Wilkerson, Don - Ann Arbor Public Schools
Are you an incumbent?
No
Brief Intro of Candidate
I bring financial expertise to the Board that will make possible educational programs that enable every student to develop to their full potential. I have been pursuing this objective for years as a school volunteer, community leader, and parent. My record demonstrates my values and my ability to get things done.
Financial Expertise: My expertise in financial management will improve Board oversight and governance of district finances, adding a dimension that has been sorely lacking. Professionally, I leads the Risk Advisory Services Practice at Rehmann, a national CPA and Advisory firm based in Michigan. I helps organizations gain insights on their financial, operational, and IT processes in order to identify and mitigate risks.
Commitment to Our Students: I've collaborated with other citizens to pass multiple millages, which have been and will be critical to the success of the public schools. My wife and I have four children spanning the ages of three to eighteen — all have attended or will attend the Ann Arbor public schools. I have held numerous positions in school PTOs and the district-wide PTOC. I have also been an avid volunteer in the classroom and while serving on the Board of an educational non-profit focused on special education advocacy.
Cultural Awareness & Advocacy: As a proudly enrolled citizen of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, I have a personal, heartfelt commitment to programs for under-represented minorities. This plays out in both my personal and professional life, including sharing his culture with the community and mentoring students and young professionals. I will be an effective, informed advocate for programs in the schools that enable all children to succeed and remain engaged.
Endorsements
I've received the following endorsements: Washtenaw County Democratic Party, Better Boards Better Schools, Focus on Education Ann Arbor, the Anishinaabek Caucus of the MDP, and Planned Parenthood.
Top financials Contributors
Website and social media links
TBD
votedonwilkerson.com, X - https://twitter.com/Vote_Wilkerson, FB - https://www.facebook.com/votedonwilkerson/, Insta - https://www.instagram.com/votedonwilkerson
How would you engage and include parents, caregivers, community members and students in decision-making in your district around things like curriculum, budgeting and district policy?
As a Board, it’s imperative to have various avenues to connect with the community - students and families, teachers and staff, district administration, and the Ann Arbor community/taxpayers. I’m a strong advocate for periodic “Listen and Learn” tours getting back into our schools to hear from each neighborhood community. It’s been quite some time since the last round, and I think it’s extremely important to re-engage and intentionally reconnect with the community. We need opportunities like these to learn and also rebuild trust and understanding, which is at a critically low level in the district. This can also extent to opportunities, such as, the prior Superintendent’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, which would address emerging challenges within the district. It’s always important to hear fresh ideas on a regular basis given whatever emerging topics/challenges are arising.
I believe we should be regularly surveying our stakeholders, most notably, our students/families and our teachers/staff. We need to be open and transparent about where we stand today on various subjects and use survey results to see how our work within the district is having positive impacts on the trend of results. The survey questions should be consistent and well planned to highlight the outcomes we expect to achieve as a part of our districts vision. They need to be non-biased and non-leading questions as well. We should look at these as a starting point and focus on trend analysis to ensure district initiatives are addressing issues and achieving the results we intend, but also cannot be too quick in changing course without adequate time for changes to lead to results.
Personally, I will host regular coffee hours at different times of day and locations across the district to meet with our community, gain insights and input from the community. I also hope to attend events to support our community across the district, and to advocate for our district in decisions that impact our students at the County and State level as well.
What are your thoughts on school discipline and the way it is exercised in your school district? What are your thoughts on restorative practices?
I think our district made a great decision to change the course of discipline from focusing on suspensions and expulsions, to focusing on student support. Of course, there is always more we can do along this journey, but our focus should remain on educating students, even during challenging times where our students make mistakes. Focusing on practices like restorative justice to overcome harm and allowing students to grow through the process and stay engaged should continue to be a focus and continued foundation.
We need to equip our educators with the best available tools and training to support our students through challenging times. This includes staff and resources that provide for the root cause of what our students are facing and is driving behavior in classroom. We can’t expect our teachers to be solely responsible for addressing classroom behavior, as they need to be able to continue teaching all other students as well. It should be an integrative approach where the entire school community is rallying to support and there is adequate supporting staff to step in and work directly with students facing a challenging situation.
Each disciplinary challenge needs to be approached by meeting the student where they are and understanding what is driving the behavior (i.e. mental health supports, home care supports, etc.). Our district needs to keep classrooms safe, keep student privacy a priority, and continue our duties to support the growth and development of ALL students.
We need to continue to aggregate data to learn more about disciplinary action and outcomes, and we need to remain diligent in ensuring discipline and outcomes are equitable, fair, and supportive of our students, while also ensuring that we have a consistent approach to discipline and access to support across the various schools in our district.
What are your thoughts on how to improve student mental health
Improving student mental health is a challenge we need to address head-on with the full support of our community, including students and families, teachers and staff, administration, and the Board.
Our students need access to mental health supports, and we need to ensure there are adequate resources available to students, not only when a crisis arises, but also throughout the year to help prevent our students facing a crisis in the first place. Adequate resources will allow students to build rapport and comfort with counselors and other staff that will ultimately open avenues for students to reach out to when they feel they need more support at any given time.
We need to double down on early identification for our students that are facing challenges. The implementation of “see something, say something” is a great tool for our students and community to confidentially report things as they arise. As a community, we need to drive the culture of openness and inclusion, and normalizing people speaking up to support one another without repercussions or identification of those who are speaking up, while also normalizing that we can all use support in throughout different times in our lives.
Last, but certainly not least, we need to continue the fight for funding of mental health supports within the district. A stable budget will allow for sustainable access, but we must be willing to work with County and State officials to drive continued funding in this area as well.
What are your thoughts on ways to improve Black student achievement in your district and in Michigan schools overall?
As a proud Native American and enrolled tribal citizen of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, I know first-hand how the education system has oppressed the voices of many minority groups. I have a personal, heartfelt commitment to under-represented communities and have been a long-time advocate, leader, and mentor for programming to bring equity to the workplace, including internship programs specifically for under-represented communities, and mentorship programs exposing under-represented communities to professional services careers. I will continue to be a voice for those who have historically been under-served and will continue to advocate for an educational system that supports all students in the district.
The district must approach Black student achievement by meeting students where they are and continuing to build our understanding of how-to best support Black students. We need to approach this with openness, fresh perspectives, and a willingness to be transparent in where we currently stand on Black student achievement. Continuing to hear directly from the Black community is an important part of building this perspective and understanding how to better support our students. We also need to make sure our schools are welcoming and inclusive, and that our teaching staff is representative of the wonderful diverse community we have in Ann Arbor. We need to collaborate with the broader community and non-profits in order to integrate school and community supports for a holistic approach.
We need to ensure that we have data and reporting that captures various subsets of data related to our students and provides us with an opportunity to highlight if our approach and programming is in-fact effective, or if our approach needs to be adjusted when we don’t see trend analysis heading in the direction we are working towards. We can’t expect to make improvements in our district without monitoring progress. We need to quantitatively measure the impact of changes are having on students, so we can double-down or adjust our approach based on the outcomes.
What are your thoughts on how to ensure that all students and their families, regardless of race, gender identity, sexuality, disability, religion, income status, etc., feel safe and included in your district?
We need to be explicit and transparent from the top-down that we support and value each and every student and family in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, regardless race, gender identity, sexuality, disability, religion, income status, etc.. We need to be vocal about diversity in all these characteristics and perspectives makes us stronger and is a cornerstone of the Ann Arbor community and the Ann Arbor Public Schools. We need to celebrate and support our diverse perspectives. We need to be clear that anything less than being supportive, welcoming, and respectful isn’t acceptable, nor does it align with our community’s values.
We need to systematically ensure that ALL families are and feel heard, know that they are a critical part of our community, and that we value their feedback an input to make our district stronger and more welcoming. We need students and families to have clear reporting channels to address concerns and for them to know that the district will monitor and address concerns as they arise, even if they can’t be addressed in a specific requested manner.
We also need to make sure our schools are welcoming and inclusive, and that our teaching staff is representative of the wonderful diverse community we have in Ann Arbor.
What are your thoughts on how to recruit and retain staff, particularly staff of color, in your district with regard to pay, benefits, and working conditions?
The district must once again become an attractive place to teach.
We need to be financially stable. The first thing an applicant or a current employee is thinking about is the stability a job brings to their family. They need to have confidence in the future of their organization, and they need to be able to support themselves and their families in order to show up at their best.
We need to ensure that teachers feel heard and have a seat at the table as a key stakeholder in our district and in shaping the future of education in Ann Arbor Public Schools. They should have a voice in the content they are delivering to our students; they should be able to bring ideas to the table within their schools and to the district, and be able to gain traction in approaching things creatively.
We need to ensure that we grow sustainably, not only in size and the number of teachers/staff, but also in the programming that we offer. Teachers and educational staff, just like any other professional group, want to teach exciting content that engages our students and leaves our staff feeling proud of the difference they are making and the students they are shaping. Teachers and staff want to know that they can count on the district to provide the supports they need in the classroom. Ultimately, they also want to know that the district is a place for them to begin a career, find sustainable professional growth, and be a place they can see themselves having a long, stable, thought-provoking career, while contributing to the success of the students that walk through their classroom doors.
We need to think about the hiring pipeline. We need to offer support and recruit, not only from the best Universities, but also places that help us reach actionable goals in bringing diverse individuals to our district. Just as other professions are having to rethink hiring and recruiting, we need to be a place that looks for alternatives. We should continue and grow program that allow people to enter the district in support roles, obtain necessary certifications, and achieve access to becoming a teacher.
Last, but certainly not least, we need to ensure that the organizational climate in the district and within each of our schools is collaborative and supportive of the values we share in the Ann Arbor Public Schools community.