9-23-2024 2:04am

Election 2024: Meet Saline Board of Education Candidate Darcy Berwick

Voters in the Saline Area Schools district will elect four members to the Board of Education in the upcoming general election. The candidates are incumbents Jennifer Steben, Susan Estep and Brad Gerbe, and Darcy Berwick, Kelly Van Singel, Shari Barnett and Jason Tizedes.

We asked questions of all the candidates. Here are Darcy Berwick's answers.

Darcy Berwick

Bio

I am a mom of two Saline Alum – my daughter is enrolled at MSU’s James Madison Residential College and my son is now officially a Husky at Michigan Tech studying mechanical engineering. I currently work as a substitute throughout Washtenaw County. I have enjoyed teaching Innovation Lab at Pleasant Ridge, and I’ve worked in various teaching and staff roles at both Saline Middle School and Saline High School. I’ve also spent a lot of time subbing as a teacher and teacher’s assistant (also known as a para-pro) for the WISD, which has reignited my passion for special education!

I’m entering into my 17th year of service to Saline Area Schools. Since 2008, I have been a regular volunteer in classrooms and for building programs at all levels, a PTA/PTO Board Member for 12 years in the elementary, middle and high schools, and I remain active in supporting student enrichment organizations like Science Olympiad and Robotics. I am currently the Board Secretary for the newer nonprofit Saline STEM Boosters, working to support STEM teams throughout the Saline Schools district.

I have my BA in psychology from the University of Michigan and my JD from Wayne State University Law School. My husband is a software developer and we’ve lived in Saline the last fourteen years and in Washtenaw for over twenty-five years.

Why are you running for the Board of Education?

I’m running because it’s important to me that each student, pre-K through Young Adult, have an educational experience that’s both personally meaningful to them and sets them up for success in their future endeavors – whether that be: college, career, travel, service or any other opportunity. I believe that I have the experience, the skills, and the time to do this job well.

I grew up in a household that values public service, so I believe in service to others – that elevating others uplifts us all. This conviction led me to begin volunteering in the Saline Schools in 2008 when my daughter entered half-day kindergarten at Houghton. For the last sixteen years, I’ve volunteered in both of my children’s schools and classrooms; improving their education by supporting their teachers, their classmates, and the district. In partnership with Saline Area Schools, my husband and I are proud to have launched both of our children into the next stages of their lives. Even though our house is a little quieter now, Saline is still our home. Our family, our friends and their families, and our neighbors remain a huge part of our lives and I want for them what we had for our children: exceptional opportunities in a great school district.

Why should voters choose you?

My lengthy history of service to the schools as a volunteer and PTA/PTO board member elementary through high school, my community work with local nonprofits and organizations, and regular attendance at board meetings means I’m informed on the issues facing our district both past and present. My hard work and dedication to our Saline students, teachers, staff, and families is recognized by my dual endorsements from the Saline Educators Association and the Saline Education Support Professionals.

I commit to taking the time needed to find common ground and build consensus with families by actively listening to our community’s needs and wants, and having two-way conversations with all stakeholders in order to establish a strong, productive partnership. I will work to affirm the Board’s role of leading by setting the overall direction for the district while supporting our professionals, our students, and their families. As Trustee, I will continue to roll up my sleeves to prioritize positive outcomes for Saline Area Schools.

If elected, what are your top priorities?

My priorities are:

Ensuring a safe, secure, and welcoming educational environment for all
Improving our students’ successes along all metrics – including academic, athletic, extracurricular and social-emotional
Attracting and retaining excellent teachers with competitive wages and a balanced work-home life
Providing supports for struggling students
Seeking and engaging with student, teacher, admin and family voices
Maintaining a fiscally responsible, and responsive, budget

But this is a one-way question. What I want to know is, what are your priorities? Because, as a Trustee, I and all of the other Trustees should be collaborating with students, staff, families, and the community to determine what the district’s top priorities should be.

The board’s transgender policy states that school staff shall not reveal a student’s transgender status to the student’s parents. Do you agree with this policy? Why or why not?

This is why I support the Transgender and Non-Binary Student Policy: it adheres to both state and federal law, it’s in alignment with the Saline Area Schools’ mission, it’s rooted in best practices, and it keeps kids safe. So, while I believe that most kids come from a loving and supportive home, we know that not all do. We also know that our LGBTQ+ students are targeted for bullying, harassment, and violence more often than their peers. What gets lost in the way this question is phrased is that this policy is actually comprehensive and considers the whole child. It provides for regular training and professional development on best practices and responsibilities for district staff, because, in addition to providing a top-notch education, we expect Saline Schools to keep our students safe, secure, and ready to learn. I think it's also important to simply recognize that our district's staff really do care about our kids and want what's best for them.

Further, no policy stands alone. This is but one of many policies intended to keep students safe while at school. Prioritizing school safety and security is important to everyone and benefits everyone. An environment in which students feel safe and welcomed is linked to positive educational outcomes including increased engagement with learning, better academic performance, higher attendance rates, and improved overall mental health and well-being.

The board used to have a 10 percent cap on schools of choice students. What do you think of schools of choice and how should the district use it?

In 2008, we “won the lotto” as a schools of choice family and commuted to Saline Schools for two years until we could move into the school district – and Saline Area Schools are absolutely worth the daily traffic jams on Michigan Ave. The Schools of Choice option provides opportunities for our Saline students by diversifying the student body and, conversely, benefits those seeking different learning environments/opportunities in neighboring districts. It also gives our district the flexibility to achieve a measure of financial stability around enrollment in Michigan’s under-subsidized school funding model. This stability allows for continuity in providing quality services with regards to staffing, curriculum, extra-curriculars, and athletics. However, in my opinion, when budgeting, the district should be prioritizing in-district students by forecasting enrollment numbers and essentially utilizing schools of choice as that supplemental balancing factor while right-sizing staffing and funding allocations.

What’s a strength of the district? Do you think there may be ways to leverage that strength to improve education in the schools?

The entirety of our Saline Area Schools staff is our core strength – they are the heart and soul of our schools. We are a destination district in great part due to the quality of our educational and support staff because they provide our students with substantial learning opportunities. They make our extensive programming possible: pre-K through high school, special ed and young adult, the SWWC, athletics, extra-curriculars, and more. I know that our teachers’ and staff’s working environment is our students’ learning environment. As such, we are best served by our staff when we: respect them as trained professionals, when we enable them to care for themselves and their family with competitive wages and good health care, and when we ensure that they have a healthy work/home life balance. Creating a positive work environment and inclusive culture increases staff retainment which provides students with those engaged and experienced staff that we all want for our children. We are also fortunate that the size of our district is just large enough to provide for diverse levels and styles of learning yet small enough to allow for truly meaningful and long-lasting relationships between and among students, families, staff, and the Saline community at large.

What’s a weakness of the district and how should it be improved?

So much of the district's prep work happens behind the scenes: training, curriculum work, lesson planning, continual professional development, skill development, relationship building, innovation, continuous operational implementations, resource management, community collabs, meetings (so many meetings), and much, much more. Our very busy, hard-working teachers, para pros, staff, and admin accomplish this work fairly seamlessly. Their gracious professionalism is laudable, but because they do their work well, it’s also unseen and underappreciated. If there was a better way to inform families on district processes and procedures, and perhaps more opportunities to fold them into this work more than the district already does, then those insights might create a better understanding of district operations and build greater community trust when making those important, complex decisions.

Should the board be more careful about adopting policies that are cited as reasons to leave the district for private schools? Why or why not?

I absolutely believe that the Board should always be thoughtful about adopting, updating, or eliminating policy. All policies should be in furtherance of the district’s mission and adhere to state and federal law. The district’s mission should reflect the shared values of the community at large. Those shared values should be developed in collaboration with all stakeholders including students, families, educators, and the community at large. Creating those conditions in which we can reach consensus, however, can be darn difficult.

In order to build trust and gain consensus, the Board should proactively communicate on possible changes, act with transparency, listen to learn, and lead with grace. Then, the district should strive to meet the needs of all of its students as best as possible. However, the complexity of humanity and realities of life mean that some decisions won’t be a “one size fits all”, and we have to accept that there are sometimes opportunities better suited to a student’s wants and needs. Those opportunities could be other public schools, private schools, parochial schools, or even homeschooling. Should a student choose one of these options, it’s important to me that they know we support them in that choice and they will always have a home in the Saline Area Schools community. Regardless, whether a student stays in the district (and most do) or they choose to leave, we should always be receptive to constructive feedback and seek to improve our district based on that feedback.

As a board member, what obligation do you have to the people with whom you disagree?

Every stakeholder has a right to be heard by their elected officials, including Board of Education Trustees. That can happen in any number of ways including, but not limited to, speaking at public meetings, in-person communication, and email (probably the most accessible form of communication for most people).

As a Trustee, I owe it to those with whom I agree and disagree, to actively listen and to consider their information/ideas/opinions when making decisions on their behalf. I sincerely believe that we all want what’s best for our next generations of innovators, care-takers, artists, musicians, leaders, explorers, and more. And while I don’t know what I don’t know, I do know that I have room for learning and growth. It’s my hope that we can take the time together to create those conditions that allow for productive conversations on behalf of all of our students and their families.