seven o'clock sure good evening my name is tina sursteb and i'm a proud member of the league of women voters dakota county i would like to welcome you to the candidate forum this evening this event is being broadcast and recorded via zoom as always at our events we want to remind you that league of women voters dakota county is a non-partisan political organization that encourages informed participation in government works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences policy through education and advocacy we never endorse parties or candidates and now i would like to introduce our moderator mary rice mary is a trained moderator and attorney and a past president of league of women voters bloomington we're honored to have mary moderating our forum tonight thank you good evening and welcome we wish to thank burnsville community television for their willingness to help the league to broadcast and record this event the league of women voters does not endorse candidates for office and the views expressed tonight are those of the candidates and not the league so the format for tonight is this candidates will have three minutes for their opening statement candidates will then have two minutes to respond to each question the order in which candidates answer questions will rotate so that each has an opportunity to respond in a different order all questions submitted by email were reviewed by a committee of the legal women voters members the time keeper tonight is lynn lewis a member of the league of women voters of dakota county the timer on the screen indicates to the candidates how much time you have left in your answer a stop sign will display at the conclusion of your three minute or two minute segment we ask the candidates to respect these time limits it's extremely important if you don't i may mute your microphone if you exceed the allowed answer time candidates will have two minutes at the end of the form for the closing statement the form concludes at 8 30 pm the election for isd 191 is for three positions candidates are in alphabetical order hodan ahmed tony connor eric miller sue saeed and anna werb now it's time for opening statements and we will begin with hodan ahmed thank you for inviting us my name is odan ahmed and i have lived a district 191 for past 80 years i have a three kids or 10 or 191 i work 191 for three years i also volunteered at 10 years so i have a 13 years experience in working with the students and families also i'm an advocate for another district and i'm very well connected my community which is the coming to families teachers principals and um uh superintendent of 191 thank you all right next is tony tony connor hello my name is tony connor as she said thanks for viewing with us this today i'll tell you a little background about me i grew up in south minneapolis where i was lucky enough to be raised in a diverse neighborhood where i got a chance to witness families of all different cultures i found this very interesting i continued to be interested in my in my childhood experience of different cultures by pursuing babysitting becoming a licensed daycare provider when my children were young and taking child health and guidance courses in college when my sons became pre-teens my husband and i became foster parents which i continued on about 11 years later when my kids were starting to enter middle school i became a very involved parent in school functions and i became i then that's also when i was hired as a peer professional in the education in that school district at that time i got first-hand experience of the needs of children not just special education children but children that didn't have a title that also was a large population of students and i also recognize what a tough job teachers have in trying to meet the needs of all their students many kids these days i feel are struggling due to emotional health or economic issues that distract them from learning working in two middle schools last year i thought i think we can try to do better in closing this achievement gap with a few ideas and additions to the school curriculum and that is my main base that's my main focus middle and high school students and teaching them some skills and tools to better help them be able to not be able to conquer some of the interruptions that interfere with their learning thank you eric miller thank you and good evening my name is eric miller and i'd like to thank the league of women voters for hosting this event this evening and i'd like to thank mary rice for uh moderating uh thank you to the viewers for watching taking time out of your evening to learn a little bit more about this race i am the only incumbent in this race having served my first term coming to the end of my first term right now with three and a half years on this school board i live in savage with my wife and i have three children and uh all three are which in the school district the uh the oldest is in eagle ridge middle school and the two youngest are at harriet bishop uh personally i have an undergraduate in business at augsburg college where i graduated summa laude and i have a master's in business administration and mba from carlson school of management at the university of minnesota i've worked for a number of corporate comp organizations companies around the twin cities large and small in various strategy and corporate uh finance and operation roles i currently work for an organization based right here in burnsville um my perspective on this race is that you do get three votes as was mentioned earlier and i'm asking for one of them i'm asking because i believe that experience is important in my time on this board i have been through more than quite frankly most board members go through the in any term of their service and so we've been through a number of superintendent replacements we've been through budget uh conversations we've been through negotiations we've had to close some schools and of course the global pandemic which we're in currently this is a relatively young board i am currently the vice chair of the board and if should i return to uh to the the board will more than likely be the chair of the board so experience is the argument i'm making for my candidacy i believe it's important to bring new voices i'm very happy that we have people running and that bring new perspectives to the table i just think that one of the votes should be at least to maintain some consistency thank you again for uh for joining us this evening and i'm looking forward to this conversation thank you saeed hi um my name is swai saeed i go by sue thank you for having us here um and for the viewers thank you for taking time out of your middle of the week evening to join us um i am currently residing virgo i grew up here i graduated from burnsville high school and 005 i currently have four kids in the district um some in elementary school and some in junior high and some one over at the diamond head education center i am a social worker i've been doing social work for the past 10 plus years it's a job that i really enjoy it gives me an opportunity to really um help people but also meet them where they're at and give them the resources and the guidance and the support that they need to maintain or meet self-esteem self-sufficiency right now i'm working for state of minnesota i work for deed which is the department of economics and employment and i decided to run because i know that it takes um it takes um a lot of you know um energy but yet um being able to give my experience um as a social worker and doing home visiting in dakota county where i was able to work with birth all the way to five years old and really get them prepared for school it does start at a young age and if we're able to kind of really connect and partner with families we can have a lot more success in closing the student achievement gap but then also having that partnership with parents really want makes them kind of understand the decisions behind our education system and once teachers and parents can connect that way we're able to succeed in all ways and i want to be able to do that grow that and foster that with our children and also the educators in our community i do believe in giving back um in the community that is why i you know i do the type of work that i do in my community i also try my very best to be that voice for those who are the unheard and a lot of times my mouth can get me in trouble but at the end of the day i know that i'm helping the person that needs help thank you anna werb i'd like to thank also the league of women voters for um hosting this event um and good evening voters and community members my name's anna werb and i've been in the district i moved here 13 years ago when my eldest daughter who is now 24 was going into the sixth grade and she's been through william byrne elementary metcalf junior high and burnsville high school and now i have two younger children who are currently enrolled in william burns virtual academy over the past year and a half i've been immersed into pto and i've learned a lot from that experience and it's opened my heart to just how a small pto can grow into a large pto and we can glean from the resources of just parents and teachers working together and grow our our family as a community within just our elementary school and that spirit had you know grown inside me to feel like i could do even more by running for school board i also am an over 22-year employee of a non-profit health carrier in the area and in working there i've learned a lot over the years of just how important racial equity and health equity is and learning about social determinants of health and education is a huge factor that plays a role later in life and and how later in life that can affect someone's health and getting an education is a number one so when i look around this community and all the the students that we have and the diversity i believe that what we have is unique and it's important and i want to see it thrive and i feel that it's in my heart and my duty to step in and bring together the community and see how we can work collaboratively to you know turn around some of the the you know negative that we've had and you know get everybody back to um where we where we can be and i know we can be as a community and as a district um and that's that's what's driven me to to um run for school board thank you thank you now it's time for the questions for the candidates as a reminder candidates will have two minutes to respond uh the first question will go first to eric miller here's the question what motivates you to want to be a school board member well as i mentioned um i'm acutely aware of what uh what it takes to be a school board member having served now for three and a half years um and i and my motivation has not changed when i like to tell a little story about when i was taking the very first class in my mba they had an introductory class that everybody was required to take and the professor was talking about you're about to begin this journey you're going to gain a lot of skills and uh you're going to learn a lot about running organizations and you're going to be high demand when you come out companies and organizations are going to be interested in in hiring you and he said you know and many of you that's going to mean you're going to get paid a lot of money you're going to go work at big companies but he said i want to remind you that nonprofit organizations need those same skill sets also they need those same attention they need those same inputs that just stuck in the back of my head you know of course at that point i set off and did my my schoolwork but when i got out i kind of looked around and i said there are things that i'd like to be able to help out with and i feel like i have the capability of doing that and i can either complain and go on social media and write notes and and rant and rave where i can roll up my sleeves and get involved and i decided to get involved and as others have mentioned that path for me took coming through pto i was also involved heavily with pto and being a pto president over the years and then ultimately decided to run for the school board so for me it's about service i mean i've served in non-profit leadership roles outside of the school district i've been a coach for youth sports and i and i believe that if we can serve we should do so we should serve the best of our abilities and in doing so i'm helping my community but for me for more the most important part is i'm teaching my children the value of service and then how important it is to help our community thank you saeed i really um so i've been thinking about this for a while um one of my mentors was a school board member a few years ago her name was sandy and she was actually one of the counselors at the high school when i attended there and years after that we somehow became neighbors and we reconnected and i just remember her just encouraging me um to always step up and and you know the fact that i went to social work um was just to give back um to the community and to also lend my voice to those who need it um so that is why i felt motivated this time around this year to really make that step and she was um one of the few people that i contacted first to let her know that i you know i decided to run for school board and i it's just the encouragement that i have received in this community whether it's from educators um whether it's from community members um family or friends um they i think they've seen it in me long before i seen it in myself and um so this was a good opportunity for me to kind of dive in and given the fact that i you know work in social work um i you know i have many experience with children and families um this is uh another good reason for me to be able to just um give my feedback my leadership and all the experience that i've gathered and put it towards my community and especially the education system which um could always improve in many ways um and i know my district and our i mean our district has um come a long way and is doing positive things and it's i think it's a great time to join this movement tony connor okay thank you what motivates me again is just the the love and interest of children and of all cultures and i feel especially in this district the children are a little bit under uh well not advocated for enough and so i see a need and working with them last year i also saw a need and i wanted to speak speak up i want to be an advocate for children as i have as a parent and also um as a foster parent and then also as a peer professional in the school system and as an educational assistant i've been advocating for children for years and i this is another way to continue to do that um i feel by working in the system all these years i really have a good a good focus on what teachers need and what they're going through and also the little lack of some of the needs that are not being met by the students i i believe overall dakota county is one of the better counties as far as um helping with students education but there's room for a lot of growth and i see that need and i want to continue to help advocate for children as i always have thank you and a word so um as i said i'm very much um aware of racial inequities and health inequities and that was a big focus of mine so and i'm very much for students and how we can improve the um landscape of our district for the students and you know that was my first motivation was um you know creating a more robust racial equity uh policy in our district that is you know truly where this started for me but you know there's many more things that you know i i can see that you know we can do better at i think we have done many many great things in our district and we have many things to be proud of but um i i think that there can always be a fresh set of ideas to come in and a new perspective that could maybe change things or the way things are looked at that could maybe change the course of how our the trajectory of our district and how it's going so but when you look at everything through a racial equity lens and a health equity lens there's there's no way you can not advance when those things are your focus because those are things that focus solely on the child and getting everything equally as you know every student should that it's the same across the board no matter where they are from or what their background it's the same so that is you know that's why that's what motivates me thank you what is motivated me is um we are well diverse district into closing the gap we have to have everybody on the table it doesn't matter how sympathetic you are and how i mean acknowledge your knowledge for another diverse a different community you have to work unless you walk somebody's shoes you don't understand their struggle and their need so every community needs a representation and because of that that's why i decide to run because we can't close the gap unless we have everybody on the table thank you now for question number two and uh this question will go first to sue saeed here it is what particular skills or experiences qualify you to serve as a school board member well thank you for asking the question um i think with the fact that i went to this district and i can see the changes that it has has been done over the years and now having my own kids go to this district i feel like with that experience i can help bridge that um that that communication that needs to happen again between our district and parents or our district and community members or our district admin and also our educators and i get to kind of experience both sides of how far our district has come and i want to be able to um you know bring that to the table i also think with the work that i do um whether it was working at non-profits or counties and now working at the state working with individuals children and families has always been my um my you know my work and that's what i'm good at and that's why i didn't go to i didn't go to social work to you know to be rich and make bucks everyone knows that when it comes to that field but it's a passion that i have um and this is just another thing that i kind of want to add on my bucket list to do um because i know that i can give back um in many ways um with that experience that i have but also learn from the people who have served and um and the board um and um you know the fact that we're with technology the way it is right now it's very easy to learn um other districts um in our nation and what they're doing different how can we kind of take those strategies those skills that they're implementing and bring it here um so i think i'm very open to research research is my thing i love reading books and i think i can bring all that information as a school board member eric miller well thank you again for uh the question as i have alluded to i have a certain amount of experience already and in addition to my education and my uh time on this board i have also completed the minnesota school board association's four levels of leadership training these are off site uh daily long seminars that will uh that are required of school board members and i i'd like to remind everybody that while we should focus on issues like the achievement gap and uh equity in our schools these are driving things that our everybody are very passionate about at the end of the day we also are running a large organization that's one of the largest employers in the city of burnsville it's a hundred and uh million dollar organization um has over 1300 employees and um i have an extensive background working in the large corporate environments but um and so you know that's important to remember um but uh you know at the uh at the end of it it's experience uh and i have an extensive amount of background and experience in in working with school board thank you and a warp i believe um i have a unique set of skills that comes from my background working in the um the healthcare industry um i bri i believe i bring that health equity lens in um that's very unique plus i work with large group employers and their health benefits so when it comes to negotiating health benefits i actually have a little bit of expertise in that area i also have taken different courses regarding leadership and communications and skills that require you know different things within a corporate organization that you know i've taken through my work as well as being on a diversity and inclusion work group um a solidarity work group and just multitudes of volunteer work that i've done through my um through my my work so um just with that skill set i i bring i think a lot of attributes that will be beneficial to being on a school board as well as already being a pto member which i truly enjoy i mean it's just great to you know be able to you know um have that interaction with the teachers and and get feedback from them and already kind of understand what their needs are hold on i have a 13 years experience working with the school district 191 working as a cultural liaison also bto member and volunteer i also work at 196 at the equity and inclusion team which is called a cfa which is the cultural family advocate so working with this loan of advocating a community of diverse community and also particularly the community who really need a position so i have a lot of experience in and i can bring a lot of thin and table to being a school board member tony connor thank you well besides my school's my skills working in the school system over the past almost 11 years i have also had a lot of training besides just my college training in ongoing courses in psychology and social work dealing with foster children working with counselors and advocating as i said before for them um as a parent and then also on the other side as someone who actually worked in the school system so i have years of experience on both sides of the issue of the school system as a parent so i understand the strides that parents may struggle with as far as in trying to maintain and get their children's needs met through the school system and i also see it on the school side where i feel we need to do a little better reaching out to families and try to understand um what are these distractions that are keeping children from reaching their optimal goals because there's a lot of um outside distractions that keep them from learning and that's what i'm interested in trying to conquer and my main focus is adding some electives additional electives that i'd like to these are some of my ideas that i'd like to introduce to the school board if elected that will help kids have tools to be able to use to better their education and be successful in learning and and get rid of some of these outside distractions i feel that's so important and that's what's going to help them succeed and that's what it's all about the third question will go first to tony connor what are the two or three straights that this district has that it could be proud of and why can you repeat that sure what are the two to three straight two or three strengths of which this district can be proud and why um i feel one of the strengths is they are really trying to there um there's room for growth of course but they are they do understand that there is a cultural diverse um that is a cultural gap and that the school system is so diverse and that we are not seeing the role models for this diversity so i i think the county are this district rather is very aware of that and i'm glad to know that they are so that is one of the strengths that they're just aware of this issue and the other strength is i see the teachers working very hard um and going out of their way and working extra hours in their day to meet the needs of the students um they just can't do it all i see we have a shortage i think i have some ideas of why and maybe what can counteract that but um those are things to be proud of these dedicated teachers and just being aware that there is a um cultural gap which we do we need to do a little bit better job of striving to meet anna we're well i'm very proud of the um the curriculum at the high school as far as readiness for after going on to college they've done great work in creating programs to prepare student high school students for after graduation and i i think we should be very proud of that um and it doesn't get enough kudos so that's one thing i think we can be very proud of and i'm also very proud of our diversity um and that should be you know one of our top you know strengths that we list because we're a real world we reflect a real world culture within our school district and then thirdly i think that our pathways program that we've developed now i think is a really strong program that um you know identifies strengths in children and allows them to focus on areas that they're good at and i think that's another strength of our curriculum right now too that they should be proud of putting they should be proud of them by those dedicated teachers who's willing to do like my kids they went to gideon ban and now they attended 196. so the kids from coming 191 to 196 196 is always saying they get the highest score of the act tesla or the ms the mca test so they should be proud of that and second they should be part of the trying to at least closing the gap even though there's gonna be a lot of work but still they're trying to close the gap eric miller well this is an excellent excellent question um because unfortunately i think we spend too much time dwelling on uh at least in public forums or the negatives in our in our district uh unfortunately of course i'm going to probably echo some themes that are already been brought up but number one is the diversity in our community we are made up of uh many um diverse but groups that come together uh in our school system and it's been a fantastic experience for our kids um and it teaches them uh what the real world is like out there outside of our um some of the very closed uh tighter communities that we sometimes live in um the second thing i would mention definitely is our teachers we have an extensive background of some of our most some of the most experienced teachers in in the south metro area work in our district and the longest tenured teachers working in our district in the and uh you know that just goes unnoticed unfortunately too often and lastly i would say that it's all about what we pour into our students in this district from the pathways program that was that anna mentioned where our kids are getting opportunities to look at things other than the traditional past that might lead them to college looking at culinary programs we have a top-notch culinary program at our high school small engine repair we run a um a credit union a fully functioning credit union at our high school we have nursing teaching programs and then across the district at all levels we put more money into the well-being and the the the development of our kids than any district around us and that we should be exceptionally proud of thank you i think this is a great question um i think eric did mention really well that we tend to kind of focus a lot on what can be done better what are what are the negativity that we are hearing or want to change but um there's a lot of strengths happening in our district especially um from when i went here to now what my girls are um attending number one thing for me i think the highest strength are educators um we have educators that really try their very best to connect with students and um when you have a 14 year old um going to a junior high and say mom you know my homie and that homie is a teacher and the fact that you know they can have these type of relationships and connected back to you know how they're how they act around their friends and have that relationship i think it is amazing to have that dynamic of relationship between a student and a teacher to um so they can you know work well together and be able to have that comfortable level to address each other in that fun way because i don't think i had that growing up i don't think i could call a teacher a homie but um the point is just the communication has gotten so much better and i think educators here are top-notch and i appreciate everything they do um the pathways um now that it's gonna be offered in each school that is you know the best thing that can happen to our district is each school having a pathway the gifted and talented program or gf gti that's being offered to many students during the summer that's another great thing and just our diamond head education center um giving community members parents and and students you know things to do um whether it's during the summer or after school joining chess things like that um our district is really taking off and we can um you know bounce on those things and and continue to foster it and grow it and and bring many ideas to the table so i'm pretty excited that we can continue these things the next question goes first to anna werb what are the two or three issues that this district must address and why um so i think first and foremost we do need to address the declining enrollment um i think we need to start bringing families back i mean that's one of the largest reasons we've had such a shortfall in our budget and we need to focus on what we can do to um to attract families back to 191. um the budget too is um second i think we you know we've had budget issues and um i think there's you know some things we can look at uniquely um to to try and address those issues um i'm like sue i like to research and find interesting and out-of-the-box ways to address things and education is not so much um out of the box type of thing to you know people like to think out of the box but you know um sometimes you know you have to shift your mindset to get to something um new and different even though it may not feel comfortable at first you might have to try something different and then third i do feel very strongly that we need a much more robust racial equity policy i think our students staff and all of 191 deserves that thank you yeah i agree with anna and um other than we have to have uh and we have to have somebody like everybody on the table and the most critical is why we having the decline in enrollment we have to acknowledge that there's a systemic issues without acknowledging this the system is due are we having a budget issues while we have a decline in enrollment we cannot fix that so first we have to acknowledge reflect our self why this has happened then we can find a solution for second is is the budget so we need to figure out why the budget is also okay so say oh my gosh i think we're going to hear budget all over but yeah budget budget budget i think um the one important thing that i think we should can do better is help parents um understand a little bit of how that really works right because we all know if the students do well then you know they're we can play around with the budget and we can um that test scores um kind of determine all these things and i think parents need to be educated about that so they can be involved in this process um it can't be oh you know the district knows all these things and and the educators know all these things but the parents also have to be in the loop especially the um parents that are in the more of the minority community um i need to understand a little bit better of how that education system works and what is this budget that we keep talking about so that is an important thing that we need to get better on um the second thing that i can think of is um making sure that we're able to find creative ways um like anna said like some things are going to be hard to start with but i think once we're able to break them all and bring in some creative ideas um then we're able to make a change and see a change especially with the student enrollment decline that we've been having i know a few years ago um there were surveys that were sent out to um to parrots that left the district so for me i'm like well why don't we take those surveys that i know they've been probably looked at but establish a small task um a small group that can look at these surveys and um and find out what are the highest things that parents and our families are moving away from the district and what can we do better what ideas um can we formulate and i think it's important to just kind of start there and build a task force to kind of look at that whether it's the volunteers from the community or not tony tyner okay thank you um one of the issues i feel that the district needs to address or the main issue i should say of course is student student students what the students need what's going to make them successful kind of echoing on what sue said don't mean to be redundant but that is true we we really need to hone in on um the students and get them educated as far as um what's distracting them get their test scores up so that they can do a better job make sure we have electives that help them with life skills and i guess i'm not as familiar as eric with all the things that they do offer in the high school because i know in another district i worked they weren't offering a lot of things that i took in high school that i thought were very fundamental to life not only in school but after school when you as you gre after you graduate i mean actual life skills and so i'm glad to hear that burnsville high is offering some of those um some of those electives that's awesome i still have a few more that i think kids need basic needs like i said emotional health life skills other life skills which i go into more detail and i'll tell you about that later um so that's my main thing this when the students are enticed into learning then there's they'll be more excited about it um hopefully they can get better test scores and that's going to automatically um hope you know bring people in because students will be excited and tell their friends and cousins oh i like my school because this is going on and i'm really doing well and every the teachers are helping and the educational assistants are helping and i'm really getting what i need that's what's important also we need to um also sorry piggybacking on what you said sue that the parents need to know that that is how the budget grows that's how we can use the funds and the budget by getting this test scores up for the students i need to understand how that works and then lastly um i just us yeah that's it just those main two things thank you eric miller thank you again uh and one of the uh unfortunate disadvantages of having the experience i've had in the district is being very aware of what issues face us and what's gone before us and what we can do in front of us but um one of the top things that i have talked about for years now is the enrollment issue we're acutely aware of that we uh yes uh see we ran the the um surveys we in fact did actually a pretty deep dive into them and had a report given to us and we have our communications department tasked with a team working on that but it continues to be an ongoing effort it's a pr issue um it's an issue of helping people understand what's happening with the pathways program through the high school and through down through what's happening with all of the resources the fact that again our children in our district get the best resources available to them i know for a fact that my kids um would get up get programming right now that they would not be able to get in neighboring districts around us but families just don't understand that and they need to be told that and over repeatedly and of course the budget is one a big challenge for us we've been at this now for a number of years um every year it gets tougher and tougher we've done a lot of creative uh ideas and and things early on to keep a away from cutting into the deeper parts and unfortunately we've gotten to those cuts um what i would say though in my for my candidacy is that i've been at that table now for a couple of rounds in a couple of years i know what it takes to make those hard decisions and unfortunately for all the creative ideas i'm sure everybody will bring to the table you're what you're going to end up doing is cutting a program that you are closely related to that you know somebody that's involved with that you have friends or kids that are involved with and it's just it's the unfortunate part of it of the the solution there uh is better uh finding ways to fix that but also better funding from the states that's that's where it starts at that's our main problem thank you the next question goes first ahmed if elected what would you hope would be the key accomplishments of the board during your years of service my goal is the if i get elected is to create a communication and relationship between the families and teachers not just the relationship but also lasting relationship also hiring more staff of color because like we know we're losing a lot of stuff of color over the years they run out the door we need to find out why so my goal is to hire staff of color and also create the relationship and a web or warp i'm sorry that's okay i would really like to develop a racial equity council of made up of community members parents teachers to keep us accountable for racial equity policies that we create in the district i also would like to um start looking at the community school model in our district and possibly have that model be presented as an option because i feel strongly that that is a model that may attract new families to our district because of the way that it treats the whole student um as uh you know their whole health as you know as opposed to just looking at them as being just the student it it's looking at making sure that their mind body everything is fun functioning so that they can learn properly it takes in you know different programs from the community and puts it inside the school i've been doing a lot of research on that model and i feel like it's something that we would benefit from greatly it especially closes achievement gaps so i would hope that you know that would be something i could bring forward as a board member as well as you know hopefully striking a balance on our budget somehow thank you eric miller eric miller ken thank you um i'm going to um you know turn this question up around a little bit because i i do feel that it's important that board members lead the district but it's also important to understand that board members are in a role of governance and not um supervisation or management management of the district and as such we set policy we set budget we hire the superintendent and then we delegate our authority down to the superintendent into the district into the uh to lead forward and accomplish the policies that we've set out um in that role we have to come together and agree on what the future of the district looks like and then speak as one voice and that i am some something i'm extremely proud of this board um what it was put in place by members before me it has carried through that have since left this board and our current uh arrangement of the board has continued this practice um we often get together we often share ideas and we often have disagreement and and um count point counterpoint conversations but at the end of the day um we're we're strong in our unified voice and to me that would be one of the best accomplishments at the end of my board term service whether it's now or in the future that i could say that i served on a board that worked to a mutual position and to to a collaborative solution uh to solve problems and um and get the work of the district done or and get the direction of the district set so that the administration can do the work of the district thank you saeed i think the key accomplishments for me during my first years of service with the board um definitely now um in the times that we are in we're all you know covet 19 overhaul right it's all covered 19 and i want to make sure that you know certain families and kids do not fall in the cracks right um that this whole online learning um hybrid works for all kids and is equitable um so that's one thing that i do want to um keep my focus on until we're done with this pandemic and making sure that um you know equity is there for all children um another thing is you know educators i think are the ones that know our children the best right and being able to give them the opportunity to discuss um ideas and decisions to collaborate with them and um you know have them part of this because um without their you know their ideas without them hearing our our proposals um we're kind of falling apart and i i hope to kind of engage that so we can all concentrate on the most important thing which is our children and the students and how far they will get in life um so i do want to make them make sure those things are heard at least in the first years of my service if i'm elected tony connor thanks the key accomplishments i would like to see my first year if i win the election and i'm on the school board as seat on the school board i would like to try to what's the word um i guess uh well i'm just going to say entice uh other role models of teachers i mean instill in other teachers and different districts um that we need role models that reflect the diversity of our community and i have ideas and and to share with the school board of maybe how we can entice those teachers to come into our district um i have several ideas on that so that's one of my accomplishments i would like to do and then of course to just continue to meet um to share some awesome ideas of electives to continue to meet the needs for these uh students a larger group of students that i feel um are falling through the cracks for different reasons and we just want to meet all their needs so we can get more students and we can stop this decline and actually get students and parents families um more intrigued to want to come into this district i believe we can be a real leader that's what i see as a forecast and that would be one of my key accomplishments i'd like to like to see happen okay the sixth question will go first to eric miller what do you believe are the most important characteristics of an effective school board and of an effective school board member certainly um so i started talking a little bit about this previously and i'll just expound on it an effective school board is one that respects each other's opinions um that works collaboratively and listens to each other's uh inputs and comes to a mutual consensus that can we can advance and move forward um this is so important because it it creates a unified voice of leadership in the district that uh then is um is communicated out to the uh to the administration and to the teachers they know that the direction is clear and that we have their back and and that we're supporting what the efforts that we're asking them to do an individual school board member i think it's important that they are um listening to the community listening to the stakeholders involved in all the conversations um that they do their research and you know frankly uh i think a lot of people misunderstand what's involved with being a school board member they'll tell you that it's a couple meetings a month it's frankly quite considerably more than that i have done the six seven hour meetings that go to midnight which is not unfortunately too unusual um the the early morning meetings before work to quickly get something done um the uh the the extensive additional meetings in between the off-site uh uh workshops and um training sessions and so it's it's a commitment it's a commitment to your community it's commitment to service but along the way you have to learn you know to listen and collaborate with your fellow board members thank you it's important to have the opening have the hard conversation also you have to listen the need of the community and and also value with your uh my your uh board members and their opinion value each other is uh well what are we saying if i come up and saying this is and this is what we need to do for this community we have to value each other's opinion thank you tony connor yes i think um one of the most important characteristics as eric said is to be able to get along with your fellow school board members um as far as um respecting their opinions listening to others and then like he said having one voice in the end it's not hard to do we just you know it but anyway i've had practice in this with other committees i've been on uh now sometimes it can get a little testy but it's it's um it's very doable especially when you have the same goal in mind as long as everyone has the same goal in mind um we should all be able to work together that's very important um i also feel that uh communication with parents is very important parents as a whole is in the community some parents are not as involved but others would be more involved if they understood what was going on and some of the challenges so i feel if um we were a little more open to what we're dealing with maybe parents would be more involved and they would talk to state representatives so that we could try to get some funds to better our schools that's very much needed and though i am a little um i am very naive about what all goes on because this is all very new to me i am so excited about learning i feel i'm very open-minded i feel it's a good characteristics to be open-minded and ready to learn listen and just be prepared to continue on this journey and learn as i go and a word um i'll just you know be reiterating a few things that have already been said but uh for sure collaboration i think is key and open-mindedness for sure i think you have to be innovative as a team and be willing to also have integrity as well as um being um empathetic to uh others in the district that you're you know gonna hear from as well as far as parents um teachers um but you know also be able to ask questions um and get you know get down to you know the the issues because um you have to have understanding i think and it's it's important to ask the right questions you know a lot of times you need to you know not everybody is on the same wavelength so you have to be able to you know make sure everybody is of the same understanding i mean i think that's sometimes how disagreements form because maybe you know somebody said something and the other person didn't understand the way they said it and you just have to get down to the understanding of what they meant so it's you know basically having the the know-how to be able to do that um and just be humble i think you have to be humble um you know this what we're doing is a service to our community and i you know i think it's a great service because um we're serving students so thank you most important characteristic to be an effective school board member for me is to understand my community members and the people that i'm serving um you know if i'm walking around and thinking that everyone lives the way i'm living nothing gets changed and nothing gets accomplished so i want to be able to um be that voice for many of the families who really are not um might not be able to communicate what they want from a school district or maybe they're not getting the same information that they their neighbor or a friend would get so making sure that i'm able to walk in someone else's shoes no matter the color of their skin the education background they have whatever the circumstance is being able to really listen but listen to not reply but really listen to take those ideas their concerns to the board and be their voice because our job is to be a service for them um and you know i think the we have uh you know amazing um candidates that are running for board and all their ideas as far as being innovative collaborating open-minded open-minded um all the things they mentioned are important but we do all need to be able to work for the common a common goal which is a prospering um community and that education that needs um that meets um you know what every child um wants to get out of this world um and that you know all the leaderships and all the ceos that are in our nation it starts with us it starts with our communities and to give every child that opportunity um to go to the boardroom as leaders and i think that's just something that we can all take with us that these kids are dependent on us the seventh question will go first to sue saeed and here it is as school districts during the pandemic have had to move to more technology-based learning how well do you think isd 191 has been in implementing distance learning what more should the district be doing to support technology infrastructure in schools homes and elsewhere in the community i must say our district is one of the few districts that has um prepared pretty well when it comes to the technology sector of it um and that's due to the last levy that was passed um i i think it was um the timing of all that and the hard work that went um towards getting technology for every child i'm so glad our district was able to put funding into that and get that applicable to every child because there are other districts in our state there are you know other states who are having that hard time of getting um tablets and and laptops to students as far as what could be done or um to support um the schools and homes i i definitely think that parents want to be involved those who can be involved want to be involved and we want to be able to give them the tools they need to succeed with their child right whether it's giving them their own training and how to navigate the internet how to navigate um the zoom meetings how to navigate seesaw and all the tools that they used in in um in our district um what i realized working when i was a workforce development specialist um i was teaching a lot of classes and one of the classes i was teaching was computer class like it was just a basic computer class and i noticed that a lot of people in our community um do not have the basic needs of how to use that computer right um so it starts with us in our district to make sure parents are able to help out if needed or if they want to um and then also supporting our teachers especially the online learning teachers they do have a lot of students in the class but we also need to kind of help out and give out be able to support them with staff that can help them in class and meet with those students that need the help eric miller thank you um yes uh as i said um i know this is a tough question and i know that uh there's a lot of people that are not um having the the experience that they expect from school um and that simply is because of the uh the dynamics we're forced into in in the unique environment having said that this district is doing a far better job at this than any district around us in any district uh very a lot of districts in the state for that matter and that primarily starts with thanking the you the voters for the levy that was passed a number of years ago the technology levy that gave us a frankly an unplanned for kickoff towards this because of course we did not predict this to be happening but it put those devices into the hands of our kids and allowed us to go to a one-to-one device rotation in march so that we could get out and get the kids online learning i know at the end of the school year was not advantageous it was not great um it was basically frankly um a stop gap measure to try to get through the end of the year but then our administration and our teachers primarily doubled down over the summer and they put together a plan that launched this fall with our hybrids and our virtual academy situations the learning environments that have been outstanding and amazing i understand that some of the classroom sizes in virtual academy are not what we expect um and that is not where we want to be and nor will it is where we will be in the long run it's because of uh shortage of availability of teachers having to move teachers around and staffing issues assignments of teachers in a district is one of the more difficult things you can do and and as people families make the jump back and forth we've had to rotate and adjust with that but i'm proud of what we're doing and of course we have more opportunities to improve upon that and we will do so we're listening we're observing our students come first and we're making absolutely sure in this district if they're getting taught but i think we're doing an excellent job and we're in fact planning on rolling virtual academy forward and a long-term model as a permanent part of this district thank you anna we're um i do agree we've we've done exceptional with um the changes that we've made since the spring um we've upped our game we've had some you know uh great things that have come out of what we learned from the things the challenges in the spring i can attest to that personally we had a device that wasn't working and we got it exchanged out for a new device within a day and all you know by just calling the technology hotline um i've even spoken directly with our technology director for the district um and she's amazing so you know i think we're we are doing a great job and you know i i will echo that you know there's going to be improvements as with anything brand new you're going to always have uh things that you're going to tweak along the way like when you roll out like a new operating system or anything that's new it's like you're gonna find little things as you go that you're gonna need to tweak and and uh perfect um because that's just part of the learning process um you know i i'm thinking about things like how can we how are we using like our um cultural liaisons right now to maybe reach out to the um students that may have challenges with devices and making sure that they are getting connected you know and those are the things i'm thinking about as well as teacher burnout i was reading some things in some labor union news about the amount of hours teachers are working right now doing this virtual learning so i think we need to learn like think about things long term as far as how we can help our teachers so they don't get into some burnout from all the hours they're putting in and having to do virtual learning and that should be addressed in the long run for any continuation of this this virtual and distance learning tony connor thank you yes i agree i think our we got sucker punched with this cobit 19 and i think the teachers the administration everybody rose um to this terrible um pandemic and they we real they really i mean like quickly did a excellent job of getting um um school plans for the kids in the spring when this first broke out and um getting their their um chromebooks working a lot of them were not working it was good with that they had to replace a lot of them they got them in the hands um of us well we had ours but they they they just they move so quickly i was just totally blown away and impressed that how well they came came up with a curriculum that of course was not perfect but like i said we got sucker punch but and they did a wonderful job i was really impressed and then um anna said over the summer they tweak things and learn from their mistakes and learn what will work better and just got together a really put together a really awesome program for the fall of course not perfect because this is not um the ideal way of teaching but it's pretty darn good and especially as eric said compared to other districts i mean we're doing an excellent job in that area and i'm really impressed with it and also very happy um again um not only is it working but but teachers are working extra hours and i'm just proud of them i hope they don't burn out from it because they do love and have a passion for it as the other educators the tutors and the educational assistants but um there's only so much you can do but i just i'm i'm just so proud of the advancement that they're making with the students and trying to really keep them engaged in learning um under these conditions and circumstances it's really hard on the kids but we're doing a really good job what an oven yeah the district is doing the best and like everybody said and um giving the devices for every kid also and have a technology available and also i have some friends who are 191 have a kid that's on 191 they get a daily phone calls zoom meeting with their kids student teachers were doing the phone calls they doing a zoom daily zoom they doing everything they can but there's always the we need improvement so those family working family single moms a family who has a language barrier there's a little we near improvement from that area thank you and now for the last question of the evening uh this question will go first to anna werb and here it is what responsibilities if any should school districts assume for dealing with such societal problems as poverty hunger emotional illness or drug abuse um i believe that they should have responsibility i mean this is where i feel the community school kind of plays a part because a lot of those services that are integrated into the school can address those needs when a child comes to school you don't know what their background i mean you you get a feel for what their background is but the background shouldn't matter that we should have those services available to address those needs so that they can learn without having to worry about where their next meal is going to come from if they're having you know stressful issues at home they should have all these services available to them that are given to us from our community that those resources are there because the student deserves to be able to learn in a healthy environment without having to have this any of those social determinant determinants of health interfere with their learning and as a community as a society we should be coming together to figure those problems out and that's you know how we do it by being a community and building those resources within the school and taking care of our children so that they can learn without barriers connor okay thank you mary um i believe in the grade schools the elementary schools um that teachers have to teachers and the peer professionals have to kind of pick up on the signs the signs of these type of things and advocate for the children because they are younger and they're not always so forthcoming you more so have to see the signs as opposed to them telling you i mean some will but and then as they get in middle school and high school that's i believe the job of the counselors and social workers i've noticed in some schools i've worked they don't work full time or anything they're not there every day but that's why they need role models that look like them that they can feel comfortable in talking to that understand they understand their plight understand the family composition understand the culture of what they're going through not that other and we can't all understand we're all humans but sometimes kids need that extra comfort as seeing a role model that they can go to and express their feelings so that we can try to counteract some of these things all it usually takes is communication between a social worker counselor the student or a para to talk to a parent and the child and get some of these problems solved i've seen it done i've been in it i've um i've experienced it over the years and it can be done so say this is a great question i mean we all agree that education does not happen if any of these societal problems are present in a home right so as educators and as community members um i think it's very important that we're able to pick up on these certain things that might bring um very education barriers and families um you know um i think that we kind of get caught up in oh you know we don't we're not in the inner city there's a suburbia kind of world but there are families who are struggling in suburbia world and we need to be able to um address that but also um making sure that the children's that do have these type of um you know societal problems at home are given that opportunity to address it with someone that they might be close with especially teachers get to hear a lot of that um but teachers already have so much on their plate right we want them to teach our children the curriculum and the important things for them to graduate and move on with life so i know with our current budget um we did really emphasize um the priority driven approach which was more social workers counselors and culturally azans and i think we need to continue that growth and also support those three committees to really work with our students and and dealing with some of these issues i believe in making school a hub where parents can reach out and get help on what they need at that time and we're able to give them what they need right there at the school rather than sending them to one location to another um more of like a one-stop shop i think we're capable of that there are some schools in our um in our country that does that stuff and it really works out really well um and i know being a social worker a lot of these things i've heard that are impacting families not education is not number one for families who are worrying about what to put on the table right or um have that emotional distress they go through so i really want to make sure we are looking at all those ideas and taking care of those issues yeah and we should not depend on the teachers because they will need to have not enough and they place so on those things we should be coming as a community we invite the community leaders faith leaders and come together and figure out how can we help other students i wish there was won't be any student who need worry about what i'm gonna eat tomorrow or what i'm gonna eat where i'm going when i go home i mean that break my heart but we are not that perfect but we have to come together as a community and figure out how can we help those kids those little ones are worried when they go home what i'm gonna have tomorrow for breakfast when i'm gonna have lunch or when i'm gonna have supper eric miller thank you by design this is a tough question and it has unfortunately has tough answers um the the primary responsibility of a school district is to educate the children but we can't do that if they're coming to school hungry if they're worried about what's happening in the home if they're uh if they're suffering from other outside uh distractions and and painful events in their lives and we recognize that we have for a long time in this school district as i mentioned earlier we put more priority and more resources into our students whether it is as mentioned culturally is on school psychologists emotional well-being of the children we're doing that already and we need to continue to do that we talked about budget cuts earlier um unfortunately um you know when we have reached a point in those conversations sometimes we have to look at what uh if we are reaching if we're back to that primary resource of teaching our educating our students i don't know of a single teacher that went to college to become a teacher with the idea of becoming a child psychologist they wanted to go and teach children and unfortunately they've had to step into those roles so it's a combination of resources as we have tried to pour them into the students in our community to be mindful of what that means for the the long-term viability of our district and sometimes we have to work through partnerships which we've fostered and grown in this district also partnerships with third-party organizations uh partnerships with our our county and state and and city organizations uh everybody realizes that we're in this together but at the end of the day those kids cannot learn and then that's our primary responsibility they can't learn if they're dealing with issues like poverty hunger emotional illness or drug abuse and um so those half it becomes something we have to assume and deal with thank you it's time for closing statements now each candidate will have two minutes to make a closing statement and we'll begin with eric miller well thank you again to the league of women voters for taking the time to put this on and to mary rice for moderating and thank you to you the voter for taking the time to learn a little bit more about this race and the candidates you get the opportunity to cast three votes by november third and i'm asking for one of those votes i'm asking because i believe my experience is important in navigating the waters ahead of us if i'm honored with the opportunity to return to service on this board i'm going to pledge to continue to listen and be a voice for all stakeholders i want to pledge to be transparent and open in my decisions and actions i pledge to always act in the best interests of our children even if that's not the easiest path i pledge to always act with integrity and honesty and i pledge to work effectively with my fellow board members by respecting the insight and finding consensus through compromise a director of school board has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the district's resources are used properly within budget and it's our job to set policy and let the superintendent and the teachers do their jobs we need experience financial leadership i'm also deeply concerned about the growing number of people that are moving out and ruling out of our district we need to be open about our change be honest about challenge and celebrate wins thank you for taking time to learn more about me if you like what you've heard then i'm asking for your vote by november third if you believe our district needs experienced leadership then i'm asking for your vote to learn more about me please visit miller191.org thank you and have a good evening thank you tony connor thank you mary i would just like to start off by saying i am very proud of our district also because i didn't i forgot to mention how they partner to help children as far as um if there's some economic need with food or other distractions um we have plenty of pantries that they've um um they partner with where families can go for help with that and assistance also with the chromebooks and partnering with comcast and getting hot spots in the home and wi-fi where children did not have it already i mean those are just excellent ways of how they really um you know stepped up the plate to um you know help our children again my idea are some electives curriculum to help kids that um will entice their learning and and just make them successful because this this new generation there's a lot going on that we're all having to process right now with this colbit so we must our old agenda to fit the changing needs of muslims and we as educators and also on the school board i'm sorry i still consider myself an educator but as a school board member i feel it's my responsibility to try to reach more students also as i would with a um as an educator and that is the main reason why i'm seeking assume the school board i'm very passionate about the issue of helping this generation of students succeed and to be better equipped to the best of their ability to do so since i am a person of color i feel that i can better advocate for this growing population of students in our district for pacific ideas on this curriculum suggestions i have to share with the school board if i'm elected are outlined in my campaign brochure available upon request from my website at www.connorcares.com thank you so much i appreciate your time and being with us tonight i appreciate the women's league of voters for putting on this um forum for us and have a good evening appreciate your thank you anna werb thank you again to the league of women voters for hosting this thank you mary for moderating um i would like to ask for your vote on november 3rd because i feel i have the passion and the heart to create a more equitable um and healthy health policies for our children and students and staff in district 191 i've already been out there advocating for our district for the past couple of years i'm a district ambassador i've already been working with the city i've spoken with mayor couts about the racial equity plan for our city i'm very much invested in this community and our ethnicity and diversity and i want to see our community grow in our district grow i know that if we work together as a community as parents and partners that we can see great things happen in this district as being a member of the pto and getting to know the teachers and the staff at william byrne elementary school i've seen what it's like to grow from a pto of three people to 30 people and that was just from finding resources with just in our own small community here where my kids go to school and i can only imagine what we could do if we expanded to the entire district what we could accomplish together because together we are one we are 191. so i ask that if you will just vote for me on november 3rd and thank you thank you hold on i'm asking your vote in november because i believe every child should receive a quality education like my kids had so and and also i believe because we are well diverted diverse community and district we shall have a representation for everybody thank you susae well thank you for having us here on lwv um i really do appreciate the forum and being able to speak with voters because i know there are many things in in households right now many um troubles in households and because of the pandemic and i want to let you know that i understand what you're going through and um and i want to be able to amplify any voice that could help you meet um the goals and self-sufficiency that you want for your child i believe and that it takes that village to raise a child and if we don't work together um you know we're gonna not not you know help any of our children and we need to be able to um have those tough conversations ask those hard questions um and without you know that criticism um and and being able to um come up with ideas that work for all of us because again this is not going to work without you know all of our hands and ideas and in the pot i think there's many um fear in in some families when it comes to any type of change in our community but i hope that you can see me as an example of how far our community has come and my knowledge and my openness and my empathy and everything that i am today is mostly because of this district mostly because of the great people that i met through this community and um as long as we are reaching out to the next neighbor and or meeting that new parent that's new to the school or that new student um or you know i think that we can really um break a lot of bridges that way um when i you know i always tell my daughters if you see a new student i need you to be able to reach out to them and say hello and invite them to sit by you or hang out with you sometime outside so we as parents need to also take that lead and learn from our children and take the lead for them and change our ways um to have a better community thank you and thank you candidates for your time your dedication and your thoughtful answers to the questions we asked you tonight thank you to the viewers for your interest and for having submitted questions thank you to burnsville community television for providing technical expertise the video of tonight's event will be shown on the local access channels comcast channels 859 hd 16 sd bc tv facebook bc tv online and on roku devices using the free peg tv app just search for burnsville thank you to all the volunteers who work to make this form happen today information on voting in dakota county can be found at lwvdakotacounty.org and mnvotes.org that's lwvdakotacounty.org and min votes mnvotes.org information on candidates can be found at vote411.org remember to vote on tuesday november 3rd or anytime from now through november 2nd by absentee ballot good night everyone