Observer Elections 2024: Kristy Harrell Huskey Anderson Dist. 5 At-Large
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Kristy Harrell Huskey is a candidate for the Anderson School Dist. 5 At-Large Seat.
Huskey earned a Ed.D. in Early and Middle Childhood Education.
She lists her community activities to include founding the Developmental Center For Exceptional Children/ Champion Center in 1974, project coordinator for the SC School for the Deaf and Blind and as a principal and a teacher. She also served for several years as a volunteer for the Good News Club at Whitehall Elementary, over 10 years as a Guardian ad Litem for foster children, and was on the board for the Department of Social Services for 10 years. She also said she founded the Ann BB Academy in the Amputee Village in Makeni, Sierra Leone and is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Moms for Liberty, New Heart Fellowship, and Worldwide Women’s Association.
Here are her answers to the Anderson Observer’s questions:
1. The most important responsibility of the public schools is to educate children in a safe environment.
2. Three most important duties of a public-school board member are to be accountable and accessible to the people you represent, make sure the money is spent on education, and providing the vision to complete the district’s mission.
3. My education and experienc eare relevant because they helps me clearly see why 50 percent of our children cannot read on grade level. I can see why we are 43rd in the US. We have clearly failed our children in schools, and parents are choosing to go to private schools because the public schools are no longer serving the student needs. This is outrageous and should be the people’s schools because it is the people’s money. Parents should have the ability to monitor what their child participates in and if they opt out, it should be respected. Mental health can now be supplemented in the schools with the help of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Safe schools need to provide a welcoming culture and low enough teacher to student ratios so that teachers get to know their students. I have taught children in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades to read who had never learned to read previously. Yes, we must address the reading crisis. If you cannot read you cannot succeed.
I have the experience and the vision to make the district reconfigure the programs so that the IDEA laws are fully implemented and parents do not feel so negatively toward public schools. If we are paying so much money for taxes for public education, why are our customers leaving?
Clearly, we need to reinvent schools so they are providing students opportunities to have mentorships and students are prepared to enter business/trades world. Providing competency-based learning will make sure students are prepared for a career once they graduate.
4. Yes, there is a particular reason I decided to run for school board. One is that 50 years later we are worse off as far as meeting the needs of those with disabilities and special learning difficulties. Evidence of that is the DCEC is non-profit because state funding was taken away 2009 and never replaced, and the students are not fully included in the public school as per law, IDEA.
The second reason was my grandson reported he got an extra detention for using the wrong pronoun for a substitute teacher.
5. Millage is set based on the tax rates of real and other property. Our millage is rated lower than most. The top priority is to make the schools THE choice that parents want to send their children. As housing properties develop, the need for more schools will require forward thinking and planning. Currently, the new superintendent has made teachers, students, and staff priority in the current budget.
6. The job of the school board is to assure policies are implemented and the laws are being followed for all schools and especially for any schools ranking below average. Hiring staff and the superintendent are part of the job for the board. Fiscal responsibility is critical. I believe if we are touting that teacher to student ratio classrooms are no more than 1 to 15, we follow that for all classes. Some of the current school board members are also on the YMCA board, so that is probably why so much money has been given for the cross-country path at the YMCA. Board members should not allow school tax dollars to be donated when 60 percent are in poverty and 50 percent cannot read or do math on grade level. That is very irresponsible and is troubling that it happened.
All children are supposed to be reading on grade level by 3rd grade. If they are not reading on grade level, then we make alternative reading strategies available and provide the needed instruction. That is the law. Highly trained teachers with experience should be providing the intensive teaching that must occur.
We must make sure that all children feel appreciated and have access to mental health counselors within the school. There are far too many children coming to school from homes that are less that fulfilling and the suicide rate has risen beyond belief in children age 10 to 18.
It is the responsibility of the school district board to assure that funds are spent on student’s education, not being donated at the tune of 4.7 million to the cross-country dirt path miles where the runners don’t run. Or when $100,000 was given to the former superintendent as he retired. How can you justify being a transparent district when this happens? How do you justify this kind of spending when more than 50 percent of the students are not reading on grade level, and they can’t do math.
If elected, I would be the only teacher on the school board at large with this kind of experience. In fact, right now, there are NO teachers on the school board.
7. The school board can balance the need to provide a quality education and respond to the local taxpayer burden by focusing on meeting the needs and teaching students. Athletics is important and Anderson 5 is ranking 4th in the state. These are awesome stats, but when you look at the rankings for how we are in the academics, it is 43 percent for reading and 52 percent for math. I don’t think that is well balanced. Emphasis should be on education.
We have failed in SC, much less in Anderson District 5. Yet we are 4th in athletics. We have spent over 18 million on the football fields. Yes, I decided to run for school board. I am so ticked off when I read about the money spent on a 6-million-dollar bank because the city wanted a business that would not go bankrupt, not to mention the land beside the bank that cannot be built on because it is too close to Wren Park. How did this happen? District 5 has 60 percent poverty and this is the way tax dollars were spent. Please do not vote for any incumbents.
8. The current budget needs to reflect the below average score for Westside High school with an emphasis on reinventing the school to reflect improvement. The schools receiving average scores should also be monitored closely. The district receives almost 160 million dollars. Surely, we can produce better than average rankings for our schools.
The schools can now use the mental health counselors hired by the district and with a Medicaid match. Also, another very valuable program that could be run from ages 0 to 16 is Therapeutic Child Treatment. This program adds intensive services to families at risk.
The current budget should also address the kind of food we are serving. Nutrition must be a priority since we have such a high poverty rate.
9. As a board member I would look at the most effective way to save funds after determining what are the exact needs. I would be sure to know what the teachers, students, and parents think and how they believe the most effective changes could be made. Using teachers as car duty and bus duty personnel is rather expensive. These teachers have Masters and Doctorate degrees and they are directing traffic. I am sorry, but if you have over 50 percent of the student who are not reading, maybe it would be more cost effective to use the teacher to teach and hire a paraprofessional to do extra duties.
I believe looking at the rapid growth of neighborhoods to determine future planning is important. It will cost 75 million to build a new McCants, another expense the district will have to address.
10. I would never cut the arts in schools.
11. Budget priorities would be teachers and students, 1 to 15 ratio. It is the single most important researched statistic of all. We must believe it and do it. The Anderson Charter School was written up as the most successful charter school. Guess what the teacher student ratio was? 1 to 4. Yes, that is the most important of all and currently, teachers have 30 in a class and if by the 2nd semester there is no one making an 80 in the class, they will reduce the class size. That is not very effective, I dare say.
12. The changes that should be made on the state and local level regarding public education: no unfunded mandates. If you make it a mandate, fund it.
Refocus teaching reading curriculum to phonics based. Currently, the state supports whole language which has 20 plus years of yielding students who cannot read and do not know how to write. There must be intensive and specific teaching for struggling learners by highly qualified, experienced teachers. Class size is critical and should not be more than 1 to 15. High schools need to provide Mentorships for students to explore careers and get graduation credit. Schools need to look at what skills are really needed for chosen careers. High schools can be much like colleges and sign up the classes in their preferred career choice. Our education system must be overhauled and reflect students making choice based on experience in shadowing programs.
13. I do favor the penny sales tax for schools, especially if they make public school THE Choice parents want.
14. Athletics and extracurricular activities are important and they should be self-supporting as much as possible. Grants and social media could assist in providing additional funds as needed.
15. As I understand it, we can teach religion, but we cannot teach you to become a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. I think the ministry is definitely a career that students may want to pursue. Mentorships with the Hope Mission, the Lot Project, The Haven, could be an opportunity for students to earn credits toward graduation. I worked in a district that allowed parents to sign their child up for religion classes. They went off school campus to get the instruction.
16. I am a recent member of Mom’s for Liberty. I am very impressed that they stand up for the right for books to be written and published, but NOT giving access to public SCHOOL libraries. They have proven that they are advocates for the protection of young children and I am proud to be a member.
If you want your child to read books about sexual information, take your child to the PUBLIC library.
If I am a teacher in a public school and I know or suspect that a child has been subjected to sexual pornography or child abuse/neglect, I am a mandated reporter by law. I would be required to report this to the Department of Social Services, and they would be required to investigate.
17. Finding common ground with others on the board regarding issues of disagreement would not be a problem as long as the student and parent’s best interest is at the heart of the matter, I would yield to that decision. If it was an issue where there was a lot of money that is about to be spent, like the 6 million downtown bank for technology and the 4.7 million for the dirt cross country path, I would have a public forum to discuss it with the tax payers.
18. I would support a board decision if I did not vote for it, because that is the way it works. I suppose there could have been some who did not think donating 4.7 million dollars for a cross-country dirt path was worthy. But, you know, I think I would have at least done a public forum to let others know what was preparing to happen. I would always want to be a good steward of tax dollars that are supposed to be for education.
19. I believe we have the best teachers around. Lower student ratios are key to student success. Early morning duty and late afternoon duty needs to be done by paraprofessionals. Teachers need to spend their time preparing for class and tutoring students. If they are still having meetings that consume planning time for teachers, I would like to see the emphasis on teacher preparation and tutoring students. Teachers need to feel appreciated and valued. We pay them too much money to do car/bus duty.
20. School board members can know if goals are being accomplished and policies being implemented by being involved in the schools and visiting. I believe the heartbeat of the school can be felt as soon as you enter the building. Visiting the classrooms and having a forum for teachers to share without retribution is key. I will also make a concerted effort to bring these home schooled and those who chose private schools together to seek answers that will make Anderson District 5 The School Choice. Final rankings given by the state will yield yearly results.