{"id":8714,"date":"2011-09-15T16:58:21","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=8714"},"modified":"2011-09-15T16:58:21","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:58:21","slug":"christine-kushner-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/voter-guide-2011\/2011\/09\/15\/christine-kushner-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Christine Kushner (D)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Age: 48
\nOccupation: Freelance Writer and Consultant
\nWebsite: www.christineforwake.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

21 years (but out of county in 1995-96)<\/p>\n

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

One at Ligon Mid\u00addle School, one in a high school out of the district.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019ve been a community volunteer since I moved to Wake County, involved in public issues. When my son entered kindergarten, I volunteered in the class\u00adroom. I\u2019ve done things with PTA. I\u2019ve also got\u00adten involved with school improvement plans at the school level working with teachers as a parent to im\u00adprove the school. I\u2019ve been on the superintendent\u2019s parent advisory commit\u00adtee. I have a master\u2019s in pub\u00adlic policy and have been in\u00adterested professionally now in health care policy and as a volunteer in education policy. So it\u2019s been an inter\u00adest of mine for a long time, and it just seemed a logical next step.<\/p>\n

What are the three biggest issues you think the Wake County Public School System faces? In 30 seconds or less, how would you address those issues? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first big issue is stu\u00addent assignment. That\u2019s clearly on the front burn\u00ader now. I want to work with fellow board mem\u00adbers to have a sustainable student assignment plan that\u2019s transparent and fair to families.<\/p>\n

A second issue is cur\u00adriculum. I think we need high expectations for all students in Wake County. That\u2019s a strategy to reduce the achievement gap. It\u2019s a way to have greater profi\u00adciency and growth for all students. We need to focus on rigor in the classroom and academic enrichment. We need to go further and make sure middle school students have vibrant pro\u00adgrams in all middle schools in Wake County.<\/p>\n

The third thing is the bond. In the next four years we will be facing the development of the next bond referendum for growth and for greater school capacity.<\/p>\n

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

Best: The best decision has been their work on middle school advanced math placement. Because I strongly support fo\u00adcusing on middle school education as a means of getting kids to enter high school ready to graduate on time. We need to make sure it\u2019s not just in math.<\/p>\n

Worst: I think the han\u00addling of the student as\u00adsignment policy was \u2026 a piecemeal approa ch that has led some schools to be over\u00ade n r o l l e d and some u n d e r – enro l led, failing to achieve bal\u00adance in our s c h o o l s . That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important to have a com\u00adprehensive plan.<\/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, the big is\u00adsues of capacity and pro\u00adgramming curriculum. There are many schools in District 6 that are not op\u00adtimally enrolled. I think the superintendent with this budget has taken a great first step in address\u00ading those issues with the small school program, the STEM and Global Studies program. Those programs are important to District 6 because that helps those schools fulfill a need for the whole system.<\/p>\n

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

One of the first things is that we have to set high ex\u00adpectations for all students across the board, across grades and achievement, that we make sure kids are in the proper classes, that classes have rigor, that our teachers expect proficiency from all students and de\u00admand profi\u00adciency from all students. I\u2019ve talked about a cul\u00adture of at\u00adt endanc e that I think as a com\u00admunity, as a district, we need to focus on so that s t u d e n t s want to come to school and are en\u00adgaged in the classroom and that they have an engaged teacher in the classroom.<\/p>\n

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

I think looking at multi\u00adple measures, not just a sin\u00adgle measure. One is proof of student learning, wheth\u00ader it\u2019s EVAAS or whatever the district settles on. Sec\u00adondly, I think the Na\u00adtional Board Certification for Teachers is an impor\u00adtant credential that now is being used for teachers. I think that shows teachers are improving their skills. e have to make sure that is carefully crafted so it\u2019s not a popularity contest, but student evaluations can tell us whether teachers have good classroom man\u00adagement skills and wheth\u00ader teachers have rigor in the classroom.<\/p>\n

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

I would like to know more about how it would be implemented. I would be supportive of a system that equally rewards effec\u00adtive teachers, that enhanc\u00ades teachers\u2019 stature and is motivating teachers to im\u00adprove and do a good job.<\/p>\n

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

I think we have resourc\u00ades here in North Carolina that we can recruit from if we want to recruit minor\u00adity teachers. Wake County is a wonderful place to live, and it should be easy for us to recruit teachers for our workforce. We have a lot in place that should be conducive to recruiting the best teachers in the state.<\/p>\n

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

One issue in District 6 is that a lot of families and neighborhoods are very pleased with their base as\u00adsignment, so I think that is a concern in District 6 that we make sure the grand\u00adfathering is in there, that siblings remain. I would like those preferences to be part of the algorithm of any choice plan. I think the staff is very earnest in its attempts to make a sus\u00adtainable plan for student assignment, and I would hope that we see a plan that does follow through with putting academic suc\u00adcess for all students as the top priority.<\/p>\n

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

I am very supportive of charter schools fulfilling their mission as incubators of innovation. That was the purpose of charters, and that\u2019s the role they should play to show other public schools innovative ways of teaching.<\/p>\n

How would you ad\u00address the issue of student discipline? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am in favor of some of the proposals that have been put forward in the recent changes to student discipline. Our suspension rate has been too high in the past. I\u2019d like for us at the elementary school level to think through positive behavior support. Is a sys\u00adtem that is working?<\/p>\n

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

First, we need a board that advocates for greater funding for the school sys\u00adtem. We need to work with our county commissioners to get greater resources.<\/p>\n

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

English and writing. Writing was my passion in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age: 48 Occupation: Freelance Writer and Consultant Website: www.christineforwake.com How long have you lived in Wake County? 21 years (but out of county in 1995-96) Do you have children in the district? One at Ligon Mid\u00addle School, one in a high school out of the district. Why have you decided to run for office? I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24030,"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\/8714"}],"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\/24030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}