Alma Lara speaks from depth of experience about school reform

The following is the part of a conversation I had with Ms. Alma L. Lara, candidate for Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees in District 1, in the north-central area of Houston.  

You came to Houston at a young age.

Alma Lara: Age nine. I attended HISD schools...All my brothers and sisters, my six brothers and sisters, we attended Sherman Elementary, Marshall Middle, and Davis, and the last two graduated from Sam Houston.

So that's the feeder pattern you taught in.

Alma Lara: That's right. District 1. 

 What was your favorite part of being a principal?

Alma Lara: I loved the part of being the instructional leader on the campus—and building relationships with the teachers. I always say, I had the best teachers, and I did. I was like a teacher for them. We had early dismissal once a week. I would team with other teachers and would lead that instructional component. That's the best part of being a teacher: that I could still teach....I would spend as little time as I could in the office, and then work late, but during the instructional time, I was in the classroom. I miss it a lot. When I am teaching, I am in my element.

At least you get some of that at University of Houston.

Alma Lara: Yes. Exactly.

Why do you want to be an HISD school board member?

Alma Lara: I want to be a board member because I was always in the community. I am a product of this community. There were no after-school programs when I was in middle school and high school. Our after-school hangout was Wesley Community Center. At Wesley Community Center, they had volunteers from the Methodist Church and they were the ones that gave us a lot of guidance and counseling and mentored us, told us education is going to open doors for you. And we grew up very, very humble, and they would always help us out with food or with clothes, whatever, they knew what our needs were. That's how involved they were with our families. So as a family, once we graduated from high school and college, we decided we were going to give back to the community the way the community had given to us. We were community grown...As a teacher and principal I could work with that smaller community, but as a board member I could work with the greater community and I feel like I could make a difference with my experience and commitment.

What is the issue that you—I think you said the issue that concerned you most was the drop out rate in HISD.

Alma Lara: The drop out rate at HISD, because we always did everything we could at the elementary level—and I have always said the drop out rate and the achievement gap begins in elementary school—it does not all of a sudden begin in high school, and at the elementary school, we lost a lot of resources over the years...We never had a really good sense, or a really good hold of why the students were getting to middle school or high school and dropping out. But for me its a big concern, being Hispanic, and knowing that the Latino population is the one that is growing the most rapidly, and the one that has the greatest number of drop outs. As the years progress, and we continue to see larger and larger dropouts, our economy is not going to be able to absorb them. Maybe they could ten years ago, but not now. So its about the economy. Its about our future. I've gotten to where its not enough to hear about the drop out issue. What are we doing? I want to see a plan. Strategies. I want to see the community getting involved. I want to see an infrastructure that connects the district and the community and works on a plan that is followed through and revisited. And that we see from month to month that we are actually seeing less students dropping out. If I get elected on the board, one way that I would be held accountable, is if we have reduced the number of dropouts from time I joined the board until four years from now. I want to aggressively and vigorously address it.

You have worked with HISD a long time. How would you like to see it change?

Alma Lara: I am very teacher oriented, have always been. When I was a young teacher, I joined the union and I encouraged others to join the union because I believe in leverage and I think that we have come a long way because of the organization. And I hear from teachers, many teachers—and not only teachers I met at Kettleson—that sometimes they are not treated with a sense of dignity and respect from administrators. And I have issues with that. Because respect was a big thing for me: that teachers should be treated with respect and dignity. The testing, and having a daughter who is a teacher at an elementary school, the fall semester they are teaching their hearts out, because they know the spring semester is going to be all about testing. Actually, I don't believe we should be spending an entire semester dedicated to test taking...Its not just in elementary schools. When my daughter was teaching in high school, it was the same thing...There are so many things, so many stories I could tell you.

What are some other goals you have?

Alma Lara: That we support a quality teaching environment, that we support certified teachers, that we provide quality professional development with follow up so its not just a sit and get, and that we do every effort we can to retain good teachers, that they don't leave us because of whatever is going on. And thirdly, I am committed to quality curriculum, a curriculum so that students can follow that post-secondary path or career and technology path. And right now we have dual credit for academic programs with HCC. I would like to see dual credit for apprentice programs for those on the career and technology path. And we need a stronger emphasis in middle-school reading because reading needs to continue. If the students are not on grade level at sixth grade, if their reading level in fifth or fourth grade, they need to continue with reading classes. And I understand that reading specifically is not taught after sixth grade. For those students that are not on grade level, it should continue to be taught.