Javanese Hailey
For School Board
We need leaders to stand up for high expectations and accountability, and our students will rise to the bar that we set for them.
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Middle School Math Teacher
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Experience Working at Manassas City, DC, Arlington, & Fairfax Public Schools
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Former Baldwin Int. PTO Officer
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Mother of 7th grade daughter
Why Am I Running?
As a first generation college graduate, born and raised in the South Bronx, I believe in the transformative power of a strong education. I was afforded educational opportunities that allowed me to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Education by the time I was 22 years old and move out of a neighborhood that was plagued with drugs, crime, and poverty. As a 10 year old, I remember the feelings of despair and heartache as a result of my mother going missing, never to be seen again.
In the face of this adversity, I showed up to school everyday. I had teachers who saw that I had potential, and they didn’t lower their expectations due to my circumstances. I know from experience that students going through difficult situations often need extra support - and we should definitely provide that - but this shouldn't be confused with removing discipline and lowering standards. Students need structure to stay on track and will react to the expectations set by adults.
As I looked around as a teacher working in Manassas City Schools, I saw the opposite happening in our system. Too many academic and disciplinary standards were being lowered and I felt compelled to speak out and say, “This is not right. Our kids deserve better.”
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I truly believe our students can be better served by raising the bar, and it starts at the top with the school board. We need leaders to stand up for high expectations and accountability, and our students will rise to the bar that we set for them. No more excuses; we need to get to the hard work together, and that’s what I stepped up to do. I decided to leave my job in MCPS and run for office after I approached the school board about systemic problems on multiple occasions but the board was not interested in listening except for a single member. So, I took a leap, jumped in this school board race to work for change and have never regretted one minute of running on behalf of our students.
We Need Change on Our School Board
Currently, our high school and middle school are only "accredited with conditions" falling short of full state accreditation. In comparison, all of our neighboring Manassas Park schools are fully accredited despite having similar student profiles and significantly less money to spend. The drivers of Metz MS and Osbourn HS falling short are low standardized test scores, particularly in math and science, unacceptably high achievement gaps for minority and low income students, and persistently high chronic absenteeism.
Our school board has tried to solve our problems in recent years by lowering standards. Current policy forces teachers to give half credit for tests and assignments that students never hand in or attempt and prohibits giving penalties for late work. Combined with inconsistent disciplinary structures students are learning they can just "take a 50" and move on or not show up to class. This harms future learning, and ill prepares students for success after school. I have seen this both as teacher working at Baldwin Intermediate and as an MCPS parent.
Our school board is often slow to react to problems, with recent examples being rising teacher pay gaps and chronic absenteeism, and will often dismiss concerns of parents and teachers.
I have the unique experience, of all those running, of having worked as a teacher both in our system (Metz and Baldwin Int.) and in multiple neighboring systems. I have seen what practices, especially in math instruction, that work and don't work. I will be able to apply best practices for our schools and provide rigorous oversight.
We need to do a lot better if we are going to deliver a school system that works for our whole community and to build more confidence amongst parents and teachers alike.
On The School Board I Will Support...
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Higher academic expectations
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Stronger student discipline & safety
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Fixing pain points for teachers to improve retention
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Stronger oversite and accountability
As a school board member, I would focus relentlessly on tasking our central office personnel with ensuring that a rigorous curriculum is aligned both horizontally and vertically throughout the entire K-12 system, especially during the transition years between schools. Our current Cycle that Works initiative is a good beginning, but more needs to be done to improve our students’ basic skills in the earlier grades so that they reach middle school ready for the higher learning demands. Right now, that is where the gap occurs, and clearly our current practices, especially in math, are not working. We need to fix that.
Additionally, we continue to struggle to meet the needs of our special education and English Learner populations. This is where our teacher shortage is most critical. We can recruit people to fill these positions, but they won’t stay if they don’t have the proper support. I would encourage the system to adopt a staffing model that allows for a full-time department chair in both departments so those teacher-leaders are freed up from teaching responsibilities and can focus on the numerous administrative tasks and oversight responsibilities required by the state and federal governments in those departments. This is a model that FCPS has used for years, and it can work here in Manassas, as well. I would also create a task force in response to the annual School Climate and Working Conditions Survey that teachers are required to complete. In my experience, nothing ever changes after the results of the survey. It’s time to stop ignoring teachers’ voices in solving the City’s problems and cultivate their teachers’ strengths instead.
Finally, our community deserves schools where any parent would feel comfortable sending their children, knowing that safety and discipline are prioritized. As many parents have reported to me on the campaign trail, too many classrooms experience disruptions to learning, our hallways can be chaotic places for students to navigate, and behaviors on the buses too often lead to unsafe driving conditions for our drivers. The political conversations around restorative justice and the school-to-prison pipeline have served as a distraction to what students actually need: Boundaries. Students respond to adults who show them they care by setting boundaries. This is what creates a safe learning environment. Until we get serious about the boundaries, we will continue to struggle as a school system.