{"id":8686,"date":"2011-09-15T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T21:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=8686"},"modified":"2011-09-15T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T21:02:14","slug":"donna-williams-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/voter-guide-2011\/2011\/09\/15\/donna-williams-r\/","title":{"rendered":"Donna Williams (R)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Age: 45
\nCurrent Occupation: Full-Time Volunteer
\nWebsite: www.donnaforschoolboard.com<\/a><\/p>\n

How long have you lived in Wake County? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

24 years<\/p>\n

Do you have children in the district? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

All four of my chil\u00addren did attend District 6 schools. I have seven grand\u00adchildren. One of them is in a District 6 school.<\/p>\n

Why have you decided to run for office? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The last three years I have been paying very close attention to what\u2019s happened with our school board. Two years ago I did help work to get the new four folks elected. At this point in my life, it\u2019s been all about the community the past three years and so I put myself in there be\u00adcause I want to continue the work that\u2019s been start\u00aded in the past two years. I think we\u2019ve just scratched the surface, and there\u2019s a lot more to do.<\/p>\n

What do you think are the best and worst decisions the current school board has made? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of good decisions. I\u2019m very pleased to see the direc\u00adtion of busing being slowed down a bit and parents be\u00ading able to send their kids to schools closer to their homes if they choose to. The Renaissance schools, the STEM schools, these things are fabulous. They\u2019ve had budget cuts from the state to deal with. But the way that it\u2019s been handled: Number 1, I\u2019m happy to see we didn\u2019t lose any teacher positions. In fact, there are new teacher positions for this school year. There\u2019s more to do. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re done with this, but I think it\u2019s a good, healthy beginning.<\/p>\n

The second part of that question, \u201cwhat have they not done well?\u201d Com\u00admunication to the pub\u00adlic would be my answer to that. I think they\u2019re doing better, but if I look back to say two years ago … There could have done a bet\u00adter job coming from the school board itself to ex\u00adplain its position.<\/p>\n

What do you think is the most important issue facing your district, and how do you plan to address it? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In District 6, there are a couple of issues. We have two things. One is what\u2019s called the rim schools. These are schools, like for example Carroll Middle School, that are basically right around the Beltline. When they were original\u00adly built we didn\u2019t have the magnet schools. Then, as the magnet schools were built, their parents opted for the magnet schools, which is wonderful. But, what\u2019s happened to Car\u00adroll is the number of kids who are at\u00adt e n d i n g that school is greatly re\u00adduced right now. That s c h o o l \u2019 s not getting the dollars in like it would if it were at 100 percent. It\u2019s a vicious cycle going down.<\/p>\n

The other thing in Dis\u00adtrict 6 is program equity. And with that comes the equality for the children as far as academic courses that are being offered to them. Enloe High School has, I believe it\u2019s 142 mag\u00adnet courses that are of\u00adfered. That is incredible and absolutely fabulous for those children, but in the next breath, there\u2019s many schools that don\u2019t even have one.<\/p>\n

What do you think WCPSS should do to ad\u00address the achievement gap? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s already be\u00ading worked on, truly. The EVAAS is fabulous. The one thing I\u2019d like to see is that the parents are receiving this information, because they\u2019re not right now. If a parent gets their report card at the end of the year, they get the EOG reports, but the EVAAS they\u2019re not getting. Why? That doesn\u2019t make sense to me. The plan that\u2019s be\u00ading proposed at this min\u00adute will allow every family five options of where there child goes to school. I feel if we give our parents more choice in where their child goes to school, that right there is going to help, be\u00adcause then the par\u00adent is bet\u00adter able to be a part of that child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

What are your ideas for measuring and improving teacher and student effectiveness in WCPSS? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

All children are differ\u00adent. It\u2019s one thing to have a standard of how you pass on the test and this and that, but I just think we need to have \u2014 and I think the EVAAS program may be able to help with this \u2014 a way to really be able to evaluate what\u2019s going on in that classroom.<\/p>\n

I do believe there needs to be teacher evaluations. It\u2019s not an easy question, but I do believe it\u2019s some\u00adthing we need to look at. To come down hard on the teachers is not the answer.<\/p>\n

Do you support merit pay for teachers? Why or why not? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I do. Absolutely, I do. These teachers are going above and beyond. It hap\u00adpens in the business world all the time. You do a bet\u00adter job, you\u2019re paid more money. There has to be a way to evaluate it and it\u2019s not necessarily the grades at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

How do you think WCPSS should attract more minority teachers? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the merit pay. Right there would be a great way. My next door neighbor is a minority teacher, and unfortunate\u00adly he just walked away from Wake County. He went to another county to teach. That\u2019s sad, especial\u00adly if you\u2019re talking about a school or classroom that has a larger percentage of minority children.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about the new student assignment plan that\u2019s shaping up? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I like it. I like it very much. I believe, number 1, it will give parents much more choice. Number 2, the stability of feeder pat\u00adterns and knowing where their child is going. I think it\u2019s a very healthy plan. I think as we dig into it at greater depth, there may be more parts of it that have to be a bit tweaked, but I really like the direction it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

How do charter schools fit in to your conception of a healthy school district? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charter schools are still public schools. I think competition is good for anybody, because it helps work to improve things. Charter schools help give parents a choice. Across the nation, 8 percent of children do not attend public-public school. In Wake County, if I have my figures correct, it\u2019s 18 per\u00adcent. That, to me, speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

How would you address the issue of student discipline? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, remember my age. When I went to school, it was a whole different ball\u00adgame than it is today. I am a person who is old school. I do believe that having boundaries and having children know what\u2019s al\u00adlowed and what\u2019s not al\u00adlowed is a very healthy thing. I am a believer in discipline, but certainly I don\u2019t want to go back to when the principal could paddle the kids and all that.<\/p>\n

What would you do to ensure that WCPSS has the funding to educate its students adequately? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing is to con\u00adtinue what\u2019s been started the past two years, looking at where the money is go\u00ading, what is being duplicat\u00aded? What\u2019s not necessary? We get rid of those ex\u00adpenses so we can put extra money in for the children. I think the money is there. I just think we have to take a magnifying glass and say, \u201cAll right, what are we do\u00ading that\u2019s not necessary?\u201d<\/p>\n

What was your favorite subject in school? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Math.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age: 45 Current Occupation: Full-Time Volunteer Website: www.donnaforschoolboard.com How long have you lived in Wake County? 24 years Do you have children in the district? All four of my chil\u00addren did attend District 6 schools. I have seven grand\u00adchildren. One of them is in a District 6 school. Why have you decided to run for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[378],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}