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Ohio's public schools serve 1.6 million children - 90 percent of students in the state! What happens in the classroom has impacts far beyond the walls of the K-12 school building or higher ed lecture hall. So, on behalf of the 120,000 members of the Ohio Education Association, we're taking a deeper dive into some of the many education issues facing our students, educators, and communities. Originally launched in 2021 as Education Matters, Public Education Matters is your source for insightful conversations with the people who shape the education landscape in Ohio. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on Public Education Matters? Email us at educationmatters@ohea.org
Intro - Various members and students speaking 0:08
Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because every student matters. Public Education Matters.Public Education Matters because it is the foundation of our democracy. Public Education Matters because we are stronger when we speak in one voice. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:41
Thanks for joining us for this edition of Public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted. And in this episode, we're talking elections. In fact, we're talking about arguably the most consequential elections when it comes to the future of our local schools, the races for school board in our local districts. I mean, think about it. The decisions made by local school boards are among the most important when it comes to determining the working and learning conditions in our schools. And when we're talking about making sure educators have a seat at the table when important decisions are being made, having educators on the school board is huge. Here's the thing, though, you can't run for school board in the school district where you work, so active educators who live in a different district than where they work are, of course, welcome to run in their hometown to lead the direction of the local schools there. Or if you live and work in the same school district, and you want to run for school board, you can wait until you retire from the classroom to do so. Today, we have two guests in the Cincinnati area who are taking that latter path. In just a few minutes, we'll hear from Victor Harris, a recently retired Sycamore Junior High School teacher who's now running for the Sycamore Board of Education. First, though, we're sitting down with an educator who says her calling to serve her community and students as a member of the Milford Board of Education is actually what gave her a nudge to retire in the first place. We asked Myra Powers to share her thoughts.
Myra Powers 2:17
Public Education Matters because it's the foundation of our society. School board elections matter, because that's how we exercise our right to local control. Educators getting involved in the process matters because who knows more than teachers about what education needs?
Katie Olmsted 2:36
Myra Powers, running for Milford School Board, thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself to us. Talk to me a little bit about who you are, and why you are the right person for this job right now.
Myra Powers 2:52
Okay, well, thank you for having me. I'm a retired teacher. I retired last year after teaching in the Milford School District for 41 years. I taught General Ed., gifted ed. and special education in grades kindergarten through nine. I love teaching, and really didn't foresee myself retiring anytime soon, because I still absolutely loved it. But people kept asking me to run for the board. They're like, 'We need someone like you that supports the schools that knows what's going on. And you got known dedication to the district and the community.' So after a while, I kept looking for a candidate that I thought could do that. And I just realized, if not me, who? So I decided to do it.
Katie Olmsted 3:42
And that's the thing. In Ohio, the state law prohibits active educators in that district from running for the school board in that district. But who better than somebody who has spent so many years working in that district, day in, day out, being the boots on the ground in those classrooms, to make decisions about the future of that district? Who better than you understands what the students and the educators and that community needs? So I guess my question for you is, what do they need right now?
Myra Powers 4:15
I think we need people on the school board that are running because they support the schools in the community. I've had a lifetime of volunteerism and work for the district and the community. And I see now in these current times people are running that have literally little or no connection to the district or the community. They've never been - They've never volunteered they've never been a part of programs where they know what's going on in the community. And just almost by definition, teachers have that connection to community. But I always went above and beyond. I just always, I just thrived in school settings and love my schools and my students and I was just involved in many, many things over the years, and I still am. I volunteer a lot in our district and in our community. And that's a labor of love for me. And I honestly never in my lifetime thought people would be running for the school board that are running to deconstruct the schools. They're running because they, they, there's no respect for the schools, administration, teachers, and they're running literally on an anti- platform. And I think it's dangerous and sad.
Katie Olmsted 5:31
Having people who are anti-Public Schools making decisions about the future of our public school students is a scary prospect. Scary is I think, the mild word there. You are one of four candidates running for two open seats. You had a - we're talking on October 2nd - and you just had a candidate forum. Just the other day, how did that go?
Myra Powers 5:59
Well and great. Sadly, only two of the four candidates appeared for the forum. The other two, one didn't reply at all and one sent their regrets. And there was a anti- forum Facebook Live event, too, that they promoted instead of the candidate forum. The forum was run it was run by the League of Women Voters and the Milford Miami Township Chamber of Commerce. And so it was very non partisan. But they still didn't want any part of it. So as from my perspective, it was great. I got to answer a lot of questions, some I think that hopefully people will watch and be surprised about. Like, I was asked about SEL, you know, social emotional learning. And it was, it was nice to talk about that in a way that is just the reality of the situation. I talked about subbing in the preschool a few weeks ago, and we went around - "this is sad. How do you look when you're sad?" And they all made their sad face. And then we talk about what can you do when you're feeling sad. You can talk to your mom or read a book or, you know, do any number of things. So it's not this big bugaboo. And then older grades, it becomes more about anti bullying and conflict resolution, which are all things that back in the day, I believe we called citizenship. And they were it was, it was good, then and it's good now.
Katie Olmsted 7:32
On a personal note, I've just feel like SEL has a bad branding campaign against it right now. Because I think, and there's a lot of research actually, that that backs this up - I think at the beginning of last school year, Children's Defense Fund - Ohio had this huge survey of parents across the state, both sides of the aisle, and actually slightly more Republican parents in this survey, and overwhelmingly, they supported social emotional learning in schools, most of the time, though, if you didn't call it social emotional learning. They, they supported it as the practice, not necessarily as something under that banner, if that makes sense. And I think that's exactly what you're running up against. Especially running up in this, this whole national climate we have around our schools, and our school board races right now. We have extremists who are trying to pull the strings to get certain people involved in the school board races. They're they're pushing these culture war issues and agendas, and they're ignoring the real needs of our students. When you're out talking to people in your community, which side of this is really resonating? Are those culture war issues resonating with them? Or are they able to see through that?
Myra Powers 8:54
I feel like that when I can talk to people, people that you know that I don't know that I have a big school community that supports me, former parents, students, and teachers, I worked in a lot of buildings in our district and on a lot of committees. But when I meet people, I don't know when I just talk about me as a person, as a dedicated servant to the district and the community, they always say you, people like you are what we need on the school board. You know, you've shown your commitment to the schools and and the community and that's what we need. And so I feel like it resonates with people if you can just talk to them.
Katie Olmsted 9:36
And that's really what the campaign trail is all about. How has that been going for you? Are you able to meet a lot of people in the community and really help explain who you are?
Myra Powers 9:48
Well, I'm trying. Someone contacted me today for they wanted to get a neighborhood thing to get together for maybe 20 to 30 of their neighbors where, the person I'm running with, where we can, you know, introduce ourselves and get to know people. Of course, we're using Facebook and things like that. But it's a lot of word of mouth. And we do have some get togethers and some meetings planned that will help us reach out to people, you know, that we that don't already know us.
Katie Olmsted 10:23
And at the end of the day, it's not just about introducing yourself, but it's about making sure they turn out and start voting. By the time this episode airs, early voting will be underway. What is your message, especially to your fellow educators about the importance of showing up and just casting their ballot?
Myra Powers 10:42
I think it's critical that educators have to show up and cast their ballots. We know, we are in the trenches. We know what it's going on. And we know what students need. And we know the realities of our situation. We don't think in lockstep. I mean, there's no liberal bloc of teachers. I know far more conservative teachers than I know, uh, progressive teachers. But we all do know school. And we know that school is important, and that we have to have trustworthy people that also value schools, making the big decisions. Even in these very politically divisive times, I have a lot of support from people, um, in both parties, and independents. A lot. Previous students have - fourth graders from the 90s have donated and written letters to the editor and, and things like that. But I think that teachers resonate with people because they know our dedication. So I think, you know, we might have a little leg up of trying to get rid of the divisiveness. I'm finding that in my campaign. So I think that would be true for everyone. So teachers just have to get involved.
Katie Olmsted 12:05
You know that public education matters. That's the bottom line. Right?
Myra Powers 12:09
Right.
Katie Olmsted 12:10
Myra Powers. Thank you so much for sitting down with us today.
Myra Powers 12:14
Thank you so much for having me. This was a first for me.
Katie Olmsted 12:21
All right, that's Myra Powers in Milford running for one of two open seats on that school board. About 10 miles up the road, voters in the Sycamore Community Schools district are also voting to fill two open seats on their school board. And retired Sycamore teacher Victor Harris is vying for one of those spots. Let's take a listen to our conversation from earlier this month.
Victor Harris 12:46
Public Education Matters because it is the great leveler in our society. Okay? Everybody has access to a public education and everyone in our society does no matter, race, color, socio economic condition, gender, orientation, sexual orientation, and I think everybody needs to take advantage that public education to help better themselves, better their lives and give them equal and better opportunities. School boards matter because everybody goes to school, and school boards set policies for school districts in the state of Ohio. And we need people on school boards who know how school operates, who know what schools do, who know the importance of schools and who value the importance of schools without having outside political agendas. And last but not least, educators need to get involved in public schools and school boards because educators know what works. They are the people that are day to day; they're the people that are in the classrooms. They're the people who are going out and spending their money to buy supplies for students in districts where they don't have the means for a lot of things. They're the people who go home and think about those kids that they've had in school every day. So public educators need to be on the ground floor to help set policy that make schools run more efficiently and run to the best advantage for the people that are involved.
Katie Olmsted 14:06
Victor Harris, running for Sycamore Board of Education, thank you so much for sitting down with us. Why are you running for the school board?
Victor Harris 14:15
Well, first of all, thank you guys. It's great to be here. Great to have this opportunity. Why am I running for the school board? In all my years education - I retired after 34 years of teaching at a couple of different school districts - one of the things I always struggled with was the fact that a lot of policy was made by boards of education, by people who have never been in a classroom. You have people who are working in businesses, you have people who are community leaders, but none of them are teachers or educators and I feel it's important that we did have educators and that educational viewpoint on the school boards that govern our school districts.
Katie Olmsted 14:51
And you have the added bonus of having been in Sycamore schools as an educator. You are fresh out of those classrooms. You know what exactly what those students need. What do students in Sycamore need? And how can you help deliver that?
Victor Harris 15:05
Well, and the other part of that is my unusual experience. I've coached for 100 seasons in Sycamore School District, my kids went to Sycamore schools. So I've seen it from different viewpoints. I've been a parent, I've been a coach, I've been a fan sitting up in the stands, seeing those different things. You know, the kids, and the educators need someone that's going to speak in their best interests. We get a lot of mandates from the state of Ohio. And I know the state tries to make sure that we're doing the right things in schools and things like that. But sometimes they put stuff in that either will not be effective in the classroom or is really hard to do in a classroom. But it sounds really good on a policy paper. So I think we need people who have a realistic view of how education works. We need someone who's there for the kids and the parents, because as a teacher, that's always been my number one consideration is what's best for my students.
Victor Harris 15:06
And somebody who has those connections to students and parents. It doesn't do you any good to be a good policymaker if you don't actually listen or hear them, right?
Victor Harris 16:04
That's exactly right. And too often, people are too far removed from that. And again, that's one of the things I have to work on from being in the trenches to kind of being up and watching how policies made and different things. I've had a little bit experience in that in writing curriculum for the state of Ohio with the social studies standards and different things like that. But once you're down there, and you see the effect that some of those dictates have, it makes you want to go we need somebody that knows the policy that knows the language and knows the audience as these policies are directed towards.
Katie Olmsted 16:33
And in an ideal world, that would be every school board everywhere, right?
Victor Harris 16:38
And I think so, and it's hard for people. And I understand it's difficult for people to serve on a lot of school boards and things like that. A lot of times, people - it's a lot of business people because their businesses have the flexibility for them to do that. They can work from home, or they can miss a meeting to do this or miss work to do this and things like that. And I think we need to make that accessible to all people. I think we need to get more people involved in getting school board elections. But people who are concerned about the school, not concerned about a particular political agenda.
Katie Olmsted 17:06
Is that something you're seeing in Sycamore right now? I mean, it's something I think we're seeing in a lot of places all around Ohio, all around the country: specific culture war issues that have nothing to do with the actual needs of students are really making the decisions for the people who are trying to run. What are you seeing there?
Victor Harris 17:24
Well, and I think that the community in Sycamore is a very well-educated community, and they've managed to keep the culture wars out of the classroom, for the most part. You know, you're always going to have some people who want to bring up different things. But for the most part, we've managed to keep that out of our district and keep that political agenda out there out there. I think it's very important to school board members run as non affiliated with no particular affiliation to political party, because it's supposed to be a non partisan position. And so I think by having that nonpartisan again, in your mind, why do you do this? And why do most people do a lot of things is to help the community they hope to serve.
Katie Olmsted 18:01
Is it harder to help the community when you are up against this? I mean, never before has the school board race been in the spotlight like it is now. A lot of times I think people don't even know a school board race is happening, or that's how it was. Now, it is blown into something that is beyond a school board race in many places.
Victor Harris 18:22
It is harder, because people ask me, Why are you doing this? And my first response is, I'm crazy. Why? You know, but it has become especially of light. So it is hard. I think you need to have people who go in there who are qualified to do this, who have credentials that qualify them to be in the classroom. And you've got to hope that the people in the community pick the people who are qualified to have that job, not the people who are running on a political agenda.
Katie Olmsted 18:49
So how are you getting the word out to the people that we need to turn out to vote?
Victor Harris 18:54
And this is a thing I saw, you know, starting to see as a as a new political candidate, a new candidate, not a political candidate, but as a new candidate is, you know, you've got to use the social media platforms you got to use in Instagram, and Facebook or "old people's Instagram," as my kids call it. You've got to get the word out there. So people can see that you've got to touch those people. You've got to go out, you've got to canvass you got to meet people, you got to get literature out there. You got to get that, you know, name association with a face and do all of those different things. And then I think once you get people and you can sit down and talk to them and have a good meaningful dialogue with people, I think once people start to see those kinds of things, they go, Hey, I think I'm gonna vote for that person. Or even if they don't vote, at least I respect that person's opinions and I can understand why they're running and why they're putting themselves out there like that.
Katie Olmsted 19:42
What are some of the challenges of running right now?
Victor Harris 19:46
One, obviously, is money, you know, teachers, besides the fact that we make millions of millions of dollars every year teaching -
Katie Olmsted 19:52
Oh, I've heard that, yeah, mm-hmm...
Victor Harris 19:54
You know, the financial part of it and school board races aren't obviously as expensive as a lot other political campaigns. But you know, money's always an issue and getting that word out there. I think too, I think we live in a thing where people kind of believe what they want to believe. And sometimes they don't necessarily look at facts. So getting people to look at credentials or looking to people to get on records or looking to people to get on statements that you've made, and say, That's what that statement means. I'm not reading anything into that statement, etc, etc. Getting that true knowledge out to people, I think that's a bit of a challenge.
Katie Olmsted 20:27
And then, of course, once you are elected, it's going to take a lot of collaboration to move anything forward. A) is that sort of the climate in Sycamore now? I'm not very familiar with your community. And if it isn't, how can you bring people back together after the election?
Victor Harris 20:43
Well one of the things is one of the things I did as a teacher at Sycamore, I served on contract negotiations. So I've negotiated several contracts for the school district. And I always tell people, the difference to any schools contract and kind of like, you know, an athlete's contract or business contract or something, is a lot of what we're looking for is that collaboration, and is trying to work in that spirit of being together, and helping each other and doing different things like that. So one of the big things I say is, you know, collaboration is my middle name. I want to talk to people, I want to come come to consensus. And if it's not consensus, I want people understand, this is why we did this because we thought this would happen, instead of, this is why we're doing this because I said so. And I think a lot of times, we get things down from up high where it's just because I said so and not because this isn't necessarily the right thing to do. So working together, consensus, giving everyone an opinion. I always talk to people about having diversity on a school board, and the first thing people think of diversity is they think of race or they think of gender or something like that. But I like diversity of opinion and diversity of viewpoint. You need those different viewpoints. You need business people on a school board to help you understand how business works, and making connections in the business world in your different communities. But you need also parents on there to get some viewpoint from parents. You need educators on there, so you can get that educational viewpoint. So they can look and say, will this work in a classroom? Is this good for a classroom situation? So you need that variety of viewpoints. And then the only way you're going to get those variety of viewpoints is is all people all work together to come to a common goal.
Katie Olmsted 22:15
And at the end of the day, we really do need diversity on the school board, in in thought and in every other way, because we represent diverse students, beautifully diverse students and diverse communities. And everybody has needs that have to be met.
Victor Harris 22:29
And that's what the great thing, and one of the great things I'll say about the Sycamore Community district, we have children from all over the world. In my junior high, we had signs that represented the different nations that the kids came up, and we probably had 85 different flags up of nations that were represented by that all with different views on everything from education, to what they should be doing in school, to career goals and all that. And all of those people need to feel like that someone's going to listen to what they say and that they'll be represented.
Katie Olmsted 22:57
So bottom line, why do educators need to get involved in this process right now?
Victor Harris 23:02
Educators need to get involved because we're an embattled profession right now. No one wants to be a teacher anymore. It's really that simple. My son, he wants to be a teacher. And and it was one of those things. It's like, do you really want to do this, you really want to be a school teacher, because we're an embattled profession with fewer and fewer people going in there. But without good teachers, you don't have good schools. It's that simple. And you know, people will complain about teachers and things like that. But we need teachers involved, we need to make teaching, we need to view teaching as a prestige occupation, instead of an occupation that people just settle for. All a great teachers that I've had the pleasure of teaching with in my career, have been gifted and love their job and would have been successful in anything else they wanted to do, but they chose to be school teachers. They chose to educate kids for a better tomorrow. They gave up riches, they gave up time, they gave up a lot of their social lives, to be there for their students.
Katie Olmsted 23:57
And the thing that really does set the tone for any individual community about whether it is an attractive, sustainable career, if you can get rid of all of the external stuff, the statewide stuff, the national stuff, what are the working and learning conditions in your schools? That's set by the school board. Is that right?
Victor Harris 24:14
That's exactly right. And if you look at why people move to communities, okay: job transfer to Cincinnati, Ohio, I'm moving to Cincinnati, I have the means, as a parent, I'm looking at schools. That's that's the neighborhoods that have great schools is that's where I want to move my family. That's what people all do, if they have the option to do that. They want to be in a community that's got great schools with great teachers with great facilities.
Katie Olmsted 24:43
And that's thanks to a great school board with great educators leading the way.
Victor Harris 24:47
The school board has to set the trend for that, so -
Katie Olmsted 24:50
Victor Harris, thank you so much for really helping us understand the issues in your community. And good luck with your campaign.
Victor Harris 24:58
Thank you very much. Thank you guys for the app. portunity And hey, I hope everything works out and I will be addressing you in the future hopefully as a Sycamore Community School Board Member.
Katie Olmsted 25:11
Early voting is underway now and Election Day is November 7. And while state lawmakers are only on the ballot in even years, not odd years like this one, keeping track of how our state lawmakers vote on important education issues is absolutely critical. OEA offers some powerful tools to help you do that. OEA Manager of Government Relations Dan Ramos joins us now to talk about OEA's Legislative Scorecard and some changes on the way for that resource.
Katie Olmsted 25:44
Dan Ramos, thank you for sitting down with us. What is OEA's Legislative Scorecard?
Dan Ramos 25:49
Well, thank you, Katie. So legislative scorecards in general, and then OEA's Legislative Scorecard - so we maintain one, OEA does, that's focused on the Ohio General Assembly, that tracks and scores legislators on how they react to our bills that we find important. So whether we oppose or whether we support a bill, the legislators receive a grade based on how they vote on that bill, ultimately. Usually, our scorecard also corresponds with Bill Floor Letters that the OEA government relations team and our officers send to the Ohio General Assembly stating the position that we would like legislators to take on bills. The ultimate purpose behind it is to hold elected officials accountable. You know, and we track obviously, a whole host of education, election-related, collective bargaining and labor-related bills that we scorecard and ultimately, it's to give a visualization to our members about how legislators stand on the positions that we find important before them in the General Assembly. You know, while that is its main purpose, the other purpose that it serves is that it also, you know, fits within our overall screening and endorsement process that we do for the Ohio General Assembly. You know, we integrate legislative scores, or legislator score scores, into our screening process so that the members that sit down for House and Senate District screenings can see how legislators voted on issues before them in the General Assembly that we find extremely important or that we, you know, support or oppose.
Katie Olmsted 27:35
It's such an important tool on so many levels for so many members. And it's about to get even better. What is going on with the revamp?
Dan Ramos 27:44
Well I'm not going to scoop the whole story yet, Katie, on this one, but for the you know, if you're tracking New Business Items from the RA, back in December of 2022, the OEA Representative Assembly created NBI #1, which tasked OEA in updating the legislative scorecard to add additional functionality for and ease of access for members to see, you know, who sponsors what bills, how, you know, legislators in total vote on legislation, and then like the status of the bills that we are tracking. So actually, since the NBI was passed at the December RA, members of my team, colleagues in communications and in our business services departments have been working diligently to revamp our scorecard in a new way based on those recommendations. And we're actually very close to sending it live. Actually, this coming weekend Vice President Jeff Wensing will be showing our board of directors kind of those new changes. And then after the board receives it's it's promo, we'll be you know, updating and sending out way you know, you know promotional item about how to access the new scorecard to OEA members and OEA staff. And then obviously, a big highlight of it will be, you know, showcased at the upcoming December RA. Very excited about those changes, though.
Katie Olmsted 29:13
Cannot wait to see how this looks and how it feels. That functionality is obviously so important. And as you mentioned, members should be keeping an ear out and an eye out for more information about how to access it. Should be any day now. Right?
Dan Ramos 29:28
That's correct. That's correct.
Katie Olmsted 29:29
All right, Dan, we will check back in with you later as we see more of this. But thank you so much for taking the time today.
Dan Ramos 29:35
Thank you, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 29:39
Public education matters, and that's why elections matter. Your voice matters so much this fall. Please make a plan to vote on or before November 7th so you can have a say in the future of your community. We'd love for you to have a say in the future of these podcasts, too. If you have an idea about something you'd like to hear on a future episode or you have thoughts about how we can make these episodes better, please send me an email at educationmatters@ohea.org Until next time, stay well. And remember, in Ohio, Public Education Matters
Transcribed by https://otter.ai