TY FOR TCAPS

*UPDATE*: My responses were added to the story’s online version.

My responses were left out of today’s Traverse City Record-Eagle story on the candidates for our school board.

Here they are:

How do you think the district should respond to conflicts with parents over cultural issues like book bans, religion in classrooms, and LGBTQ+ rights?

Follow federal and state law. Support free speech and equal rights. Foster open dialogue with parents, teachers, and students. Ensure our schools are inclusive and our building libraries include books that reflect the student population and broader society.

TCAPS has seen a steady decline in student enrollment for the past ten years. How do you think the district should respond to this trend?

We’ve had a declining enrollment for six consecutive years (since 2019/20). We’re down 1,112 kids since 2017/18.

This year, we’re projecting to be down 75 kids (2024/25’s projected enrollment is 8,784 – count day was on October 2nd, but I haven’t heard what the actual number is).

In 2023, 81% of the total 10,134 students living in the TCAPS district (we lost 13% to charters and 6% to other districts) attended one of our schools.

For context, we had a total of 11,098 kids living in the district in 2013 and 85% of them attended a TCAPS school then.

Increasing (or at least stopping the decline) our enrollment has to be a bigger focus for our district (we do have a “attract and retain students, leading to sustainable enrollment” goal in our current strategic plan but there is no specific metric mentioned about what success looks like).

There are several best practice strategies to help boost enrollment that our school board can influence, including strengthening community engagement, prioritizing safe and modern schools, boosting early childhood programs, targeted marketing campaigns, and improving our district’s culture and climate to attract and retain students.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing TCAPS and, if elected, how do you hope to address it?

Student achievement equity is a critical issue.

Our recent study sessions on student achievement revealed a significant gap between economically disadvantaged students (36% of TCAPS kids) and their peers.

We know the evidence-based strategies to address this – in 2015, Courtade was one of two Michigan schools to receive the National Title 1 Distinguished School Program award for closing its achievement gap, the last time a TCAPS school earned this distinction.

I am committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of socioeconomic background, have access to the resources and support they need, and I will support the policies and budgets necessary to create a more equitable district so all our kids have the same opportunity to succeed.

Where do you see the greatest opportunity to improve the educational options and/or outcomes for TCAPS students and what type of action would you like to take to explore that opportunity?

Currently, 42% of our 3rd graders are not proficient in reading with significant gaps between the reading scores of economically disadvantaged students and their peers.

On a state level, this gap is around 30 percentage points, and I expect similar challenges in our district.

However, we’ve seen these gaps closed before—Courtade did in 2015, and just last week, Traverse Heights, one of our amazing Title 1 schools, was recognized at the district’s curriculum committee meeting for improving its reading proficiency from 22% in 2023 to 34% in 2024.

With renewed efforts and targeted interventions, I’m confident we can do a better job of supporting all of our kids, especially those furthest from opportunity. I’ll be a champion for these efforts.

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Learn more about my priorities: tyschmidt.net/priorities