Juwan’s Vision:
Improved Maintenance and School Building Infrastructure:
I strongly believe that in order for every student in our school system to receive the best education possible from our educators we must ensure that we allocate funding for maintenance and up keep on school building infrastructure. Our students cannot receive a world-class education without having a clean and safe learning environment to learn in.
Reduction of wasteful spending:
Time and time again hardworking taxpayers have been told that the reason why the school system is not where it needs to be is because “we need more money“. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to ensure that our students are college and or career ready and move our school system forward with nearly a 2-billion-dollar budget. We have too many people in the school systems central office and not enough resources going directly into classrooms.
Expanding, Supporting and Encouraging More After School Academic Programs/ Activity Buses:
Learning in the classroom is only the start of a student’s academic journey. In order to ensure that they are fully retaining information learned in the classroom It is important for more schools to offer rigors after schoolacademic programs. In previous years, PGCPS offered after school transportation known as “Activity Buses” but this has stopped. I plan on advocating for funding for after school transportation so that our students can take advantage of after school programs.
Restoring School Culture and Teacher Moral:
By the end of the 2016/2017 Academic it had been reported that over 800 educators were placed on administrative leave. Many were placed on leave with little to no notification or explanation to the school community. While, it is completely understandable that as a result of some extremely severe cases of child abuse, neglect, and harassment, emphasis on mandatory reporting was at an all-timehigh. However, there was not a robust system put in place to effectively and efficiently review and investigate cases so that teachers not found guilty were placed back in the classroom. This negativelyimpacted the quality of student’s education because many had long-term substitute teachers in core classes. This negatively impacted the school system culture and teacher moral because teachers began to be more worried about being placed on leave. Now that the number of teachers on leave are starting to decline, I am committed to helping change the school system culture and restoring teacher moral.
Supporting and Expanding Specialty Programs for ESOL Students:
I strongly support programs that enhance and cultivate a positive and safe learning environment for ESOL students to excel academically and socially. I also support enrichment efforts made by persons of organizations to further develop and enhance the experience of ESOL students.