She is one of six running for two open seats on the Board of Education.
Jaime Kiersten Brennan
Frederick, Md (KM) There are six candidates running three open seats on the Frederick County Board of Education, and one of them is Jaime Brennan.
She spoke about why she is running during a recent appearance on WFMD’s “Morning News Express.” “I just felt like our schools are at a tipping point,”: Brennan said. “Our academics are atrocious. Our kids are not performing well. They’re not doing well. They’re not prepared to go out to life.”
And Brennan says she has seen that as a trustee of the Frederick Classical Charter School. “I worked extensively with the public schools, and I just saw the dysfunction. I saw how they tried to sabotage in some ways what was working. And I just felt overall we need a change of direction in this county,” says Brennan.
She talked about the School System’s Policy 443. It states that public schools should be welcoming and affirming for transgender and gender non-conforming students. Brennan strongly objects. “It allows the School System to keep secret from parents if their children are asking to use a different identity or pronouns at school,” she says.
Policy 443 says that school staff are authorized to work with these students on providing options that support their needs. It also says that can involve the family if the student’s wishes for it.
“It basically authorizes the School District to refer these children, these minors, to outside services and it basically allows to social transition a child at school,”: says Brennan.
The policy also allows students to participate in school sports and physical education classes in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity. In addition, the policy allows students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Arrangements can be made if the student feels uncomfortable about using gender-segregated facilities, whether they are gender conforming or gender non-conforming, the policy says. That can include privacy curtains, private restrooms or office restrooms, or a separate changing schedule. .
On another topic, Brennan said she favors increasing career and technology programs for interested students. She noted that the Career and Tech Center cannot expand at its current location on Opposumtoen Pike, and suggests some of the programs be moved to other high schools. “Part of the problem is our Career and Technology Center which is fantastic,. includes so many career options. But not all the career options need an HVAC shop, or a welding {shop}. They can be done in regular classrooms or lease another building,” says Brennan.
She also said the School System needs to develop partnerships with local businesses which may employ these students after they graduate. “We don’t have any exterior partnerships. We kind of work in a silo. The Board of Education they really don’t want to engage these outside partners. So I think we really need to look at doing those things too,”: she says.
Brennan also said that not everyone who wants to attend the Career and Technology Center can get in. “We actually turn away kids for not necessarily performing well in their regular classes, and/or having some attendance problems,” she says. “In those classes, those are the kids who actually need it most because what they’re telling us is that the traditional model that they’re getting in our classrooms doesn’t work for them, and they probably need a more hands-on option.”
She said most of these students would do very will in a Career and Technology program. “They could excel in a field where they work with their hands or they have to think on the fly,” says Brennan. “Then they could take what math that they hate learning how to do and apply it to actually doing something functional, and now it makes sense to them.”
The five other candidates for the Board of Education are Colt Morningstar Black, Josh Bokee, Veronica Lowe, Janis Monier and Chad Wilson.
General Election day is Tuesday, November 5th. Early voting is taking place this week through Thursday, October 31st from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM each day.
By Kevin McManus