{"id":8735,"date":"2011-09-15T16:55:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=8735"},"modified":"2011-09-15T16:55:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:55:20","slug":"keith-sutton-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/voter-guide-2011\/2011\/09\/15\/keith-sutton-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Sutton (D)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Age: 41
\nCurrent Occupation: Victim Advocate Liaison for the Governor\u2019s Crime Commission
\nWebsite: www.votekeithsutton.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

13 years<\/p>\n

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

One at Conn Elementa\u00adry, one in Johnston Coun\u00adty Schools.<\/p>\n

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

I would like to continue to serve the citizens and families of Wake County. I think we\u2019re in the middle of some very challenging issues with regard to reas\u00adsignment and funding and everything else. I think that I can help maintain some of the things that are in place and in other cases make some reason\u00adable decisions, particularly around our school board policy.<\/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

There are challeng\u00ades to our budget, to hav\u00ading a sound budget that meets the needs of a broad, emerging system. I think reassignment is proba\u00adbly the second, and third, achievement, not neces\u00adsarily in that order. For achievement, I think we\u2019re headed in the right direc\u00adtion in some aspects, but I think making sure that we have the adequate resourc\u00ades at each school within the classrooms, that we have quality teachers, qual\u00adity administration in place, that we\u2019re using technol\u00adogy in the right way as a tool to aid in instruction\u2014 those are probably the key things.<\/p>\n

With budget challenges, that one\u2019s a tough one be\u00adcause all we can do is ask. One thing that we may need to consider over the coming years might be tax\u00ading authority, the school board having taxing au\u00adthority in order to raise necessary resources for our district.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got a new [reas\u00adsignment] plan coming up that I guess we\u2019ll see some time in the next couple of months or so. I think we\u2019re all open to the new direc\u00adtion that we\u2019re going right now with the choice op\u00adtions, maintaining diver\u00adsity through achievement.<\/p>\n

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

Best: Race to the Top funding and the Renais\u00adsance Schools plan. That was something that was developed by staff, of course, but we had to sign off and approve it.<\/p>\n

Wo r s t : If there were one vote I could take back it would be the vote to move cen\u00adtral offices to Cross\u00adroads in Cary. I think the system of\u00adfice should be in the county seat.<\/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

I think maintaining the quality of schools in Dis\u00adtrict 4, particularly giv\u00aden the possibility of hav\u00ading several high-poverty, highly racially identifiable schools in the district. If we move to a neighbor\u00adhood assignment plan, or any sort of plan that takes proximity as a priority of the plan, then, given the demographics of [Dis\u00adtrict 4], there are pockets or sections of the district that very easily would have high-poverty schools, and all of the schools would probably be highly racially identifiable, given the na\u00adture of the district.<\/p>\n

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

I think we have to have a laser-like focus on stu\u00addent achievement. When previous administrations have had a focus on stu\u00addent achievement, like we\u2019ve seen with Su\u00adperinten\u00addent Tata, we\u2019ve seen positive re\u00adsults. And that\u2019s mak\u00ading sure the resources are there and best prac t ice s are put in place, that we\u2019re us\u00ading the best assess\u00adments, that we\u2019re using teacher-helping tools.<\/p>\n

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

I think it\u2019s important for us to have tools and resources that our teach\u00aders and our administrative staff are comfortable with. I\u2019m okay with EVAAS, but it concerns me that we use that as our only method. I think if there are oppor\u00adtunities for other means, other methods or models to put into \u2026 then I don\u2019t think it hurts us to have more than one.<\/p>\n

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

I think that\u2019s an issue that we have to continue to look at because I think how you apply that fairly across the board is a diffi\u00adcult one.<\/p>\n

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

I think the focus there should be a two-pronged approach, with a focus on getting new applicants. We could work with schools of education at both HBCUs and other institutions and look to identify early on those minority candidates who show a certain degree of promise or ability, then work with them before they graduate so there\u2019s a commitment.<\/p>\n

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

It certainly has a lot of promise. Most impor\u00adtantly to me, I find it to be somewhat of a compro\u00admise, including two things that were most important to both sides of the fight. It allows for proximity, but also allows for some mea\u00adsure of diversity through student achievement. I\u2019m anxious to see how it would also allow for growth. That will be the challenge.<\/p>\n

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

I think there\u2019s a place for charter schools. Qual\u00adity charter schools pro\u00advide a viable alternative for parents and families who find \u2026 the public school system not as successful for their kids. Every child is different, so often the same approach does not work for every child. That\u2019s why they have those options.<\/p>\n

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

I think that the ap\u00adproach that we\u2019ve taken thus far has been dead on. I think looking at how we can reduce suspensions, re\u00adduce expulsions, the tiering of the system so that there\u2019s a consistency amongst in\u00adfractions and how penal\u00adties are applied across the district, and doing all of that with the backdrop of trying to keep kids in school as opposed to kick them out of school.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s just a reality of the district that we\u2019re one of the most rapidly growing counties in the country, and to maintain quality of that I think we\u2019ll simply have to advocate for more funding.<\/p>\n

In many states around the country, school boards have the author\u00adity to set tax rates\u2014prop\u00aderty tax, sales tax. At that point they\u2019re able to set their budgets accordingly, whether they need to raise taxes or lower taxes.<\/p>\n

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

Probably history and so\u00adcial studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age: 41 Current Occupation: Victim Advocate Liaison for the Governor\u2019s Crime Commission Website: www.votekeithsutton.com How long have you lived in Wake County? 13 years Do you have children in the district? One at Conn Elementa\u00adry, one in Johnston Coun\u00adty Schools. Why have you decided to run for office? I would like to continue to serve […]<\/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\/8735"}],"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=8735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}