Improved Test Scores, Mental Health Resources: Why Schallheim Wants 2nd Term

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Patch invited every candidate running for the Anne Arundel County Board of Education to complete a questionnaire on their campaign priorities. We are posting stories with their unedited, verbatim responses.

Get to know District 5 candidate Dana Schallheim below.

Voters can check what district they live in at this link. Early voting runs from Oct. 24 through Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 5. More information on voting locations, registration, mail-in ballots and dropbox ballots is posted here.

Name: Dana Schallheim (Incumbent)

District: 5

Hometown: Claremont, CA and now Severna Park, MD

Age On General Election Day: 48

Profession: Member, Board of Education of Anne Arundel County and at-home parent

Campaign Website: www.danaforboe.com

Campaign Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanaBOED5

1. What are your three biggest policy priorities?

1. Improve pay, benefits, and working conditions for teachers and staff to increase retention and morale. Every child deserves an excellent teacher, and we will only keep excellent teachers and paraprofessionals in the classroom if we support them properly. I have worked to increase teacher & staff compensation and working conditions throughout my first term, one of the many reasons I’ve earned the endorsement of our teachers and secretaries in this race.

2. Expanding mental health support in schools, hiring additional counselors and psychologists to ensure all kids are supported. I have worked to hire more mental health staff in schools every single year, but there is more to do.

3. Expanding access to full-day Pre-K. Investing in a strong start for our youngest kids will pay off down the road. This is one of our most important priorities in the coming years.

All of these policy priorities are in line with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which I strongly support and have worked to make sure is implemented with fidelity.

2. What is the biggest educational issue in Anne Arundel County?

There are many issues facing AACPS, early childhood literacy chief among them. AACPS has made some improvements in early literacy since 2020 with the implementation of universal reading screening & Wilson Fundations reading interventions for K-3. Where AACPS fell flat is in grades reading comprehension for students in grades 3-5. For years, AACPS taught students to read with a “balanced literacy” approach, very little direct phonics instruction, & a lot of guessing words based on pictures or context clues. Some kids learned to read well, but others, especially students with disabilities, fell behind.

I have been an advocate for years for adopting new reading curricula that reflect the latest research, and worked hard to recruit a Superintendent, Dr. Bedell, who shares this understanding. A new curriculum based on the science of reading is being implemented during the 2024-2025 school year alongside enhanced supports for secondary students who continue to struggle in this area. Expanding access to full day Pre-K and expanding the number of community mentors in our schools will also improve outcomes in this area.

3. What is the biggest educational issue in your district specifically?

We are lucky to have excellent schools in District 5. I am a Severna Park Middle School parent, and I’m proud of the education my child gets there. One of the reasons we moved to Severna Park was because of our great public schools.

An issue I hear about most frequently from parents in my district specifically is student mental health. Many of our kids are struggling with anxiety and depression - far more than were struggling even just a few years ago. It is heartbreaking to watch as a parent, and it negatively impacts children’s ability to learn and grow. We want to improve educational outcomes and give our kids the best opportunity we can - and that means we need to address mental health in our schools.

One important solution is appropriate staffing - increasing the number of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers until we meet the recommended ratios so that students have access to the help they need. I have fought for - and won - additional mental health staff for our schools every single year. And I will continue to do so.

4. How will you address the teacher shortage?

We’ve made significant progress. We started the 2024-2025 school year with the fewest teacher vacancies in years with only 69 vacancies of more than 5,800 educators across our 127 schools.

Here’s how we’ve done it: first, we’ve increased compensation, moving from 19th to 4th for new teacher pay. Second, we’ve improved our outreach. Over the last two academic years AACPS has recruited candidates at 155 job recruitment fairs in 12 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the HBCU national virtual job fair, partnering with nearly 30 colleges and universities.

Retention is equally important. While I helped dramatically raise teacher compensation and improve planning time, especially among elementary school teachers, more work must occur in aligning compensation and working conditions with surrounding counties.

We’re doing what works, and it’s paying off. I need your support to continue moving us in the right direction.

5. How will you approach balancing the budget?

We are legally required to present a balanced budget every year.

My budgetary priorities are in line with the Blueprint: higher teacher pay, expanded early childhood education, more opportunities for students to prepare for college and career, and more mental health services. Our Superintendent supports these priorities as well.

We must ensure that public school funding is not siphoned away to private and home schools so our students have the resources they need which must be distributed equitably. I remain against unfunded mandates imposed by the state or any law that aims to siphon funds away from public education.

My assets as a Board Member include leveraging my MBA as well as the strength of my relationships with our county and state lawmakers, which have allowed me to successfully advocate for more resources that have allowed our schools to raise teacher pay, add mental health staff, and improve our curriculum. I have been endorsed by over two dozen state and local lawmakers because we’ve been able to build strong partnerships that benefit the school district and every single student.

6. How will the end of pandemic-era funding affect your budgetary decisions?

It is true that pandemic-era funding from the federal government is ending, but the Blueprint increases education funding from the state, which should allow us to maintain the programs that are working best. We should always be working to evaluate the impact of our spending, move money out of programs that aren’t delivering results, and fully fund programs that are, including virtual tutoring, homework help, and summer programming to assist students who are struggling academically.

7. How will you approach school redistricting? If your district is part of this redistricting, what are some of your priorities?

Redistricting is a complicated and emotional process for all affected families, but my values around it are simple:

1. Redistricting is a team sport which requires excellent data and collaboration between the school system and the community. The Board and school system staff must listen carefully to opinions from parents, students, teachers, and staff just as we did during Phase 1 of redistricting. My door will always be open to anyone who has an opinion to share: dschallheim@aacps.org or danaforboe@hotmail.com.

2. The goals of redistricting must be adhered to - balancing enrollment or establishing boundaries for a new school. Phase 2 doesn’t include any new schools and so this will be an exercise to balance enrollment in all phase 2 schools.

3. Since none of the high schools in District 5 are overcrowded I am 100% against redistricting any District 5 student away from their currently assigned high school.

8. If you are an incumbent, why do you deserve another term? If you are a challenger, why are you the best candidate?

I hope District 5 voters will re-elect me because we are a better school district than when I joined the Board six years ago, and we have laid a foundation to become the best in the state; however, the work isn’t done.

When I came onto the Board our schools were not trending in the right direction. I have focused on improving four student outcomes: recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, implementing research-based curriculum, and support for mental health, and social-emotional development under the leadership of Dr. Bedell, a nationally recognized superintendent, whom my colleagues and I unanimously hired.

This hard work is paying off! As noted in an AACPS media release dated August 19, 2024: the average score of Anne Arundel County Public Schools students taking Advanced Placement exams in the 2023-2024 school year, the number of students taking exams, and the percentage of students achieving a score of 3 or higher all rose for the third consecutive year and MCAP scores have improved for the second consecutive year.

Quoting from the release: “More than 64 percent of students taking exams scored a 3 or higher, the level at which most United States colleges and universities grant course credit. The percentage represents a 2-percentage point increase over the 2022-23 school year and a 11-percentage point jump since 2020-21.

Additionally, the average score of students taking exams was 3.03, an increase from 2.92 the year before and 2.68 in 2020-21.

The results came in a year where the school system administered about 2,000 more exams – 12,285 – than the year before.”

Additionally, MCAP scores have increased in 13 of 14 areas for the second year running in both English Language Arts and math. The ELA results also show significant reductions in proficiency gaps, particularly with regard to African American students when compared to all students.

The percentage of AACPS elementary, middle, and high school student scores on the ELA assessment outpaced the state average when compared to the previous year. The same was true in math, where AACPS proficiency rates outpaced the state average at all three levels when compared to the previous year.

We must recruit and retain excellent teachers to get the best results for our kids. We used to be one of the worst districts in the state for starting teacher pay. Now we are fourth best and have reduced the number of teaching vacancies significantly, because my colleagues and I fought for better teacher pay and won. We must make similar compensation improvements for our veteran teachers. We have also increased planning time for elementary school teachers. I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of our teachers because of my efforts.

Let me be as clear as I can be: If we elect my opponent, who has said publicly that increasing pay is not important to retaining teachers, who supports sending our tax dollars to private schools, who is supported by an extremist group that wants to ban mental healthcare in schools, who called LGTBQIA+ students “mentally ill” during a fundraiser for her campaign, and who says that she intends to focus on partisan political issues like book bans that distract from our work to improve curriculum and instruction, our school district will go backwards. Let’s keep things moving in the right direction.

9. How will you handle LGBTQ+ and racial issues brought before the school board?

Every child deserves to be themselves and feel welcome at school, period. No one should be discriminated against because of their identity. These are the principles I will always use when making decisions as a Board member.

I’ve supported initiatives to improve diversity in teacher hiring, and this year we’ve hired the largest proportion of teachers of color in a long time - which is important because every single kid needs role models who look like them. I’ve voted in favor of additional courses on both Black history in Anne Arundel County and LGTBQIA+ Studies. Additionally, I championed the most inclusive LGTBQIA+ policy in any Maryland school system and led the charge to improve our bullying and bias prevention policies to ensure better prevention and timely response to all incidents of bullying, including the very real issue of identity-based bullying, because every child deserves to feel safe at school.

I continue to fight against any regressive policy that aims to further marginalize any underrepresented community or attempts to censor our teachers or students, white-wash curriculum, omit historical facts, or ban books. I trust our teachers, media specialists, and school leadership.

My opponent, on the other hand, made offensive and untrue comments about LGTBQIA+ students and families calling them “mentally ill” and our schools “institutions of grooming” at a fundraiser for her campaign in June 2024. She has no business serving on The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County.

10. How will you handle book-banning issues brought before the school board?

As stated above, I will stand in breach against any and all attempts to pass regressive policies that aim to censor our teachers or students, white-wash curriculum, marginalize underrepresented student groups, or omit historical facts. I was successful in previous attempts to limit access to materials or ban flags and I will go to the mat again and again before these policies find a home in AACPS.

11. Please tell us about yourself.

I am a proud AACPS parent and was elected to represent Councilmanic District 5 on the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County in November 2018 and began a six-year term on December 3, 2018.

Born and raised in Los Angeles County, California, I hold a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Western Washington University and a Master of Business Administration from University of Brighton, England.

Currently I am an at-home parent, volunteer, and advocate. I volunteer regularly at my daughter’s school and for a variety of nonprofit organizations. Before having my daughter, I was an energy consultant on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy and private utility clients. In that role, I executed energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

My husband, Jason, and I have lived all over the country and currently reside in Severna Park with our daughter. Highlights of my 37-year volunteer career include being named the ACLU of Mississippi’s Volunteer of the Year and leading a campaign through the Children’s Organ Transplant Association that raised $80,000. I currently serve on the Board’s Policy and Equity committees, and I chair the Scholarship Committee.

12. Is there anything else we should know?

Early voting begins October 24 and runs through October 31. Election day is Tuesday, November 5. If you would like to get involved in my reelection campaign please fill out the volunteer form on www.danaforboe.com.