Q1: Please briefly list your name, age, and profession.
My name is Amanda Rose. I’m 46 years old and currently work as a program coordinator at TAMU-CC.
Q2: If elected, what qualities or experience would you bring to the board?
I was a classroom teacher for 15 years. For twelve of those years, I taught in CCISD at Miller High School and King High School. I truly understand the difficulties students and classroom teachers are facing because I was so recently in the classroom myself.
Q3: What are your priorities?
We need to enforce the district’s anti-nepotism policy and eliminate conflicts of interest in financial matters.
If we want our students to be successful, we must support teachers and other campus staff. Overwhelming our educators with unnecessary paperwork and expensive new initiatives does not benefit our students. I want to reduce the amount of time teachers are required to devote to non-instructional activities so they can get back to the business of teaching our kids.
We need to reduce the amount of district-mandated standardized testing required of our students. I know the district cannot refuse the STAAR exams, but we do not need to be interrupting instructional time with multiple benchmarks, common formative assessments, and MAP testing. This robs our students of valuable instructional time and sends the message that they are nothing more than their test scores.
I strongly support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. We have a very diverse population in Corpus Christi. As a district, we need to practice inclusivity and not ignore underrepresented and marginalized students.
I am opposed to the banning of books in our libraries and support students’ rights to read. Librarians are highly educated and well-trained professionals. They put a lot of research into their library collections so that they can provide a diverse population of students with relevant and engaging books. We should trust their expertise and their commitment to their students. Parents have the right to choose what books their own kids can read, but they do not have the right to deny that freedom to others.
Q4: Also on the ballot in November is a $220 million bond package for new and improved schools. What is your position on recent construction projects across the district?
Several of our schools are in dire need of improvement. I support many aspects of the current bond, but I have been disappointed with past bonds. The Carroll High School fiasco was unacceptable and preventable. Millions of dollars of taxpayer money were wasted.
We need to be very careful when requesting taxpayer money so that it is used where it is needed the most. In the past, the school where I worked received bond money for “improvements”. Unfortunately, these improvements only applied to new construction. We were unable to use these funds to address badly needed repairs, such as the plumbing issues. Due to this neglect, the ceiling in the library collapsed a few weeks ago.
Q5: Do you believe there are steps the district can take to improve teacher and staff recruitment and retention?
People always ask me about the teacher shortage problem. I believe the teacher shortage is not the problem. It is the symptom of much bigger issues: lack of respect, autonomy, and time.
Educators have been required to do more with less for decades. We’ve reached a breaking point and are dealing with the fallout now. While I want to pay teachers more (they are worth more), raising salaries alone will not fix things if we deny teachers what they need most…time.
The district pays millions of dollars for initiatives and professional development that have little impact on student success and waste teachers’ time. The paperwork teachers must complete can feel like a full-time job in itself, and they are given 45 minutes a day to complete it. They cannot complete the requirements of their jobs without giving up their nights and weekends and spending their own money. We should not depend on the unpaid labor and personal financial resources of already underpaid employees.
As a district, we need to listen to actual teachers when decisions are being made that affect them and their students. We must respect their expertise. There are so many wonderful, experienced teachers being micromanaged by people who have never actually taught in a classroom. That is unacceptable to me. We must treat the teachers, librarians, counselors, and auxiliary staff as the professionals they are.
Q6: Do you believe the district should make any changes with regard to school safety?
When we think of school safety, we often think of active shooter situations. My children go to Ray High School and have already experienced two very scary situations. As terrified for my children as I was, I am very satisfied with the response from CCPD and the teachers who kept our kids safe. The police acted swiftly. The teachers were calm and did exactly what they needed to do to and what they have been practicing for years.
However, there are always ways to improve a school’s response to such situations. My sons’ teachers are purchasing (with their own money) devices to reinforce their classroom doors. We should not be expecting teachers to bear this expense. The emergency response protocols should also be reviewed and revised to ensure maximum efficiency.
There are school safety issues that our students are much more likely to encounter than active shooters. Our children are facing threats from so many other sources, such as gangs, sexual harassment, assault, bullying, abuse, neglect, addiction, and self-harm. These children need caring adults who can spot when children are in need and act on it.
The unfortunate truth is that the current education system prioritizes testing and data collection over student well-being. Teachers, counselors, and assistant principals are unable to devote to students the individual time and attention they need because they are too overwhelmed with other tasks. They are trained to identify and help a child in crisis, but it has become harder and harder to do so when they are near their breaking point due to the increased administrative duties their jobs require. Our students and their well-being should come before test scores.