SAISD District 3 trustee candidate Rachel Cywinski issued this statement of intent and qualifications to the media February 9, 2009, after filing for a place on the ballot:

 {SAISD SMD 3 includes precincts east of New Braunfels Avenue and south of Martin Luther King, continuing south until just past Loop 410 in one place, and west to South Presa Street.  It is bordered by other SAISD districts, as well as the boundaries of East Central ISD, Southside ISD, Harlandale ISD.  LET'S GET TELEPHONES SO OUR TEACHERS CAN CALL THE PARENTS!  VOTE CYWINSKI!}

Candidate statement of intent and qualifications (released February 9, 2009)

Rachel Cywinski, SAISD trustee candidate

My name is Rachel Cywinski (I use the Polish pronunciation, in English phonetically "tzē-vēēn-shkē").  I have given the San Antonio Independent School District 3 community the opportunity to select me as the next trustee because I believe that there are other members of our community who also believe we need a change in the focus of our board of education, and may feel that I can represent them.  If you are one of those community members, then I would like to share this information with you so you can decide whether to give me the responsibility to represent your interests.  I very much appreciate you taking the time to read this statement.

As a member of our community, I am very concerned about the lack of sense of community, and respect, in our school district.  I do not believe that it is only teachers, students or parents who need respect, but that all of us need to work together better as a community to fulfill our important mutual responsibility to graduate students who are responsible members of the larger community.

Our current board of education missed the opportunities to bring our teacher pay scale up to the current level of surrounding districts, and now that we have severely tightened revenue, we are thousands of dollars behind the neighboring districts in starting pay.  Local, highly-qualified certified teachers have been told the district is not hiring, while instead money is being spent on commercials to hire new college graduates from other states.  SAISD applicants are required to sign a statement not to hold the district accountable if they are defamed by the staff.  No other local district requires such an agreement.  As a community member, I wonder, "Would any self-respecting person sign this agreement?  What does this say about our district and the way it conducts business?"  I believe that we need a change.

Our district recently spent millions of dollars to upgrade facilities, and yet we still have students and personnel who are spending entire days out of their classrooms only because we do not have adequate accessibility for person with certain types of disabilities.  I personally addressed the board of education and asked them to stop locking out persons with disabilities.  Yet only after the United States Department of Education investigated did our district even add a ramp to the human resources department.  Why does it require so much effort for our district to do what common sense would suggest?  I believe that we need a change.

When our high school students arrive on Monday morning, their option for a full breakfast is "buttered wheat toast, crispito, dry cereal".  To end the week on Fridays their option is "buttered biscuit, crispito, dry cereal."  How can we expect our students to be alert in school and make wise decisions about their own nutrition when all we offer them is the cheapest carbohydrates that we can find?  For lunch, students are offered pizza and burgers at every meal-and sometimes even pizza for breakfast.  We charge them more for a dry piece of beef and a bleached bun ("Sandwich trimmings" cost $0.50 extra) than the closest fast food restaurant charges for a small burger with the vegetables.  Would any of us pay a full lunch price for "pizza, whole kernel corn, chilled pears"?  Then why are we asking our students to?  I believe that we need a change.

Our cafeteria workers have been reduced to food scoopers, selling prepackaged sausage biscuits and scooping every serving of cheese, beans, beef or vegetables into plastic containers so that the students have to assemble their own food.  While other districts are making money from recycling, we are spending money to create a huge stream of plastic waste with every meal.  What are we saying to our students when we are sending soldiers to the Middle East but at every meal we force them to throw away more plastic made from oil?  I believe that we need a change.

There are many things our district desperately needs which require money.  No students or teachers should be placed at risk the way that ours have, with many in classrooms where there is no way to summon assistance in the event that a student has a seizure, or there is a physical or verbal assault.  Our district is well below standard in regard to physical means of communication, such as intercom systems, telephones, and hall monitors.  But there are also ways to increase safety without a major investment.  Why are unauthorized adults and students wandering in and out of so many of our schools while they are in session?  Changing this only requires a change of attitude.  I believe that we need a change.

I have visited many different schools in the San Antonio area to see what they are doing well.  Our students are at a huge disadvantage compared to many others when applying for employment, admission to college, and scholarships because our district does not have a volunteer service requirement for graduation.  Many of our students would benefit not only by realizing that they have something to offer to their school and their community, but by the resulting contacts they would develop.  Even spending ten hours to mentor younger students and another ten hours helping at a local church or community organization opens windows of understanding and opportunity.  Rather than looking for something to do other than watch television, our students could be learning to assist each other, learning to grow vegetables in gardens, and learning how to benefit society with their own individual talents.  Self-confidence and better communication skills are among the major benefits.

Right now our district assigns mentors to students who are failing.  Why do we wait until students are failing to notice them?  Let's develop a program where every student has a mentor, whether it be an older student, a teacher or a responsible member of the community who volunteers at the schools.  Education is not just something that occurs when students are at school.  To really prepare them for life, we must all work together as a community-trustees, faculty, staff, parents, community members-and most importantly the students. 

I invite you to work with me to improve our district.  Whether you believe that I am the person who can best represent you or you select another trustee, I ask that we all work together to make our district a place of respect and value, where we graduate all of our students for them to be responsible members of society.

I thank you for your consideration.

 

Information about the candidate for your consideration:

Current employment:

Alamo Community College District (since July 2004)

University of the Incarnate Word (since October 15, 2007)

Previously held publicly-elected office:

Multiple terms as precinct chair in current and former precinct

Public service:

At-large Citizen Representative, Pedestrian Mobility Advisory Committee of the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization (formerly the Southeast Citizen Representative of the MPO's Pedestrian Mobility Task Force)

Commitment to Volunteer Service:

During high school, college, and most of her adult life, Ms. Cywinski has volunteered an average of between 500 and 1000 hours annually with a variety of organizations.

Commitment to learn best practices in teaching secondary mathematics:

In addition to employment in the area of mathematics, Ms. Cywinski has spent hundreds of hours as a volunteer, and volunteer observer, in public and private schools to learn what great math teachers do.

e-mail:  UrbanPlanner@satx.rr.com

phone:  (210) 532 4123

 

Educational background:

Master of Arts in Teaching candidate for May 2009 graduation,

University of the Incarnate Word

Specialization:  Secondary Education, with 24 graduate credits hours in mathematics

• Scholarship winner, University of the Incarnate Word mathematics contest for college students, 2007
• Scholarship recipient, graduate science and mathematics program
• Founding President, Walk, Roll & Read student organization which advocates for students with disabilities, sponsors the annual Deaf Awareness Night and the annual Disability Awareness Week, and was named the student organization "most in keeping with the university's mission" in 2008
• Founding member, The Recyclers student organization which advocated for and collaborated to begin campuswide recycling
• Staff writer, The LOGOS student newspaper

-also admitted to UIW doctoral program in mathematics education, with intended specialization in statistics and proposed research specialization in the acquisition of mathematics by Deaf teenagers

Associate of Arts, San Antonio College, 2007

Major:  American Sign Language

• Served as Student Representative on the college Disability Committee

Associate of Applied Science, Palo Alto College, 2004

Major: Logistics Management

Certificate:  Transportation Management

• Served as President of the Student Government Association

Bachelor of Business Administration, Baylor University, 1985

Majors:  Business Economics, International Business + National Merit Commended Scholar

National Search and Rescue, through Texas A & M UniversityCertified to instruct emergency management trainers on the national level

"Highly-qualified" secondary mathematics instructor as defined by the terms of "No Child Left Behind" federal legislation