Responses from Danielle Molle:

Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for your questions. I hope that you find my responses clear and helpful.

If you would like more information about me, please visit my website: https://www.molle4mmsd.org/ (English) and https://www.molle4mmsd-esp.org/ (Spanish).

1. MORE RECESS TIME

I completely agree that our students would benefit from more recess time. It is my understanding that each school has its own School Policy Guide, which is supplemental to the District Policy Guide. In my personal experience as a parent, school administration reduced recess time to create more time for academic learning. This decision was not made with any input from parents. I would like the district to advocate for a more evidence-based approach to changing recess time, so that school staff, district staff, and families know what decisions are being based on and what data is being collected to evaluate the effectiveness of changes made to the daily schedule.

It is my hope that the focus on continuous improvement in the district’s new strategic framework can bring about a more thoughtful, data-informed approach to determining and revising the daily schedule.

2. Incumbent candidates how have you listened to the voices of parents and make sure they are heard and actioned at the administration level. Please give an example of when you have held the administration to account. For new candidates: how will you do ensure parents voices are heard and action taken.

I believe that an effective way to ensure that parent voices are heard is to leverage the already existing structures of parent/teacher groups or organizations (PTGs), like the one that is holding this forum. My starting point would be the parent groups at the schools that Seat 6 is responsible for, which include Marquette Elementary. If there are questions that pertain to a specific type of school, like schools offering dual language immersion programming, then I will make a point of contacting the parent groups in those schools to make sure that we take parent voices into account when making decisions.

In addition to personal contact between me as a board member and PTGs, it is important to hold the district accountable for engaging parents. One way is to consistently ask district administrators about the steps they’ve taken to solicit parent input, and what some tangible effects of that input have been. The role of the board is to inform the efforts of the district, and consistently asking questions about parent engagement and its impact is one way to do so.

3. MMSD athletics have used zero cost to the district but the cost has been passed on to parents through gofan and snap mobile. How do you plan to address these items which don’t show up in the budget but hit families who are already stretched.

I would like to see a system implemented district-wide where we use a sliding scale for the proportion of athletic costs carried by families. Families who are better off can be encouraged to subsidize other athletes, so families who struggle financially do not need to pay any of the costs. I do not believe we currently have school- or district-based funds that can cover athletic fees for families in need of assistance. Setting up such funds either at the school or district level would be a way to ensure that everyone can participate in athletics, no matter their financial circumstances. Once these funds are in place, I am confident that the apps used for athletics can have options for families to opt out from paying fees.

4. Under Act 42, MMSD is required to adopt a new cell phone policy by July. What would you like that policy to include? More broadly, how do you view the current level of screen use (chrome books, videos, etc.) in MMSD schools, particularly at the elementary level?

I will answer this question with a focus on elementary and middle school students, because I feel that high school students have different digital needs and require dissimilar opportunities to develop digital literacy.

My weekly volunteering experience in middle-school classrooms and my personal knowledge of elementary-school classrooms suggests that elementary and middle school students do not need access to their phones during the day. I am, therefore, in support of the current policy implemented in many schools, where students are asked to put their phones away for the duration of the school day. Students have access to their phones at the beginning and end of the day, so they can coordinate with their families. Emerging research seems to suggest that having phones put away during the day increases students’ attention span and contributes to healthier peer relationships.

I do think that exceptions may need to be made on an individual basis, such as when a student needs their phone for health reasons. I am grateful that the MMSD Board of Education currently includes two advocates for students with disabilities. I look forward to hearing their advice on how the needs of students who require a cell phone may be met, while also creating a general environment in which elementary and middle school children do not have access to their phones during the school day.

Another component of cell phone use during the day is parents’ approaches to cell phone use at home. I wonder if there would be an interest among parent groups in district-sponsored events that focus on healthy cell phone use for children K-8.

In terms of screen use, I believe that students in elementary and middle schools spend too much time interacting alone with their chromebooks. While students absolutely need to develop skills in using and navigating digital technologies, I would argue that we need an evidencebased approach to the kind of engagement with digital tools that actually contributes to learning and personal growth. There are many online programs and resources the district has purchased (such as Lexia, to name one). We need to be purposeful in investigating which students benefit from such technologies and under what circumstances. The district can collect and analyze quantitative data on student growth related to the use of digital resources, along with qualitative data on teachers’ and parents’ experiences with the technologies being provided. As a policy-making body, the board is well positioned to encourage the district to take an evidence-based approach to the use of technology, and use the findings from such explorations to reassess which resources are purchased and what support is provided to staff.

5. For years as principals leave a school many of these experience difficult transitions. With students and parents bearing the brunt.This pattern has occurred for years at Sherman, Toki, Blackhawk the list goes on. For incumbents what have you done to prevent this? For new candidates how would you propose to break this cycle?

I so appreciate this question! My family experienced the same transition at Cherokee MS, so here I speak both from personal experience and as an education researcher. I would like the district to implement a robust process for succession planning. Such a process would include forecasting upcoming vacancies, creating a pool of candidates whose qualifications are particularly suited to the context of the school whose leader is leaving, and engaging community voices in candidate selection. It will also include intensive coaching of the new principal once they assume their position, and multiple required opportunities for the new principal to meet with community members to hear their priorities for their school.

I do not believe that such a succession plan currently exists, and its absence is detrimental to school climate. As a policy-making body, board can support the district in implementing a research-informed and effective succession planning process.

6. What sort of change would you advocate for or support in regard to scholar and staff safety to ensure a learning environment is available to all? The MMSD Behavior Education Plan has prevented some school administrators in maintaining an environment that prioritizes learning for all and doesn't stop some of our young MMSD scholars from distracting their peers daily and doesn't support them in the real ways they need to feel safe and secure.

I agree. I have witnessed this on multiple occasions while volunteering in my children’s classrooms as well as other elementary and middle-school classrooms. I have four ideas that I believe can help create a more effective learning environment for all:

• A systems approach: One solution that I would advocate for would be to take a systems-approach to supporting the needs of individual students, rather than approaching such students as unique cases. The question that I would like to ask is this: How is the current learning environment exacerbating students’ behavioral challenges? What needs to change so that students receive the support they need? A systems-level approach will allow the school to allocate resources differently and think about school spaces differently. A systems-level approach will also encourage staff to take shared ownership of supporting students who experience behavioral challenges, rather than seeing the conduct of such students as the responsibility of individual staff.

• Increased teacher collaboration: It is often the case that certain teachers work better with specific children than other teachers. I believe that a more robust collaboration between the teachers that have been successful in regulating a student’s behavior and other teachers could benefit children with behavioral challenges. I would like to think that master schedules can be designed in such a way that teachers who have been successful in establishing relationships with specific children can observe and mentor peers who are currently working with these children.

• Teacher professional learning: As a researcher who spent more than a decade focused on teacher professional development, I firmly believe in the power of professional learning to change practices. I believe that teachers should receive more support in growing professionally, including in the approaches they use for classroom management. Professional learning does not need to be expensive to be effective: it can entail peer coaching, or a collaboration with a university.

• Prevention: The three ideas above have to do with addressing behavior that already exists. I do, however, strongly believe in prevention. If MMSD invests in regular visits of school psychologists and therapists in 4K classrooms and close collaboration between these specialist and classroom teachers, challenges can be identified early and educators have time to develop a range of effective strategies.

7. Techniques that MMSD can implement that will help our kids build up critical thinking skills? What does MMSD do so far and what can be changed?

I have not been able to find a lot of data on how students in MMSD schools are developing critical thinking skills. I would be curious to know more about whether teachers and parents have seen improvement in student learning since the adoption of a new literacy curriculum a couple of years ago. I personally have not, but then I have a sample of 2 kids.

I am excited about the new math curriculum that the district is preparing to adopt. I hope that the development of critical thinking skills is front and center in the minds of those who are making the selection decisions.

As an education researcher, I believe that critical thinking skills can be fostered best through the integration of subjects that tend to be separate. This may mean integrating art into science, literacy into social studies, and math into music. The integration of different content areas makes it possible for students to think about concepts differently and represent their learning differently. These types of learning opportunities typically support the development of critical thinking skills. One example would be using art to visualize how a drop of water experiences the changes to its “body” as it goes through the water cycle. A student would need to really understand the cycle to draw it as a visual story.

Research suggests that there are additional powerful ways to foster critical thinking skills, such as focusing learning not around technique but around complex concepts or phenomena, and connecting learning to students’ lives and interests. I think that the district could improve in both these areas.

8. MMSD is continually in a difficult (impossible?) funding situation in large part due to actions by the state legislature, including less per student funding to public schools and redirection of funds to vouchers for private schools. What is the role of the MMSD board in addressing this?

• The Board can come together around a specific plan, and advocate for increased funding for MMSD schools with the state legislature. As a Board member, I will work together with my colleagues so that we can craft proposals we want to put forth that are agreed upon by all members of the board. As elected officials, our advocacy with the state legislature can support efforts by the superintendent to increase funding for the district.

• As a Board member, I also hope to encourage collaboration with other districts across Dane Co., as well as with Milwaukee Public Schools. I hope that closer collaboration creates more opportunities for effective advocacy on behalf of public schools in our state.

• I can support MMSD in communicating more clearly about what the state funds and does not fund, and the difficult decisions that the district is forced to make as a result.

9. What other opportunities (dates/times/locations) do we have to see each of you speak? Can you provide links to your online presence - web pages / social media?

Thank you so much for this question!

• MTI Voters has sent each candidate a questionnaire that will be posted on their website by February 4. They will also interview all candidates.

• The League of Women voters has also sent all candidates a questionnaire and will be doing an interview with each candidate. These resources will be posted on their website, Vote411.org.