Jill Santiago (Region I)

About the Candidate              

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

I have been married for 40 years to my husband Harry (US Navy RET.). We have 7 children both biological and adopted ages 39-20. Four of my children are CASD graduates and our family bleeds red and black. I am very proud that we are a transracially diverse family which reflects our community. Our family has lived in Chester County for over 26 years. Living in a culturally diverse area such as Coatesville has been a blessing and provided us with amazing opportunities.

As the parent of children with multiple challenges living in a community where folks understand and embrace the importance of meeting families where they are and where cultural diversity is valued, has provided our children with unique opportunities, experiences, and access to resources that have helped them grow and achieve their goals for success.

Tell us about what you do for a living:

In the past my professional roles/jobs include: Family Advocate Lead Coordinator Chester County (Mental Health Partnership), Retail store management (Manager), Substitute teacher (K-12 public school), Communications and Social Marketing Coordinator (PA Care Partnership/System of Care), Evaluator on the Youth and Family Training Institute evaluation team, Training and Education Coordinator (PA Families Inc.), and Director of Summer Camp and Childcare, Family Group Conferencing Facilitator.

Currently I am the Family Peer Support Specialist Program Coordinator at the Youth and Family Training Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC, PA Care Partnership at the PA Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. I am creating a program, building, and leading the training of a unique workforce of Professional Family Peer Support Specialists (FPSS) by teaching them a set of core competencies to use in their work.

(A FPSS is a person with lived experience who is or has been the primary caregiver of a child, youth, or young adult with mental, behavioral health or co-occurring challenges who walk with, mentor, empower, build skills, and coach caregivers or parents in their ability to be their family’s best advocate and support. Families mentoring families by teaching the skills and confidence for families to support their youth in their journey of navigating complexed children’s systems and services while building in natural supports.) 

Public Service: 

Chair of the Youth and Family Institute Advisory Team founding member and staff support ,PA State Leadership and Management Team (Department of Human Services), PA Evaluation Advisory Board and Social Marketing Advisory Board, Chair of the Chester County Family Partnership, PTA Officer, Community Youth baseball and soccer coach, Founding member of the Chester County System of Care Advisory and Facilitation/Implementation Committees/board, Creator of the Kennett Consolidated School District High School PTA Officer in several schools, Red Cross (Family of the Year), Orange County Public Schools Volunteer Coordinator. Coatesville and CASD committees such as: Comprehensive Planning, Strategic Planning, Specific planning for Special Education, Parent and Community Liaison Committee, Special Education Surrogate, Family Advocacy, and Citizens Who S.E.E., CASD Football and Wrestling Boosters are a few.

Campaign Website: None

Campaign Facebook Page: Friends For Jill Santiago

What motivated you to run for the school board?

My adult life has been dedicated to the service of special education, mental and behavioral health advocacy and systems change. My motivation to run comes from the firm belief in the importance of an equal and equitable educational opportunity for ALL students regardless of their challenges or abilities. As a district we need to continue to build on our strengths while being solution based on the areas where we need to improve.

Special Education, mental and behavioral health are areas in which we need to improve to give the children and youth an equitable learning experience and provide opportunities for success. By doing so, this also builds a culture of acceptance, nurture, success, and safety for all students. I bring a different skill set to the Board of Directors that is needed to increase the success of the Special Education Department. My goals for Special Education come from a practice level, using data, meaningful and appropriate service and supports, as well as, the business and financial aspects that drive the ability to provide programming that is individual to all students.

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

I have over 30 years of extensive training and professional job experience in special education, mental and behavioral health, as well as, relationship building, communications, marketing, planning, finding solutions for problems, business management and coordination, facilitation, training, and board and committee leadership. 

MY EDUCATION -  Family Peer Support Specialist Credentialed Trainer, 30+ years of extensive training in Special Education, Mental and Behavioral Health, Youth Mental Health Certified and multiple Leadership and Communication trainings, including from the Georgetown University in 2018 and 2019.

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

Community  ✔     |       School System  

Please Explain:  

As a School Board Director, I see myself as both. I am a representative of my region and community. My PRIMARY role is that of a representative of my community it is imperative to be open, transparent, honest and listen to what the members feel are strengths, concerns. My goal is to build a culture of community engagement and true voice. Our community is blessed with many, many folks that have talents, experience, and abilities to help inform and build CASD into a district that others would like to replicate. We need use/engage all our collective voices and skills!  As a representative of CASD it is my job to bring professionalism to my role. To “shout out” our strengths and all the wonderful opportunities within the district. To be strength based in my approach to solutions and ideas. Work in a collaboration with the administrators, teachers and staff. Listening, hearing their concerns, using their many talents, to build a culture where folks want to work and spend their entire career.  As a representative of both the community and school system it is my pleasure to bring leadership, accountability and transparency to both roles.

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

We have strengths in the diversity of our students and community. As I stated above one of the opportunities we have is to bring in the expertise in the Coatesville area to work alongside the district in, decision making, planning, and implementation in all areas of needs (Financial, Operations, Curriculum, Special Education, and Technology.) We can reduce costs by using a collective and collaborative approach to reaching goals. We need to optimize the use of grants, pilot programs and free technical assistance to better enhance the programming while reducing costs.

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

I believe there are several pressing issues or priorities, financial (including taxes), special education implementation including: gifted, mental and behavioral health, a culture in which the staff do not feel support and valued that causes a “revolving door” of staff (which impacts us financially in training and re-training and student and family engagement), and the inability to keep families in the district which increases the drain on the district financially.

I do not believe that the board can effectively address them without some internal and external changes.

• We need to look at the direction the district is going by doing a root cause analyses of all programming and services.
• We need to address the concerns of the staff and work towards solutions that create a welcoming, professional culture by looking at the “why” in their concerns. I believe the staff should have the opportunity to help come up with the solutions and plan that they feel fits them. A plan doesn’t work without the input and buy in from the participants.
• We need to re-design the special education department, programming, services and supports by providing for the needs of ALL the students
• We need sub committees comprised of community, parents, and professionals to brainstorm and plan using their expertise in areas of finance, marketing (vs paying a marking company), special education, gifted education, community engagement (not just involvement), technology and grant writing. What does the community, students, staff, teachers, administrators, parents feel they need or want? What do they feel are our strengths and concerns? I want to be transparent, let’s ask and share.
• I want to be completely transparent in where every penny the district spends is going, line by line.

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

Answered Above and Below

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 address the staff cultural issues first. FIRST, let’s ask them in an honest way what they feel needs to change.

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

We need to increase the supports and services for these students. Implementation to the fidelity of the models the district is using for inclusion, behavioral supports (PBIS) and restorative practices are critical. We need to be collecting honest and transparent data to drive the programming.

Creating school based mental and behavioral supports using a holistic approach is necessary to the success in decreasing discipline issues. Training teachers extensively in all aspects of what is needed in our district, for our population in trauma informed care, suicide prevention, the effects of poverty, and equity. Community/family engagement by providing educational opportunities to share/train what each of these processes look like in practice when there is fidelity to the model

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

Addressing the previous issues above will help in these areas. It is all intertwined together.

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?

My role is to listen, hear and address the issue in a transparent fashion immediately.

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.)

As I have stated above we need to be as completely transparent as the law allows the district to be. Communication and relationship building with honesty are the key.

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 believe we should disseminate fully transparent surveys twice a year. Let’s not wait until the end of the year to address the needs, strengths, and concerns of families, staff, faculty, and the community. Absolutely, not only should they be shared they should be part of the process in establishing what needs to be asked.

Have a question for the candidate?  

 To ask your question, enter your comment (in this blog)  below in the “Post a Comment” section.  We will work diligently to get a response.