Johnny Boucher

Johnny Boucher

Contact

Personal website

Johnny Boucher was a candidate for Place 4 representative on the Grand Prairie Independent School District school board in Texas. Boucher was defeated in the by-district general election on May 6, 2017.

Elections

2017

See also: Grand Prairie Independent School District elections (2017)

Three of the seven seats on the Grand Prairie Independent School District school board in Texas were up for general election on May 6, 2017. In his bid for re-election to the Place 2 seat, incumbent Chester McCrary ran unopposed and won another term. In the race for the Place 4 seat, appointed incumbent Aaron King defeated challenger Johnny Boucher. The race for the open, at-large Place 3 seat included candidates Gloria Carrillo and Christopher Riddick. Carrillo won election to the seat.

Results

Grand Prairie Independent School District, Place 4 General Election, 3-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Aaron King Incumbent	66.07%	440
Johnny Boucher	33.93%	226
Total Votes		666
Source: Dallas County Elections, "2017 Joint Election," accessed September 20, 2017

Funding

See also: Campaign finance in the Grand Prairie Independent School District elections

Boucher reported $14,472.47 in contributions and $5,248.77 in expenditures to the Grand Prairie Independent School District, which left his campaign with $9,223.70 on hand as of April 28, 2017.

Endorsements

Boucher was endorsed by Texas Democrats and the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.

Campaign themes

2017

Candidate website

Boucher highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:

“	EDUCATION LEADERSHIP FROM EDUCATORS Local leadership has the power to bring change directly, through conversations with the community. Teachers spend each day with the children of diverse families, and we bring about unity in those spaces. We teachers are ready to partner, not just with children, but with families and the whole of the city to lead social change. We know our children are the future, and we have devoted our lives to working with young people. We know that learners thrive in smaller class sizes, crafted with purpose, beauty, and safety, where the student is the center of activity. We know that the “results” of testing outcomes are a natural product of whole child development, not the central focus. We need a return to the role of the administrator as guide and support to teachers, with the leadership of those who have demonstrated success in the classroom. Reform in education involves the voice and success of everyone in the community, at all levels of the society. Ultimately, no policies will be successful without acknowledging the needs and voices of children, parents, and teachers. It is time for community-centered leadership. I am the product of public schools my entire life coming up in Oak Cliff, and I bring a passion for uniting cultures, across race and class. At Eduardo Mata Montessori Elementary School, a public school where I currently work in East Dallas, we received the Superintendent’s Award for Parent Engagement, because that attitude pervades all of our work. Our schools can equalize, mobilize, and unite. Of the superior education I have received, I come to give back. EQUALITY High-quality public education is a universal human right. Reform in education must focus on making schools a place of safety and unity for all students. We can close achievement gaps between children of color and white students, between economically disadvantaged students and materially secure students, between disabled students and typical learners. Educators know which practices lead to more race and class segregation—excessive testing, privatized school services, deregulated education policies, union-hostile environments, budget cuts, and school “grades” without context. High powered education donors oppose appropriate levels of funding for our public schools and sway votes toward their goals of school privatization. We also know that addressing racial segregation in our schools will ne a necessary step to equalizing school outcomes. That will involve challenging the status quo, because we know that schools must be free and accessible to all, properly funded, and the seat of democracy. One of my awards for Innovative Teaching from the Junior League of Dallas focused on ways of including discussions about disability in our existing curriculum. Social and emotional learning is finally being recognized as just as important as academic success. When I received the Teacher of the Year award from the Chamber of Commerce, judges appreciated my time curriculum writing for the district, incorporating international methods of justice and peace education into our instructional pacing calendars, which connects to my goals as a Montessorian—a Montessori teacher. Every season, I look forward to receiving Teaching Tolerance magazine, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, to support teachers in building more just communities for learners. As school board trustee, I would break the silence about inequality and work with community members to facilitate critical conversations toward unity and trust. ETHICS Ethics means doing the right thing. Our state has more than enough money to fund robust education. There are huge volumes of research available with data on what works in education. But at the heart of it, schools have to be places where students can be happy learning. We have to reimagine education—no longer as a product that we deliver to students, then test for efficiency. It is a lifelong undertaking initiated by the whole society, for the whole child. Egalitarian society needs school environments where the learners feels like what they are learning is useful and engaging. We can promote curriculum approaches that build a child’s ability to concentrate, to participate meaningfully, and apply learning to the real world. This is our ethical obligation. In alignment with my commitment to ethics, I will hold responsible office-holders who have not criticized school privatization and charter school profiteering, politicians who have allowed testing to dominate classroom focus, and politicians who have minimized the role of unions in protecting the careers of teachers. As your candidate for Grand Prairie ISD school board, I commit myself to the ethical position of developing the strength of our schools. I also intend to hold my colleagues on the board equally accountable. As an overarching goal, we must use schools as the meeting space of the entire community, to develop the entire child. To issue a challenge, yes, education is the cornerstone of a just society. Yet, it is our starting point. From the school, we can build a cohesive community; from the cohesive community, we can build a collective voice in unity. From a voice in unity, we will achieve justice together.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

The Dallas Morning News survey

Boucher participated in the following survey conducted by The Dallas Morning News. The questions provided by The Dallas Morning News appear bolded, and Boucher's responses follow below.

Why are you running for this office, and why should voters choose you over your opponent(s)?

“	Education policy leadership should have educators at the helm. Too often, school boards are led by individuals with no scholarly background in education policy and no experience in the classroom. The stakes are too high not to have experts from the field. I bring graduate scholarship in education and daily experience in schools as a teacher. My record is that of an accomplished public schools teacher. I am a teacher. I bring competencies in education consulting, literacy strategy, and transformational schools. I also have an extensive background in early childhood pedagogy, which is the foundation of all of our success in schools. I have also studied the ways we test students on a graduate level and will work to reduce overtesting. We know that one of the greatest predictors of high school graduation is pre-K attendance. To bring up the quality of our early childhood offerings in Grand Prairie, we need early childhood experts guiding district policy initiatives. With my help, Grand Prairie could implement the best scholarship in education. I have invested my entire adult life in becoming a scholar of the best practices in education. As a doctoral student of education at Johns Hopkins University, one of the top-ranked education colleges in the nation, I have access to the guidance of the foremost education policy scholars in the world. Finally, I am the father of two children, a third-grade girl and a kindergarten boy. As graduates of public schools, my wife and I know that their future-- and the future of the entire community-- depends on high-quality public schools. The effects of how we evaluate and compensate our teachers, how we plan quality early childhood programs, and how we provide support to principals matters. It matters in the millions of dollars we spend every year and in the thousands of lives we touch. Although I know the theory behind the science of education, this is not just theory for me. Schools are my every day. I ask the voters to allow me to volunteer the next two years of my life as a school board trustee, to let me work for you.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

If elected, what two issues would you give the most attention and resources?

“	Grand Prairie has many specialized schools for academic and vocational interests, something I would like to support and strengthen. In conversations with the community, I would like to investigate interest in bringing a specialized early childhood school. Montessori is a popular early childhood option for private schools. My professional background has been in bringing Montessori to transformational campuses, to give the best to every child-- not just those who can afford it or who can meet acceptance criteria. We have many opportunities to innovate specialized schools for early childhood in Grand Prairie, and I want to lead and support that effort. I would like to partner with parents, administrators, and staff to investigate our success at properly compensating teachers in Grand Prairie. As a teacher in Dallas, I am offered 45% more teacher salary than in my home-city. I find it unacceptable that our most talented Grand Prairie teachers are traveling an hour or two in traffic to be properly paid for their work in Dallas. I would like to open a formal coalition for planning options for compensation structures that compete and retain talent better than the current pay-for-years-of-service model. There are ways to do this in a financially solvent way, which will be supported by my doctoral mentorship in education organizational finance and the most up-to-date research on the subject. We can do this better.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

For non-incumbent trustees: Have you attended any school board meetings? If so, what have you learned about how a board member can be effective?

“	Yes, I am a regular school board attended in Dallas. I have been inspired by the leadership of Dr. Lew Blackburn over a long career in education in Dallas, as well as Miguel Solis, a younger trustee who has achieved tremendous impact by focusing on reforms to student discipline and teacher evaluation. In three areas, an effective school board member: (1) Supports others to functions cohesively as a group-- through operating within norms, demonstrating leadership, and articulating cohesiveness; (2) Acts within the defined roles of the trustee-- through exercising appropriate authority, taking initiative, and resisting pressure; and, (3) Makes decisions through consensus-- through accessing relevant information, discussing deliberately, and considering multiple perspectives.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

As you look around the country, what innovative ideas would you recommend for improving classroom performance?

“	The best innovation currently in practice in the US is to allow neighborhood schools to be transformed into the specialized learning environment that meets that community's needs. Grand Prairie has been very successful with creating neighborhood arts schools, science schools, and vocational schools of many kinds. We need to build on this model and enhance early childhood innovation schools to include Montessori and dual language enrichment preschools. Montessori students perform better at early literacy attainment, executive function (thinking skills), and social skills. Moreover, these kinds of school offerings in early childhood focus on the whole picture of the child as an individual, not just the product of tests. It would greatly enhance interest in our school district and would draw people to move to our city and move children back to the public sector.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

Many districts are exploring creative ways to save money or shift costs to parents and students. What creative measures would you favor or oppose and why?

“	I oppose national and state efforts to take funds from a neighborhood school and apply them to a private school or for-profit charter. In this model, greatly favored by Secretary of Education DeVos, local schools are impoverished and forced to operate on a skeleton staff, or close. Students are cherry-picked by for-profit charters, and disabled and struggling students are excluded. While this may "save money" in private school tuition, the costs to the entire community are grave. The cornerstone of democracy is a thriving public school. Every child should have access to public pre-K. Currently, according to state law, only families who meet income and specialized criteria may send a child to free public pre-K. Until pre-K can be universally offered as part of free public school for all children, I do support allowing parents to pay income-scaled tuition, if parents do not qualify by low-income criteria. We want all children in our community preschool, as a foundation for school readiness and a love of learning. This has been wildly popular in Dallas, as a high-quality alternative to daycare-- imagine, a certified early childhood specialist teacher in every environment, stimulating exploration, conversation, and discovery in those valuable early years.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

The state has adopted an A through F accountability system for district and campuses. Do you favor or oppose this system and why?

“	I oppose this system as too simple for the complexities of each campus and district. Furthermore, the simplification penalizes campuses which welcome lower-achieving students and students with disabilities, artificially making them appear failing-- when in fact, these campuses are doing some of our best work for student growth. The letter does not give a picture of growth, of the population, or of the story of who this school is. It can be demoralizing to teachers and drive qualified professionals away from good schools, just based on the letter.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

How would you assess the district’s efforts to improve graduation rates and increase the number of students prepared for college? What further improvements would you advocate?

“	Grand Prairie has a robust implementation of the most broadly accepted innovation for supporting diverse learners, three-tiered model of intervention, Response to Intervention. In RTI, students are grouped for support in the classroom, instead of delivering the same instruction to all students. Further inquiry is needed into campuses with a persistent achievement gap for race and poverty, to assure fidelity to the RTI model. Local instructional coaches and administration can support teachers to implement individualized instruction and targeted interventions, which can be more time-consuming. However, meeting the learner at exactly the points where support is needed and involving parents in that growth-- that is the only way to close those gaps. Additionally, we know that the greatest predictor of later success at a collegiate level is pre-K attendance and early childhood literacy before the third grade. We need to expand high-interest school options for early childhood, tuition-based pre-K for those who do not qualify for the free option, and the rigor of our early literacy curricula.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

What schools in your district have been particularly effective in getting every child up to grade level in reading and math?

“	The Ellen Ochoa STEM Academy has been an exciting development to watch in my neighborhood. When I graduated with a degree in education in 2008, this school was a low-achieving neighborhood school, then named Ben Milam Elementary. After spending the previous two years in teaching practica in Irving and Dallas, the state of the facilities was a shock to me. Parent engagement was quite low. It was a financial struggle to work at this school. However, in the years that followed, since 2012, I have observed the building rebuilt, the staff reenergized, and the curriculum focused with the help of instruction specialists. This school is now a point of pride for the entire community-- but most importantly, for the students, who feel a whole coalition of support and belief in their abilities as scholars.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

How would you assess your district’s current school choice efforts, and what changes are needed?

“	As discussed previously, school choice efforts to provide specialized schools are the height of positive innovation in public schools. More emphasis on specialized, high-quality options in early childhood are needed.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

How would you assess your superintendent’s performance?

“	I appreciate the experience that Dr. Hull brings to GPISD, and I look forward to collaborating with her on the basis of her praxis scholarship in education. Dr. Hull has been a visionary in supporting the expansion of choice schools within the public framework, and it has increased staff enthusiasm and parent satisfaction for the district at large. I would like to support Dr. Hull in developing visions in Montessori offerings, as well as in retaining more of the highest qualified staff in GPISD. I believe there are more effective ways to reward teacher and administrator performance, based on success in Dallas ISD, and I look forward to purposeful conversations on that subject.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

Where do you stand on the importance of early-childhood education? Would you support increasing class-size ratios at other grade levels in order to introduce or expand pre-K?

“	Early childhood education is of key importance to later success; it is the foundation for everything we do. Introducing and expanding pre-K does not require increasing class sizes at all. In GPISD, expanding pre-K for federally-qualifying students would bring in funds for the district, as well as the investment return of education when the brain is most receptive to learning. We should also explore bringing in tuition-based pre-K on a large scale, authorizing pre-K 3, and more early learning centers. My graduate background is in Montessori pedagogy, and it is high-time we bring the international gold-standard of early childhood education here.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

What resources are lacking in schools in your district? How could the district deliver services in the most cost-effective manner?

“	Inclusion of support staff in campus morale activities is a "must" for building the sense of a united front for our children. On many campuses, teachers and administration may not know the names of the cafeteria workers or all of the custodial staff. We are all part of the school. This becomes a cost-savings when it relates to the retention and morale of support staff. Turnover is reduced, productivity increases, and we can model citizenship by honoring the careers of everyone in our community. I would invite board members to conduct an audit of which services are provided by outside for-profit contractors which could be performed by a public GPISD or City of Grand Prairie employee, many times saving large sums and bolstering the integrated function of our public systems.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

In what ways can your district’s communications with parents be improved? Likewise, how can parental involvement in your district improve?

“	I worked at a campus which received the Superintendent's Award for Parent Engagement. One of the areas that Dallas excels that needs to come to Grand Prairie is social media engagement with families. Parents want to see and share viral videos and clips of exciting things kids are doing in the district, and that is so much more effective than expensive mailers. Teachers want to feel connected to each other and the community through collaborative work spaces with parents. We have to make schools the launch point for community work together, the hub of community involvement. That is easy to mobilize in early childhood, but we can build stamina through elementary up to high school. A strong hub of parent activity in our early schools can transition parental engagement to upper grades.	”
—Johnny Boucher (2017)

See also

• Grand Prairie Independent School District, Texas
• Grand Prairie Independent School District elections (2017)

External links

Suggest a link

• Grand Prairie Independent School District
• Campaign website
• Campaign Facebook page
• Twitter account