School board candidates weigh in on The 1619 Project, superintendent's job performance

Here are school board candidates' positions on four questions, including Superintendent Brian Yearwood's performance and teaching The 1619 Project.

The candidates emailed responses to questions emailed to them.

The candidates are Paul Harper, John Potter, Chris Horn, James Gordon, John Lyman, April Ferrao and Chuck Basye. The election is April 4.

Is it OK to teach The 1619 Project in schools? Please explain your answer.

Only Lyman and Gordon answered with an unqualified "yes."

Harper: "Many believe that we should be excluding the lived experiences and perspectives of many people who lived in the United States. This question essentially asks whether it is OK to ignore different perspectives of our history.

I believe that when it comes to teaching history we should be teaching all aspects of history from all perspectives. We should be discussing all facts from all perspectives, especially in our high schools.

That means that we must frame the facts in terms of the broader population and not just those that were or are in power.

Originally, I was going to be a social studies teacher and studied social studies education. I was talking to my professor about what is important to include when teaching history. I remember him saying, 'Paul, when you're teaching history, you have to really teach it. Don't just teach it from the perspective of the winner of the battle, teach it from everybody who was on that battlefield. Teach it from from the people who won and the people who lost.' He said to make sure that when teaching history bring in the perspective of average people who were living at the time, bring in those that benefited and those that were left out. He said to make sure not to just teach from the perspective of the leaders or those in power, but to show and explain how real people actually lived through each period.

How can we teach our children to think critically and be good citizens if we do not teach all historical perspectives?  How can we preserve our rights and liberties if we only give a sanitized or limited version of history that does not take all experiences into account?

I believe that when we're teaching children, we should teach facts. And I believe in teaching facts from all perspectives.

The Missouri Constitution is clear that the legislature must support free public schools because '(a) general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence [is] essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people.'

Public schools are fundamental to a working democracy. Limiting history to only a few perspectives, as those who want to ban the 1619 Project are attempting to do, is not only bad public policy, it is just plain wrong.

We must ensure a general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence to our youth because knowledge is essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people. We should not be excluding the lived experience of people in our nation."

Potter: "Yes, in high school, in a debate setting so students can hear from both sides of the arguments. Parent/Guardian would have to opt students in, not out.

Here are some premises of 1619 Project that need debated:

Preserving slavery was the real cause of the American revolution.

Slavery made America rich.

Racism is America’s defining characteristic.

I personally agree with the group of distinguished historians who wrote a public letter condemning the work, they called it a 'Displacement of historical understanding by ideology.'”

Horn: "The board approved an MOU (memorandum of understanding) in July 2021 to evaluate this historical perspective. The results of that evaluation are pending. Policies IM and IF require the district to continuously evaluate curriculum and instructional materials. Policy IGA lays out the ultimate aim of our instructionalprograms which is to develop 'proficiency in each pupil's ability to read well, write effectively,spell accurately, listen attentively, speak clearly, think critically, use basic mathematical/computational skills, observe carefully, solve problems, participate effectively in groups, keep healthy, enjoy aesthetic experiences, and develop interest in and/or start career development.' While each of these policies are overdue for review, they each still give guidance and direction for vetting materials for our children, and our highly qualified educators strive to meet the aim of creating critical thinkers. We need diverse perspectives to tell our true story of our complex, nuanced history. We should teach material that is within board policy and advances our aim to educate."

Gordon: "Yes. The 1619 Project is not a single book, but rather a series of materials, all of which are accurate, thoughtful and engaging. Some of the resources in this series are specifically adapted for children and youth.

Also I believe Nikole Hannah-Jones, the main author of The 1619 Project, is one of the most talented, hard-working and honest journalists to ever cover the education beat in our lifetime."

Lyman: "Yes, because it tells an important perspective of history. 'History is written by the victors,' is often referenced as why additional perspectives, or historical revisionism is necessary. Those new perspectives are not meant to be a replacement of the traditional way of viewing events, rather they are supplemental, they are a way to view things from a different lens. This happens with math all the time. A new method comes out that shows a new way of solving the same problem. It’s not a replacement, it’s an alternative. History should be viewed no differently. We should want our students to seek out those new perspectives, those new viewpoints or interpretations. That’s what gets them ready for life after graduation."

Ferrao: "I have not seen the curriculum that makes up the 1619 Project and therefore cannot make a determination as to if it, specifically, should or should not be taught in schools. CPS has a process for adopting curriculum which includes the vetting and evaluation of materials with our educational leaders. This process includes a review and approval of the school board. I envision this curriculum may make up a history or English course. Any materials used in a history course should teach age appropriate fact-based history which should include factual events from diverse groups of people. For example, when discussing World War II, discussing the impacts on a variety of groups provides a deep view into history, from the impact the War had on American society, the impact on Japanese Americans, and the global impact on Jews. In an English course, a variety of fact and fiction materials may be used to explore different philosophies, writing styles, tone, intent and type of writing the author intended. All materials should also be age appropriate."

Basye: "No, unless there is a class offering historical fiction. Many prominent academic scholars are denouncing the 1619 project as 'revisionist history!'" (He cited a piece by the conservative National Association of Scholars.)

There's a bill in the legislature banning teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation. And there has been another effort this session to ban transgender girls from girls' sports. Your opinion of these efforts?

Potter: "Discussing gender identity and sexual orientation needs to be age-appropriate and with parents' permission. Any parent/guardian that wants their student to participate In these discussions should have to opt in. Gender ideology can be used to confuse children, like in Texas where a teacher claimed that 20 of her 32 fourth grade students came out to her as LGBTQ, according to internal messages from the district. Boys should not compete against girls in traditionally girl sports. Girls will lose their sport records to boys mimicking girls."

Horn: "I stand by our equity statement, especially regarding the human dignity inherent to all studentsand staff. The statement reads:

'Columbia Public Schools, through action and in partnership with families and community, will uphold the values, policies, and practices that promote cultural competence. We will accept, embrace, and empower students and staff in their individual identities to establish and sustain human dignity, justice, and equitable treatment and inclusiveness in the classroom and workplace.'

If being charitable and assuming good intent, the legislation on gender identity and sexual orientation is seeking to ensure communication partnership between school districts and parents. The perceived harsh posture, perceived political motivation, assumption that school districts don’t want the same, assumption that school districts have an interest in withholding information from parents and punitive measures drive division more than seek common ground for the sake of our kids, school districts and communities.

Regarding transgender girls participating in girls’ sports, again the perceived harsh posture and perceived political motivation drive division and distract away from the fundamental questions of should biological males compete in sports for biological females and should MSHAA rules align with those of next level governing bodies? To both, the answer is no, and I still see the inherent value and dignity of our transgender youth.

Issues such as these are complex, and simple answers are inadequate. We are trying to meet the needs of each one of our children while also knowing the importance of defined boundaries. Our challenge has less to do with disagreements on legislation and is more due to an unwillingness to understand and embrace our differences for the sake of common good."

Gordon: "These proposals are pure fear-mongering and reckless endangerment of our students. I have no patience for the political failures pushing this garbage."

Lyman: "The job of our public school district is to prepare all our students for life. A part of that is learning to accept who you are, and to treat those that are different from you with the same respect that you hope is given to yourself. Gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation are important things for our teachers to talk to their students about. It’s important for our students to know that who they are is OK, and that nothing about them is wrong. How can we want students to be accepting to all, if they don’t accept themselves?

As it relates to high school sports, just let the kids play. The attempted ban on transgender students playing girls sports is not related to safety, it's not related to 'the integrity of the game.' It’s an effort to disenfranchise kids.  And that’s not acceptable. The district needs to do more with protecting our students from these efforts."

Ferrao: "I recently listened to a hearing on a bill to ban teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation. This is one bill that is very poorly written. I believe the intent of the bill is to not allow discussions regarding transgender people. However, the bill is written in such a way as to impact a variety of current instruction if gender cannot be referenced. Without mentioning gender, can there even be discussion on women’s fight for the right to vote, Women's History Month, and the push for the Equal Rights Amendment? Barring discussion of sexual orientation also impacts what American history can be taught. Significant legal cases that have impacted our society, civil rights movements, fights for equality and other significant moments in history will be banned from discussion. There was a caveat made by the sponsor that an exception would need to be made for students taking AP (Advanced Placement) and dual credit courses. It appears, then, the material is appropriate and acceptable for one set of students but not others. Why will one group of our students have access and teaching on certain events but others will not?

If these bans are needed, why are they not needed for all? Other efforts to limit the rights of transgender youth are also harmful to our society. I believe efforts would be better spent on focusing on how to better fund education to provide the adequate resources our teachers and students need to be lifelong learners. Missouri currently rates lowest in teacher salary and low on many other education metrics. We should focus our efforts on improving the conditions in our schools and allow local control for curriculum and instruction."

Basye: "It would be helpful to know the bill number and sponsor.

The discussion of sexual-related topics should not occur without parental consent and it should not be included in any curriculum. Biological males should be banned in sports designed for biological females. This is not discrimination, it is common sense.

I praise my former colleagues for making this legislation a priority."

Harper: "This Legislature is not serious about educational policy. But they are serious about attacking Missouri families.

The Legislature has proposed at least 27 bills against  against LGBT youth, against life-saving healthcare for trans youth, and against even acknowledging that LGBT people exist.

Often, these bills are couched as being for parental rights. But these are the opposite of parental rights. It is not about parental rights when the state is telling parents how to raise their children.

The Legislature has said that these issues are their number one priority. A Legislature that is truly interested in educational policy would be working to fix the the teacher and hourly employee crisis, fixing and fully funding the foundation formula, fixing our student transportation issues fully funding special education, and boosting pre-K education.

Unfortunately, the Legislature has a political agenda and they do not care who they harm in pushing that agenda.

The Legislature should be working on fixing educational issues, not causing problems for parents. Our children have become collateral damage to the political agenda of a few, and that is not acceptable.

We have many scared parents in our community because state level politicians are attacking the LGBTQ community on almost a daily basis. These hardworking parents are afraid for their children and their children’s well-being.

We have anti-bullying policies on our school. But right now one of the biggest bullies for our LGBTQ youth is the Missouri Legislature. As a state we absolutely should not be targeting or bullying these youth. We should not be contributing to a politicized media frenzy that tells our youth that they do not belong.

And, to be clear, this politicized media frenzy does nothing to ensure that our children’s basic needs are met. Rather, it makes these children feel that they are unwelcome in the public schools.

We all know that until a student’s basic needs are met and they feel comfortable in their skin, they are not in a place to learn.

We are a public school that teaches all students. We should be working to ensure that all people are welcome in our public institutions. As a public school board, we must support our all of our families.

I believe in creating caring policies that protect all students and will work so that all students have the opportunity to meet for exceed their educational goals."

What do you think of the job Superintendent Brian Yearwood is doing for the district?

The superintendent is the school board's only employee and it's responsible for hiring and supervising the district superintendent.

Horn: "Dr. Yearwood is serving this district very well. He is focused on academic excellence and envisions success and achievement for all our kids and he is pushing much needed changes to see this through. He recognized the need for achievement improvements, and from day one, Dr. Yearwood sought feedback from teachers, administrators, parents, students, board members, community members and consultants to better understand Columbia and Columbia Public Schools. He understands where we are as a district, how we got here, and knows where we want to go. Dr. Yearwood’s leadership is already yielding growth in achievement as evidenced by principal presentations at board meetings, and yet, he knows we have much more work to which he is committed. He has been able to press forward even with a board that is in needs to improve its governance focus and unity, commit to putting the interests of the district above our own individual ones, and consistently serve him and our community as they expect and deserve."

Gordon: "I admire Dr. Yearwood’s refusal to write off certain kids our society would prefer to neglect. The circumstances of his arrival at CPS have been exceptionally challenging, yet Dr. Yearwood continues to demonstrate his commitment to providing every kid a pathway to knowledge and self-determination.

Our school district needs to move at the speed of trust in order to adapt to our current and future challenges. To do that, our board of education must provide our superintendent with support and accountability that reflects the concerns and aspirations of our community. I’m one of the few candidates in this race who is deeply rooted and brave enough to lead these efforts."

Lyman: "I’m from the Show-Me State, and I’m not sure I’ve seen enough of Dr. Yearwood in our district to be able to give a grade. So, for now, it’s an incomplete. For him to get a passing grade from me, then I, the district, the community, our schools, our teachers, need to see him more, literally, in our school buildings. As a board member, I would press the need for him to be more visible in our schools, by visiting in-building administrators and teachers, actively listen to their concerns, and take those experiences back to the district office to act upon."

Ferrao: "Dr. Yearwood replaced a superintendent who had been part of CPS for many years prior to becoming superintendent. I would imagine coming in from another state to take over from a predecessor, who was ingrained in the community for nearly two decades, was not an easy task. It should be expected the transition could be bumpy. I think Dr. Yearwood inherited a mess he had no idea he was walking into. As a result, there is much work before him and the school board to turn around Columbia Public Schools. As the special education audit and the curriculum audit pointed out, there are significant areas and issues that must be addressed. These are not changes that will happen overnight, and some significant changes may need to occur. It is human nature to resist change and I expect Dr. Yearwood may face a fair amount of pushback on any changes. As the board hires the superintendent, it is up to the board to hold him accountable, provide him with useful and critical evaluations and work together with him to implement the many changes that we will need to see to meet the needs of our students."

Basye: "Dr. Brian Yearwood is a nice man, but he has failed to display leadership in many areas. I would not support his continued employment unless drastic changes are made. The flagrant mismanagement of taxpayer funds is just one area of concern. Use of taxpayer funds to pay for coffee at the Aslin Administration Building, lining the pockets of out of town lawyers with taxpayer dollars only to repeatedly lose in court, and recently hiring more unnecessary administrative staff are just a few examples."

Harper: "Between the special education audit, the recent release of the annual performance numbers from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the curriculum audit, we know we have a lot of work do to to improve the district.

We need to bring our stakeholders — parents, teachers, educators, administrators, students, and community partners — together to work to create the better and brighter future that I know is possible.

The district needs to bring our stakeholders together to help create a comprehensive plan rather than making ad hoc reactionary decisions in the moment. Our comprehensive plan must have measurable benchmarks to improve performance across all schools. And the board has much work to ensure that the district meets or exceeds each benchmark.

I look forward to working with Dr. Yearwood to bring our community together to improve our schools when I am on the board."

Potter: "Dr. Yearwood and I had a meeting at the beginning of the month and in that meeting I presented evidence of CRT (Critical Race Theory) principles at CPS and he seemed very concerned and scheduled another upcoming meeting on Monday March 20th with Chief Equity Officer Carla London to discuss the materials I presented in the meeting. I’ve actually obtained more material that I will present in the upcoming meeting as well. This shows me his willingness to work together with the concerns of the community. In the meeting, Dr. Yearwood said that he wants to hold all students to high standards and he wants transparency in the district and I believe him. His job has not and will not be easy. I believe he’s headed in the right direction and I will support him in his efforts."

What is the most surprising or troubling aspect of the Annual Performance Report results for you and what should the district do about it?

Gordon: "I’m troubled about our student attendance record. Kids need to be present in order to learn, and being physically present with a content-strong educator is the best form of access for most kids.

We really need to look further into the realities in and around schools like West Boulevard Elementary (where my kids attend) to understand what the barriers are for kids to be present at their schools. I would start by picking up the phone and having low-stakes informal conversations with admins and educators in those buildings."

Lyman: "I think if we were listening to our teachers, we’d know what the scores were going to be. So, unfortunately, they weren’t a surprise. What was a surprise to me, is our attendance rate: 73.3% of our students attend school at least 85% of the time (the state average is 80.9% attendance, 85% of the time, and the district is pushing for 90% attendance, 90% of the time). This is a very fixable problem and is one of the first ones the district needs to solve. How can the district expect to solve the other issues the report outlines, if we can’t get our students into the classroom for productive educational time? What we use summer school for, using ESSER (federal COVID relief) funds for before and after school transportation for tutoring, needs to be considered and re-evaluated to make sure that when we get our students to school, that time is productive."

Ferrao: "I’m not sure I was as surprised about the annual performance report as I was about the curriculum audit. The curriculum audit is far more concerning to me than the Annual Performance Report. The audit detailed how many of our current board policies are outdated or inaccurate. In fact, of the policies regarding personnel and instruction the auditors selected, 27% have not been reviewed in more than 20 years. A school board leads the district by/through policy. How can we have a well planned, methodical way to instruct and provide a quality education with 20+ year old policies?

The audit pointed out the disparity we see between schools, specifically our Title 1 schools compared to others and our schools north of 70. We see this disparity in the retention rate of teachers. The retention rate is less than the district average and teachers in these schools leave the district and teaching all together at a higher rate than other schools. These schools are also the schools that performed the lowest in the Annual Performance Report. The curriculum audit further validates the fact that experienced core content teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement, yet we are losing teachers at the schools struggling the most at a higher rate than the rest of the district.

While the Annual Performance Report also pointed out the troubling proficiency rates of our Black, free and reduced lunch and IEP (special education) students, the curriculum audit and special education audit also noted a difference in rigor and expectation in the classroom between schools and between populations. Setting low expectations of certain students or providing them with less rigorous or engaging materials will have an impact on achievement as shown in the Annual Performance Report. The district needs to select 2-3 items from the special education and curriculum audit to improve.

One of the first things that should be tackled is policy correction, revision and writing. A district can not have a clear path to effective leadership and learning without good solid policies in place. Once items are identified to work on, we need to focus on those and do them well. We need to receive frequent updates on progress to monitor improvements, which can form a basis for when to tackle a different recommendation.

If I were on the board today, I would say we need to address policy, intensely and immediately,

We need to create a desirable work environment to recruit and retain teachers, and we need to realign our resources, both human and financial into the schools that are struggling the most.

This does not mean take away from other schools, but take a new look at resource allocation to adjust resources in areas of most critical need."

Basye: "I wasn’t surprised with the annual performance report. The district’s academic achievement has been in decline for a decade.

Discipline is practically nonexistent in Columbia Public Schools and the teachers are not supported by the present administration and the existing board of education.

I would immediately abolish Michelle Baumstark’s position and have Dr. Yearwood handle the communications with the public.

There is too much emphasis on the so-called diversity, equity and inclusion program and not enough emphasis on traditional core educational programs like science, history, mathematics and especially reading."

Harper: "The most troubling an aspect for me is the disparity in results between the various schools. For example, just looking at the total percent of points earned for performance as reported by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, we have some elementary schools with high percents in the 80s while we have others with percents in the low 20s. That is completely unacceptable. We should not have such broad discrepancies between our schools. It should not matter where you live in Columbia, all students deserve a quality education. We need to come together as a community and work to ensure that all students have the opportunity to meet or exceed their educational goals."

Potter: "Only 73.2% of students attended school 90% of the school year in 2022, meaning more than a quarter of students were out of school. This is troubling. We know from the results of the school shut-downs, if students aren’t in school they're most likely not learning. Equity grading/SRG does not hold kids accountable for attendance or behavior. If the district wants to take attendance seriously they have to throw out Equity grading/SRG (standards referenced grading)."

Horn: "The most troubling aspects from the 2022 APR are that the academic achievement performance should not have been surprising and our attendance rates. We have unjustly educated our historically underserved students for far too long, and it seems like it took a pandemic, which exacerbated our academic performance, for our community as a whole to notice. Fortunately, this is an area where the board supports Dr. Yearwood’s leadership in addressing our academic performance and improving attendance and we already see growth in learning based on assessments and better, albeit still not where we want to be, attendance this school year compared to last."

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What school board candidates says about Missouri issues in education