Episode Details

We were happy to host candidate Kelley Arnold for a lengthy discussion last week and we are bringing it to you now as our first School Board feature of the election season.

https://kelleyarnoldforhilliardschools.com/

Kelley's Campaign Issues Page

Kevin jumps right into the action and opens the interview by asking about Kelley’s shared appreciation of Peter Gabriel. Once we’ve all had our say on the former Genesis frontman he then asks Kelley to get into some of the reasons she’s seeking the office.

We touch on the function schools fulfill as a social services hub for growing kids and families in the Hilliard community.

Kelley discusses her experiences raising her own kids through an entirely different educational format for a few years in Japan and how some of that cross-cultural exposure and insight made her think about addressing needs.

Kelley then talks about her experiences working on her own educational growth through organizations like the P.T.O. First, as a volunteer and then in various district level positions growing her contribution and understanding of the various ways all the schools systems work together to meet student population needs.

We talk the Master Facilities Plan and how the “shape” of our school system is contingent on the condition (age, size, geography) of the material district but it is also conditioned on understanding incoming demographic changes and how student populations are “built” and move through their school careers in Hilliard.

Kelley discusses some of the ways a long term working relationship with Cooperative Strategies has provided reliable insight into those changing populations and has evolved from Census based analysis down to very granular detail of every building and neighborhood. Cooperative Strategies Student Population Report

That moves us into the recent back and forth in a School Board session regarding the potential impact of future growth and Community Plan related development. We touch on how Kelley thinks the district should prepare for and respond to growth but also how she understands our system to flex and absorb *any* growth or change over time regardless of city plans or goals.

We then head into talk, generally, about the unique responsibilities and collaboration between local stakeholders like schools, city government, and residents trying to manage challenges like growth and the best methods to get that done.

* Tim wants to know how Kelley thinks communication should or could be improved coming from the schools to show the community value and the meaningful results we all want.

* Jordan asks if the recent Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation led education reform efforts (driven at the national level) around teacher assessment and retention really delivered meaningful change or were just misdirected resources that might have been better spent elsewhere.

* Improving Teacher Effectiveness: Final ResultsWe talk about the importance of unions in providing focus, support and a consolidated purpose to employment in the education world that helps each member meet their needs and responsibilities while addressing the challenges of a complicated and tough workplace.

* In light of a recent incident the topic of an expansion of the school resource officer (SRO) program is discussed as well as other means and methods of support for challenging moments that come up in the course of any given school day.

* What is the equation for responding to crisis situations (health, environment, resources) in