for dyslexics) I would not be where I am today. My experience with my children has been horrible – we have paid thousands of dollars for expensive testing and advocacy. Of course, this has an inequitable impact on families who can not afford tests and advocates or may be unaware of what services they should be asking for to support their children. When I looked into it (State report cards), I found that HCPSS has about 9% students with disabilities while Montgomery and Baltimore Counties have 11-12%. This shows me that we are not doing enough to identify which students have needs, and I know from my own experience that HCPSS fights parents who advocate for providing support. It’s wrong.
4. Give examples in your personal or professional life that demonstrate your willingness to hold people accountable and include transparency for the community.
In my current position on the River Hill Village Board (I worked with Dr. Wu when he sat on the board), I have worked with CA to provide oversight to their budget. For example, last year CA wanted to change its structure to be a community benefit association, instead of a Homeowners Association (HOA). The proposed changes would have made CA operations less transparent to the 10 Columbia villages. I was against this change since it would have eliminated important input that the individual Columbia Villages has on the CA budget and operations.
In my work, I employ 180 people and have to rely on my management team to assist me and I hold them accountable. The most important aspect of that process is listening to them when they bring concerns to me. Similarly, before the COVID restrictions, I had been holding community meet & greets and door-knocking in D4, so I can get to know more of the community and hear their concerns. Unfortunately, too many parents throughout D4 shared similar struggles to get HCPSS to provide their children with special education services. The more I discuss this issue, the more people come to me. It’s definitely a systemic problem
5. For incumbents, what do you feel is your legacy you have left so far on the HCPSS? For other candidates, what do you want your legacy to be and why are you the best choice to create it?
I have three goals:
I want to fix special education in HCPSS, once and for all. All HoCo students should have what they need to reach their potential. Parents should not need to pay for expensive testing or hiring an advocate. The culture at HCPSS needs to be collaborative with parents, teachers, and students and work to provide them with tools to succeed academically.
I want to provide more community support for families through the schools by expanding afterschool sports and academic tutoring programs through Parks and Rec, which can also include dinner meals through federal food programs for Title I schools. Schools are the heart of our Howard County neighborhoods. Now more than ever, we need to pull together as a county and work to help all our kids. I want to end annual redistricting by moving to a true feeder school system. County residents want stability, and community supports –like expanded after school programs –will foster student success throughout their lives. I also want to change the budgeting calendar (other counties start earlier), as well as change policy to allow for 1, 3 and 5-year budget outlooks so that the Administration can engage in longer-term planning.