Moffit (left) vows to continue focus on students with special needs, behavioral plan. Reyes says the district needs to make schools safer, improve achievement gap.
Madison’s seven-member school board has two seats up for election this year, but only one of the incumbents will face a challenger in the April 3 election. Anna Moffit, the board’s current vice president, will face Gloria Reyes, deputy mayor of the city of Madison.
Both women have a slew of experience, which they say has prepared them to excel in the role. Moffit has spent the last 35 years immersed in education as a teacher, a parent-peer specialist, and as a mom and advocate for a child with a significant disability. Reyes grew up in Madison, graduating from East High School, worked for the Wisconsin Public Defender’s Office, spent 12 years in law enforcement and now oversees education, public safety and public health as deputy mayor.
While on the board, Moffit has advocated for children with special needs — pushing the board to assess the district’s progress in its updated approach to discipline.
“We still have a lot of work to do with the [Behavior Education Plan],” says Moffit. “I feel like it was a move in the right direction but I don’t believe it was implemented with fidelity and the foundation it needed to be successful. So a lot of my work on the board has been bringing us back to talking about the [behavioral plan] before we move on to other things.”
While Reyes recognizes that special education is important, she says the current board is too focused on it.
“We need somebody who brings a broad perspective, who’s going to be the voice of all students and all teachers,” says Reyes. “We have a strong focus on special education on the board right now which I think is really important.... But I think we have to expand our commitment to serving all of our children and that’s why I’m running.”
Mary Burke, who has served on the board since 2012, is also up for re-election, but she is running unopposed.
Reyes and Moffit differ on what they see as the biggest challenges facing Madison schools. Reyes identifies the achievement gap and safety; Moffit highlights the lack of state funding and increasing behavioral and mental health needs.
Reyes points to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead as evidence that public safety is of paramount concern. She lists bullying, violence against teachers and police calls for services in schools as problems.
“I bring a high focus on public safety and security issues within our schools and on the board I think it’s really needed at this point in time,” Reyes says.
Safety and security also relate to the achievement gap, Reyes says. “When I hear criminal justice professionals saying that every young student we see coming into our criminal justice system is designated as special education ... it’s something we have to examine,” Reyes says. “What are we implementing within our programs to ensure that we are engaging them and wrapping ourselves around them in a way in which we can prevent them from going into the criminal justice system or causing crime in our communities?”
Aside from looking into special education designation and its disproportionate impact on students of color, Reyes thinks smaller classroom sizes, letting teachers be more creative with their curriculum, and creating strong community partnerships would help address Madison’s achievement gap.
For Moffit, the biggest issue facing the school district is a lack of financial resources. She notes Gov. Scott Walker’s cuts to education along with the creation of the Office of Educational Opportunity, a state agency with the authority to bypass school boards to approve independent charter schools. She adds that the state expanded a program for voucher schools, further depleting funding for public schools.
“I think that will continue to be a real big challenge that coincides with growing needs within our school community,” Moffit says.
The growing financial strain, Moffit says, is being driven in part by an increase in behavioral and mental health needs within Madison’s student body.
She notes the moves by federal lawmakers to cut healthcare, housing and food assistance. “So I think we’ll continue to see more students experiencing trauma, homelessness, mental health, food insecurity housing insecurity, inaccessible health care,” Moffit says. “It’s really going to force the school district to not operate in a silo but reach out to our community partners and other governmental bodies to fill those gaps.”
