Get to know the Winooski School Board candidates | David Wallace

Four candidates are running for seats on the Winooski School Board. Allison Burlock is running to serve the remainder of a 3-year term while Tori Cleiland is running for a two-year term, both are uncontested. Kamal Dahal and David Wallace are in a race to serve a 3-year term. 

These interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

David Xavier Wallace 

Editor’s note: Wallace is also running for a position on the Winooski City Council. 

Q: What’s your age, profession, work, and education background? 

I started with the US Border Patrol and then I went into immigration, then air marshals, and then customs. Right now I’m at the Postal Service plant in Essex. That's my government history. I did take about five weeks at the Winooski school, maybe it was less, but I wasn't there that long. I just made some observations. While I was there, I wasn't really impressed with how it was being run. I felt there was a real lack of discipline on the part of the students. I felt there was an overemphasis on touchy feely stuff and not enough of the fundamentals. The kids weren’t being prepared for the real world in terms of basics of math and science and reading and writing. It’s not a top tier school, but I understand we’ve got to work with what they’ve got. 

Q: What made you want to run for school board? 

Well, there's been a lot of controversy in the news regarding critical race theory being taught in schools and things like that. Just today, I read in the local paper, the Burlington free press, that Superintendent McMahon for Winooski makes $150,000 a year, he's on a three year contract, and he's decided to take a four month sabbatical. He's using his paid leave and his sick leave for his sabbatical. I don't really know how you can use sick leave to take vacation time because that's what a sabbatical is. While he's gone, they're going to replace him with a temporary superintendent. If that person is also paid $150,000, that would be $300,000 just for a superintendent while this guy is on vacation for four months. I've never had a four month vacation and I don't know anyone in the state of Vermont that makes $150,000 a year. So we're wasting a lot of money. But there are other things that I would like to do to revise how the school is run if I was elected. I would like to implement an apprentice program, reaching out to local employers to work with the schools. The students can go after school or maybe one day a week. They could work in various trades like plumbing, electrical, or construction in Winooski. I’d  also like to put cameras in the class so that parents could monitor their children while they're in class and see how they behave. When a student calls out because of COVID because they wind up getting behind, they could actually attend the class virtually (that would be the benefit of it). There is a lack of discipline at the school. I was there about five weeks, so this is from my observation as an instructional assistant. There were a lot of students just playing on their phones and computers in class. I think one of the benefits of having the cameras in there is the parents could actually see that their kids aren't paying attention. I would want the teachers to have the ability to give detention to the students who are playing on their phones, and playing video games on their computers. That detention would be after school and it would include physical exercise, as part of the detention process. You're not going to sit in a room and talk, you're going to run and you're going to do push ups and stuff. There’s going to be some physical element to it. I would also like to remove all of the controversial books from the library involving human sexuality. Books on homosexuality, books on transexuals, kids don’t need to be learning about that. I remember there being a lot of books like that at the school, and what they need is classic literature. You could start with Shakespeare, then there’s a lot of writers from the 20th century like Hemmingway, Upton Sinclair, and George Orwell. I would like that to be featured prominently.  

Q: Being the state’s only majority-minority school district, how should the board react to demands like removing the student resource officer and hiring more teachers of color? 

I don't know if that's some kind of a defund the police thing but I'm very supportive of law enforcement. In light of school shootings across the country, I would not mind a police officer in the school. That’s really the only defense you have in that event. The board should also focus on hiring the best teachers for the job. Using a quota system doesn't work. You could wind up getting absolutely incompetent people if your sole objective was to prioritize race over merit. The objective should always be to hire the best person for the job. I mean, if you feel that you're not being represented by your race at your school, even though you've got the best teachers money can buy, and your preference would be a teacher who's less qualified only because he's of the same race you're not going to get the best education. 

Q: Are you in favor of keeping the mask mandate in Winooski schools? 

I would like to end the mask policy, I don't think the kids need to be wearing masks at school anymore. I think that once everyone’s been immunized we are pretty much good to go. Students are the least likely to suffer the severe consequences of COVID, and we need to have the school operating the way it's supposed to be. So we need to get rid of the mask policy and social distancing at the school. Let the kids be kids and let them enjoy their lives. If they want to wear masks, they may, but they should not be required to. They’re not very expensive, so if the school wants to provide them that would be fine, but again it should not be mandatory. 

Q: The board is proposing a budget of about $21 million for the school district—meaning a massive increase in spending per pupil. What do you look forward to in the next term with this budget increase and what should students expect to see? 

With that kind of money, we could implement an apprentice program because these programs do cost money. So that would get kids into the trades. Those who aren't interested in going to college can get into the trades. Certainly we'd like to see some type of system where all the kids are involved in extracurriculars. It seemed like a lot of kids were just not involved in the school. So if we could get more sports programs, and more different clubs, to kind of keep them busy after school and keep them involved.