A YEAR LATER, NEIGHBORS APPEASED AS ALCUIN SCHOOL ADDS BUILDINGS 34
APRIL 2016 I Vol. 12, No. 4 prestonhollowpeople.com facebook.com/phollowpeople @phollowpeople
Four Race to Replace Morath on DISD Board SPECIAL ELECTION CALLED FOR DISTRICT 2 SEAT
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By Britt E. Stafford
People Newspapers
W
ith Mike Morath‘s departure for the state capitol this January, the District 2 seat on the Dallas Independent School District board is vacant. With no incumbent and four new faces, voters’ selection come May might not be easy. Coming from all across the District 2 area – which consists of 15 schools – each candidate entered the race with different backgrounds and a wide array of issues to present to voters.
Mita Havlick Candidate Mita Havlick considers herself an invested parent in the public school system. With her two children in DISD schools, she has participated as a volunteer on the PTA and the Site Based Decision Making Committee at Stonewall Jackson Elementary. “... I think being an advocate is one thing, but being entrenched is a different kind of investment,” Havlick said. While Havlick has many issues she wishes to address if selected, one topic she spoke adamantly about is improving infrastructure instead of putting bandages on problems. Part of her campaign addresses directing funding into classrooms, which, according to Havlick, could reduce adminis-
CAMPS
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trative costs. “Our facilities are terrible. We have some gem schools … but there are too few of them. I’ve been in a classroom where I’ve actually seen maggots fall from the ceiling. No child should ever have to sit through that,” she said. Another topic Havlick commented on was cross-community bonding. Promoting feeder patterns across the district would allow students to experience different programs that may not be offered in a child’s school, she said. “We tend to stick to our feeder patterns and it would be really wonderful if we could ac-
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Suzanne Smith, Dustin Marshall, and Mita Havlick, pictured above, and Carlos Marroquin are vying for Mike Morath’s seat. tually cross communities and leverage what works and find out what doesn’t work,” Havlick said. “Every feeder-pattern is different, every community is different, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t commonalities.” As a former sales and technology executive, the now stay-at-
LIVING WELL
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home mom believes she brings the entrenched parent volunteer perspective to the race. If elected, early childhood education, and recruitment and retention of quality principals and teachers are two additional issues Havlick hopes to change. “I wouldn’t do this if I really didn’t believe in public education … [and] if I didn’t believe I could assist in making the system better for all families,” Havlick said.
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