Meet Howard County Education Board Candidate: Jolene Mosley

COLUMBIA, MD — When voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 elections, they will be asked to select individuals to serve on the Howard County's board of education.

Patch asked each candidate to answer questions to help provide voters with information about who they are and their stances on various issues. We are printing their responses in full, unedited except for spelling or punctuation. Below are the responses from candidate Jolene Mosley.

Age (as of Election Day)

40

Town/City of Residence

Columbia

Office Sought

County School Board

If you are a congressional candidate, please indicate for which district (District 1, District 3, etc.)

Howard County Board of Education, District 3

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

Married with 4 children

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

UMBC, BS Mathematics and Economics

Occupation

Senior Data Scientist, 20+years experience

Campaign website

jolenemosley.com

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Better long-term planning and open communication with HCPSS stakeholders:
The burden of educating our children falls on all of us. We pay taxes in various ways as active members of our community and we all should be engaged to support a healthy school system. There needs to be open communication with more fluid and long-term planning between HCPSS stakeholders and the County Council when considering approving new residential development on many layers of the infrastructure outcomes (e.g., not only school construction and renovations, but also transportation impacts). These have to be honest conversations on strategy of balancing the needs for development and the needs of the school system to handle the growth of population and enrollment as a result of development.
Educational Equity:
Educational Equity is the identification of and compensation for areas that create barriers to opportunity and success in education for students. The barriers of an individual student vary across all students but there are some specific demographic characteristics that have been identified to be educational barriers. A student’s socioeconomic status, disability, race, gender and language are some examples of areas where students may require additional support for academic success. HCPSS supports these specific areas through identified programming. I believe funding should be budgeted based on a school's demographic characteristics, not just enrollment. Students should be provided support through staffing, supplies and services from Black Student Achievement Program, Hispanic Achievement Program, International Student and Family Services, as well as MESA. Feedback from students, families, and staff providing these services should be welcome and program offerings should be budgeted to support educational equity for the students. These programs should be reporting the graduation rates as well as any other feedback for the program.
Improvements to Special Education Services:
Special Education covers many types of students in HCPSS. Student supports include a broad age range and a set of diverse needs. The school system has implemented least restrictive inclusive environments for students all the way to full-time residential needs. The students should be the center of focus in their education and school should be staffed in an adequate and transparent methodology that has goals and open communication between the school system, educators, providers, students and parents. The school system should invest in training providers to best support students’ needs while maintaining workable caseloads within monitored guidelines. Early intervention should be emphasized through various routes so that children can work to their best abilities always instead of having to fall behind to catch up. School buildings, buses and playgrounds should allow all abilities to be included and supported at all times. Despite their best efforts, HCPSS should make improvements to serve the needs of the special education community.

Do you support Black Lives Matter and what are your thoughts on the demonstrations held since the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake?

Black Lives Matter. We need to change our school disciplinary practices so that we build a school culture where relationships are important, where we listen and value others, where we own and repair the harms we have done to others, and where everyone is valued, included and accepted.

What are your thoughts on the campaign to "defund" the police?

The reexamining of the SRO program has been long needed for our school system. The intention and the implementation need to be examined and the program changed. There are currently SROs in every high school and in a few of our middle schools. When reviewing the arrest and suspension data from our schools, we know that Black and brown students as well as special education students are disproportionately impacted compared to their peers. We also can see from the data that the SROs are placed in middle schools that have higher than county average Black and brown student demographic populations.

Current students and HCPSS alumni have reflected and shared their interactions with not only the officers but with adults in the building that show bias towards them. I think in this revision of the SRO program, we should not have armed police in our schools during the day. We should continue to build community with our police department through community engagement where the pressure of a students learning isn’t in the equation. We need to work on our school culture so that every student, educator and staff are valued, included, and accepted.

What are your thoughts on the state and national response to the coronavirus pandemic? Do you favor such measures as limiting operation of non-essential businesses or restricting indoor/outdoor dining? And do you favor a nationwide mask mandate?

The board of education voted to have the school 100% virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently impacting our entire world. The school system closed for a couple of weeks in March and came to the understanding that they were not able to re-open safely at that time. The school system, within a few weeks, created a continuity of learning plan to work through to the summer. At the same time, the school system began its longer term planning for virtual learning.

The school system purchased Chromebooks to move closer to a 1 to 1 ratio — an investment that was long overdue. Currently, the virtual learning is 100% for the first semester and the school system has also implemented a 4X4 schedule for MS and HS students. I agree that this was the best course of action for prioritizing the health and safety of everyone involved in our school community and reducing the risk of COVID infection. I would like to see specifics on what the school system considers the best hybrid model and how the health and safety is going to be evaluated and enforced before knowing if the plan is a good one or not. They are also working on plans for small groups to return. I have worked in the healthcare field for several years now and I know from experience that it can take a while to gain a full understanding of it means to provide safety and healthy standards and that it can also change over time.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My opponent Tom, has thrown his full support behind me and we hope to work with a united district in supporting our school system, despite his name still appearing on the ballot. My hope is to encourage you to vote and to show how I can work for the community through collaboration.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

For many in our community it is no surprise that I finally decided to run for board of education in District 3 given how active I have been over the last 13 years. I have supported public education by representing my children's schools in HCPSM, GT Parent Academy, PTA volunteering, chaperoning field trips, as well as helping in the classrooms. I have supported the BoE through being a General Community member on the Policy Review Committee, member and vice chair for CAC and a representative on OBRC.

I am running:
1. I realized that District 3 has been historically underrepresented on the board and needed a strong voice of an engaged HCPSS parent and active community advocate.
2. I believe my professional background as a data scientist will be a tremendous asset. I will bring evidence-based decision making that is thoughtful and well-reasoned combined with vast K-12 school system experience as an HCPSS parent to the board.
3. My life experiences as a parent with GT and special needs children, my experience of having a child who survived cancer, my experiences of having four children who range from 4 to 17 years old all give me a unique perspective from which to advocate for all children.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

I would like to see a review of the overall school system with a goal of identifying pain points the system has been dealing with and access the root causes of these symptoms. These root causes will then be analyzed and steps prioritized to repair these issues as well as minimize unintended consequences. The board should create policies to support funding formulas towards school demographic-based needs. More specifically, the policies should identify and implement funding formulas, not just on overall enrollment projections, but specific to programs that target more vulnerable populations so that these programs are supported and the students are graduating with success.

I would like to see diversity, inclusion, and tolerance initiatives prioritized. This should include changes in policy for the inclusion of new diverse materials in classroom teaching. This will align with training and workshops for whole-school culture building that welcomes inclusion, diversity and tolerance. The purpose of this policy would be to approve more diverse materials for curriculum and also fund the materials and time to incorporate them into the curriculum taught at all of the schools.

Why should voters trust you?

I encourage voters to reach out to me and we can build our relationship and trust. My goals are to support a healthy school system where our school culture so that every student, educator and staff are valued, included, and accepted.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the use of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

The school system's financial situation is far from ideal and the school system is still trying to recover from previous board of education budget decisions, county-level decisions, as well as trying to support a growing student enrollment. Everyone also has the current and future impact of COVID-19 ramifications to consider as well. The superintendent/board of education is faced with balancing not only what they feel the school system requires to maintain its current level of services, but also to repair past debts. This has forced the school system to prioritize some areas and cut other areas, which is extremely difficult because these changes usually occur in instructional areas or programs; directly impacting the classroom.

I would like to work on policy that focuses on extinguishing root causes of inequities, policy to support funding formulas specific to a school’s demographic based needs, and policy on school climate with the goal to encourage inclusion and tolerance. Educational Equity is achieved by identifying and compensating for areas that create barriers to opportunity and success in education for students. The barriers of an individual student vary across the student population but there are some specific demographic characteristics that have been identified to be educational barriers. A student’s socioeconomic status, disability, race, gender and language are some examples of areas where students may require additional support for academic success.

CPSS supports these specific areas through identified programming. I believe funding should be budgeted based on a school's demographic characteristics, not just enrollment. Students should be provided support through staffing, supplies and services from Black Student Achievement Program, Hispanic Achievement Program, International Student and Family Services, as well as MESA. Feedback from students, families, and staff providing these services should be welcome and program offerings should be budgeted to support educational equity for the students. These programs should be reporting the graduation rates as well as any other feedback for the program.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

I cannot think of any reason other than those listed that I would not serve full term.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

There are two phrases I learned from two 7-year-old children who were battling cancer that have stuck with me when I look towards the future. "Without hope there is no hope" and "I thought I was Strong. I thought I was Brave. I thought I was Scared but I did it anyway."