Mandie Peels Responses to BISD Forum Questions

1. Integrity is a way of life. Provide specific examples of how you have

lived with integrity in your professional and private life.

My parents always taught me, honesty is the best policy. Growing up,
as any child does, I would tell white lies; however, God always made sure
that the truth was revealed with my lie always being discovered. I learned
at a young age that indeed, honesty is the best policy.
In all that I do I am honest, real and genuine. In my professional life I
always take responsibility when I make a mistake. I speak positively about
everyone around me and if I have a problem with someone, I go to them
rather than discuss with someone else.
In my private life I am the same person. Honest, loving with nothing to
hide.

2. What do you plan to do to prevent the same problems from

reoccurring within BISD and the School Board?

I plan to be transparent with our community and work to create an

atmosphere that promotes positive communication where solutions can
be discussed respectfully and decided with the best interest of the
children at heart. I also plan on being very diligent with all information
presented to me. I will ask questions. I will research. I will communicate
with our community. I will think outside the box so we can grow our district
into a successful and exemplary district.

3. As a student who has experienced and seen a tragic flaw with

education at my high school, how will you make sure behavior issues, in
schools, are not interfering with academic studies for all students?

I will ask for my fellow board of trustees to make discipline a top priority for
our superintendent and district. I personally feel that it is our job to provide
a safe, consistent and positive environment for our students to learn. We
must require consistent, district-wide discipline strategies that are not only
punitive but also positive and restorative. We must take these
opportunities to better understand our students home environment and
teach our students coping skills, critical thinking skills, constructive
communication skills and recognition of the opportunity and also
consequences of life choices.

5. What qualifies you to make policy decisions about education?

From a business perspective, I will rely on my experience running a small
business in Beaumont to ensure our policy adopts proper controls and
auditing functions to maintain compliance with state and federal
regulations and transparency.

From a community perspective, I have the ability to set aside my personal

opinion and listen to both sides of an issue to understand where others are
coming from. I will utilize this skill to support local policy made in the best
interest of all the students of Beaumont.

6 . How will you make the district better? What changes will you make?

As a trustee, I will always promote positive and transparent

communication. I will work in understanding the needs of our individual
schools so that we can direct the superintendent to the greatest, most
urgent needs. I will focus on the performance of our schools with an
emphasis in literacy. The education we provide our children must continue
to improve until every student feels confident in his or her ability to
graduate work-force or college ready.

8. BISD doesnt have enough bilingual staff, what would you do to attract
more qualified bilingual personnel?

It is hard to recruit and maintain bilingual teachers and staff in our district.
Providing incentive stipends is one way but I feel we need to think outside
the box to fill this urgent need. We could consider hiring community
members who are fluent in both Spanish and English to assist English-
speaking teachers in the classrooms.

9. What are your thoughts on all the drug and alcohol abuse in our kids?

Drug and alcohol abuse ruin lives. Educating our youth about the life-long
effects of those choices can help create children who critically think
through their choices and hopefully prevent this type of abuse.
Constant feedback and real-life stories help bring home the detrimental
effects of this type of lifestyle. Its a subject we must continually talk about
and address with strict consequences (and rehabilitation) to further deter
poor choices in our youth.

10. Do you support ESL and bilingual education?

Yes.
11. How would you help BISD students if you win, specifically those with
special needs?

I intend to task our superintendent to ensure our special education

department has qualified leadership and staff, ensure the department has
proper resources and protocols, and evaluate our special needs students
yearly evaluations and IEP practices. Furthermore, as a mother of students
with special needs, I believe it is important the special education
department and parents maintain open lines of communication with
each other to develop a mutually supportive relationship for the success
of each child.

12. What is your opinion or position on limiting the number of students per
classroom? Teacher/Student ratio

Currently, BISDs average class size is larger than the state average in
every grade level. However, I fully recognize that our district cannot
reduce the student to teacher ratio until it successfully recruits and retains
an effective teacher in every classroom. This must be our first priority.

14. What is the biggest change you want to make if you are elected?

No one board member has the authority to make change without the
support of a majority of the board. I will work with all trustees to foster a
supportive and respectful environment for our board to function efficiently
and successfully.

Personally, literacy, teacher recruitment and retention, student

performance and fiscal responsibility are all areas that I will prioritize.

15. What is your position on transgender bathrooms?

All children must feel safe and comfortable when attending school. All
decisions regarding a students sexuality should be made on a case-by-
case basis with open communication among the parent, student, and
campus administration. We must respect each students individual rights
and the safety of all students in accordance with state and federal law.

16. Sitting on the board, what is your stance on protecting both students
and parents from ICE entering school and terrorizing our undocumented
community?

Currently, Federal law prohibits any school district from inquiring about a
student or parents immigration status. Our district must comply with this
law. Moreover, I personally feel that our schools must be a safe
environment for all children. Allowing ICE to conduct investigations will
remove the feeling of safety and will be emotionally detrimental to all
students.

17. As a student who has had more than 5 teachers in a single subject
during 1 semester, I would like to know how you will assure every
classroom is receiving adequate education with excelling teachers.

As a board member, I would stress the importance of making recruitment

and retention of teachers the superintendents top priority. I am also
interested in exploring creative solutions to providing highly qualified
teachers in each classroom, including but not limited to, distance learning
education provided by Education Service Centers and partnering with
Universities across the state to recruit new graduates, much like the Teach
for America program.

19. It is believed by some that having paid parent coordinators on high

economic disadvantages campuses helps to get parents involved, if there
is merit to this thinking, if elected will you address this matter?

It is my understanding that most BISD campuses that qualify as Title I

employ a parent facilitator. If elected, I believe the district should inquire
into the parent facilitators job duties, and how we can make the services
and programs the facilitator oversees more impactful for the community.
In addition, I support growing our Parent Teacher Association involvement
district wide, and encourage the successful PTA organizations to support
newly formed PTAs or adopt campuses without a PTA.

20. If elected will you work on a plan to attract and retain highly qualified
teachers in high economically disadvantages schools?

Yes. It is imperative that we attract and maintain qualified teachers

across our district. We need to create a working environment that
supports teachers and their career development so we can hire the
excellent teachers that already live in Beaumont, as well as attract
qualified teachers that live in neighboring communities to work in our
district. I also support further implementing incentive pay to sustain and
attract qualified teachers in hard to fill campuses and positions.

21. How close are the school trustees to actually handling the money, do
they write checks and pay the bills?
No, trustees do not handle money or write checks for the district. The
board of trustees is tasked with adopting an annual budget for the district.
It is the superintendents responsibility to ensure compliance with the
budget approved by the board. While we as trustees do not handle the
day-to-day finances of the district, it is imperative each trustee is diligent in
ensuring financial controls and compliance. We must also require
continued transparency from the superintendent.

22. What is the difference in the role of the trustee and that of the
superintendent?

The board of trustees establishes policy for the governance of the school
district and adopts a vision statement and comprehensive goals for the
district. It is the superintendents responsibility to create the action plans to
bring about these goals and remain in compliance with policy. Essentially,
the superintendent is responsible for handling the day-to-day operations
based on the priorities set by the board. It is then the boards responsibility
to evaluate the superintendent based on his or her progress towards the
goals.

23. What ideas do you have of how to make sure that all schools are
equitable not equal?

I feel the superintendent and the board needs to be actively involved in

understanding and physically seeing the needs, personality and
challenges of each and every school in our district. Like my five children,
every school is unique and has different challenges and opportunities.
Only then can we successfully develop goals for the superintendent and
the district.

24. For those of you with children and grandchildren here in Beaumont,
What school/schools do your children currently attend?

My children are in public, private and home school because each of my

children has different needs that the varied learning environments
provide. My son is at Taylor Career Center and Westbrook High School, my
daughter is at Legacy and homeschooled for certain subjects and my
other school-aged daughter is at All Saints.

I feel the best person to serve on our board is someone who is concerned
for every child in our district BISD is the only educational avenue for the
majority of our children in this city. It is important that we strengthen our
teachers and public school system so that we can provide the best
educational opportunity for every single child. I am committed to working
hard for every child, teacher and school in our city.