Elena McComas
Running for school board in Worcester County District 5
How old will you be on Election Day (Nov. 5)?
77
Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what is your job title?
Retired educator.
What is the highest level of education that you completed, and where did you get that degree?
Master of science, molecular biology, Johns Hopkins University.
Why are you running for the school board?
I have served on our school board for seven years and have watched our district make great strides in academic excellence (#1 in math, #2 in literacy) as well as instituting proven safety protocols including a resource officer in every school. With our updated Memorandum of Understanding put in place in September 2023, we have had a 28% decrease in incidences and been recognized by state agencies. I'm looking forward to being able to oversee our continuing success.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I'm a retired educator with 25 years as a high school biology teacher/science department chair and five years at California State University Long Beach as an instructor, student teacher supervisor and the Toyota Elementary Education Coordinator. I've been privileged to experience working in education on many levels.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
Finances and funding! With the state funding formula only providing less than 20%, our county bears 80% of our education budget despite a 53% poverty rate. We have spoken in front of the Kirwan Commission, Accountability and Implementation Board and the State Board of Education and aired our concerns. As our county tightens its belt, we are working to supplement some of our reduced funding through grant writing.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I may not agree with him on all the issues, but his tenacity against overwhelming opposition has been admirable. And his focus on food additives and agricultural practices is definitely an important issue.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, is a 10-year plan that includes increased education funding to support early childhood education, increased teacher starting pay, college/career-readiness standards for high school graduates, and expanded services to multilingual and impoverished families, among other goals. Please tell us your views on the Blueprint and how it will affect your school district.
There are some great ideas but absolutely no funding. For example, we all want our amazing teachers to be fairly compensated, but to mandate by law a starting salary of $60,000 with no state financial help is insane. Other counties have also expressed the same concerns. Hopefully they can slow down the mandate deadlines or provide more state monies.
Some school districts nationwide are placing new limits on the use of cellphones in middle and high schools. What do you think should be the policy on student use of cellphones in your district, and why do you support that policy?
Personally, as a teacher, I think cellphone bans would be helpful, but we do an extensive parent survey every year, and overwhelmingly, our parents are against cellphone bans, so we have devised protocols for different grade levels from placing phones in their lockers or book bags to individual teachers collecting phones on their desk before class starts. Obviously teaching students responsible use is paramount, but it will be an ongoing challenge.
Are you satisfied with your school district's efforts to ensure the safety of its students? What, if anything, should be done to improve school safety in your district?
Entrance into our schools are monitored by cameras with locked doors and a buzz-in system. During my time on the school board, we have also been able to place a resource officer in every school. Working with our officers, we were able to institute an updated Memorandum of Understanding in September 2023, which has resulted in a 28% drop in incidences this year. We have been recognized by various state agencies and groups for our success. However, our work is never done. Our District Safety Committee, comprised of parents, educators and safety personnel, is meeting regularly to look into other safety protocols.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries? If so, what kind of books should be removed, and who should make those decisions?
I oppose pornography in our school libraries. I have parents very concerned about this but also have parents who see the overall merits of certain books despite some passages. Instead of banning books, I was in favor of setting up a young adult section in our high school libraries, but the Freedom to Read Act has made that difficult. Thankfully we have had a parental opt-out process in place for a number of years. Any parent can go into our system and block their child from checking out specific books.
Some school districts enact policies allowing transgender and gender nonconforming students to use their preferred pronouns while at the same time not informing those students' parents about that decision. What is your opinion of such policies?
In education, I have always viewed our role as being in a partnership with our parents. Parents are the guardians of their minor children and should in no way be left out of major decisions such as this. Working hand in hand with parents to help our students should be our goal.
