Elena Brewer
Running for school board in St. Mary's County District 2
How old will you be on Election Day (Nov. 5)?
45
Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what is your job title?
Yes.
What is the highest level of education that you completed, and where did you get that degree?
Master’s degree, Liberty University.
Why are you running for the school board?
I am a mother of three currently in middle and high school in St. Mary's County Public Schools. My main priority is to promote excellence in education and not indoctrination. Our public schools should in no way become avenues for various special interest groups to promote their political agenda, such as radical gender theory, which attacks the children’s God-given identity and robs them of their innocence. I intend to promote age-appropriate teaching materials, stop the sexualization of children, and promote learning, and the building of character.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
As an educator myself, I have experience teaching children and teens on both sides of the Atlantic. I was born and raised in the USSR, experienced public education during and after the fall of the USSR and in the United States. I have seen what works, what doesn’t, what is destructive, and what builds a child/teen into a successful adult. As a parent and an educator, I see the dangers of our current system and the push to sexualize children K-12. I want to stop that and return to excellence in education.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
Empowering parents to have a voice in the education process inspires me to run for school board. My goal is to promote accountability in the education process, encourage the positive principles of equality over equity and promote merit-based learning. The United States has the best education system in the world. Let us preserve the quality of our system and seek to understand what made it great in the first place. Our children are our legacy and our letter written to future generations. I want St. Mary’s County Public Schools to leave a well-written letter behind. As a parent and educator, I want to protect the innocence of our children, rid our system of radical gender theory propaganda and return to excellence in education.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I admire Justice Thomas because he is an originalist who understands his role of guarding our Constitution and thus our liberty. I immigrated to this country because of its liberty, and I desire to serve my community on the school board so that I, too, can preserve our liberty, the liberty of every single parent and student in St. Mary's County Public Schools and guard our school system from turning into propaganda machines instead of centers of education. Education changed my life, and I want to protect the right to education for every student in St. Mary's County Public Schools.
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.
The Blueprint sounds great on paper; however, funding it is a great challenge for every county in Maryland. In St. Mary's County taxes will have to be raised in order to pay for it. The people of the county did not vote for this, nor are they in support of it, making the Blueprint a state overreach. The Blueprint largely addresses teacher compensation but not so much teacher retention. It is said, “People don’t quit a job, they quit a boss.” Are teachers leaving teaching or an employer? The support of the administration must improve the working conditions.
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?
I agree with the current cellphone policy in my district, limiting the use of cellphones during school hours. However, I am baffled at how fast the administration moved to enforce this new policy while ignoring many other important policies such as teacher and student dress code.
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?
The safety and well-being of every student in St. Mary's County Public Schools is essential. I will support the installment of metal detectors, will promote enforcing rigorous school discipline, will promote limiting access and time spent on electronic devices. I will promote an optimal learning environment with frequent breaks for elementary schools and additional learning opportunities through field trips. All online activity on a school issued device should be limited for educational purposes only. St. Mary's County Public Schools students should not have access to social media on school property or be able to access non-school related sites on school issued devices. The physical and mental health of every student is the responsibility of the parent/guardian and not the responsibility of St. Mary's County Public Schools schools.
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?
According to the board’s Accountability to the Community policy in St. Mary's County Public Schools, “The citizens elect a school board to represent them collectively, and to establish educational plans (including curriculum) and policies, and to establish educational goals and objectives.” The curriculum in St. Mary's County Public Schools must be “appropriate for the subject area and for the age” of the students (Instructional Resources and Materials Policy). I am running for the Board of Education because I would like to review our curriculum and establish age-appropriate educational materials for K-12 and eliminate any materials that sexualize children and are not appropriate for minors.
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?
According to St. Mary's County Public Schools policy on student conduct, "Each student will respect the educational process and learning environment of others by refraining from...any activities which diminish the rights of others and the opportunity for other students to receive an education and obtain the maximum benefit from a public education." Allowing any student to use age-inappropriate language with sexual meaning will diminish the rights of other students. Schools are for education not sexualization.
