Have a coffee with Blair ☕︎ Sunday, January 18th ☕︎ 2-4pm ☕︎ Cargo Cofffee @ 750 E. Washington ☕︎
I’m a public school teacher and a mom who has been working in and fighting for public schools for 15 years, and I'm running for re-election to seat 6 of the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education.
The Issue: School Safety
How Blair sees it
Engaging and Safe Learning Conditions for Every Student
Students who aren't safe at school struggle to learn. Schools become safe places for our children by meeting their needs, engaging them in meaningful learning, and tending to the fabric of the broader community.
If we confuse safety with security and try to insulate schools from our communities, it will come at the cost of our students' abilities to live and learn in the world around them.Creating the conditions for safe schools therefore requires us to identify the broader factors making our children unsafe. We need to take a whole-person approach to student safety, looking beyond examples of violence to understand the unmet needs that give rise to it.
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Our schools must be robustly staffed so that staff and educators can slow down and take the necessary time to respond and adjust course for students who may be struggling. We’ve shown that we can help to meet the needs of students and families through increasing staffing for student services and building community partnerships. We can still do more to address families’ needs for healthcare, food, housing, and social support by refining systems in schools and partnering with community resources.
We must continue to increase access to co-curricular activities and summer programming that reduce the risks of violence and help children thrive, including in the arts, athletics, mentorship, job training, and conflict mediation. MMSD must also act beyond direct service and play a role in efforts to keep firearms out of the hands of children and ensure full funding for social services throughout the city and county.
The Issue: Taxes
How Blair sees it
Principled Political and Fiscal Leadership
Our community has consistently shown its support for public schools by investing in them through referenda. Now it's time for our district leadership to honor our community's commitment.
The money invested by our community will allow MMSD to build facilities that support our educators in using modern and innovative teaching methods. To do this, the school board needs to be prepared to make difficult decisions to keep our district’s resources aligned with what teachers and students need.
I’m proud to have helped the school board pass a balanced budget while increasing staffing in schools and compensation for educators. Fiscal discipline is as important now as ever, as our ability to stand up to the Trump administration will often depend on our financial independence.
Finally, we are working to sustain our community’s investment in Madison schools by increasing our advocacy with the state government to provide more equitable state funding for schools.
The Issue: Achievement in Schools
How Blair sees it
Amazing and Innovative Learning Environments
I believe in creating environments that are optimized for learning rather than the end goal of achievement. While achievement gaps and lower literacy scores are serious issues, they are misunderstood when isolated from the larger context of student learning.
We can’t afford to mistake the symptom for the problem when it comes to our students. These scores don’t only point to a problem with literacy interventions, but to the struggles of our schools to provide engaging and dynamic learning experiences that prepare students for the future.
We must staff our schools so that teachers have time and mental capacity to work on engaging all of their students. We need to protect planning time and re-center teachers in professional development, and we need to focus our administration on learning from the excellent teaching that's happening in MMSD and sharing the lessons they learn throughout the district.
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​I am open to creative ideas around calendaring, themed learning, community tutors, or required coursework if these things will make a difference for our students.
The Issue: The Trump Administration
How Blair sees it
Progressive Leadership Standing by Every Student in Our District
The students of our district are growing up under an authoritarian federal government. The Trump Administration’s threats to marginalized peoples have only been successful insofar as institutions have acquiesced to the administration’s demands.
If our schools are going to be a place where every child in our community can learn and discover themselves, then our district leadership must take an active stand against authoritarianism. We need leadership that not only resists, but uses the political power of our community to fight for our students.
The Issue: Supporting Union Educators
How Blair sees it
Collective Bargaining to Advance Learning and Working Conditions
Union educators have endured over a decade of Scott Walker’s bargaining regime, which severely restricted the power of educators to shape the conditions in which they work. Now that courts have overturned Act 10, MMSD can lead the state by using collective bargaining as a way to bring the knowledge and expertise of the staff who are doing the work into district governance.
Collective bargaining can be about more than just wages and compensation, but a valuable way for the district to respond to the needs of classroom educators to provide students with the learning conditions they need.
The Issue: School Staffing
How Blair sees it
Making Madison Schools
Incredible for Our Teachers
Teaching is complex, interpersonal work that can’t be reduced or automated. The success of our schools and of our students depends on our ability to hire, retain, and support educators and staff to do this work. We can do this by making Madison schools an incredible place to work for teachers who are passionate about their craft.
Beyond ensuring equitable compensation that rewards teachers for their experience in the district, Madison schools can provide supportive, well-resourced working conditions that make teaching a sustainable profession. Protected planning time and teacher sabbaticals are important tools to do this. As we work to create incredible working conditions for our teachers, it is vital that we support the district’s work to hire and Black educators and educator of color.
