Basic Information
Email michaeljfryar@gmail.com
Website anewdawn4boe.com
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
The impact of school closures on children’s learning and mental health was astounding. That elected officials will ignore clear scientific guidance and guidelines in favor of fear mongering and superstition is also impressive but for all the wrong reasons.
2 – If you could go back and do one thing differently from what was done in the last two years in Montgomery County what would you change?
Allowing children to attend school in person.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
Learning loss due to school closures from the pandemic. A rising crime rate both in our schools and our community. A lack of focus on issues impacting children and single parents in our communities.
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
Allow teachers to teach their classes by removing burdens and administrative blocks which prevent teachers from engaging with children directly and focusing on core subjects such as reading, writing and math. Support principals in dealing with criminal activity in schools. Engaging with parents to find out what programs or supports they need to thrive rather than just shoving programs on them we think might work.
5 – Would you consider supporting changes to electoral process such as open primaries or non-partisan elections in Montgomery County to allow 155,000+ registered Unaffiliated/Independents in Montgomery County to vote locally when it counts?
Yes.
Questions & Responses (BOE)
1 – What will you do to ensure MCPS is accountable to the BOE for decisions, contracts, and spending?
Ensure that any request for funds is fully vetted and justified. That there are no duplicate services in place or substitute services that can achieve the same goal. Go through current contracts with the same eye for justification and duplication.
2 – Would you ever consider going fully virtual again given the costs seen in hindsight (increased mental health issues, lowered test scores, and increased violence)?
Will not take the full system virtual. Any virtual system in place that families choose needs to be vastly improved, vetted, and guaranteed to achieve goals.
3 – Do you support the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy/science of reading?
This is not about reading. This is about teaching how to decode. There is a vast difference between teaching someone how to decode a word and understand it vs. teaching someone how to read. Most of the focus of research, in balanced literacy and science of reading, focuses on the brain and how it turns squiggles on a page into words and how we can more efficiently teach the brain to translate those squiggles.
Reading is understanding the emotion, intent, subtext and story on the page in front of us. Any printed material, from comic books to novels, short stories to non-fiction, can be used to teach reading. The more enjoyable by the reader, the better, faster and more efficient.
By focusing on decoding we lost ground on reading. We might have a large number of students who are able to decode the word “love” but do not understand its use in context of the story.
4 – What is your plan for continued recovery from learning loss and proficiency issues related to covid and virtual?
Allow teachers to teach their classes by removing burdens and administrative blocks which prevent teachers from engaging with children directly and focusing on core subjects such as reading, writing and math.
5 – What do you think MCPS should do to deal with staffing issues, subs, and make MCPS a place that people seek out for employment again?
Get rid of the barriers that are put in place by administration for data collection. Get rid of constant testing. Allow teachers to teach their classes by removing burdens and administrative blocks which prevent teachers from engaging with children directly and focusing on core subjects such as reading, writing and math.