School Board Candidate Edison Hatter
(6/2018) This month, we come to our first big milestone of this campaign season: the primary election. It is a very crowded race for the Board of Education this year, as thirteen qualified candidates seek four open seats. It is critical that Frederick County citizens vote in the primary election, as only the top eight candidates will
advance from the primary election to the general election. I hope that you will consider casting your ballot for me when you vote later this month.
I am a recent product of the Frederick County Public School system, having just graduated a couple of weeks ago. While I certainly enjoyed my time in the public school system, there are some issues I would like to address that have caused me to run for the board this year. While I obviously have personal experience at the high school level, I also
have experience with our younger students and the issues that they face. I volunteer with some of our kindergarten students in the county and also serve as a middle school science fair coordinator. Through these experiences, I have had the chance to speak to many students and parents and have heard their concerns. Finally, I am the current secretary of the
Citizens Advisory Council, a subcommittee to the Board of Education, and have had the opportunity to work with the council to make recommendations to the board on a variety of issues, including school start time and year-round education.
While there are many different issues that I believe strongly in and will fight for if I am elected to the board in November, my top priorities will be school safety, standardized testing, and proper funding for programs like the Career and Technology Center. First and foremost, no student or teacher in Frederick County should be afraid to go to
school. I believe we need to consider regarding school safety our top priority and we must consider expanding the school resource officer (SRO) program. Currently, one SRO is assigned to each of the ten different feeder patterns. That means that one officer is expected to cover three or four different schools at the same time. That is simply not possible. We must
work with the Frederick County SherriffÕs office to expand the program and ensure that an SRO is in every school for every minute of every school day.
Next, we have to address the standardized testing issue that our students are facing. Our middle school students take over twenty standardized tests a year on average, while our high school students are required to take dozens of benchmark exams. Even our preschoolers take six standardized tests on average. Standardized testing is a state level
issue and my hope would be to have the Frederick County Board of Education present to the State Board of Education on the topic. In the meantime, there is plenty that we can do at the county level to reduce the amount of testing, including informing students and parents about which tests are actually required and which ones are not.
Finally, programs like the Career and Technology Center need to be properly funded. The Career and Technology Center had over 700 applications for next school year, but will only be able to accept 360 of them due to size limitations. These programs provide an amazing opportunity for our high school students, and more students need to be given the
opportunity to take advantage of them. I hope that when it comes time to vote on June 26, you will consider voting for Edison Hatter for the Board of Education!
