Millicent Rogers, candidate for Durham school board
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Candidates for Durham County School Board, Consolidated District B
Candidates in the nonpartisan Durham County School Board race will be elected to four district seats and two consolidated district seats, based on where they live in the county. Consolidated District B candidates are incumbent Frederick Ravin and challengers Joetta Macmiller and Millicent Rogers. Get to know the candidates in our 2022 Voter Guide.
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Name: Millicent Rogers
Email: millicent4dps@gmail.com
Political party: Democrat
Age: 35
Campaign website: www.millicent4dps.com
Occupation and employer: Staff specialist, Duke University
Education: Durham School of the Arts, Appalachian State University.
Have you run for elected office before? I applied for an appointment to the Consolidated District B seat in Fall 2020; this is my first run for election.
Please list highlights of your civic involvement:
In collaboration with PTA, PAAC, PA, and Rebound I have helped to secure funding from DPS and BOCC to implement the Community Schools Model. Secure funding for classified staff to have a minimum wage increase to $15/hour. Advocated for the removal of a principal who was pushing out Black and brown students. Increased restorative practices and reducing school suspensions across the district. Advocated for fully funding public schools with leaders in the NC General Assembly.
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Karla Jurvetson, Millicent Gorham and Steve Schewel.
What are your top three priorities for Durham Public Schools?
Expand the use of the community schools model, this model focuses on the work of the current strategic plan addressing Priority 2: Provide a Safe School Environment that Supports the Whole Child and Priority 4: Strengthen School, Family, and Community Engagement. Improve Teacher working conditions for all school staff by making sure technology and planning periods are protected. Developing a district wide employee bill of rights that creates consistent and functioning work environments for all staff. Attracting and recruiting quality and diverse staff and educators, this can be accomplished by improving working conditions and working in collaboration with educators and other elected officials to fight for adequate pay for all staff to maintain happy and healthy families in Durham. Getting creative with local resources and increasing our work with State leaders to improve the school funding models.
What does DPS do well? In what areas does it need to improve?
Despite everything going on with Leandro and the insufficient funding at the state level, DPS and the Board of County Commissioners have worked together to ensure that every child in Durham has access to a sound and basic education. Moving classified staff in house rather than contracting out and paying classified staff at least $15 per hour is a step in the right direction toward ensuring fair pay and better working conditions for people who play such a critical role in our school system. Despite these gains, DPS needs to increase pay to a minimum of $17 per hour for classified staff immediately due to rapid increases in the cost of living. Moreover, the racial opportunity gap persists and is even more pronounced now than before due to the pandemic.
What about your life experience makes you the best person for the school board?
I was born in Durham, NC having attended Holt Elementary during the transition of the forced merger of city and county schools. In 1994, when I was completing fourth grade we learned that Holt would transition from a neighborhood school to a year-round magnet program. I experienced the loss of friends from my community at a pivotal year because some families couldn’t manage the track out schedule. I graduated from Durham School of the Arts, as a member of the first class to matriculate attending all grades from sixth through 12th grades. I will review the current system of choice schools and use grace and compassion in community conversations to modify the current structures to reflect the community needs of today and the future. As a single parent, I am prepared to bring the lived experiences of non-traditional families to the forefront of decision making policy. The way policies and practices are implemented have different impacts on our families.
How should the school board evaluate the superintendent and make that process more transparent?
I believe the superintendent should be evaluated through a combination of staff working conditions surveys, teacher/principal retention, decreased discipline incidents, increased student academic growth, and a shrinking opportunity gap for marginalized populations. I also believe truancy, dropout rates, graduation rates, and student surveys should be part of this process. All of these should be discussed openly at Board of Education meetings so parents and other stakeholders can understand the progress that DPS is or isn’t making.
Should anti-racism education be taught in the schools, and is DPS doing an adequate job teaching Black history?
Schools have a responsibility to teach the history of our country, even though it is tough and rife with the mistreatment of people of color, women, immigrants, and other groups of people. It is vital that students are taught historical facts about what once was, how we worked to become better, and how much further we need to go in creating spaces that are accepting and affirming for all. Schools should be providing an education that is reflective and allows the celebration of all cultures. There is a wide variety of tools and techniques across the district that teach Black history to DPS students, and it works well in some places and needs to be better developed in others. In some spaces, it is only taught during one month of the year; in others, it is embraced year round. There will always be room for improvement, but much of this curriculum is lost because Black history is not state mandated or measured.
What strategies would you advocate to raise the academic achievement of Black boys in the school system?
I have been an advocate for the Bull City Community Schools Partnership since the beginning, and one of my biggest priorities if elected will be to expand this to more schools. This model focuses on engaging students in learning, removing barriers to family involvement, and positive student discipline practices. Research shows that if we can ensure that Black boys are actually able to access the curriculum, are not being criminalized and pushed out of school via the school-to-prison pipeline, then they will have increased academic achievement and be less likely to drop out or get involved with gangs or other delinquent activities.
How can DPS reverse enrollment losses and de facto segregation in its schools?
As a product of DPS magnet schools, I am prepared to make hard choices when it comes to creating a more efficient and equitable system for our students and families. I understand how great magnet programs can be for students, but I also recognize that all schools should be providing students with everything they need to be successful. I believe that the Bull City Community Schools Partnership can be the answer to this, especially when coupled with grants used to support family involvement can enrich our student’s learning without putting an additional fiscal burden on the county.
How can DPS better support teachers and other staff and reduce turnover?
DPS needs to create better pipelines to teacher licensure including partnering with local universities and creating a process by which current classified employees can obtain their licensure while continuing to work for DPS full time. With an adequate pipeline in place, DPS will also need to “plug the leaky bucket” in order to retain the teachers we already have. The key to this is better teaching working conditions and higher pay. Higher pay, while expensive, would prove more fiscally responsible long term with the improved outcomes for students, reducing the need for social services and law enforcement intervention when they are adults. Teacher working conditions need to be a top priority to ensure we have the quality staff our students deserve.
Describe one idea you would like the school board to consider even though it might not be universally popular.
I would like to see clear, consistent policies and practices across the district. This should include expectations for and treatment of all staff and students. Many argue that these sorts of broad policies do not allow flexibility to respond to individual situations, but what is currently happening in the district is that “flexibility” is being abused to allow for discrimination.
How can DPS partner with charter schools or learn from their examples?
DPS already works collaboratively in some ways and I would like to see charters and DPS working together to make sure that all public schools are funded properly. The area’s charter schools do not have the capacity to serve all the students of Durham; most do not have transportation or wrap-around services that DPS provides in order to be inclusive. I do believe many of our public school administrators and teachers have incredibly creative ideas that they are not able to implement because of rigid testing requirements and an overemphasis on academic outcomes. Measuring success in alternate ways will allow schools to use the creativity already in their buildings to enhance learning opportunities for students. Additionally, research supports the idea that enhanced learning opportunities will also result in increased student achievement on standardized tests, although that cannot be our primary concern.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Millicent Rogers, candidate for Durham school board."