Board of Education, District C: Nicole Hampton

District C, Republican/Independent

Describe how your occupation assists you in serving on the BOE and give three brief but specific examples.

As a Community Liaison, I maintain current and build new relationships with our community partners as well as the youth and families we serve.  A few examples of how my job assists me serving on the board are as follows: 1) I work with youth and their families on a daily basis, breaking down barriers to/of recovery and advocating for the proper levels of care 2) I offer person-centered service by treating people as resources, asking good questions and actively listening 3) The collaboration of care is pertinent throughout one’s recovery.  When one provider operates as a silo, things become disarray. 

What do you see as the top three issues facing our school system?

We’re telling our children that they can get a 1.75 GPA and still play a sport, but they won’t be able to apply for a college/trade school scholarship unless they have a 2.5 GPA.  Not to mention the roughly 60% of our children who can’t read on grade level.  We should focus on the following: raising expectations & standards, improving academic performance and reprioritizing budget spending.

Teacher burnout is a real issue for districts around the country. What do you plan to do to alleviate this in Norwalk?

While I was out door knocking, I ran into this one teacher who had retired early due to all the stressors added in the past few years.  This teacher stated that for her and many other teachers, the fun was taken out of teaching.  Between the micro-managing and all of the testing, assessments and data collection there was no time left to teach.  From 2019 to 2022, Norwalk Public Schools went from about 25 to 105 admins in the schools to “coach” teachers with an undisclosed amount of these admins who actually come in contact with students.  We should get back to the basics and let teachers teach.  Then maybe Norwalk can be number one in other categories other than diversity.

There is a constant public battle between city government, the school board, and concerned citizens. It seems that all are “dug in” with their positions, eager to “defeat” the other to win their own agenda. What would you specially propose to bring all groups to the table to solve issues rather than fight about them?

I would propose transparency.  There’s no reason why the Common Council shouldn’t be able to ask the Board of Education how they spend their money.  The board of education works for our students, teachers and taxpayers of Norwalk.  We ought to hold the superintendent accountable.

Information compiled by Bob Giolitto, a volunteer.