Thelma Byers-Bailey currently serves as the vice chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board.
Occupation
Attorney at Law
Involvement with the school district (employment, kids in the system, volunteer, appointed or elected roles):
I am a CMS graduate. I have two grandchildren who are graduates from CMS schools. I have volunteered as a reading buddy and a math tutor at the Walter G. Byers Academy.
I have served District 2 for almost 9 years at their representative on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. I have served almost 2 years as Vice-Chair of the school board. I have been elected to represent CMS and the greater geographic area for 2 terms on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina School Boards Association (NCSBA).
Political experience:
I have served my neighborhood at President of the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Association for over 15 years. I have also served one term as treasurer of my local precinct.
Education and/or political advocacy groups you’re affiliated with:
I am affilliated with the Black Political Caucus, the African-American Caucus of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party, the Senior Dems, and the Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County as well as my local Democratic precinct.
Other relevant experience:
I graduated from West Charlotte Senior High School; from Fisk University with BA; from St. Louis University with a JD and a MA. Having been admitted to the California Bar, I worked at the Pasadena Legal Services before opening my own solo law practice in Sacramento, CA where I served as the President of the Wiley Manuel Bar Association.
Political affiliation:
I am a registered Democrat
What actions should the school board take to improve outcomes for students and schools that are performing below expectations?
The school board should continue to monitor the progress of the students in accordance with the smartened goals and guardrails the board set forth in the CMS updated strategic plan. If the reports do not indicate that students scores are improving, the board should make sure strategies are being implemented that will demonstrate improvement by the next report.
The board should also look to those schools that are repeatedly exceeding growth as models for what other schools should implement to produce similar results.
What are the district’s most significant funding needs, and what should the board do to meet them?
The district's most significant funding need is increased salaries for teachers and other school staff. We do not have enough highly qualified teachers and principals to staff all our low performing schools. The board has and will continue to lobby our state legislators to increase their pay as well as allow our retired staff to return to work to make up the difference without salary penalties. The board has and will continue to urge our county partners to supplement our educator's salaries to levels that will stop the outflow of our staff to counties and states that pay dramatically more than CMS can currently offer..
How would you rate current leadership of the district (board and superintendent)? What changes would you propose?
I believe our Interim Superintendent is doing an outstanding job of re-aligning our learning communities to be more effective. I believe our current board has adopted and is enforcing the Student Outcomes Focused Governance (SOFG) model of oversight with fidelity that will prove to lay the best foundation for student success. I believe the board needs to keep its hand on that plow while it endeavors to embark on a search for our next Superintendent with community input on what qualities they believe we need in our future Superintendent.
What should the board do to improve safety for students and employees?The board needs to make sure the Multi Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is fully staffed with the numbers of Social Workers, Councilors and Psychologists necessary to make sure every student's needs are met and all barriers to learning have been mitigated.
Are there additional issues, themes or characteristics that you see as central in your campaign?
I believe that over the 9 years I have been on this board, I have taken the time to travel across this country and to listen and learn from experts in education on what it takes to educate every child regardless of their background, their language or their disability. I have persevered to solve problems I have observed in both CMS as well as the communities we serve. I have endeavored to make myself available to parents, students, staff and community members who have expressed concerns and I have advocated for their solutions. My phone rings sometimes non-stop and most callers are grateful, saying that I am the only one who actually answers their phone.
I have been a servant-leader who has climbed the mountains of some of problems I have observed and produced some successes. When I was at one of the national conferences, I was advised not to hesitate to seek another term on our board because I now have a vision of what the next mountains are that need to be scaled - that my experiences make me even more of an asset to the students and community that I serve.