Misty Fronk for School Board 2023

Goals

• Get student proficiency in math & reading up to 60% or 70%. Proficiency rates in 2019 were 11.3% in English & 8.9% in math, according to SAT tests.
• "give [kids] a voice"
• Sit down with any parents, teachers, or students who have concerns to bring to the School Board.
• Develop volunteer-driven education programs to help students
• get "back to the basics" of reading, writing, and math
• She says she will have "an open-door policy for all who want to speak to me directly"
• She says board memebers should "hold each other accountable before passing the buck on to teachers and parents and so forth," in order to promote transparency.
• "[fight] to make all meetings public record and offering information on how to obtain them."
• Give teachers and principals a year-end evaluation to find "the biggest issues they faced", then let the superintendent evaluate the evalutations & communicate issues to the board.
• She advocates for "more teachers in classrooms," to help struggling kids and keep lessons on-track for students who are doing well.

Current Roles / Jobs

• Certified Nurse Assistant. Her Statement of Economic Interest shows that she received over $7,500 from "Mowequa Health Care" last year.

Endorsed By

Misty Fronk has no endorsements from organizations we've reviewed. We have reviewed endorsements from Macon County Democrats, Decatur Labor & Trades Assembly, Central Illinois PAC, and Decatur Education Association.

Past roles / Jobs

We don't have this history on Misty Fronk.

Personal History / Info

• Fronk has been in Decatur for about 5 years.
• Age 55

Additional Information:

• Student proficiency rates in Decatur Public Schools for 2019 were 11.3% in English and Language Arts, and 8.9% in math, according to SAT Scores.
• She says her primary reason for running is because of student proficiency data provided by Illinois Family Institute, an organization that "encourage[s] parents to remove their children from government schools" according to an IFI article.
• Illinois Family Institute opposes LGBTQ friendly legislation

Statements / Quotes

• "we as citizens of Decatur are failing our children. We're setting them up to fail."
• Her daughter left the state "because of the public school systems here" and her grandkids are "thriving" in their new schools.
• the "6%" student proficiency rate is "pathetic" and that she "feel[s] sorry for the children."
• She thinks if we can get the children to believe they can "be somebody," it will help with "what's going on in the society".
• She said that violence in schools is largely a product of schools failing the kids.
• "I'm not real familiar with what exactly" the current school board is doing well or what existing programs should be expanded.
• Fronk blames low proficiency rates on parents, teachers, and voters for electing school board members that "don't really care that our proficiency levels are this low."
• She's concerned that it's hard to fill out a job application or do common job duties if these skills aren't developed.
• She says kids in single-parent homes can especially struggle because parents are busy working, sometimes caring for other kids, and may unintentionally forget to handle school work.
• She says others have "brought problems to the table" but "I do not see any true solutions" being offered, despite various proposals by all of her opponents.
• She encourages people to attend school board meetings
• "We as a team — and by team I mean our teachers, our principals, our parents and superintendent — need to feel not just comfortable but encouraged to bring issues to our attention"
• "But with even something as simple as an end of year evaluation, we as a school board will have a common ground to begin discussion regardless of our term length, and no one knows more about these issues than our frontline staff."
• She says she's talked to other grandmothers at her job whose families have left Illinois because of the education system. She says taxes are part of why families leave Illinois, but the education system is a big contributor too
• She says our district doesn't need 100% proficiency rates, but at least 60% or 70% to show that we really are educating the students of Decatur. She says she will push for reading, writing, and math proficiency if she is elected.
• She is concerned that her grand-daughter, who read at a 1st grade level while in 4th grade was "being pulled out of classes at the critical time when she needed to learn," due to having an Individualized Education program. She says at the new district, where her daughter & grandaughters moved to, they "push her to be in a classroom with her peers," but they have extra teachers in the classrooms to assist struggling kids. She says the new district's teachers don't "point [struggling kids] out in front of everybody". She talks about an after-school reading lab & math lab that the new district has, run by teachers who volunteer their time.
• She says the whole community needs to get involved, especially with after-school programs like a reading lab, math lab, and english lab. She says this won't take from the school budget as these programs would be volunteer driven, involving parents, older students, and members of the community at large.
• Misty says the district needs to bring back trades like wood shop, auto shop, and home-economics so kids who feel they don't "fit the barrier to qualify with everybody else" will graduate knowing they have a skill and "can be a productive person in society."
• She says "the teachers have to feel like they're safe in their classrooms," in order to teach effectively.
• She says "If the teachers felt safe and [they] felt like the community," the school board, and the super intendent were behind them "they would stay in Decatur and our schools would flourish," since teachers would be able to focus on teaching instead of discipline.
• She says there "will be signs" before violence occurs and she wants to pull children aside to get to the root cause of their feelings & why they're acting out, whether it's struggling with school or "maybe something at home".
• "it's good for everybody to know complete history, whether it be black history or lgbtq," but "if we're going to teach children history that may be contradictory to their parents beliefs, or whatever, the parents should be notified in writing and have to sign something saying that they are okay with you teaching their child that, at that particular time."
• "We have to make sure that when we do teach this, that the teachers are very well prepared, so that they don't misconstrue a child into thinking, you know, anything that they're saying can be taken out of context or racist, because history, yaknow, we wouldn't want a child to think that a teacher is talking about the lgbt community and she's racist because she's talking about that. So we have to make sure that, if we're going to teach that, the teachers are educated on how to present it so it doesn't sound like they're downgrading one part of the history over another part."
• She suggests that there be home economics or wood shop or auto shop classes, "or even have a class of finance or job skills". She suggests a semester where they "do nothing but learn how to apply for a job" or "how to write a resume". She says "not everybody goes to college," and these classes would help prepare those students who don't.

Sources

• Misty Fronk concerned about student proficiency rates - March 7, 2023
• School Board Forum
• Herald & Review's 'Meet The Candidates'