Ghadah Makoshi is the challenger for Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors for District 5. The challenger to incumbent Terry Kennedy, she is cross-registered as a Democrat and a Republican.
Ghadah answered the following question as part of a voter education event for the May 16, 2017 Primary Election:
As a PPS Director, what would you do to improve the well-being of low-income Pittsburgh children? In your answer please address: child nutrition and equitable development (including affordable housing).
Due to technical difficulties we were unable to capture video of her participation at our Candidates Forum on May 2, 2017. Below is a statement she provided afterwards in response to our question.
I would say that the most valuable investment we can make to improve the well-being of low-income children in Pittsburgh is to invest in quality early childhood education, as well as address nutrition and equitable development.
Child Nutrition and Health
As a parent of a child with a feeding tube nutrition is very important to me. And although the school board does not oversee nutrition at each school, it does sign contracts with food service for the district, and can work to ensure that the contracts being approved are with companies that provide real food that is well balanced and healthy.
Currently, there are 18 schools in PPS that have gotten involved in the Healthy Schools Program, but we need to get all our schools involved in this program and provide resources and support for each school to implement the initiatives listed, such as ensuring all students get adequate activity throughout the day by creating an activity policy. While most elementary school allot 20 minutes to recess each day, this is sometimes taken away as punishment, and research has shown that students especially elementary and middle school children’s cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development benefit from additional activity in the day.
Additionally, schools should be able to establish community gardens, so students can eat the fruit and vegetables grown in the garden. We need to ensure students have access to free drinking water that is safe. That we are teaching health education courses; and that our physical education classes work to include children with special medical needs, to ensure they are involved and active, not sitting on the sidelines.
Affordable Housing
With regard to equitable development. We have all seen the effect of gentrification aided by tax breaks in East Liberty. As school board director, I think we need to stop giving developers tax breaks on projects that would occur without those breaks, such as those in and around Bakery Square as well as the new building going up on Centre and Craig in Oakland. And IF we do approve a tax break it should be with a negotiation of affordable housing, local jobs, and union employees. We cannot afford to take more money away from our students, we need greater investment, not disinvestment in our children.
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