Mary Kovari
Mary Kovari was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education in Michigan. Kovari was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016. She ran as part of the A+ Team slate.[1]
Biography
Kovari earned her B.S. in education from Wayne State University. She later received her M.A. in education from the University of Michigan. Kovari began her teaching career as a social studies teacher at Mumford High School in 1994. She has been a curriculum specialist at Henry Ford Learning Institute since 2013.[2]
Elections
2016
- See also: Detroit Public Schools elections (2016)
Seven seats on the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. There was no primary. A total of 63 candidates filed for the election including 10 of the 11 incumbent board members. The top two vote recipients will serve six-year terms, the next three winners will serve four-year terms, and the remaining two winners will serve two-year terms.[3][4] The winning candidates were Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry, LaMar Lemmons, Georgia Lemmons, Sonya Mays, Misha Stallworth, Deborah Hunter-Harvill, and Iris Taylor.
A June 2016 state reorganization bill split Detroit Public Schools into two entities. The existing district will collect taxes to pay down debts, while a new district overseen by the school board was created to oversee school operations. This bill reduced the school board's membership from 11 to seven after the November 2016 election. The state-appointed Detroit Financial Review Commission will oversee the new district's financial dealings.[3]
Results
Funding
School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.[5]
In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.[6]
October 28 filing
Candidates received a total of $164,533.68 and spent a total of $100,234.02 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Wayne County Clerk.[7] Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry led the field with $57,980.00 in contributions and $40,364.82 in expenditures for the reporting period. Her biggest donor through October 28, 2016, was the United Auto Workers Michigan V-PAC, which contributed $27,500.00 to her candidate committee. Sixteen of the 63 candidates filed campaign finance statements by October 30, 2016. The remaining candidates had not filed their reports or qualified for exemption from reporting.
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tawanna Simpson | $1,200.00 | $996.38 | $203.62 |
| Ida Carol Short | $1,409.15 | $975.00 | $434.15 |
| Herman Davis | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry | $57,980.00 | $40,346.82 | $17,633.18 |
| Kevin Turman | $5,038.99 | $3,555.84 | $1,483.15 |
| Deborah Hunter-Harvill | $3,950.00 | $4,387.83 | -$577.83 |
| John Telford | $19,000.00 | $5,341.52 | $13,658.51 |
| Markita Meeks | $100.00 | $25.00 | $75.00 |
| Mary Kovari | $14,383.54 | $16,883.54 | $4,315.86 |
| Ben Washburn | $500.00 | $0.00 | $500.00 |
| Iris Taylor | $10,725.00 | $6,311.16 | $4,413.84 |
| Sonya Mays | $20,935.00 | $15,450.49 | $0.00 |
| Charmaine Johnson | $0.00 | $1,939.68 | $0.00 |
| Phillip Caldwell II | $2,915.00 | $2,713.37 | $201.67 |
| Leslie Andrews | $16,114.00 | $0.00 | $6,500.00 |
| Penny Bailer | $10,283.00 | $1,307.39 | $8,975.61 |
Endorsements
Kovari received the endorsement of the Detroit Regional Chamber PAC.[8]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Mary Kovari participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 2, 2016:
| “ | If elected, I hope to offer support and guidance as an educator as to how money might be appropriated to raise student achievement. I hope to bring about, not just the survival of Detroit Public Schools, but to create the conditions for its students and teachers to thrive.[9][10] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Michigan. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | I all of these categories are inextricably linked. To close the achievement gap one must have good relationships with teachers. To ensure a balanced budget one must incur buy in from teachers. To close the achievement gap takes an intentional appropriation of monies, depending on the data, it might mean more money for special education versus art education. Both are critical in closing the achievement gap.[10] | ” |
| —Mary Kovari (September 2, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. As an educator in Detroit, I am aware that there are already too many seats in schools and not enough students to fill them. These seats are also located outside neighborhoods where students live. We do not need more choice but we need to improve the quality of schools already in place. Many charter schools mirror the student achievement results of their public school counterparts. We cannot continue to open schools without a coherent sensible plan |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. The state should be the leader in how best to do the work of teaching and learning. The state should be able to model best practices in teaching, offer guidance around curriculum choices and assessments and support training models that work. The state should also offer training for school board members on how best to do their job. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| Yes. It must be a standardized test that aligns to the curriculum that aligns to the standards. Teachers have been giving tests since schooling began. These tests were administered as quizzes, chapter tests, mid term exams and final exams. But what did they measure? Mostly content knowledge that students memorized. Today, standardized tests are much more sophisticated and can tell an educator so much more about what a students knows or doesn't know. The problem is that there are too many of these tests that are administered in the school. Or the test is not aligned to what the teacher is doing in the classroom. Coherency must be addressed as the critical issue in closing the achievement gap. Standardized tests have a lot to offer the educator and the student if used properly. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| I think the Common Core State Standards initiative is a good thing. It asks all educators to focus on reading, mathematics and problem solving using these skills. They encourage development of critical thought undergirded by strong reading, writing and math skills. The problem is that curriculum and assessments must align with the standards and teachers must receive training and ongoing support for execution and continuous improvement. This has not happened in Michigan or Detroit. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. I truly believe that great teachers are not born - they are trained to teach. We cannot continue to believe that we can terminate contracts and their is a better teacher waiting in the wings to step into a vacancy. We are suffering from a teacher shortage nation wide and this shortage is critical in Detroit. I think mentorship programs offer a lot of support but we have to create them using best practices. We cannot just pair up an experienced teacher with a struggling teacher and expect anything to change without clear expectations, a framework for doing this work and ONGOING training for both the mentor and the struggling teacher. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. I don't think merit pay is the answer to closing the achievement gap. Not all classrooms are equal. Some teachers encounter more academically marginalized students than others. You could use growth measures but this would take energy and attention away from ensuring a coherent instructional framework, aligned curriculum and assessments and the training that undergirds execution. Also, research does not support the use of merit pay to close achievement gaps. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. I believe that private schools are just that - private. I believe there is a limited amount of money that can and must be used to create quality public schools for every child in every neighborhood. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| I believe there should always be an option but this option is one that should be rarely used. What we need are good systems that provide kids opportunities for relationships with adults, mental health services that wrap themselves around students and their families. Restorative practices is a strong, researched based program that could be implemented in schools and minimize the necessity for suspension and expulsion. But again, training is essential if we expect fidelity. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers. The teacher is on the front line of student achievement. Class size and curriculum are resources that the teacher must be trained to leverage. Without training, class size and curriculum do not matter. Parent involvement and school administration are also resources that should be used systematically to empower the parent to partner with teachers and build teacher voice through a strong relationship with school administration. Kids and teachers both matter and are inextricably linked. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Mary Kovari Detroit Public Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Detroit News, "Jacques: Is this the dream team for DPS board?" September 9, 2016
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Mary Kovari," accessed September 21, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wayne County, Michigan, "Elections Division-Election Information," accessed August 30, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "list" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Detroit Free Press, "72 people seek seven Detroit school board seats," July 26, 2016
- ↑ Michigan Bureau of Elections, "2016 and 2017 Campaign Finance Filing Schedule," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Genesee County, "Filing Requirements under Michigan's Campaign Finance Act," February 7, 2014
- ↑ Wayne County Clerk, "Wayne County Campaign Finance Information System," accessed October 30, 2016
- ↑ Detroit Regional Chamber, "Detroit Regional Chamber’s Political Action Committee Releases Endorsements For Detroit School Board," September 28, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Mary Kovari's responses," September 2, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
