Meet Adam Neblock: South Beloit School Board candidate

On April 1, voters in the South Beloit school district will choose from five candidates, mostly write-ins, to fill four open school board seats: Jeff Becorest, Sherry Hogan, Adam Neblock, Ashley Newton, and Devon Pilz.

Adam Neblock

(first-time candidate)

Tell our readers a little about yourself.        

I grew up in South Beloit, graduated in 2003, and left the area for college and working overseas for a quite a while. Now I live in the home I grew up in with my wife and son. With respect to school board, I am a returned Peace Corps volunteer and teacher. I served in the Peace Corps in Georgia and Albania from 2008-2011. I stayed overseas and taught internationally in Albania, India (head of online learning), Paraguay (AP World History and AP Comparative Government teacher), and China at an IB school (9, 10, and 12th grade world history teacher). I also am a new father as our first son turned one in March.          

What motivates you to run for a position on the school board?          

1) After I saw that there was only one name on the ballot for South Beloit school board, I felt the need to step up. 2) We just had a son a year ago and feel like I have skin in the game.

If elected, what are one or two things you want the district to continue because it does them well?

I'm a big fan of the career-tech program created just before the pandemic. I think it is extremely important for students to see that make more than a decent living in blue collar trades. And as a lower income district, the line was always that college was the way out of poverty. Well...working a good job in the trades is a great way to do that, too.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing our school district, and how would you address them?

I think one of the most significant challenges our district faces is financial. Funds can be pretty tight and that stagnates some growth for students and faculty. Field trips. Science labs. Hands-on math activities. Competing with other district local districts when it comes to salary schedule which impacts teacher retention. Professional development opportunities. I, as of right now, would like to address these three different ways. 1) On the student side (like field trips), I'd like to see a return of the PTO so parents can work more closely with teachers in raising those funds and figuring out what would really help the school at lower levels. 2) As it comes to teacher retention, I'll start with speaking with faculty about how to retain them, whether through salary and/or benefits, and bring that back to the board so we can look at numbers and see what can be done. 3) When it comes to student growth and teacher efficacy, I recommend a few programs I've picked up while teaching overseas and leading school research teams that we could use here with training that would increase student performance and help teachers act more like coaches in the classroom.

How do you plan to ensure transparency and accountability in board decisions?  

One of the biggest frustrations I've seen in this community lately is how decisions are made at meetings and it really looks like those decisions are done deals and there was no public input taken on them. I plan on avoiding that by actively seeking input and advice from constituents before they are made. As well as having a minute wrap up as a blog or vlog a day or two after meetings.

What have you been hearing from your constituents about what the schools in the district do well and could improve on?

I have heard the district has improved greatly since I graduated, specifically with Mr. Fisher as superintendent. And those that put it that way say with a level of seriousness that other people around them nod their heads in quiet agreement. Like, I feel how serious they are when they say this. The career tech program pops up. A lot of parents and staff have mentioned to me how much they will miss Mr. Schwab at the high school. I personally like the AP exam signs in the yards.

I've heard great things about our special ed program. I've also heard things about the special ed program that have left a sour taste in parents' mouths. The follow-up with those parents sounds like the issues prompting the sour taste have been more the most part addressed with staffing and training.

What are your views on the role of parents, teachers, and administrators in shaping school policies?     

Simply put, all three are stakeholders and all three need to collaborate and be heard in order to move forward to enact policies that work effectively. Decisions big and small need all three as a sounding board.

How do you propose to address achievement gaps and support students from diverse backgrounds?        

I want to see the district adopt the use of visible thinking routines in every classroom. These routines help students think out loud and provide a good deal of structure in different ways of thinking. With training, these can be really easy tools for teachers to use and it puts a lot of the thinking work on students. I led a research team on the use of these routines at the last school I taught at in China. They increase writing scores on testing for all students, especially with those who have English as second language. Like my jaw dropped at how much improvement there was with schools that used these routines compared to school that did not. And a my co-leader was deadest on how these would never work with her first graders. Their writing was always strong, but spoken English not so much, like struggle to form full sentences. Come six weeks later, her kids were forming full sentences.

We can make this intervention be very low cost. Some districts make it cost a lot! A lot of it is available for free online. But the training and coaching staff part will cost some time and funds.

What experience do you have that prepares you to serve on the school board?        

I was elected to and served a two year term on my college's board of trustees - open and closed meetings, finance committee membership, voting on faculty tenure, speaking with and representing constituents.

From Peace Corps and Americorps - grant writing, writing federal reports, coordinating with and scheduling tutor volunteers, implementing interventions to raise standardized test scores, leading teacher trainings at the regional level in Albania.

Teaching at home and abroad - goes with saying the day to day activities of teaching, creating cross-curricular materials for English and history, search and hiring committee for head of school, performing successful school accreditation interviews and visits, gathering and presenting survey data on curriculum decisions to parents and school admin, leading school-based research teams on visible thinking strategies and student planner interventions

How would you collaborate with experienced board members while bringing fresh perspectives?   

I'll be purposefully and intentionally finding common ground with other members. When it comes to proposals and decisions, I prefer to use data and examples to persuade others. I, or another board member for that matter, could have a great idea. It is absolutely crucial to get everyone else on board.

If elected, what is one policy or initiative you would champion to improve our schools?        

The use of visible thinking strategies in the classroom. Especially at the elementary level. I'm pretty positive it will improve student outcomes and make teacher's lives easier.

What is something you'd like to tell voters about you that were not asked?

I really want to make the return of a parent-teacher organization a reality. This an absolutely crucial ingredient that is a part of every district and it needs to return to be a part of ours.