Submitted by: Corbeau Martin-Caldwell, grade 8
On Thursday, March 18th members of our adolescent community conducted an interview with the two remaining district 5 school board candidates, Jilly Gokalgahndi and Alex Brower, the link to the entire 40-minute interview can be viewed by clicking here, but in case you lack time in your busy schedule to view the interview here are some quick points that the school board candidates brought up during the interview (MAM adolescents do not endorse any candidate for the school board):
Points that Alex made:
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it is important for students to have a voice as he remembers being a teenager and feeling unheard, so he would like to add non-voting student seats to the MPS board of education.
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he thinks MPS is definitely not ready for a full-blown reopen, at the time of the interview, as there are many things that need to happen before we can consider reopening.
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systemic problems must be addressed systematically and through holistic change, and his experience in the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America made him realize that.
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cuts to administration might have to be made in order to put more money in the classroom.
Points that Jilly made:
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it's really important to make sure students have experiences that make them enjoy school, such as field trips and fun/engaging projects and activities.
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her first generation immigrant status forced her to feel comfortable and proud of herself and fight for what is right, amidst scrutiny from her white peers.
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one way to help save money would be to spend money on greener buildings and buses in order to help erase MPS’s carbon footprint and use less electricity from the power grid.
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we should increase pay and benefits for teachers in order to attract more high quality teachers who are passionate about education.
Thank you for reading this synopsis of our interview with the District 5 school board candidates, and remember to vote for your favored school board candidate on April 6th.
VISIT https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/ to see who is on your ballot and where to vote on Tuesday, April 6th!
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