Gracie Porter

Description

© 2009 Gracie Porter for School Board :: Jacques Porter & Alicia Riggans, Co-Treasurers. P.O. Box 60466. Nashville. TN. 37206. 615-227-1376. I am a committed member of the Greater East Nashville community and am an experienced educator and school leader with almost 35 years working in Metro Nashville Public Schools, including 17 years as a school principal. My own children graduated from District 5 schools and I have a lifelong commitment to educating every child. I hold the bar high for every child Metro serves. It's easy to complain about a system without ever doing anything about it and I've spent my life committed to real change for all students. I believe in the involvement of parents in their children's education and in the involvement of communities in the schools. I believe in professional educators. Most importantly, I believe strongly in public education and am committed to assuring that all children are offered exceptional opportunities to learn with experienced and professional teachers in effective schools. I believe that every child deserves a great education, through: Schools should be safe havens, where high academic standards and good behavior is the norm. We need to increase our expectations for both, and provide the resources to develop them throughout our community. We need to provide the resources for the physical safety and upkeep of our classrooms, but our system should also provide schools which support relevant learning, including increasing both vocational and college-prep programs-- giving students the skills to succeed in whatever career they choose. -I believe in teachers and principals: If you want to know what's wrong with schools, ask a teacher. If you want to know what works well, what schools need, where money is wasted and where it should be appropriated, ask a teacher. It's much easier to complain about a system than to commit yourself to change it. For the last 35 years, I have worked to change public education one child at a time. School level leaders need the authority to make the choices that they know will benefit the children they serve. -Accountability. We are all responsible for our schools, both for keeping them on track and for supporting them as they improve. When schools work well, cities work better. Our district level budget needs to distribute resources to the schools directly. Most of our budget should support services and salaries in the schools themselves, not in the Central Office. Bringing together the resources of our community and making a commitment city-wide to providing a quality education to every child: that's what's going to turn Metro Schools around. I didn't develop this vision overnight. It comes from over three decades of working on the frontline, with students who wanted to learn, parents who wanted their children to succeed and teachers who were willing to work to make it happen. Students, parents and teachers all want their schools to be successful- it's up to us to give them the resources to make it happen.

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