Chauntyll is committed to fighting to:
📚 Boost Literacy
To reduce incarceration, we must increase literacy. I will work to ensure that our K-3 scholars learn to read by advocating for additional funding, targeted training for educators, additional staffing and culturally relevant curriculum.
👷🏽♀️ Fund Technical Education
We must have a broad set of options for students to pursue success on their own terms. I have been a leader in bringing technical education and trades back into the schools, and have seen the talents of our youth at the Career Pathways Center. I will advocate for additional funding, create targeted programming for youth exiting punishment programs and recruit and retain more educators of color.
🖍️ Implement Universal Pre-K
Early learning encourages brain development, eliminates inequities, and decreases poverty; even so, finding quality and affordable early learning programs is challenging. I have supported initiatives like the SPARK campaign and will continue to work to ensure that all St. Paul youth have access to this critical first step to success.
💵 Increase Educator Pay and Advancement
It takes a village to raise a child; the school staff play a central role. It is imperative that we compensate professionals for their contributions and provide pathways for advancement. I have actively supported additional pay for ALL educators and will continue to protect the full spectrum of educators by pushing for funding and formula changes to move our district into a future of ongoing abundance.
❤️🩹 Cultivate Safety and Mental Health
Each student must feel a sense of belonging. I believe in a holistic approach to safety and mental health that starts with creating trauma-informed spaces supported by trained, caring professionals and community members. I will continue to advance programs and policies that ensure culturally appropriate and trauma-informed mental health approaches that affirm and heal rather than stigmatize and punish students.
🧑🏿🎓 Center Students
Our greatest asset in our district is our students. We must expect excellence and honor students’ unique identities, acknowledge their specific challenges and actively support their visions for themselves and schools. I have always been a fierce champion of youth leadership and self determination and will continue to press for student-centered approaches and ways to integrate youth voices, including through bodies like SEAB.
💡 Innovate
The COVID pandemic and George Floyd uprising showed that we are capable of forging creative solutions and community care models. We face urgent racial disparities that require new and bold approaches AND we have untapped ingenuity all around us: in our students. I will continue to encourage innovative ideas that get at the root causes of our systemic problems and help us achieve becoming the best school district in the nation.