Support Dr. Sam Yan
For School Board
Prioritize student mental health issues like anxiety, loneliness, depression, stress, and bullying early and proactively. Engage every student in group/team activities such as sports, drama, clubs, or JROTC. Collaborate with businesses and nonprofits to offer enriching after-school programs, keeping students occupied and reducing reliance on social media. Teachers need to have resources and training to work with parents to discover issues preemptively. I believe these issues should be addressed as early as in elementary school level.
Expand Junior ROTC program to all high schools Fostering leadership, responsibility, teamwork, discipline, physical fitness, and confidence, while promoting patriotism and character building. The Naval Sea Cadet Corps and the Air Force’s Civil Air Patrol are additional options for students to join starting in middle school. Scouting America is another popular option.
Measure LCPS education outcomes against international standards. To prepare students for global competitiveness and to serve this country. We should not keep lying to ourselves about our education system’s results. We must focus on challenging young minds with skills and knowledge.
Special education - collaborate with medical professionals and community services to support students in need Staff shortages and resource constraints cannot be resolved overnight. Collaborating with external professionals can introduce new treatments and methods to better support students in need. A recent article on learning to live with voices highlighted a surprising and encouraging psychosis treatment.
Build LCPS into a STEM powerhouse As one of the richest counties in the country, LCPS can collaborate with parents and communities to increase the number of STEM-focused students each year. The Academies of Loudoun should lead the way in fulfilling this mission and demonstrate measurable success.
Flexible school closures – school based, instead of county-wide. LCPS should make school closing decision by focusing on both safety and maximizing learning hours at schools. Schools closing doesn’t mean all school close together for weather reasons. If students can’t all physically make it to school, we can at least let those at school read books/self-study and still grow intellectually. Given the school closing decision to principals with proper communications with LCPS administrators.
Extend school hours for some schools. Title I schools, in particular, need flexible policies to provide additional learning hours for students in need.
Make school facilities available to private and non-profit educational organizations for after-school learning. Instead of transporting students from place to place, LCPS can collaborate with external educational resources to enhance learning opportunities and to improve outcomes, and ensure money is well spent. This can benefit greatly to students at Title I schools and reduce costs for those organizations as well.
Work with teachers (including retired teachers), to see which policies are holding back teachers Minimize non-teaching-related regulations and policies so teachers have more freedom to focus on instruction and helping students.
All desirable educational outcomes must be measured. All desirable educational outcomes should be evaluated historically and compared with similar counties. The data must be updated annually and made publicly accessible, including statistics on students who secure jobs, enroll in college, and find employment after college graduation (through voluntary reporting or surveys).
Ensure measurable literacy outcomes at the elementary school level Emphasize reading at the elementary school level and reward teachers for their part in motivating students to do so. Children need to able to learn and digest information by themselves when they reach middle school.
School safety – assign armed security guard to each elementary school. Given the gun problem unique to this country, we are better off being prepared than regretting later. Treat it purely as a safety issue, not a time for political statement.
Transparent and smart budgeting focused on directly and impartially paying and rewarding frontline teachers. Frontline teachers are our most valuable educational resources. Providing them with abundant financial support is the best way to ensure they can focus on their work without unnecessary worries.