Wake County School Board District 3
Doug Hammack
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. If elected, what are your plans for working with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to achieve our schools’ needs?
The best thing the School Board can do to work well with the County Commission is submit a WCPSS budget they can approve. The County has demonstrated their strong commitment to public schools, but school dollars do compete with other county responsibilities. We work well when we give the Commission budget requests that are tied to data-driven outcomes. “X dollars will produce Y educational results.” These outcome-based budget requests are easier to approve.
The other thing the Board can do is keep encouraging the Commission not to weary in well doing. They HAVE championed public schools, but given the other priorities competing for county dollars, the Board can keep reminding them that our county’s economic prosperity is directly tied to education, to public schools.
5. How do you plan to engage and build trust with parents, employers, and other stakeholders of your school district?
Since I decided to run, I’ve been meeting with parents, teachers, board members, and school staff. I’ve had scores of coffees, listened a lot, talked only a little. I’ve learned a great deal. I understand the county better. I understand our schools, and our parents much better for the exercise. I understand the context School Board policies will impact. I plan to maintain this listening practice when elected.
I also plan to develop a robust BAC (Board Advisory Committee) of parents, PTA members, teachers, and staff. I hope to involve people across the aisle, those willing to listen in the community along with me. I hope together, we can discern the needs of our schools, students, teachers, and parents and help set effective policy for the district.
6. What will you do to improve school safety in Wake County?
WCPSS is already doing very well with safety. An external audit last year said as much. We have highly effective safety policies for our facilities, our points of entry, our cooperative preparation with law enforcement. Further, we do an internal audit every year that keeps us on a path of constant improvement. I would continue the good work the Board has already done.
I would also work on training our teachers and staff in strategies to reduce student alienation. I would focus on training staff in deescalation strategies, helping children develop executive functioning skills, and trauma-informed practices. A student who has a strong sense of belonging is much less likely to shoot up a school.
7. What are the growing trends in student needs, and how should the Wake County Public School System address them?
Early reading intervention. Since the State defunded teaching assistants and reading specialists, the need for children to build a solid reading foundation has been highlighted.
Also, as more and more students show up in school with psychological and emotional needs, we are going to need to develop trauma-informed practices, and a more holistic approach to education. We’re going to need more adults in the building, trained in mitigating student alienation. We’ll need more counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. We’ll also need to train staff in deescalation strategies, and to spot emerging trouble spots in our children.
The pandemic highlighted how many students struggle with self-regulation. Because we’ve “taught to the test,” spoonfeeding students what they’ll need to score well on standardized tests, we’ve undermined training in self-motivation, self-regulation, and executive function.
So called “soft” skills are just as important to thrive in the emerging economy as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students will need the internal emotional framework to create plans and reach outcomes. They need the internal structures that allow them to plan, reflect, and adjust. These are skills successful adults take for granted but are increasingly hard for many of our students.
We need to start early, helping our students form these skills. We need to embrace teaching strategies that encourage and fine tune them.
8. How do you propose the Wake County Public School System overcome its current labor shortage? Please give specific steps you wish to see taken.
We have a nascent teaching fellows program in Wake County. I’d support expanding that. Of course we need to improve pay and working conditions, but those goals are complicated by the State’s consistent underfunding of public education.
Consequently, one of the most effective things a school board member can do to retain key staff is improve morale. We can do that by restoring respect to teachers and staff who serve our students. We can challenge the toxic narrative that has emerged the last few years, that somehow WCPSS is failing. It is decidedly NOT. In the face of stiff headwinds and consistent underfunding, our teachers and staff have done extraordinary work. Just look at our graduation rates and our acceptance rates into vocational training and college. Look at how our in-service teacher development is one of the best.
School boards must use the bully pulpit to tell the WHOLE story. Yes, there are things in WCPSS that need improving, but our teachers and staff are dedicated, hard-working, and most of all, EFFECTIVE! Tell that story well, restore respect to the education profession, we will improve morale. Which will go a long way to retaining staff.
Further, an important factor that impacts teacher satisfaction is the presence of highly qualified, effective administrators. Admins who pick their battles well, communicate well, and hold fast to key, core values motivate teachers and staff. We can work to attract the best administrators we can for our schools.
9. What should the school system focus on to ensure children are ready for the jobs of tomorrow?
First, we should focus on early childhood education. The research is clear as can be. Get a child a good start, and we improve all the educational metrics we want improved.
Second, we must prepare our students for a new kind of work. Across our nation, economies built on making stuff (manufacturing economies) are in decline. Economies built on thinking up stuff that has never been thought of (innovation economies) are thriving. We are lucky to live in the latter.
Preparing students to go to work each day, thinking up things that have never been thought of, requires a more holistic approach to education. Toward that end, we champion diversity in our schools, not just because it’s the right thing to do (it is), but also to foster thinking and connection-making in students, to help them think thoughts they’ve not thought before. A more holistic approach would also include training in internal skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relational skills, internal self-management, the ability to direct their own work.
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. If elected, what are your plans for working with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to achieve our schools’ needs?
The best thing the School Board can do to work well with the County Commission is submit a WCPSS budget they can approve. The County has demonstrated their strong commitment to public schools, but school dollars do compete with other county responsibilities. We work well when we give the Commission budget requests that are tied to data-driven outcomes. “X dollars will produce Y educational results.” These outcome-based budget requests are easier to approve.
The other thing the Board can do is keep encouraging the Commission not to weary in well doing. They HAVE championed public schools, but given the other priorities competing for county dollars, the Board can keep reminding them that our county’s economic prosperity is directly tied to education, to public schools.
5. How do you plan to engage and build trust with parents, employers, and other stakeholders of your school district?
Since I decided to run, I’ve been meeting with parents, teachers, board members, and school staff. I’ve had scores of coffees, listened a lot, talked only a little. I’ve learned a great deal. I understand the county better. I understand our schools, and our parents much better for the exercise. I understand the context School Board policies will impact. I plan to maintain this listening practice when elected.
I also plan to develop a robust BAC (Board Advisory Committee) of parents, PTA members, teachers, and staff. I hope to involve people across the aisle, those willing to listen in the community along with me. I hope together, we can discern the needs of our schools, students, teachers, and parents and help set effective policy for the district.
6. What will you do to improve school safety in Wake County?
WCPSS is already doing very well with safety. An external audit last year said as much. We have highly effective safety policies for our facilities, our points of entry, our cooperative preparation with law enforcement. Further, we do an internal audit every year that keeps us on a path of constant improvement. I would continue the good work the Board has already done.
I would also work on training our teachers and staff in strategies to reduce student alienation. I would focus on training staff in deescalation strategies, helping children develop executive functioning skills, and trauma-informed practices. A student who has a strong sense of belonging is much less likely to shoot up a school.
7. What are the growing trends in student needs, and how should the Wake County Public School System address them?
Early reading intervention. Since the State defunded teaching assistants and reading specialists, the need for children to build a solid reading foundation has been highlighted.
Also, as more and more students show up in school with psychological and emotional needs, we are going to need to develop trauma-informed practices, and a more holistic approach to education. We’re going to need more adults in the building, trained in mitigating student alienation. We’ll need more counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. We’ll also need to train staff in deescalation strategies, and to spot emerging trouble spots in our children.
The pandemic highlighted how many students struggle with self-regulation. Because we’ve “taught to the test,” spoonfeeding students what they’ll need to score well on standardized tests, we’ve undermined training in self-motivation, self-regulation, and executive function.
So called “soft” skills are just as important to thrive in the emerging economy as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students will need the internal emotional framework to create plans and reach outcomes. They need the internal structures that allow them to plan, reflect, and adjust. These are skills successful adults take for granted but are increasingly hard for many of our students.
We need to start early, helping our students form these skills. We need to embrace teaching strategies that encourage and fine tune them.
8. How do you propose the Wake County Public School System overcome its current labor shortage? Please give specific steps you wish to see taken.
We have a nascent teaching fellows program in Wake County. I’d support expanding that. Of course we need to improve pay and working conditions, but those goals are complicated by the State’s consistent underfunding of public education.
Consequently, one of the most effective things a school board member can do to retain key staff is improve morale. We can do that by restoring respect to teachers and staff who serve our students. We can challenge the toxic narrative that has emerged the last few years, that somehow WCPSS is failing. It is decidedly NOT. In the face of stiff headwinds and consistent underfunding, our teachers and staff have done extraordinary work. Just look at our graduation rates and our acceptance rates into vocational training and college. Look at how our in-service teacher development is one of the best.
School boards must use the bully pulpit to tell the WHOLE story. Yes, there are things in WCPSS that need improving, but our teachers and staff are dedicated, hard-working, and most of all, EFFECTIVE! Tell that story well, restore respect to the education profession, we will improve morale. Which will go a long way to retaining staff.
Further, an important factor that impacts teacher satisfaction is the presence of highly qualified, effective administrators. Admins who pick their battles well, communicate well, and hold fast to key, core values motivate teachers and staff. We can work to attract the best administrators we can for our schools.
9. What should the school system focus on to ensure children are ready for the jobs of tomorrow?
First, we should focus on early childhood education. The research is clear as can be. Get a child a good start, and we improve all the educational metrics we want improved.
Second, we must prepare our students for a new kind of work. Across our nation, economies built on making stuff (manufacturing economies) are in decline. Economies built on thinking up stuff that has never been thought of (innovation economies) are thriving. We are lucky to live in the latter.
Preparing students to go to work each day, thinking up things that have never been thought of, requires a more holistic approach to education. Toward that end, we champion diversity in our schools, not just because it’s the right thing to do (it is), but also to foster thinking and connection-making in students, to help them think thoughts they’ve not thought before. A more holistic approach would also include training in internal skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relational skills, internal self-management, the ability to direct their own work.
