We asked each candidate to answer questions on topics important to the Senn High School community. Below are their answers.
Amon Mathieu Kouame
(pronouns: he / his / him)
Running for: Parent Representative
About the Candidate
In just a few sentences, please tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in Côte d’Ivoire, and moved to the US 30 years ago to get a college education. I graduated the spring before 9/11, and decided to stay in the US and pursue a career as a pension consultant, but now work as an HR consultant. I met my wife and we are now proud parents of three amazing children.
What is your relationship to Senn?
We have a Sophomore (they grow so fast), and a large number of our fellow Peirce parents now have their kids enrolled at Senn.
Why do you want to be on the Senn LSC?
I want to share my experience as a seasoned LSC member, and help Senn continue to serve as a premier IB school, fostering equity in an academically challenging but welcoming setting.
Do you have any previous experience on a Local School Council? If so, tell us about it.
I am in my sixth year as a parent representative for the Peirce LSC, four of which I have served as Chair. During that time, I have helped lead difficult conversations around Covid, ICE, CIWP, equity. I have also lead the LSC through the selection and hiring of our new Principal. I am looking forward to leveraging that experience to the service of Senn.
Where Your Candidate Stands
We asked each candidate a series of questions that important to the Senn High School community. Their answers are below.
Q1. What do you believe are the responsibilities of a Local School Council?
Candidate Answer:
Official responsibilities of the LSC include approving the school's budget and Continuous Improvement Work Plan, hiring and evaluating the Principal, and renewing the Principal's contract. Beyond these stated responsibilities, LSCs are the true link between parents, the community, teachers, and the administration.
Q2. What core values do you hope to uphold as a member of the LSC?
Candidate Answer:
Transparency, honesty, accountability, and equity.
Q3. All Parent and Community LSC members are required to complete 9 mandatory training sessions within six months of taking office.
- If you are a current or former LSC member, have you completed all your training sessions?
- If you have not served on an LSC before, do you commit to competing all 9 training sessions within six months of taking office?
(Candidates were given a matrix of preselected answers. Below are the answers they selected)
Candidate Answer:
- I am a current LSC member.
- I have completed all required trainings.
Q4. What does effective communication for a principal entail, in your eyes? In what moments does principal communication matter most?
Candidate Answer:
Effective principal communication is a multi-prong approach. It involves leveraging as many channels as possible (parent groups, direct outreach to the community, etc), but also delegating some tasks to the APs and staff as necessary. This is especially important when critical updates need to shared, when events affecting safety inside or around school occur, but also when seemingly benign events occur.
Q5. What is your understanding of CPS's policies regarding ICE and federal agents in school buildings?
Candidate Answer:
CPS has clearly stated policies, including no entry, protected classrooms, safe zones, know your rights training, and judicial warrants. It is important to maintain schools are places of safety for all students.
Q6. What kind of leadership would you expect to see from the principal when federal agents target our neighborhood and families?
Candidate Answer:
Communication is key. It is important to keep the community informed, while doing everything possible to maintain students' sense of safety.
Q7. LSC members are responsible for developing and monitoring the school's improvement plan (CIWP), which includes goals around academic success. Describe your understanding of Senn's academic programs. What academic priorities will you emphasize in your role on the LSC?
Candidate Answer:
Senn is an IB school, and its Arts program is well known and celebrated across the city. Besides this, and much like other schools, the learning gaps exist across racial and socio-economic lines. It is critical to understand, track, and address these gaps, and put measurable steps in place to improve these gaps. When least served groups of students see their academic experience improve, all students experience the same improvement. This has been shown time and again.
Q8. One of the key responsibilities of the LSC is aligning the school's budget to the CIWP.
- If you are or have been a Senn LSC representative, provide an example or two of what you have done to ensure both ongoing and annual budgetary transparency?
- For candidates who have not served on Senn's LSC: Describe your approach to budget accountability, transparency, and oversight.
Candidate Answer:
Monthly reporting of internal accounts, including any transfers, as well as discussion and summary financial activity, are key for the LSC to understanding how funds are used throughout the year.
Q9. What should the role of the LSC be if the principal attempts to quietly make changes without transparency or community input?
Candidate Answer:
The LSC needs to gather facts, and report them to the community as appropriate.
Q10. When families consistently learn important information from outside sources rather than school leadership, what should the LSC do?
Candidate Answer:
As stated above, it is important for the LSC to gather facts, and share them as appropriate.
Q11. The 5Essentials Survey (link), developed by the University of Chicago in collaboration with CPS, identifies strengths and weaknesses across five areas:
- Effective Leaders (Score: 28, Weak)
- Collaborative Teachers (Score: 47, Neutral)
- Involved Families (Score: 40, Neutral)
- Supportive Environment (Score: 50, Neutral)
- Ambitions Instruction (Not scored due to data error)
What stands out to you and what action steps would you take as an LSC representative to address the challenge areas?
Candidate Answer:
First and foremost, it is important to gather facts, which entails getting an understanding of what scores have been, and researching the reasons behind the current scores. Once that baseline is acquired, then the LSC can work with all stakeholders on ways to address and improve these scores.
Q12. Describe your approach to equity. How would you ensure that decisions made by the LSC support and do not proportionally harm Black, Latino, Indigenous, immigrant, or low-income students? What systems and practices would you support to make sure marginalized voices are not just heard, but actually shape outcomes?
Candidate Answer:
Equity should be at the core of the CIWP. That is the road map to ensure all students experience education with the best possible outcome. Gathering data and working with all stakeholders, will allow for setting concrete, measurable goals that can then be supported with appropriate funding.
Q13. One of the key responsibilities of LSC members is to evaluate the school's principal. This LSC term will coincide with the contract renewal timeframe for Senn's principal. Describe how you will approach this responsibility.
What key performance indicators should be the primary focus factors when deciding whether to renew a principal's contract.
Candidate Answer:
It is important to assess the achievement of the CIWP goals, through objective surveying of all stakeholders, including teachers, students, parents, staff, and community. This feedback, as well as data on student achievement, will be key in evaluating Principal performance.
Additional Candidate Materials
Candidates were offered the opportunity to provide the public with additional materials to be displayed on their profile page. Those materials are provided here.