Frederick Ravin III, candidate for Durham school board
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Candidates for Durham County School Board, Consolidated District B
Candidates in the nonpartisan Durham County School Board race will be elected to four district seats and two consolidated district seats, based on where they live in the county. Consolidated District B candidates are incumbent Frederick Ravin and challengers Joetta Macmiller and Millicent Rogers. Get to know the candidates in our 2022 Voter Guide.
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Name: Frederick Xavier Ravin III
Email: frederick@frederickravin.com
Political party: N/A
Date of birth: 42
Campaign website: www.FrederickRavin.com
Occupation and employer: Board member, Durham Public Schools
Education: Master of Information Science, Strategic Information Management ’12, NCCU; Master of Business Administration ’07, NCCU; Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance (Magna Cum Laude) ’05, NCCU; Bachelor of Science, Marketing ’03, NC A&T Project Management Certificate ‘19, UNC-W; High School Diploma ‘98, Southern High School
Have you run for elected office before? Board of Education, Durham Public Schools At-Large
Please list highlights of your civic involvement:
DPS – School Board Member; Co-founder/President - Durham Special Needs Advisory Council (D-SNAC); Leadership Academy Graduate - City of Durham; PTA President - Oak Grove Elementary School; NC Department of Veterans Affairs – Student Intern; Rotary Youth Leadership Academy - Awardee; Durham’s Teen Court – Inaugural year contributor; Budget Process Advisory Committee (BPAC); Financial Literacy Lecturer - Boost Program at Duke Board of Directors - Evolve Mentoring Inc.
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Rishona Peace, Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock, Daniel Oldman
What are your top three priorities for Durham Public Schools?
1. Retention/Recruitment of highly qualified educators and staff – We have a considerable challenge due to the “great resignation” we’re all witnessing. Our primary need is to ensure we have great educators and staff who care about our children.
2. Improving the health/wellness of our students - Going into the third year of a pandemic necessitates the continued utilization of our nurses, social workers, and school counselors, who are a line of defense to discover and battle the invisible mental/emotional scars of our students.
3. Mentoring for success to increase academic achievement – As a community, we must ensure that we’re being more equitable with allocating resources. Mentoring is a part of that. Mentoring programs historically have extremely favorable success rates. Like apprentice programs, it allows for transferring information, insights, and tacit knowledge.
What does DPS do well? In what areas does it need to improve?
Since the arrival of Dr. Mubenga, DPS has done a great a good job of aligning its efforts toward the strategic plan. The adoption of the strategic plan allows for proactive monitoring and management, continued alignment of resources that increase operational efficiency, and a sustainable model with a sense of direction that permeates throughout the district. Since the formation of this strategic plan, academic growth as measured by the state has increased, graduation rates have increased, and suspensions rates have dropped. Community engagement rates are up and ensuring fiscal and operational responsibility rates are strong. The areas that need improvement are some of what I’ve listed as my top priorities. We are struggling to keep up with the loss of educators and staff. This issue is occurring across the state. Another area for improvement deals with ensuring our Black and brown students’ testing scores. We must increase these scoring levels.
What about your life experience makes you the best person for the school board?
I am best suited for this role because I’m currently serving in this role and provide a skill set that is different from all of my fellow school board members. I am a product of Durham Public Schools (DPS) in addition to my children currently attending DPS. I have a vested interest in seeing DPS succeed. Every morning as I drop my children off at school, I’m asking what else is needed? I have two decades of fiscal management, organizational development, and IT management experience; seven years were in supervisory roles for Fortune 500 companies. During the day, I’m the IT Governance & Budget Development Manager for the City of Durham. I’m experienced with operational and capital fund management with experience improving portfolio management adoption for multiple organizations. Additionally, I have strong collaboration and influencing skills and have worked with County Commissioners on high-visibility and complex issues.
How should the school board evaluate the superintendent and make that process more transparent?
A large portion of the superintendent’s performance is based on the performance metrics as outlined in the strategic plan. As with most jobs, personnel reviews are private between an employer and an employee. What can be made more public is the awareness behind how much of the board’s evaluation is solely based on the strategic plan and allows for additional community feedback about what they feel is not working or is not accurately being represented.
Should anti-racism education be taught in the schools, and is DPS doing an adequate job teaching Black history?
Yes, anti-racism education should be taught. DPS is increasingly doing a better job teaching history through a more holistic lens. Racial equity is part of that, so Black history is being taught, but more is needed as textbooks tend to lag for culturally responsive books. This means Black history is being taught, and the history of more racial and ethnic groups is being addressed.
What strategies would you advocate to raise the academic achievement of Black boys in the school system?
The funding strategy I would support is utilizing more mentoring programs in schools. I served as a mentor at multiple levels, from the Guide Right program at RN Harris Elementary School to a student adviser for the Theta Omicron Chapter of Kappa. Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. at UNC-Chapel-Hill, and I can attest that mentoring works! I’ve been on the Evolve Mentoring Inc. board for a decade, and I see the long-term success created by mentoring.
How can DPS reverse enrollment losses and de facto segregation in its schools?
If we at DPS want to reverse the enrollment losses, we must compete. We must market what we’re offering as a public school coupled with the various services we can provide and resources that are only accessible through DPS. We are responsible for actively communicating that daily. We’re already making gains based on the metrics from our strategic plan. We have to share those successes as well.
How can DPS better support teachers and other staff and reduce turnover?
The first thing we have to do is simple, but at times it’s overlooked. We must continue to listen. We must listen even when we think we know what will be said. Acknowledge your staff and ensure they know they are valued stakeholders and team members. We need to see what amenities can be made as many of the requests don’t necessarily have a net cost. We need to continue to advocate for fair wages that ensure that all of our staff can be paid above the livable wage minimum. My fear moving forward isn’t that we can’t get our staff salary increases. I’m confident that will happen. My fear is how much value will be lost in the spending power of every dollar by the time they get that increase. Often, we are solely focused on dollar increases instead of on what that dollar can buy, which is less and less due to hyperinflation.
Describe one idea you would like the school board to consider even though it might not be universally popular.
Since I joined the DPS School Board, I’ve been advocating to continue increasing the marketing budget. That has been done, but more is needed. For every student that transfers into DPS, thousands of dollars follow. The scalability of cost in a school is tricky, but there is a break-even cost to operate every school. Understanding that is part of what is needed when doing a market analysis to target ads toward areas with lower DPS attendance rates.
How can DPS partner with charter schools or learn from their examples?
DPS partnered with charter schools to ensure that all students had access to meals last school year. We can learn from charter schools how to target families. DPS must understand why families are attending their respective charter schools and why. DPS has better test scores than multiple charter schools, yet we’re still unable to win those students/families back. We have to figure out why that is.