QUESTIONNAIRE FOR JCPS SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE Candidate Name: Christopher A. Fell Age: 30 Campaign Website: www.fell4jcpsboe2012.webs.

com Campaign Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002476729990 Campaign Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/felljcpsboe2012 Education: (Please include where you attended grade school) Cochrane Elementary, Tully Elementary, Carrithers Middle, Jeffersontown High, Jefferson County High, ITT Technical Institute Employment (NOTE: If you worked for JCPS, please indicate when, in what capacity, and why you left). I am currently employed by Robert Half International as a temp employee. Also self employed with 2 home-based internet sales companies. How long have you lived in Louisville/Jefferson County? I have lived here in Louisville all my life. Do/did your children attend Jefferson County Public Schools? When and what schools? My 8 year old is the only child I have currently attending a public school. She started out at Tully Elementary for Kindergarten, and then was switch to Fern Creek Elementary. JCPS then wanted to send her to Engelhard Elementary for her first grade year to fulfill their racial diversity policy where I then withdrew her and homeschooled her. She allowed back in Tully Elementary as a second grader and is starting her third grade year there also. What type of volunteer work have you done within JCPS? Within my childs schooling I have attended several field trips as a chaperone and have also volunteered inside the classroom with holiday parties as well. Nothing beats seeing a childs face light up when youre helping them play games or do a craft.

Why are you running for JCPS School Board? I am running for the Jefferson County School Board because I want to make a better educational future for every child in this county. For far too long the current members of the Board of Education have been lackluster in the things they do. It is time that the Board Members become equally involved within the school in their districts. School Board members should lead by example. We should also be proactive to each and every situation. How can we avoid a potentially devastating scenario if we have no clue on what it transpiring within the walls of the schools we preside over? What are the top three issues facing JCPS and how will you work to address them? Issue #1) The Student Assignment Policy - By eliminating the current student assignment plan, and giving students and parents the "choice" to either attend schools close to home or even far from home, we could eliminate the unnecessary waste of fuel and maintenance on these buses and focus it more towards schools. Everyone has the right to choose their educational direction. It should be the focus of the Jefferson County Board of Education to supply everyone with the path they truly desire. Issue #2) Bullying Within Our School Walls - In yet more recent talks with parents, I have discovered that bullying in our schools goes farther than our system has us believe. Some parents even claim abuse to their children at the hands of school officials. My child has even been physically assaulted on her school bus, stabbed with an ink pen by another student, and just recently admitted to being sexually assaulted by two children of her own age. I have partnered up recently with Christopher Hartman of the Louisville Fairness Organization and have also started my own anti-bullying organization known as Parents Against School Abuse or P.A.S.A. I stand firmly in support of Mr. Hartman as he continues to try to have the House pass laws for tougher and stricter bullying laws. I think however these laws shouldnt just reside for schools, but on the bus rides home as well. It has also come to my attention that bullying does not only occur student on student or teacher on student, but recent talks with faculty members have also claimed incidents of bullying themselves. These incidents, as I am told, have occurred between teachers and school administrators, between teachers and the JCTA, and even bus drivers and their local union as well. Issue #3) Instead of moving children from one school to another for racial diversity issues, we could instead ask a teacher to move to another school to teach in a grade for a better student teacher ratio. Of course the teacher would be supplemented for his/her travels with 4 bonuses in their pay (beginning of school year, Christmas break, spring break, and end of school year). Also administrators currently on the 100k Club list must also teach a class or submit to a cut in pay. Teaching a class would also result in a morale boost for the school as well. Lets face it, if you have the degrees to do so, then lets stop wasting them and put them to use. If every child was polled and asked how many time they saw their counselor or principal in a school year, the

number would only be in the single digits. Thats not very good for people who are earning $100 thousand or more to guide our kids in the right direction. At least way, we are getting them to have. Also, we cannot begin to blame our teachers for poor test scores if the JCPS system isnt giving them the tools necessary to perform their jobs to 100% of their capability. What do you think of the job that Dr. Donna Hargens has done as Superintendent? As Superintendant thus far, I believe Dr. Hargens has done the best job with the situations she has walked into. I must say that I am impressed with a Superintendant who makes it a point to visit every school in the county, discuss the issues with teachers, staff and students, who takes time to participate in activities at schools and also takes the time to talk to parents regarding issues. What do you think of the current student assignment plan? Would you change it? How? I believe the current student assignment plan is ridiculous. What century are we living in when we still have to put race as a determining factor on anything? I would much rather our childrens education be determined by their smarts than the color of their skin. I for one can walk outside my door, and in my neighborhood I personally see people of all ethnicities. I very seriously doubt that it is much different anywhere else around the county. So I ask why is it necessary to enforce diversity when every neighborhood is diverse. The only thing being accomplished by the student assignment policy is making sure that people are even more separated by race rather than being joined by it. How do you define "neighborhood" schools, and do you think JCPS should move to neighborhood schools? What advantages and disadvantages do you see with neighborhood schools? I would define Neighborhood Schools as the closest school within distance to your dwelling. I do believe JCPS should move to neighborhood schools. Advantages of neighborhood schools children get to attend school with the peers thus improving their social relationship skills; parents would not have to worry about their children on long bus rides; parents should be able to attend more school functions if the school is closer to them; children are closer to home in case of a medical emergency; children would be allowed more sleeping time and playing time at home for a choice of a neighborhood school. Disadvantages of a neighborhood school the school might not be up to the parents standards, in which that parent should have the right to enroll in a different school of their choosing; there is a chance of school overcrowding which is then easily fixed by transferring students to the next available school within closest proximity to their dwelling;

If JCPS moved to neighborhood schools, how would you accommodate parents who do not wish to send their children to the school designated as their neighborhood school? If parents choose to send their child to another school due to the curriculum another school should have, they should be encouraged to do so. However, to avoid costly bus rides there should be a requirement of a certain number of students in the same general vicinity that wish to attend the same school. Then we could acquire bus routes to transport the students without any costly measures. However, if I chose to send my child to a school further from home, and she was the ONLY child around me that was to be attending that school, I would feel it would be wrong to require a bus stop for my child and waste taxpayer dollars that could instead be used to purchase supplies inside the classroom. What would you do to improve low performing schools within JCPS? To improve our Persistently Low Achieving schools, we first need to determine which area of the school is Persistently Low Achieving. To determine this we need to look at each test score individually. Which grade is performing lower than others? Which classrooms are performing lower than others? These simple questions make all the difference if we could just take the time to ask them. Once finding the answers to these questions, then we call the teachers of the students in for a meeting one by one. The first of many things that we need to determine is are we supplying the teacher with everything they need to properly perform their job duties? Our next step would be to inform them we are going to investigate why the scores are so low and we will be performing our own testing method. The next school year, we take those teachers with Persistently Low Achieving scores and the first half of the school year, they are allowed to teach as they normally would. Student will be test accordingly and the grades recorded for future use. The second half of the year, we switch the teacher with Persistently Low Achieving scores with one from a school of Persistently High Achieving scores. At the end of the school year, both teachers are assessed once again. The grades will be compiled and reviewed in order to come to proper validation on a result. If we believe the teacher hasnt lived up to their full potential, then appropriate measures shall be taken. However, if we come to find that the teacher has not had the necessary materials available to them, then we shall make a point to deliver better to our staff. We must treat each and every occurrence the same and with proper fairness and equality. What would you do to increase parental involvement within JCPS? When it comes to parental involvement within JCPS, several things must be looked at. For instance, what are the working schedules of the parents? Do they work days? Do they work nights? Are they third shift workers? A persons working schedule determines their daily life and routine. Also, more notice needs to be given as to when an event is going to take place. I have personally worked in jobs where you must give a two week notice and one required a one month notice in order to receive a day off. JCPS needs to begin to send out questionnaires to every parent regarding the previously mentioned questions. Only then can we be gin to increase the parental involvement.

How would you bring back the parents who have left the district for other counties, private schools, or homeschooling? When it comes to bringing back the parents who have left the district and the county in order for their children to attend better schools, it is a toss up scenario. These parents have left everything they loved to move away due to disgust of the JCPS system. It will take everything we have to bring them back. One way to do so is stop at nothing to raise our test scores and begin to rise further and further above the state average once again. We are the largest school district in the state of Kentucky and should be leading the state average not trailing behind it. Once this does finally occur again however, we should begin mailing out postcards to the parents who have left us showing them graphs of our achievement and asking them to reconsider JCPS as a form of education for their children. What issues outside of the classroom do you feel impact performance most? How would you work to mitigate those issues? When talking to parents and teachers regarding classroom performance, I have received a wide variation of concerns. Parents their children do not like the school they attend therefore they try everything they can to get out of going to school; when forced to go to the schools they act out in class; the bus rides make them too tired to do much of anything including homework. Teachers lack of involvement between teachers and administrators inside the classrooms (affects teacher performance); long bus rides make kids very inattentive; lack of disciplinary actions taken against students who need them; overactive disciplinary actions taken against students who do not need them. Have you read the JCPS Vision 2015 strategic plan? What are your thoughts on the plan? How would you change the plan or work to support it? I have read the 2015 vision plan and while I have some reservations regarding the plan, I do believe it can be a step in the right direction, but ONLY if all results are recorded and monitored consistently. We should never disapprove anything without first giving it a try. Therefore, I ill not make a comment for the good or bad of this plan until after results are taken for the 2012-13 school year. If you have/had children in JCPS, what have you found most rewarding about the school system? What frustrated or challenged you the most? What has troubled me the most about the JCPS system has been 3 things: a) the complete negating of any bullying that is occurring within our school walls; b) the fact that JCPS believe it is okay to transport students to different schools and judging them by the color of their skin; c) the consistent negating that JCPS test scores dwindling year after year when statistics prove it is a related incident occurring since the start of the student assignment policy.

What would you do to improve the image of JCPS, both inside the county and outside? To improve JCPS both inside and out, we must find the reasoning to why current residents do not find that JCPS is a sustainable educational system capable of bettering their children. We must look harder into what goes on within school walls and on the school buses. We must not hide any issue within JCPS because then, whether true or not, JCPS becomes guilty from the get-go. We must become proactive and stop anything negative before it ever becomes a problem. What will you do to address bullying within JCPS? When it comes to the bullying within JCPS, I believe I am leaps and bounds over the school system itself. In the past year I have created a support group dedicated to victims of school bullying at all levels. I have met with Christopher Hartman of the Louisville Fairness Organization and supported him on his efforts to gain tougher and stricter laws against bullying. I have also supported Teddy Gordon and all the parents who have filed suit against JCPS for negating that there ever was an issue of bullying. We must face the fact that bullying has become an issue and thus deal with it among the appropriate circumstances. Bullying must have a zero tolerance policy regardless of where and when it is occurring. Failure to report these incidents or failure to take appropriate measures when an incident is reported to you should result in immediate termination of your position. Remember, when it comes to bullying, lives are stake. Suicide rates are higher for victims of bullying than anyone else. What is your opinion of the JCTA (Teachers Union)? When it comes to the teachers union, I must reflect only what I have been told by teachers since I do not have any experience with them. I have been told that the JCTA is an organization which not only negates bullying, but prefers to bully their teachers into doing whatever they want them to do. I have been told that teachers would rather decide where their union dues are spent rather than the JCTA deciding for them. In the past, the JCTA has donated several hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund political campaigns of Board of Education candidates that the teachers themselves did not agree with. I believe the JCTA should listen more closely to their teachers. If not, several have come to me and ultimately said they would personally like to disband the JCTA, but are unsure of how to properly pursue that venture.

How will you work to improve dropout rates? To improve dropout rates, we must first ask the students why they choose to drop out of school. Is it because of family-related issues? Is it because the curriculum is too hard or too easy? Is there an issue with a specific teacher, counselor, staff or other faculty member? What could we do to keep you in school? Would you rather have courses in every high school that give college credit? We cannot expect to know the reasoning for dropout rates until those that are dropping out talk to us. Perhaps then, treating kids like human beings and not some type of social science experiment will prove to raise the rates. Do you support a charter schools? Why or why not? I am 50/50 on charter schools. While I have seen studies where they have improved educational outcomes leaps and bounds over the regular public schools systems, I am not convinced that charter schools will work here. The studies done on charter schools take place in cities much larger than Louisville, KY. If I were to see where a charter school system has worked on an area this size or smaller, than I might be persuaded a little bit more. But as of right now, I would much rather focus our time and efforts into or own school system. What will you do to address state budget shortfalls and their impact on JCPS? Budget shortfalls are definitely a concern, but they are also a guarantee year after year. When the state decides to cut funding from anything, education is usually the first to go. That is why I have decided that, if elected, I will maintain monthly meetings with the Kentucky State Governor to address any situation that may arise and possibly cut funding from the JCPS budget. I would also like to implement more fundraising opportunities than we currently have. Maintaining a safety net of funds from fundraising can always help out if a shortfall were to arise. It would also give parents and students pride in knowing that they are helping better their education.

What do you think of the job JCPS does to prepare parents for choosing and enrolling their children in the system? What would you do to change the process?

When it comes to enrolling children in school, I believe parents should have the right to enroll their child where they see fit. As I have explained on several occasions, usually when a family moves into a neighborhood, it is because they like their surroundings and have chosen that area and that particular school. However, on some occasions, a family does move to the neighborhood in which they can best afford to live in. Therefore, if parents want their children to attend the nearest school, then they should have that right. But if parents want their children to attend further from home, then they should also have that right. I believe JCPS should focus less on placing students into school by the color of their skin, and focus more on parent and student choice. The example I have given is just one of many, but here are two more: a) when you enroll your child into a particular school, you want them to be placed in a seat at that school. I do not know of any parent who enrolls their child in school with the sole intention of having them seated in a school miles away; b) if a student in high school is 18 years of age, and wants to attend a high school of their choosing, should we place that student in another school and deny their civic rights? What do you think the public's perception of the Board of Education is? What will you do to either change or strengthen that perception? I cannot speak for every individual in the county, but I have received mixed reactions when it comes to the public perception of the Board of Education. I have heard people call them racists. I have heard people say that all members have overstayed their welcome on the board. I have been told that board members need a limit on how many terms they can sit on at one time. I have even been told that the Board of Education in its present state has done a wonderful job. My perception however is that they have done nothing over the years except make education a top priority. That is what I hope to being to the table. I expect all board members to officially earn their $75 per meeting. It is time that each board representative wake up and realize that the public has voted you into office, and that means, whether you like it or not, YOU WORK FOR THE PUBLIC.

Do you believe that all JCPS Board of Education sessions, including the evaluation of the superintendent, should be open to the press and public? If not, what issues should be discussed in closed session and why? I do believe that everything that occurs within JCPS should NEVER occur behind closed doors. In my opinion, that just makes it look like you are being sneaky and trying to hide or cover something up. We have enough bad publicity right now, we do not need anymore. I believe that all business should be conducted in public, open to the media, and for those who cannot attend the meetings or other functions due to family and work lives. JCPS should create a channel on www.youtube.com and present ALL happenings on the channel. These should include: Board of Education meetings, Superintendant school updates, school of the week and moth videos, teacher, counselor, administrator, faculty member and student of week and month videos, news about upcoming field trips or school functions, etc. I also believe that the school SBDM, PTA and PTSA, meetings should be filmed and put up for viewing as well as meeting performed by the JCTA. How will you make yourself accessible to the community as a school board member? When it comes to community involvement, I have already begun that process. Not only do I have a campaign website (www.fell4jcpsboe2012.webs.com), but I am also accessible anytime via Facebook by searching my name (Christopher A. Fell). I have also created an email address (fell4jcpsboe2012@yahoo.com) which is checked daily and each message is responded to personally by myself and not a secretary or other individual. I have also created a twitter account (www.twitter.com/felljcpsboe2012). Furthermore, I can also be seen visibly throughout the county by my vehicle which is a green Mercury Villager minivan with orange and blue decals on the sides and back window. I also plan to tour each school in my district on a daily basis as well as attend school functions at those schools to meet with the parents, students, teachers, faculty, staff, and administrators to gather their feedback also. PERSONAL STATEMENT: Please share any additional comments youd like to share.
I look forward to serving each of you as your next Board of Education District 7 Representative. We need to eliminate the politics that run rampant within our school system and focus more on commons sense ideas for educational improvement. I would like to thank each individual for even considering a vote for myself and I maintain that I will stay true to the public when it comes to our childrens future in education. Lets Make A Brighter Tomorrow For Our ChildrenStarting Today