Saint Mary's County Board of Education At Large Choose 1
DUTIES: The Board’s duties include the authority to adopt, enforce, and monitor all policies for the management and governance of the school system, to include fiscal year budgets, curriculum materials, textbooks, personnel appointments, capital improvements, land acquisitions, grant applications, and other policy decisions. The Board selects, appoints, and evaluates the Superintendent of Schools.TERM: Four years.HOW ELECTED: The Board consists of five voting members; one member from the county at-large; and one member from each of the four commissioner districts. Candidates for this office must live in this district. All members are elected countywide. This is a non-partisan position. During both primary and general elections, any registered voter may vote for a candidate, however, only contested races (more than two candidates) appear on a primary ballot.
Biographical Information
Campaign Phone
(240)298-8339
Campaign Email
bedelen@luckyinlove.info
Campaign Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556080091895
Campaign Mailing Address
29697 Vincent Cir
Mechanicsville, MD 20659
Mechanicsville, MD 20659
QUALIFICATIONS: How do your skills and experience prepare you for the duties of this office?
I am personable. People feel comfortable speaking to me. I feel comfortable in leadership roles and have often volunteered to spearhead various projects. I am a former public-school teacher, which gives me knowledge of the inner workings of public education. I am currently an educator, serving as an Adjunct Professor at CSM, with my primary home base being the Leonardtown Campus. I have a master’s degree in Human Services. I am a mother of six. My youngest attends St. Mary’s Co. Public Schools.
PRIORITIES: What are your priorities for this office?
My priorities consist of obtaining and retaining quality teachers, fully-staffing schools, better preparing all SMCPS students for life after graduation, and providing safe and secure schools.
BUDGET: What areas within the school budget should be increased or decreased?
Honestly, I’m not as informed about the budget as I want to be to be able to answer this question to the best of my ability. Dr. Smith and I will meet to discuss the budget so that I can better answer what areas should be increased/decreased.
COLLEGE ALTERNATIVES: How can schools better prepare students for employment, particularly for those not planning to attend college?
Our children must be equipped with the tools that they’ll need to become successful adults; balancing a budget, understanding interest rates, what credit is, how to write a resume, how to apply to college, being educated on student loans, and other common issues that adults face on a daily basis. Incorporating Financial Literacy into the curriculum is “relevant curriculum” that will help ensure that students are better prepared for college or the workplace.
SAFETY and WELL-BEING: What measures do you support to address issues of school safety and student well-being?
School safety and student well-being can be addressed in several ways: developing and fostering healthy, positive relationships between students and their teachers and administrators; providing adequate access to counselors so that they can be readily available; full-time presence of SRO’s in each school; teacher presence outside their doors during the changing of classes; and controlling building access are just a few.
SERVICE: What inspires you to serve on the Board of Education?
I am inspired to serve on the Board because I want to offer a unique perspective of having been a public school teacher, as well as a college professor in the Tri-County area. From teaching Special Education to instructing virtually during lockdown, I have seen areas in need of improvement, and I believe they can be improved.
Biographical Information
Campaign Email
friendsofjohsguy@gmail.com
Campaign Mailing Address
Po Box 68
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Mechanicsville, MD 20659
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Mechanicsville, MD 20659
QUALIFICATIONS: How do your skills and experience prepare you for the duties of this office?
I attended St. Mary's County Public Schools from age five to seventeen. I am a proud product of our school system. I was appointed to the St. Mary's Youth Advisory Commission in 2018, where I was chair of the education committee. In college, I was a substitute teacher for SMCPS and learned a lot about the issues we face. I have a passion for working for our community.
PRIORITIES: What are your priorities for this office?
The first is school safety. Parents, students, and teachers are frustrated at the increase in fights, weapons, and threats of violence in our schools. We need to increase our security teams and release incident information quickly to parents and staff. Second, we must provide enhanced support for our teachers. We must have adequate paraeducators, special educators, and teacher aides to help facilitate our classrooms. Third, we need to strengthen our PTAs. PTAs provide parents a voice in schools.
BUDGET: What areas within the school budget should be increased or decreased?
I strongly believe we need to focus on security, educational support staff, and our aging infrastructure. The school board is going to face some very serious budget decisions due to the state's Kirwan Blueprint. I'm committed to maintaining an open mind on budgetary issues and will work to ensure that tax dollars are being well spent in our schools.
COLLEGE ALTERNATIVES: How can schools better prepare students for employment, particularly for those not planning to attend college?
Our county is blessed with a fantastic tech center program for high school students. I would like to see an expansion of the tech center's programs and physical space. One of our challenges is the programs at the tech center fill up quickly, leaving some students unable to take courses. I believe we can conquer that challenge by expanding the center and the course offerings.
SAFETY and WELL-BEING: What measures do you support to address issues of school safety and student well-being?
It is vital to protect our students and staff from violence. I support increasing our security support staff and providing in depth training on violence prevention. I plan on working hand in hand with our local sheriff's office to build upon our school resource officer program. When an incident occurs, it is vital to get information to parents in a timely manner. It should not take a week for parents to find out about school incidents. Info should be available for parents as soon as possible.
SERVICE: What inspires you to serve on the Board of Education?
I am the only candidate that has been a student in the St. Mary's County Public Schools. I attended Mechanicsville Elementary, Margaret Brent Middle, and Chopticon High. I've seen the problems in our schools firsthand. I've seen great teachers quit because they didn't have the support they need. I've seen students struggle to achieve their full potential. I've seen parents frustrated at the lack of transparency. I'm committed to solving these problems for our students, teachers, and parents.
Biographical Information
Campaign Twitter
None
Campaign Phone
3019942733
Campaign Email
dzr@prodigy.net
Campaign Mailing Address
18816 Mckays Beach Rd
Leonardtown, MD 20650
Leonardtown, MD 20650
QUALIFICATIONS: How do your skills and experience prepare you for the duties of this office?
I'm a former commissioned Army Engineer Officer veteran of the Korean War, with leadership experience in the construction industry and in federal service as a supervisory engineer. I'm a veteran of the Nancy Reagan parents' anti-drug movement promoting polices to protect schoolchildren from drugs and violence. I was personally involved in the development of the school drug testing policies and in our successful defense of it at the Supreme Court level.
PRIORITIES: What are your priorities for this office?
Work with the School Administrators and Board members to adopt new policies that will reduce drug use and violence among students: Implementing health screening of students with treatment, not punishment, as successfully used in thousands of other schools that have adopted legal and effective Random Student Drug Testing (RSDT). When implemented in our schools, RSDT will make them as drug-free and violence-free as within our largest industry in St. Mary's; the Patuxent Naval Air Station.
BUDGET: What areas within the school budget should be increased or decreased?
Increase funding for detection and treatment of the contagious behavioral disease of drug addiction among students as revealed in repeated student surveys. This will reduce the need for disruptive punitive policies and expensive restrictive facility modifications. Thus, dangerous psychotic drug users can be quarantined from peaceful students until cured. The Dr. Phil TV show has often documented the difficulty of drug rehab of child addicts who need extended inpatient detoxification.
COLLEGE ALTERNATIVES: How can schools better prepare students for employment, particularly for those not planning to attend college?
I have long experience in apprenticeship education in the pipe trades through my service with the national Plumbers and Steamfitters Union's training program as an author of training texts and developing and teaching courses for instructors of apprentices. I taught for 20 years at their annual week-long instructor training conferences at Purdue University. Since the unions require applicants to pass a drug test and remain drug free, RSDT will aid acceptance in trade apprenticeships.
SAFETY and WELL-BEING: What measures do you support to address issues of school safety and student well-being?
The primary safety and well-being policy currently used in many schools today is RSDT as developed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and introduced to the public in their national press conference of 8/29/2002. A subsequent U.S. Dept. of Education study of July 2010 verified the Effectiveness of RSDT. A video of the ONDCP press conference and a written summary of the Ed. Dept. RSDT Effectiveness Study are available from me upon request at 301-994-2733.
SERVICE: What inspires you to serve on the Board of Education?
I've been inspired by my Faith which teaches compassion for the needy. Also, by my association with many distraught and bewildered parents whose drug-deranged children have become a danger to themselves, their families and their schoolmates. I am further inspired by recognizing the emotional harm to teachers and peaceful students terrorized by psychosis-infested addicts brutally harming students and teachers through frequent bullying, fights, random wolfpack beatdowns and shootings.
Biographical Information
Campaign Mailing Address
PO Box 180
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Coltons Point, MD 20626
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Coltons Point, MD 20626
QUALIFICATIONS: How do your skills and experience prepare you for the duties of this office?
I have been in the classroom for over twenty years. I think I have the insight to what changes would be beneficial to our students, teachers and parents.
PRIORITIES: What are your priorities for this office?
Safety is first. I would work with the local sheriff to see what would be best for our schools and help get those things implemented. I would make sure there was transparency and accountability with behavior across the board. The spending of monies allocated to the school board and the schools should also be transparent and held accountable when there is miss management of funds.
BUDGET: What areas within the school budget should be increased or decreased?
I would increase teachers while decreasing administrators and classroom sizes.
COLLEGE ALTERNATIVES: How can schools better prepare students for employment, particularly for those not planning to attend college?
Adding internships with participating small businesses in the county as apart of the community service hours which are required for graduates would be one idea.
SAFETY and WELL-BEING: What measures do you support to address issues of school safety and student well-being?
I would work with local law enforcement and parents for suggestions then try to implement the necessities to support them.
SERVICE: What inspires you to serve on the Board of Education?
The children first, the parents, the teachers and ultimately the community. I love our community.