Speak Up: Capital School District superintendent reflects on challenges, future

Dr. Vilicia Cade became Capital School District’s superintendent in July 2021, in the midst of the pandemic. Since then, she said, it’s been an uphill battle for her and her staff.

• It’s a lot of talk, has been for years, but certainly no action that is really helpful. — Mary Dooley Finch
• You’ll never improve the situation in learning and conduct in the classroom until someone wants to get serious about discussing the causation of not only poor performance by many students in school but also poverty, crime, drug use and suicide, which is the high percentage of children born to and being raised in single-parent households. The world average for children raised in a single-parent household is 7%. The U.S. leads the world in this category with 23%. Throwing more money at symptoms, while not addressing the cause, is a waste of money. — David Etheridge
• It’s not just the school district staff. It’s also the parents who need to be held accountable. — Yvonne Davis
• One solution: Discipline students who have poor actions — it’s a major distraction to the students who actually want to learn. — Christina Fitzwater
• Can you spell out what that discipline looks like? Honest question because, yeah, my kid can’t concentrate or do work because of all the distractions. — Christine Hermes
• Suspension, principal visits, parent phone calls, move them to another classroom, seek out additional help from counselors. — Christina Fitzwater
• They definitely still suspend and make phone calls when necessary, at least in my experience, which obviously isn’t everyone’s. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough social workers, guidance counselors or support staff to adequately address the trauma these kids have. I don’t care how many trauma-informed trainings they have if they don’t have the staff to help students heal from the collective trauma of COVID-19, to provide adequate social-emotional learning and to teach at the same time. — Christine Hermes
• Home visits from social workers ought to be done more often. That would be helpful. All I know is home visits for truancy. — Christine Hermes
• Unfortunately, kids today can’t be disciplined because the parents will sue. — Edward Shay
• Let’s start by our schools returning phone calls within — I don’t know — two months? Much less the “24-48-hour turnaround” that they claim. — Megan Green
• Yes, they do care about the well-being of the students. They need to make the parents accountable for their children’s behaviors. I know what I am talking about; some of these children are out of control. It starts at home. If the parents discipline their children, it would make the school jobs much easier. — Paulette Trower
• In speaking with many teachers and parents of teachers, it seems that policies from administration are the issue. Support the teachers and stop the downright dangerous behaviors from students. — Women’s Defense Coalition
• I think y’all care, but quality teachers are leaving in droves, and kids are so out of control that my kid can’t do the work. I pulled my 11th grader for James H. Groves Adult High School, and my 10th grader has checked out. On the positive side, at least Capital can write an appropriate Individualized Education Program. Delivery is still a work in progress. — Christine Hermes
• The district is only now working on improvements? Can we get a rebate on taxes for the past, when you/the board weren’t working on improvements? — Rob Doyle
• It starts with management! Student safety is paramount, not protecting resources. Consequences for student behavior enforced at school will put the onus where it should be: on the parents. You have tried your new approach, and the results show it’s not working. What looks good on paper is failing in reality. Look at your statistics without skewing the data and you will see the problem! — Bernard Bogan
• They don’t even care about the safety of their students. — Angela Bourne
• You need to hire better teachers. That’s definitely where you should start. My son’s teacher is awful! — Tray Nor Pardy