Early voting began Monday for the five Atlanta school board seats on the Nov. 7 ballot. It’s the only race on the ballot in Atlanta this year.
Seats in odd-numbered Atlanta districts are up for reelection this year. The school district foots the bill for the races. The estimated price tag this year is $4 million.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently asked all 10 candidates running for five seats on the Atlanta school board to answer two questions in 50 words each or less:
1. If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
2. What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
Their responses are below. Some have been edited for length.
Katie Howard, District 1 incumbent
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “If reelected, I want the district to do away with thinking it can do everything at once, which no school system — or any entity — can do well. We’ve been spread too thin with some of our most impactful resources for students, which is affecting student outcomes and limiting their educational experience.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “APS must focus on our students’ needs. By setting and monitoring our Goals (and Guardrails), we’ve been able to see the realities for our students. We now need to narrow the Goals so that we can better align resources with our students’ specific needs, which will lead to better outcomes for all students.”
Editor’s note: The Goals are four objectives set by the school board by 2026 to improve literacy, math proficiency on the Georgia Milestones, and postgraduate preparedness and increase the percentage of graduates who don’t need college remediation.
Challengers: None
Michelle Olympiadis, District 3 incumbent
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: ”(Ineffective) teachers.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: ”(Utilize) vacant/blighted properties to (enhance) communities.”
Ken Zeff, District 3 candidate
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “To ensure our schools have the resources they need, APS needs a durable ceiling on central office spending. Central office departments grew 18% last year (about $40 million). My goal is to focus our priorities on direct investment in classrooms, and by extension direct investment in our kids.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “We need a comprehensive strategy that addresses the literacy crisis head-on. We need investments in teacher training, instructional coaches, resources aligned with the science of reading, etc. Other districts are making real progress. If we act urgently, APS will be known as a district where every child is a reader.”
Erika Mitchell, District 5 incumbent
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “If reelected, I will work towards eliminating negative school culture and climate. Unhealthy schools have unhappy teachers, a toxic culture that doesn’t have a clear purpose, blame students for poor achievement, discourage collaboration, and often have hostile staff relations.
“A positive school climate is critically related to school success.” (Edited for length.)
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Funding schools first. Funding schools first allows our district to prioritize the district budget to allocate funds directly to meet all academic, programming, and wraparound services for students, teachers, and school-level staff in every school.”
Raynard Johnson, District 5 candidate
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “The fine print language when registering an APS student that allows APS to have access to Fulton County Juvenile Court records, and then APS using those Fulton County Juvenile Court records to deny admission or expel students for alleged non school-related juvenile incidents.” (Edited for length.)
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Something the district isn’t doing now that I think it should is the ability to provide the public open source data at the school grade level.”
Tamara Jones, At-Large Seat 7 incumbent
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “The politics of division and competition between school clusters, neighborhoods and schools.
“APS stakeholders need regular opportunities to work together to see how all of our ‘parts’ are interconnected, not independent. Every family wants the best for their child, and “success” is not zero-sum.”
Q: What is something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Identifying and sunsetting investments and initiatives that have not yielded outcomes, in general; and, specifically, eliminating ineffective reading instruction practices.
“Giving the governance teams at the school, cluster, and district levels a genuine advisory role in district decision making, along with protocols for communicating with the school board and administration.”
Alfred “Shivy” Brooks, At-Large Seat 7 candidate
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “My foremost goal is to eliminate the existing central office funding model. I advocate for reallocating these resources to classrooms, focusing on enhancing student outcomes, particularly in literacy. This shift ensures that educational resources are appropriately distributed to where they are most needed, addressing our flailing literacy rate and fostering a more effective and equitable educational system.” (Edited for length.)
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “The district needs to establish a fair and equitable system, where teacher salaries must be at a minimum of $65,000, addressing the critical issue of hiring educators into a low-income standard of living. This will ensure that teachers can afford to live in the city they serve, laying the foundation for a stable and just livelihood for our valued educators.”
William “Will” Sardin, At-Large Seat 7 candidate
Credit: William Sardin (contributed)
Credit: William Sardin (contributed)
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “The one thing that I would remove is the barriers that restrict teachers from instructing students as individuals. Each student is unique, and the curriculum should reflect that. Teachers should have the flexibility to adjust the curriculum to meet the students where they are.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Dealing with school discipline and bullying more effectively. They [sic] focus should be zeroing in on the cause of student discipline issues and not the effect. More school counselors and mental health professionals as well as support staff need to be hired. Early intervention is critical to dealing with any behavioral issues before they become more serious.” (Edited for length.)
Jessica Johnson, At-Large Seat 9 incumbent
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “I plan to work with the administration and communities to accelerate the timeline for the District to release the unused properties in our Facilities Master Plan. As responsible stewards of public land, I will work closely with each community to identify usage plans that lead to revitalization.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Considering our literacy proficiency rates, I believe that one thing the district hasn’t done YET is hire literacy specialists for each primary/secondary school that are trained in the research-based Science of Reading strategies. I believe this is critical to close our achievement gaps for key subgroups of students.”
Nkoyo Effiong Lewis, At-Large Seat 9 candidate
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Q: If elected, what is one thing you’d want to get rid of in the school district?
A: “If elected, I want to get rid of the blame game and get to the hard work of improving outcomes for our students. As a leader, I practice radical accountability. If something needs to be done, I am searching for solutions, not excuses.”
Q: What’s something the district isn’t doing now that you think it should do?
A: “Children are required to attend school for at least 10 years of their life. Yet, data suggests that two-thirds of them are not graduating with the skills necessary to live choice-filled lives. As a mom, I believe APS needs to exercise more urgency and creativity in solving this problem for all students.”
Candidate forum
North Atlanta Partners for Public Schools (NAPPS) held a school board candidate forum at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 18. A replay is available on Facebook.
Posted by North Atlanta Partners for Public Schools on Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Meet the candidates
Our news partners at Atlanta Civic Circle have created a guide with information about each school board candidate. You can read it here.
