Becky Harlan (Region II)

About the Candidate

Tell us about you:   (Such as your family, children, are they CASD graduates etc.)

Married for 23 years. Two children a son who is 13 and daughter who is 12. We also have a variety of pets

Tell us about what you do for a living:

Special Educational Advocate with The Arc of Chester County

Public Service:

Served as VP on Friendships PTO

Campaign Website: None

Campaign Facebook Page: None

What motivated you to run for the school board? 
 

Both of my children. My daughter is in 5th grade at Reeceville and she is reading on a 1st grade level and she has been there for the past three years. The special education department is very flawed and special education is my passion. I want to be the voice for the families that are able to talk or understand how the special education works. Our son had some issues happening at school and they never did anything to help him. This can’t continue.

What skills or experiences do you have that makes you different from the current board members or those running?

My experience is Special Ed. My skill is being a team player, listening to everyone’s opinion and understanding even if there opinion doesn’t line up with mine. I am a mom of two children with special needs I get it and I am relatable. When I tell parents in the community that I understand, I truly understand.

Do you primarily see yourself as a representative of the community or as a representative of the school system?

Community ✔      |       School System

Please Explain:  I have lived in this district all of my life, I am a proud graduate of CASD. The community is a big part of me. A school district is only as strong as their community. We need to bring the community back to the school system. We need to listen to the community and hear what their concerns are, and let them know we hear them.

What type of opportunities/strengths do you feel CASD has and how do we accomplish them?

CASD can become a school that other schools could model. We should set up focus groups with the community and talk with them and listen to what they would like to see at the school. Are we going to be able to address everything at one time, no but that is when we will need to prioritize these needs. We need to empower our parents and our community to help us with this. There are plenty of resources in Chester County that we need to take full advantage of. I think one of the first items that needs to be addressed is hiring a grant writer so we can take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.

What is the most pressing issues facing the CASD and how would you address them when you are on the school board?

For me the most pressing issue we face is our Special Education department and programming is flawed. This also plays into our discipline issues. A lot of the children who we are seeing repeatedly in the office or getting suspended probably have an IEP and we need to look at why their IEP isn’t being implemented correctly. I feel if we could have more mental health staff this would help with the discipline issue as well as meeting our students where they are when it comes to their mental health. Every behavior is a way of communication for our students. We need to understand what is going on so that we can make sure we are supporting them the best way. We need to bring back our Emotional Support classrooms, our Autistic Support classroom. We need to stop putting all the students together. In our ES room we need to make sure that we have staff trained in understanding trauma, and understanding emotional needs of students. This isn’t something that is going to happen overnight, we need to work through this.

Please share your ideas on the challenge of balancing the budget, while not cutting too many programs or jobs?

This is where we need to think outside the box. Let’s look at our resources that we have. We should go line by line to see what we can change, use in house, or looking at things that we might not really need. I think this is going to be an ongoing process, and I feel hiring a grant writer could really help. I also think we really need to investigate waiving all the fees that we waive. Right now, the district can’t continue to do this.

The hiring and retaining of highly qualified teachers and administrators has become more and more challenging. How would you help CASD address this issue?  

We need to let the teachers know that we hear them, and we are working towards changing the things that we can at this moment. If teachers and staff feel supported and heard, then they are going to want to stay. It is going to be rough before it gets better, but we need to respect the teachers and listen to them. They are the ones who are in the trenches every day. They know what they need and what they don’t. I also think that board members need to try and go into as many classrooms and schools as they can to get a true understanding of what is going on and how we can help.

What are your thoughts on the current discipline problem and what will you do to address it?

I feel I answered this question in my above answer. I alone cannot fix the problem. We must work together to fix this problem. I don’t feel it is one issue, it is a multitude of problems and by addressing special ed, I feel will be the beginning of fixing the discipline issue. I also feel that we need to talk to the students to understand what is going on in their building, why are they getting in trouble, what would motivate them to do what is expected of them.

What are some of your ideas for improving school safety and significantly reducing bullying in our schools?

Bullying: seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce.

Teasing: make fun of or attempt to provoke in a playful way.

I think we need to educate the community, teachers, and students on the difference. Sometimes I feel parents and students jump to bullying right away when really it was teasing. Teasing happens all the time in school and even in the adult world. We need to make sure that we all understand the difference especially children. We also must understand their perception and help them to understand the difference. Children learn from what they are exposed too, and if they are seeing this at home, they learn this. We need to have more community seminars to help our parents with raising their children. We must look at our community and meet them where they are. We have a lot of children being raised by grandparents who are tired, they already did this they don’t want to do it again. We need to help them. I am not sure what this will look like, but I am willing to try.

If a parent comes to you with a particular school issue, how do you see your role as school board member to resolve that issue?

I would listen to the parent, and I would bring it to the school board and discuss what the issue is and how we can resolve the issue. We may not be able to resolve all issues, but we can certainly try.

How transparent do you feel the district is now?

⭐☆☆☆☆

Looking forward, what are your views on transparency and what kinds of school-district information should be made public? (Excluding information that pertains to student records and the particulars of personnel records that would constitute an invasion of privacy.)

I feel the district isn’t transparent at all, and this is something that if I am elected will fight to change. We need to be more transparent if we want the community to come to board meetings and talk and believe that we want a change. 

In my opinion everything that can should be made public. We owe this to our community. They need to understand and see where their tax dollars are go too.

Are you committed to a yearly survey of families, students, graduates, community residents, faculty and staff about what they see as major strengths and shortcomings of the district and its schools?  

Are you committed to yearly surveys?   ✔

Are you committed to publicly sharing the results? ✔

Why or why not?  I am committed to working with the community and the district to come together and brainstorm ideas for a yearly survey. I am not committed to just the community doing a survey on their own and then presenting it to the board, I feel this will further divide us a community. We want to work together so we need to work together. As long as it is done in this manner I have no problems sharing the results.

Have a question for the candidate?  

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