Amplify THIS Educator by electing her to School Board! Class in Session

This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.

Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,

educated educators talking education.

Hey, welcome to Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,

educated educators talk in education, classes in session,

epic segment weekly here at Busted Pencils.

We've got an exciting guest for all you listeners out there,

especially you local listeners in Wisconsin,

because we have with us today teacher Halley

from Educator's Amplified,

Halley Newman, Smailing, Runnin' For, School Board.

Sure.

Welcome back.

How are you doing?

I'm good, how are you?

I'm good, Jess, how are you doing as well?

I'm doing just fine, thank you for asking.

So excited to be here and to catch up with you, Halley.

Sounds like you have been quite busy.

Very much so.

Well, educated is always busy, right?

And there's never a shortage of work.

I mean, that's part of us always having this talk here

on Busted Pencils to kind of, you know,

get a sense of what teachers are up to,

how they're feeling, what they're doing.

We've said it so many times together with you and Joanna

about, hey, we just have so many teachers

who know school is not working for children,

for families, for our communities,

for strengthening democracy,

and that public schools are the better off of our democracy.

So what can we do about it?

Well, we can teach, we can teach, we can teach,

but sometimes the barriers are beyond what teachers can do.

You've said that over and over.

And then, Halley, you decided already doing so much

for education, that you were gonna do democracy

and action to the 10th degree,

and you were gonna pick up charge and run for school board.

Tell us a little bit about that decision

and a little bit about that process.

I can't even imagine running for school boards.

Thank you for doing that, but tell us about it.

Yeah, so a couple of things go through my head.

So first, it kind of came to this conclusion

of me deciding to run because, well, I should say,

I never thought that I would run for like a local or office.

You know what I mean?

I'm a teacher, so I thought I'd be in the classroom

and then I left the classroom about a year and a half ago.

And that was a hard decision.

And right after I left the classroom,

I jumped right into being my local like president

of the teacher union, okay?

So I was the president of the teachers union where I live.

And the whole reason I was elected,

even though I wasn't teaching in the district,

was because the teachers were so in fear of retribution

or having a target on their back that they elected me.

So I worked with the teachers and helped us like reform,

re, you know, get back in action.

And I loved it.

Like I love working with teachers.

I love the creativity.

I love how they can take really hard situations

and be like, we're gonna come up with a solution

and we're not gonna have a budget to figure it out.

Like teachers are absolutely amazing.

But after a year of doing it,

the district and school board refused to meet with me.

So I would ask to meet with them and they'd say no.

And they'd say it was because I wasn't an employee.

And I'm like, but I'm the elected official.

Like I'm elected to represent these employees.

And after hearing no so many times,

honestly, I sat down with the teachers

and I'm like, all right, I can continue to do this

and I'm more than happy to.

But I feel like we're in a space now

where we could restructure.

Y'all, you know, lead your union

and I'll run for school board.

And they were like, all right, let's do it.

So that's kind of how I got to this.

You know, from real backing from teachers

and feeling like, okay, like we could see

how the system is set up right now.

You know, and I can point out a million flaws

but also accepting of what it is.

How can I help?

I guess especially the teachers in the district

that I live in really have better working conditions

and that would be if I get on the board.

I love it.

So far, this is how we tell us a little bit about the process

because we think about it.

We've said it here.

I've said it so many times

but I've never broken it down for our listeners.

So like, hey, you want to get involved,

get involved, go to school board meeting,

be active in your school community

and run for school board.

That's an important part of the democratic process

and the localization of school decisions and things.

So tell us a little bit about the district,

kind of you're running for in the process

because it's a mystery to most of us.

Like, what do you do if you decide you want to be?

I want to run for school board.

Right.

So I'm running for Manamini Falls school board.

Manamini Falls is a Waukesha County school district

and what works is honestly,

like there's a administrator assistant

or a clerk's office

or one of the two within every district

and I contacted her.

I said, I want to run for school board.

What do I do?

So there's some paperwork you have to fill out

which is pretty, you know, self-explanatory like your name.

I will say something I found interesting,

especially because a lot of school board elections

have turned very partisan

that like I literally had to write

on my declaration of candidacy

nonpartisan.

You know, so I was like, okay, like this,

I always knew, but this confirmed it for me

that I had to say nonpartisan on the declaration.

And then, so like there was that piece of paper

which is the Declaration of candidacy

and then another paperwork about preparing to do

like your financial kind of like campaign stuff.

So again, it's like a pretty easy one-pager form.

I think the hardest thing is was that I'd never done it before.

So I was double-guessing myself and feeling like,

okay, like this goes to the state of Wisconsin.

It's a big deal, you know, but like really,

I brought it back to the clerk's office.

She was like, I'll look it over and I'll let you know

if it looks good.

And I was like, oh, okay.

Then she looked at us like, oh,

you forgot to check this box here.

So then I checked that box there.

And then she's like, all right, you're good to go.

And I was like, thank you.

And so I think because it's a local election,

it was pretty like very much like

if I wanted my hand held the whole way, I could.

But I do believe anyone could fill out these forms and run.

So that was kind of like the process as far as like

just to submit so that I'm on the ballot.

The rest of it is like the Wild Wild West.

It's what I would say.

Or actually I was thinking about, you know,

you were talking about how I've come on here

and talked about what it's like in the classroom.

And I would really say that a lot of things

campaigning to me are very similar to teaching.

And the biggest one is that like I'm always on,

you know, like if I'm at the grocery store,

I'm mindful of like, you know, what I'm up to when I'm at,

you know, I go to meet in Greece, I'm on, you know,

like everywhere I go right now, like I just,

and maybe who knows?

I don't think I'm being too hypersensitive

because I do believe people see me.

Like I've been wearing this hat that says vote.

I have a pin that says vote for Haley Newman Schmaling.

So like it wouldn't be weird if people put together

that I'm Haley Newman Schmaling.

But like I just feel like I'm always on.

At my bowling league at nine o'clock at night

on a Saturday, I am on.

So like that's, you know, but to me, that's teaching.

We're like from the time you clock in

to the time you clock out, you're on.

So it takes a lot of energy to campaign and be out here.

And I love that, Haley, it reminds me,

we always talk about it when we were teaching

and especially as like, you know,

I work with so many future teachers.

And for some of them, so young coming into this,

they're, you know, they're finishing

undergraduate college in there.

They've never thought of themselves

as being in a political position.

But being in a public school is a political position, right?

Like you just described it really well.

When we're at the grocery store, our students see us, right?

And we're on and we're, we're,

we are democracy in action all the time.

We're living examples of that.

What it means to be a contributing adult in our community.

So appreciate that work.

And I'm thinking about all of the work you've done here

on busted pencils with educators amplified

and in your classroom and working with young people

and with so many teachers.

I think about how you will always say, you know,

students all deserve a regulated adult.

Like someone who's, and when you tell me you're on,

I'm just imagining, you're carrying that,

that regulation we talked about, not rules,

but that idea of like being balanced,

being bipartisan, nonpartisan,

being on the common ground for families and community.

So, Holly, I think it's awesome.

You're breaking it down for us.

Love this process.

Love that you're running.

Tell us a little bit about like,

when you're at meet and greets

and when you're in this process,

like what are the topics discussed?

What are some of the,

where some of the issues that are hot from monomony falls?

Well, the two biggest things that have stuck out to me

is one, you know, now that I'm out of the classroom,

something that I've been able to see

is how much people do support teachers

and trust their teachers.

Because when I was in the classroom,

I did not feel that way.

And I get it because of how the system is set up.

Where the system really tells you,

do whatever the parents tell you to do,

or you know, you have to stay very like in a box.

So you really can't hear what's out there

because you're more worried about like,

quote unquote, saying the wrong thing.

So that's been really neat for me at these meet and greets

to hear how much people do trust their teachers

and do love their child's teachers.

So that's been neat.

But the second biggest thing that's really been going on

is, you know, I'm in Waukesha County

and it's not unique to Waukesha County,

but in several other spaces in Southeast Wisconsin,

the school boards have been taken over

by extreme right wing ideology.

And so what I really dedicated to in this campaign is,

I want to win.

I definitely want to win.

I want to serve on the board.

But I realize that there's a part of it

that's out of my control, right?

Like it's a low turnout election.

Hopefully I can get more people out to vote.

But like there's an aspect of it that's out of my control

that I'm like, if I concentrate too much on winning,

I'm going to get dysregulated.

So my regulated goal is about just,

I want to educate the community

about what is happening in our schools

because I've been able to work with the teachers union

and I'm a teacher myself.

So I have those two perspectives and experiences

to be able to really explain what's going on

and I have a captive audience, right?

Because people are like, who's this hailing human training?

Should I vote for her or not?

So something I really loved doing and talking about

is I started this campaign called Talk About It Tuesday

where every Tuesday I talk about topics like curriculum,

class size, supplemental materials, transparency,

book banning and I just lay out the facts

on what's been happening in our district.

And people, I think are like, what?

You know, they're in shock and then they're like,

what can we do?

Because people support teachers

but they don't know what they don't know.

So that's been like the most rewarding for me of like,

I feel hurt.

You know what I mean?

Oh, I love it.

I love it.

Talk about it Tuesdays.

Yeah.

You know, hailing human smailing,

like telling you the what, not the how,

not the how, like the what, not how to think,

but the what, the facts about those topics

that so many folks not deep in education as a teacher.

Like, I love this.

You're connecting dots, right?

This is huge and I love your regulated goal.

I think it's a phenomenal goal, right?

To be a platform to share the what?

What are those?

What are those facts we know about curriculum,

about school safety, about access to reading materials?

All these really important things that are happening,

not just in monomony falls, probably all over Wisconsin.

And I know all across our country

and that local school boards play a role in.

It's like it's a part of our democratic process.

What are children learn?

How their teachers are supported or not supported?

Or just like how he was saying,

how often teachers we do feel like

maybe we're not supported

because the headlines and the news

don't always paint an accurate picture

of what it's like to be a teacher.

But here we're having those dots connected.

I love it.

We're gonna make sure that folks listening to this

in the description have a way to connect to your,

talk about it Tuesdays.

Because that's, I love it.

What a phenomenal thing,

whether you were running for school board or not

and hopefully that continues on and folks,

let's then get out and vote.

But the idea here is, what a great opportunity

to really share the what, right?

Yep.

So before we part ways,

we got a couple more minutes in class today,

just class in session.

We have Halley Newman schmailing here with us,

running for school board and monomony falls.

Talk a little bit about now,

just in general school boards.

Because I know our listeners are like,

cool, this lady's running for school board.

She was a teacher, she's sharing the what, I like this.

But what does the school board actually do?

Yeah, so okay, I'll be honest.

I have my interpretation of what a school board does

and then what I see going on.

So like I said before, I'm in Waukesha County.

So what I have really seen is the hierarchy

being like taken full advantage of,

where the school board is on top

and whatever they say,

they give the directive to the superintendent

who gives the directive to the building principles,

who gives the directive to the teachers and so on.

And what the school board has been doing is right,

they really monitor and enact or take away policies.

And so policies can range from harassment

to challenging books, to what teachers can wear,

to, you know, I mean, it runs the gamut.

And then also curriculum.

You know, it's kind of like they oversee

what the district does for curriculum

or the two main things I've really seen.

Now, on the surface though,

like curriculum policy, cool, you're kind of overseeing

and it sounds good in theory of like,

nominee falls, there's seven school board members

and they're elected.

And so there's seven community members

that will oversee this public service.

And I get it and I'm down for it.

But what's really happening is that, right,

like I said before, the hierarchy

that power over is in play.

So what for myself on the school board, if I'm elected,

is I really want to like even this out

and to be able to like showcase

what a power with structure looks like

that there's the perspective and there's the expertise,

if we can say that totally,

but the experiences of the school board,

then the perspective of the administration

and then also the perspective of the teachers.

And all three need to come together

with 33% for each in order to make decisions.

Because I keep saying like right now,

we have seven school board members

with the same ideology.

So it's really one mind.

And I'm like, how can they possibly be thinking

about all of the perspectives

of the wide range of students, right?

But then I even think about myself

and I'm like, I don't even know if seven of me

would necessarily be a great thing either.

So that's why I'm saying that all perspectives

need to be working together to come to a decision.

And it's, I mean, right,

we're gonna have to have difficult conversations

and we're gonna have to listen to each other

and we're gonna have to come to compromises.

But like we have to listen to the people

who are on the front lines in order to inform

what curriculum is best and or what policies are best.

So I hope that I helped.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that power with not over.

That's what a great vision and platform

to be running with the diversity of other folks

who advocate for perspectives on the school board.

Pally, where can our listeners get more?

Where can they connect to the monomony falls race

but also just in general, if they're curious,

how do they learn about who they should vote for?

Where can they get that kind of information?

What are some tips you can give the listener?

I think two things that come to mind is one.

Well, for myself, you can go to Facebook,

Halley, Newman, Schmeeling,

Dash, Monomony, Fall School Board.

You can see my talk about it series

and all sorts of other things I'm talking about.

You can also go to my website,

heli4schoolboard.com, all words.

But as far as like, if you're living somewhere

outside of Monomony Falls,

I think the League of Women Voters does a really nice job.

It's called like voter 411.

And they just have information.

That's what they serve to do.

They never endorse anybody,

but they provide information.

So that's kind of a one-step shop.

Also, hopefully your school district

has information on their webpage.

I'll be honest, Monomony Falls doesn't,

which is discouraging,

but I've noticed other school districts do.

And so that's kind of a tip off for people,

like if your district doesn't have a lot of information,

that could be caused for question-marking concern

of like, why wouldn't they provide information?

And if they do, then you're like, good,

this is transparency.

So yeah, I think there's tons of information out there,

but know that everyone's kind of trying their best.

Local newspapers is another resource as well,

but local elections are much more difficult

to get the word out.

I feel like, but it's so important.

So try to find that info.

Absolutely.

And folks, get out and vote wherever you're at.

These, you know, these small elections

actually have big impacts.

And what a great time to get civically engaged.

April 1st.

Yeah, April 1st is this vote.

Early voting already started, right?

So lots of ways to connect.

You can connect with the civic media website

as well for more information across Wisconsin

about how to be an early voter or where to go vote

to find that information.

Halle, Newman, Schmaley, running for school board,

Monomony Falls, thanks for being with us,

educator, amplified teacher, Halle, all these hats.

Today, you're wearing the vote hat.

Love it, running for school board.

We appreciate you.

Thanks for busting pencils with us.

Thank you.

And now for your moment of Zen.

Give people what they need, food, medicine, clean air, pure

water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in,

some hours of work, more hours of leisure.

Don't ask who deserves it.

Every human being deserves it.

Thanks for listening to busted pencils.

Class in session with fan favorite here, Halle, Newman,

Schmaley from educators, amplified, running for school board.

So remember wherever you're listening from,

to get out and vote in your local elections.

That's democracy in action every day here at busted pencils

and anywhere you're getting civically engaged.

And hey, while you're at it, you can always grab great podcasts

like this one.

And you can search busted pencils on Apple podcasts, Spotify.

Of course, you can always find us on the civic media website

or at bustedpensals.com.

Hey, don't forget to find us throughout the week

every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, with home rooms, class and session,

and always loads of fun to wrap up the work week on Fridays.

And listen up, pencil busters.

You can always catch us busted pencils

at 3 p.m. central time across all the civic media network stations

for an hour of your favorite blue collar scholars.

Tim and Johnny, and keep busted pencils.