Myca Jeter, candidate for Durham school board
READ MORE
Candidates for Durham County School Board, District 4
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. District 3 candidates are incumbent Natalie Beyer and challengers Valarie Jarvis and Myca Jeter. Get to know the candidates in our 2022 Voter Guide.
Expand All
Name: Myca Jeter
Email: CampaignAdmin@MycaJeterRuns.com
Political party: N/A
Age: 44
Campaign website: www.MycaJeterRuns.com
Occupation and employer: Social worker, Alliance Health
Education: MSW - UNC Chapel Hill; BA - NCCU
Have you run for elected office before? No
Please list highlights of your civic involvement: Board of Adjustment as county representative, Durham NC
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Friends, family and community members
What are your top three priorities for Durham Public Schools?
1. Implementing an effective plan to respond to the social and emotional needs of our students and our staff.
2. Developing a culture of expected excellence for every child regardless of their challenges, their needs or their interests. (Close the achievement gap) Every child should be pushed to learn more every day. And what I know for sure, is with high expectations, our students are capable of achieving amazing things.
3. Improving the district’s engagement with parents. Parents are the most underutilized resource in the district. We have to allow parents to partner with staff to get results for our students. Improve the quality of support services for English as second language families, the increased rate of parent participation would impact student achievement across the board.
What does DPS do well? In what areas does it need to improve?
DPS is doing well in the following ways: 1. Good job with communicating to parents their efforts to ensure in-person learning is being conducted in safe, scientifically driven ways since students returned to the classroom and COVID remains a factor. 2. Great job during the COVID pandemic in creating opportunities for children to continue learning and to stay as connected as was possible to their school communities. 3. Great job in increasing the brown and Black student representation in the academically gifted academically and intellectually gifted program across the district. Need improvement are: 1. DPS needs to continue to work on closing the achievement gap. (23% GLP for Black students; compared to 69%GLP for white students)2. Increased and improved parent participation 3. Work on equity around discipline so so all children are experiencing consequences and accountability in the same way for the save rule violation across the district.
What about your life experience makes you the best person for the school board?
I’ve had many roles in Durham public schools over the years. I’ve been a Spanish teacher, a school social work supervisor, and most importantly, I’ve been a concerned and active parent since 2014 when my daughter enrolled in kindergarten. (Now in seventh grade) I have over 20 years of real world experience in working with families in Durham and in the Triangle to heal from trauma, to advocate for their needs, and to develop a plan for achieving their dreams.
How should the school board evaluate the superintendent and make that process more transparent?
I would suggest an added option for staff to participate in the superintendent’s evaluation via a 360 Review process so that there is feedback from staff and other personnel that is very valuable.
Should anti-racism education be taught in the schools, and is DPS doing an adequate job teaching Black history?
Yes - one definition I agree with is that “teaching through an anti-racist lens means helping students understand racism’s origins and guises, past and present, so they can act to disrupt White supremacy.” (NEA) I think DPS is diligent about ensuring that all curriculum is racially and ethnically inclusive. I have seen improvements in ways Black History has been taught. There is still room to keep improving.
What strategies would you advocate to raise the academic achievement of Black boys in the school system?
I think continuing to expand and work with innovative models like Community Schools in the district and increasing parent participation would result in improved academic achievement in ALL students - Black Boys included. As a parent I have seen how impactful connecting with a child during the school day can be. Parents can serve as mentors, tutors or just someone to model coping skills and connect to the children throughout the day. I don’t believe these efforts will be effective unless the social and emotional needs of the students are addressed in a more adequate way. They are not going to be able to learn until a “safe normalcy” is established, and they are able to trust that it will not change in an instant. Our educators, administrators and staff must understand and embrace as a fact that this entire student population has been traumatized (albeit at differing levels).
How can DPS reverse enrollment losses and de facto segregation in its schools?
The increase in the number of charter schools in Durham has occurred because people have felt their children or children they know have been abandoned or failed by DPS in the past. Choice has allowed families to “choose” charter - instead of staying in the public school system as a part of the solution. I think it would be a great idea to do a “Stigma Change” Multi-Media campaign - to highlight publicly all the GREAT changes and opportunities available in our public schools. … I’ve seen some postings on the DPS website...but.. A full out paid marketing campaign. As new people are moving into our county every day we have an opportunity to change the “messaging” realtors share at open houses… we have to start now.
How can DPS better support teachers and other staff and reduce turnover?
I believe that placing such high value on test scores is demoralizing and ignores the entire child. Teachers should be properly trained and receive needed support and coaching as teaching is the most important profession, we have in our society today. The process and evaluation should be focused on how teachers are achieving fidelity with the best practices and the curriculum standards and how they are able to assess for gaps and respond timely and effectively so that children are learning and experiencing academic successes on a regular basis.I think making sure Professional development time is used more effectively to provide teachers with relevant strategies and clear ways to apply them in the classroom is important. This would help them reduce their frustrations and feel more effective and successful in their professional pursuits to teach.
Describe one idea you would like the school board to consider even though it might not be universally popular.
Improving engagement with parents. Parents are the most underutilized resource in the district. We have to allow parents to partner with staff to get results for our students. Improving the quality of support services for English as second language families would further increase parent participation and help impact student achievement across the board
How can DPS partner with charter schools or learn from their examples?
I think having quarterly meeting with charter school leadership to share best practices or brainstorm on share challenges would be a good step.