Cris Carusi is running for School Board Seat 3
What is the biggest challenge facing Madison schools?
"We need inclusivity and grassroots to narrow achievement gaps. We need to better at bottom up grassroots solution. We need more teacher voice on school based leadership team and we need to give them more flexibility to respond to unique cultures to the kids they teach. We need adequate staffing and more time to collaborate to share ideas on creative solutions to narrow gaps and students need voice to come up with solutions and described the challenges they face."
Why are you qualified to help fix this problem?
"My main qualification is how I work. I’m a community organizer. I've been an organizer for decades. I ask questions and genuinely listening without my agent getting in way and find common ground to move forward on issues. I think that is important given how complicated our achievement gaps are. If there is one way to fix, it would be fixed by now. It will take a whole lot of people and to fix this, many beyond the borders of MMSD. so my approach is going to be able to implement those skills and address this difficult challenge."
When it comes to fixing this problem, what’s more important to your vision: finding consensus (making everybody happy), reaching compromise (everybody gives up something), or sticking to principles?
'Consensus is ideal, but in most consensus-based processes I’ve worked in, there is some give and take. Compromise almost always happens even when there is consensus. I don’t like to let principles get in way of serving my community. But everyone has lines they won't cross.'
