In Portage, as in Kalamazoo, the race for some seats on the Board of Education is competitive this year.
Five candidates are on the November fourth ballot. One has no opponent because she’s running for a partial term. That leaves three full-term seats and four candidates who hope to fill them.
Two of this year’s candidates for Portage School Board are incumbents. One of them, Randy Van Antwerp, is serving his first term. He’s also the Board’s current president.
“This is my opportunity to give back to the community. And I enjoy the work, and it’s great being a champion for kids in a great district like Portage,” he says.
Joanne Willson is also serving her first term on the board. She says she works to keep up with “current educational policy.”
“Even though you’re a publicly elected official it is a volunteer effort to stay current and connected with the stakeholders of Portage Public Schools,” she says.
Kevin Hoffer is one of two newcomers who hopes to be elected to the board. If elected, he says he would draw on his experience as a current parent of Portage Public Schools students.
“You get a different insight of what’s going on and what changes could be made or changes need to be made or different things that are happening in the district that somebody who doesn’t actually have kids in school doesn’t hear,” he says.
Celeste Shelton-Harris is a retired Portage teacher and former assistant principal of two schools in the district. She says she’s running to “stay involved” in Portage education.
“I’ve had a wide range of experiences. I’ve worked with so many people regarding collaborative efforts toward student achievement. I would like to continue that,” she says.
The district is a few years into a study on whether and how it should update its buildings and sports facilities. One proposal would group each middle school together with a high school. That’s already the case for two of the district’s middle schools, North and Central; but not for West Middle School.
Shelton-Harris says pairing allows schools to share resources – and to offer advanced classes to students.
“I’ve been in situations where students are very strong in a language, perhaps French. And they’ve gone to the high school and taken classes at the high school in French. That’s a huge advantage,” she says.
Willson agrees that grouping the schools would offer middle school students academic and athletic opportunities. And she says it’s important for the district to consider the state of its buildings in general.
“We know that buildings do not educate students. Our teachers do and their first source of learning is of course their parents. However, to keep our market share, to keep our classes at an equitable size for learning, facilities is a draw,” she says.
Van Antwerp says he thinks it would make “economic sense” to pair each middle school with a high school, but he says he’ll defer to the community’s wishes. And he says some facilities need to be updated – or replaced – sooner rather than later.
“Our pools are over 40 years old, our stadiums even older than that - be very difficult to rehabilitate those pools, very difficult to rehabilitate the stadium and make it compliant with ADA restrictions so those are some areas that really need some attention,” he says.
Hoffer says he’d rather not see West Middle School close. And he says Portage middle schools already offer advanced classes. But he adds that he’s open to community opinion.
“If it means that we can do more things for the students because we now have additional teachers that can split between other buildings or whatever it may be, obviously we’re going to do what’s best for the student,” he says.
The candidates also discussed what the school board should do to address the performance gap between poorer and wealthier students.
Willson says the district has brought extra instruction to many schools and created peer programs like Portage Northern’s Link Crew, which she says is helping to bridge an “extremely wide” achievement gap there.
“The senior class is meeting the ingoing freshmen, getting them accustomed to going from 600 in a middle school to 1350 in a high school. They’re finding their way to their lockers, they’re giving them study guides, I think that that kind of mentoring is ideal,” she says.
Hoffer says it’s difficult to determine just where the district stands on achievement when the metrics keep shifting.
“So it’s hard to compare, comparatively go back to last year to the year before to data that we’re going to start getting now because those testing platforms are no longer available,” he says.
But he adds that some recent numbers look encouraging, and says parental involvement and extra help from teachers will play an important role in closing the gap.
Van Antwerp says the district has worked hard to build a “multi-tiered” system to support students. And he adds the district needs to know more about students than just their test scores.
“Failing students also need to have hope. They need to believe in themselves and believe if they work hard there’s a future for them. And we’re very pleased to be partnering with the Gallup organization for the first time, and we’re actually going to be measuring the hope levels of our students,” he says.
Shelton-Harris says what impoverished students really face is a gap in opportunities, compared to their wealthier peers.
“We’ve got to provide the opportunity for students to be successful. That means that we need to meet them where they are and show progress along the way. That also means that we need to support teachers. And make sure that they have the tools necessary. And that may involve professional development, that may involve whatever but we need to address it holistically,” she says.
Shelton-Harris says that includes everything from improving literacy to teaching life skills like good time management.
All the candidates say the Portage Public Schools have a role to play in preparing students who plan to learn a trade after they graduate from high school rather than earning a four-year degree.
Willson and Shelton-Harris would like Portage to offer a 13-year curriculum allowing students to begin their trade or certificate education through the high schools. Hoffer says he’s not sure a 13-year program is necessary, given existing programs. And Van Antwerp says he doesn’t know enough about the 13-year idea to comment on it.
