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Gabel participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of municipal government candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | Board transparency. Communication with public officials is a two-way street. As a public official I will make it a goal to outreach to my district through Town Halls, public sources of media, online access like in blogs and Facebook, among other things. I want my district to know they will be listened to, always. | ” |
| —Krystal Gabel (March 24, 2017) | ||
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the city, with 1 being the most important and 12 being the least important: city services (trash, utilities, etc.), civil rights, crime reduction/prevention, environment, government transparency, homelessness, housing, K-12 education, public pensions/retirement funds, recreational opportunities, transportation, and unemployment. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important.
| Issue importance ranking | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking |
Issue | Candidate's ranking |
Issue |
| K-12 education | City services | ||
| Government transparency | Recreational opportunities | ||
| Transportation | Homelessness | ||
| Environment | Housing | ||
| Civil rights | Crime reduction/prevention | ||
| Unemployment | Public pensions/retirement funds | ||
The candidate was asked to answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding issues facing cities across America. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions.
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| Important | |
| Federal | |
| Increased economic opportunities | |
| Focusing on small business development | |
| I'm proud of our potential. We have so many people with excellent ideas to make our city sustainable and valuable to future generations. We need those people to either run for office or get out and vote for candidates who support their issues. | |
| Bringing meaningful employment opportunities to D2 so residents do not have to drive to minimum wage jobs in other parts of the city. Transportation in turn is important as well because people can't get to work because our public transit system is so poorly constructed and maintained. |
Gabel provided the following comments in addition to her survey responses:
| “ |
Legalization of cannabis presents a new tax revenue source that we can take advantage of at the city level. With city council candidates who support legalization, we can get the issue on a city ballot and have Omahans vote it in (think Washington DC's Initiative 71). From there we will have plenty of tax revenue to fund education, enforcement, rehabilitation, infrastructure, among other things. Leadership should bring new ideas to the table that alleviate the burdens of our citizens. Raising taxes on housing or implementing taxes on common services like haircuts or lawn mowing is disrespectful to our people. |
” |
| —Krystal Gabel (2017) | ||
Krystal Gabel participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on March 13, 2016:
| “ | If elected to school board, I want to change the conversation we're having to prepare students for life after high school. Students are prepped with job training and the basics of going to college, but the conversation fails to mention that Nebraska needs to build a better economy so that students can obtain meaningful jobs here at home. As a result of lack of jobs and opportunity, incarceration and welfare are major issues for youth in Nebraska. The school district has failed to have preventative conversations about these issues. I see changing the conversation paramount to improving our youth's future. | ” |
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
| Click here to learn more about education policy in Nebraska. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| |
Improving post-secondary readiness |
| |
Improving education for special needs students |
| |
Expanding arts education |
| |
Improving relations with teachers |
| |
Expanding school choice options |
| |
Closing the achievement gap |
| |
Balancing or maintaining the district's budget |
| “ | Preparing our youth for the world after high school should be the priority of schools. This requires a balance of many aspects, including those I just ranked, but if students are misinformed about what things are really like, it doesn't matter how balanced the budget is or how good of grades they achieved. | ” |
| —Krystal Gabel (March 13, 2016) | ||
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| Yes. I say, more schools and no prisons. So, yes, I support charter schools. However, for charter schools to receive the same funding as public schools, they need to offer the same special needs and student support services. My understanding is that charter schools tend to have smaller, less representative student populations, so they may not be as satisfactory as public schools. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should always defer to school board decisions. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. We should learn for the sake of learning. Knowledge is power. Making everyone learn the same content to eventually get a corporate office job is just preparing them for slavery. We need to educate students about the many unknowns they'll encounter in this diverse world. It's difficult to teach problem-solving and critical thinking through standardized curriculum. Students learn these skills through trial-and-error and classroom scenarios that challenge their way of thinking. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| On a positive note, this initiative opens way to collect metrics on performance across the board. Metrics provide more visibility to what's being taught in classrooms, and that's always a good thing since taxpayer dollars should always be visibly spent. My stance, however, is that this data is likely being used to increase monetary support from private donors, which in turn influences curriculum content. This is parallel to issues we see in government when private donors give to candidates who in turn create laws to benefit those private donors. I believe curriculum creation must be in the hands of the teachers, parents, and students, not the state or federal government. Initiatives for common content and subsequent metrics do not guarantee student success. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. We cannot simply dismiss a person from their job because of under-performance. Many factors may play into a person's lack of interest at work. Collaboration and opening up lines of communication is a great method to improve employee engagement. Actually I believe all teachers should participate in mentorship programs because this is how knowledge is transferred and improved upon for future classrooms. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. My understanding is that merit pay is based on student performance in the classroom. I do not believe this is appropriate. I support merit pay for excellent work on the behalf of the teacher. For instance, this would include teachers who volunteer their time to improve student output, meet with parents extra on the side, go to school activities for their students, coach academic and sport teams, sit with students at lunch, and so on. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| Yes. I think that vouchers should be available to students to choose where they want to go. Competition and choice is important. However, since financed by taxpayer money, students choosing to go to private school would receive a partial voucher. Taxpayer money can only feasibly support public schools. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should be used minimally. Students don't learn from being punished or taken out of school. Likely there are other issues that cause students to act out, including bullying, hunger, and problems at home. Parents need to be involved immediately and other options, like homeschooling, should be made available even if parents don't have the resources to afford it. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| The curriculum First and foremost, the classroom content needs to be honest and current. This means the curriculum needs to greatly contributed to by teachers, parents, and students. Student-teacher ratio is just as important, however. Students must have the appropriate scaffolding to absorb knowledge, and this starts with an attentive, supportive teacher. If a teacher is torn among dozens of students, quality goes down. Education is about quality, not quantity (not how many students can you squeeze into this space). |
