
Lisa Ellis, the candidate for superintendent of education as a Democrat and Alliance, stopped by the City of Newberry on her campaign tour.
Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer
NEWBERRY — One of the actual contested races on the ballot in South Carolina this November is the race for superintendent of education.
On Wednesday, Oct 12, one of the candidates for the sought after seat, Lisa Ellis (running as a Democrat and Alliance), paid a visit to Genesis on Main Street to have a frank conversation with Newberry educators and hear the issues that are the most important to them.
Ellis has been teaching in South Carolina for over 20 years and is also the founder and a board member of SC for Ed, an organization of South Carolina teachers advocating on behalf of students and themselves to put the best teachers in every classroom in the state, per their website.
One of the teachers in the crowd asked Ellis what her thoughts were regarding the testing of students, Ellis responded with her frustrations toward the process.
“I think we can all say that students are over-tested and much of that stems from the state level, in terms of the high-stakes, one day, make-it-or-break-it tests. There’s a lot of ways that you can measure student growth and we see other states doing that. I think we need to start moving in that direction because we know the one-day tests are not helpful to kids. You’re dependent on whether or not they’ve had breakfast that morning, whether or not they’ve slept, and whether or not they came from a home that is stable,” Ellis said.
An attendee asked about the consolidating of smaller districts that lack the resources of larger districts.
“I think we need to look very closely at consolidation. Particularly in smaller districts, so much of the community’s identity is built into the schools that I hesitate to say that it is the right decision. A collaboration of resources I think could be a way to figure out how to fund smaller districts. I do think there are instances where there should be a strong move to consolidate districts, such as Spartanburg, which has seven districts. You are, in essence, funding seven human resource offices, seven superintendents, and seven school boards. Not consolidating those schools, but consolidating those resources would be a good way to get more money into the classroom,” Ellis responded.
A few constituents in the room, who also happened to be math teachers, voiced their frustrations with S.C. Education’s insufficient balance of keeping students in proper math courses. One of the teachers stated that their students were funneled down math pipelines that were unnecessary and impractical, while the other shared that their students came into their classes without an understanding of basic math rules.
Ellis responded: “Because there are such limited math offerings, kids struggle. I would love for us to look at different types of math to offer because not every student is going to go on and become an astronaut or an engineer so we have to open it up. When you think about the skills they’re learning in those classes, there’s a lot of other kinds of classes that can impart those skills, such as coding or personal finance”
Ellis went on to say: “I think the key, particularly for your early grades, has to be fundamentals. With the lack of teachers in the classroom, I think one of the biggest problems in the early grades is class size. It used to be that the teachers had a class of 18-20 so the teacher had the time and the control to work with students individually. I think that is lost with our lack of teachers. I’ve been around the state enough to know that we have second and third grade classrooms of 25-30 students. Those teachers are struggling.”
After breaking down a few more issues regarding the teacher shortages and the bureaucracy that informs many of the decisions of South Carolina public education, Ellis brought her Q&A to a close with words of comfort for the teachers and parents of South Carolina.
“If I’m elected, the teachers’ voice is going to be at the table. If I am superintendent of education, SC for Ed cannot ignore me. My goal is to start asking the right questions and getting into the “why?” of the decisions. My hope is that you recognize the power of your voice and be willing to use it,” Ellis said.
Lisa Ellis will face off against her opponent, Ellen Weaver, in a debate on November 2 from 7-8pm on SCETV followed by the election on November 8.