LAKEWOOD — The Lakewood School Board’s race for the Director District 4 seat offers voters a choice of two moms with strong ties to the community.
Amy Williams not only attended Lakewood schools, but also has four children in the district, while Jahna Smith, who was appointed to the post six months ago, after David Kiefer resigned, has lived in the district 14 years, but helped to organize a successful campaign for the $66.8 million bond that’s paying for the new Lakewood High School.
Smith has seen two of her children graduate from Lakewood, and like Williams, she was encouraged to apply for the 4 seat by superintendent Michael Mack.
Williams and Smith agreed on the importance of promoting student achievement through reduced class sizes, improved teacher salaries and a more-equitable distribution of state funding. While Williams acknowledged that these measures were not without their costs, Smith argued that she’d had six months of experience to learn the nuances of how much power school board members have to suggest policies, as opposed to implementing them.
When The Marysville Globe and The Arlington Times received an anonymous letter from those identifying themselves only as taxpayers in the district, Mack agreed to address their concerns. Smith and Williams both cited the letter’s anonymity as what made it most difficult to deal with its issues.
“Because they didn’t come to any of us with evidence, there was nothing to back up what they were saying,” Smith said. “I have a lot of relationships within the community, and not one person came to me to discuss this. If they had approached us, we could get more details.”
Williams added: “Voicing those concerns anonymously strikes me as sort of cowardly, like they didn’t want a resolution. Dr. Mack is excellent. All the kids are impressed with him. My kids say, ‘He’s everywhere!’ Now, in the parent survey last spring, communication between parents and administration was rated quite low, but that just means there’s room for improvement.”
Williams also defended Common Core as consistent in its standards and proved through its use in other states.
“It’s not about what we teach the kids, but what they know how to do by the end of the year,” Williams said. “Each department in each school should be able to choose its own curriculum. The teachers should have control over this.”
As for Smith, she looks forward to helping the district develop its long-term strategic goals, based on information gleaned from testing and academic performance. Although she’s still in a “learning role” on the board, she wouldn’t mind taking up the duties of legislative representative, and she sees the potential to run more levies.
“For that to happen, we really need to communicate what bonds and levies will do for the district,” Smith said. “With the new high school, I get concerned when I hear people ask when each step will happen. Until they see people digging in the ground, it doesn’t become real to them.”
Williams concurred that the district could do more to keep parents up to date on the progress of the high school.
“How many people don’t know we’re in the permitting process?” she asked. “They should know when the groundbreaking will be, and how much money is being spent, especially since we passed the bond as a remodel, and it became a rebuild. A levy will be a hard sell. The bond was.”
