An Advocate for the Entire School Community
Hi, I’m Dr. Erica Schmid.
In my 20+ year career in education, one thing has always held true: students thrive when they and their peers get the support that they need.
A school district is first and foremost a community that is fueled and enriched by the unique contributions of each member. I am running for the Collingswood Board of Education because in this particularly tumultuous time in education, I want to use my knowledge and skills to help ensure that all students are both supported and celebrated.
As a board member, I will advocate for our entire school community, guided by my core belief that education is vital to an empathetic, just society where all people can thrive.
My Background
I am a lifelong learner who values education as both an end in itself and as an essential foundation for an empathetic society. My wide-ranging experience gives me a 360-degree view of the educational system, the student journey from preschool to college, and the difficulties that teachers currently face.
Starting at age 16, I spent 16 years volunteering at a YMCA speciality camp for kids affected by/ infected with HIV. In addition to serving on the planning and programming committee, I was a counselor and village chief. I began this work in the mid-90s and thankfully a lot has changed since then. But the current political turbulence and the federal targeting of kids who are living in a society that already marginalizes them brings me right back. I will always fight to protect kids (and adults) who are vulnerable to and victimized by policy changes.
I have a PhD in English with a graduate certificate in Gender Studies from Temple University, and I received my teaching certification through Rowan University’s alternate route program.
I was an educator for the first half of my career, teaching English Language Arts and Literature in middle schools, high schools, and colleges. I had the privilege of teaching multilingual and neurodiverse learners from a range of backgrounds at Temple University, Rowan University, Community College of Philadelphia, Maple Shade and Lindenwold High Schools, Y.A.L.E. School, and Paul VI, among others.
For the second half of my career, I shifted my focus to supporting teaching and learning from outside of the classroom through work on assessments, simulations, and gamification of learning. I currently manage a team of Assessment Specialists at a mission-driven EdTech company that helps teachers and administrators support multilingual learners.
I have two children at Garfield Elementary, where I have been a PTA member and classroom parent since my oldest child was in kindergarten. I am also a coach in Collingswood’s exceptional Odyssey of the Mind program. My husband, Dr. Marc Brasof, is a Professor of Education at Arcadia University who volunteers on the Student Voice Committee at Collingswood High School.
As a family, we’re not just committed to the schools — we’re committed to the community. My husband is a local small business owner who you can find at the Farmers’ Market selling BBQ or playing drums at Porchfest with the Stereotytans. You might also see us walking our two rescue dogs, Steve and Nancy (yes, they are named after Stranger Things characters).
Why I’m Running for BOE
I am and have always been personally committed to supporting and advocating for public education. I am also guided by the belief that we need education, specifically in the Liberal Arts, to stretch and grow as people and to ensure that we are building spaces of belonging.
Education is a civil right. But state and federal changes are threatening school districts and students all over South Jersey. These changes aren’t just “politics.” They have real impact on our students, teachers, and community.
Whether it’s facing state school funding challenges or federal policies that individually target and isolate some of our community’s children, our students and schools must have fierce leaders who will fight for their rights, needs, and values. As a board member, I pledge to be this kind of leader.
How Do We Get There?
“Poetry is not a luxury… It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change…”
Her vision of spaces that welcome and celebrate the full, authentic self has motivated me as an educator, a parent, and a citizen and will continue to motivate me as a board member. Kids deserve a comprehensive, empowering education that honors them and allows them to be — or become — their favorite selves. To ensure that the Collingswood School District is such a space, I have the following goals:
Focus on data-driven, evidence-based policies and practices.
Address longstanding performance gaps.
Increase data literacy across the district.
Open more spaces for community dialogue and actionable feedback.
Trust that everyone is coming with the same goal of helping kids.
Be vulnerable and transparent and embrace radical honesty.
Work with the curriculum committee to support interdisciplinary, project-based learning experiences – think Odyssey of the Mind – that provide opportunities for all kids to shine.
Advocate at the state level for fair funding.
Collaborate with other districts to support legislation that addresses the flawed funding formula.
Join existing coalitions like the New Jersey Fair Funding Collective.
Promote a culture of professional learning.
Ensure that teachers and staff have the time and resources to develop themselves professionally.
Build organizational capacity so we can be more limber in turbulent times.
Advocate at both the state and federal levels to protect our vulnerable students.
Questions and Answers
As a Board of Education candidate, I have the privilege of participating in community forums and answering questions in local media outlets. These resources will be added to this website as they become available.
Community Candidate Q&A
The Retrospect
CEA Forum
I appreciate the opportunity to speak at this forum, and I am thankful to live in a community with so many people who are passionate about education. While I love talking about education and would have loved to share my answers to the forum questions live, I need to be with my family right now as my mom transitions to hospice care. I believe in taking space and giving yourself grace, so as much as I want to put on a strong face, that wouldn’t be leading by example.
I was lucky to have a strong, feisty, overwhelmingly generous mother who fought hard to have an extra year with us. She is ready to move on and I feel privileged to support her on that journey. My mom was a social worker who believed strongly in every kid’s right to be loved, supported, and educated. So when I learned that her cancer had spread, I was determined to complete this BOE race and she was equally adamant that I do so. The timing for this forum is not ideal, but I know the community understands.
My responses to the questions asked at the CEA Forum are below:
In the interest of fairness, I am limiting my responses to 150-200 words, since the response time for the forum is 90 seconds.
1. How would you approach collaboration and handle differences of opinion among board members AND between the board and administration?
In my professional life, I have been a coordinator and manager for many years and I have learned that creating a safe space for honest conversation is essential to a high-functioning team. People need to feel comfortable being wrong, making mistakes, and not knowing the answer. That’s how humans learn and I believe the most effective leaders model this disposition.
As a board member, I commit to leading by example. I promise to be vulnerable enough to be wrong, to admit when I don’t have an answer, and to own my mistakes. In the end, my focus is on the success of our students, and I am committed to being part of the solution.
2. What do you see as the board’s role in attracting and retaining high-quality teachers and administrative staff, and how can the district support teacher and staff morale and professional growth?
I like to begin solutioning with research and data. Education research indicates two main drivers for teacher retention are autonomy and support. Autonomy means that teachers have the freedom to create their own unit plans and lesson plans and bring their passion into the classroom. Support refers to the opportunities for collaboration and professional development as well as the existence of thriving professional learning communities. If elected, I will support PLC-friendly school schedules as well as PDs that allow teachers to explore and experiment with new ways of engaging students.
I think the board's role in attracting high-quality teachers and admins is negotiating competitive salaries and ensuring teachers have autonomy and support. I also believe the board has a role in making sure the facilities support teaching and learning and that teachers have the tools they need to be excellent. That means they have space in their classrooms, they have updated tech and it works well consistently, and they can easily access colleagues and building admins for help. Teachers and staff come to these buildings everyday, and we're not adequately supporting them if the physical spaces they have to work in everyday make their jobs more difficult.
3. With the removal of academic support teachers from elementary classrooms, how does the board envision supporting teachers in managing academic interventions and workloads to ensure they can teach all students effectively?
I cannot speak for the board and their vision, but as a parent of a student with reading challenges, I am thrilled that the district quickly hired Dr. Walker to replace the retiring administrator in charge of data. Having a data specialist is crucial for identifying needs and making sure they are addressed. An elementary school teacher is expected to teach 5 subjects to roughly 25 kids, all who show up with different learning profiles: various proficiency levels, various learning styles, various challenges, etc. Middle and High School teachers may have over 100 students. It is unrealistic to ask them to address all learning needs and all learning gaps by themselves. The role of the data specialist is to identify the needs and provide teachers with targeted instructional techniques so that teachers can focus on teaching. As a board member, I would work to ensure that these types of support are provided to teachers and students.
4. What are your priorities when it comes to budgeting and resource allocation, and how would you balance the need to support student programs and staff with the community’s expectations for fiscal responsibility?
My priority is supporting all kids. Students learn differently and have different needs so support is not always another adult in the room. Schools are complex ecosystems that thrive when all parts are working well and like an ecosystem, not all parts are always readily visible. So rather than pitting teachers against administrators, it’s more effective to recognize that we need both.
Given budget constraints and funding challenges, we need to be thoughtful and creative about what is needed and where. For example, the board just approved Dr. Walker to backfill Mr. Yamamoto’s role as data specialist and Title IX coordinator. This position is key for analyzing data and addressing longstanding achievement gaps. Title IX coordinators are especially important right now, given all of the federal attacks on trans kids. Similarly, Ms. Howell-Turner was hired last year to replace the previous Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction who retired, and we’re already seeing huge improvements in the accuracy of information we have about student proficiency. DIEBELs data is crucial for providing targeted instruction. It supports teachers by identifying student needs and allows them to focus on teaching. Though not in the classrooms everyday, these roles are critical to student growth.
5. If the district were to go to referendum again, how would you work to engage the community, provide clear information, and build trust in the process?
At this point, I don’t think we are in a position to go to referendum. We just raised taxes to avoid cutting staff and another large tax increase is not equitable or sustainable. We need to explore other options, like advocating at the state level for changes to the funding formula. I think we need to continue working with the borough. The recent rec plan gives me a lot of hope for more creative solutions to difficult challenges.
But, since we do have serious facilities issues, I would start building trust by being honest: we need better facilities. Our buildings are old and they are not designed with our current understanding of best practices for teaching and learning. The rooms are too small and there are not enough of them, we don’t have gyms, cafeterias, libraries, music rooms, etc. They just aren’t adequate. They are safe, of course, but they are not ideal for learning.
In every classroom, the teacher is the first teacher, and the students are the second teacher. But the classroom space is the third teacher that students learn from. We need to think carefully and creatively about this “third teacher” and how we can improve the physical learning environment for students and teachers.
6. Given the role of the board of education as defined in the opening remarks: How would you ensure the board holds the Superintendent accountable, and that the board’s oversight is transparent to the public?
I would very much like to shift our language and our lens from transparency and accountability to honesty and support. Transparency and accountability are important concepts but they've been misused in education as part of a coordinated 40+ year effort to defund and destroy public education. Understanding the historical context is important. Transparency implies that school districts are doing shady things, despite being heavily regulated and requiring a significant amount of public and government oversight. Accountability implies that people have done something wrong – teachers aren’t teaching, principals aren’t leading, district level admins aren’t managing well. This mistrust of our schools blocks honest conversations about our challenges and frustrates improvement efforts.
Instead of transparency and accountability, I want to focus on honesty and support. I want to start from a place where we believe that all members of our school district and community care about kids and want to help them. I want us to be honest about our challenges and feel safe being vulnerable so that we’re not blaming people but rather examining systemic blockers. This will allow us to change our lens from punitive to supportive and find ways to help people rather than blame them.
7. How would you approach decisions about class sizes, as well as classroom and administrative staffing, to ensure the district can provide effective instruction and support for students?
I’m not a sitting board member, but because I’m running, I researched what board members are responsible for. Decisions about class size and staffing are the responsibility of building leaders and administrators. As a board member, my responsibility would be to support the administrators who make those decisions. In my professional role as a manager, I try to be conscientious of causing disruptions or micro-managing people, so I would trust the building leaders and administrators to make these decisions.
As a parent, discussions about class size should also include conversations about the district’s structure, which is not ideal for teaching and learning. We have five elementary schools and it’s easy to confuse small schools with low student-teacher ratios. We have classes of 25+ and our elementary schools are basically at capacity. With our resources spread thin, it’s more difficult to give every class the support they need, especially as class sizes at the elementary level are getting bigger. Also, one class per grade in most of our elementary schools means kids are learning with and from the same 25ish people for 6 years. It’s no wonder that kids have trouble transitioning to middle school, both socially and academically.
8. What steps do you believe the district should take to promote an equitable, safe, and inclusive learning environment for students of all backgrounds, including racial, cultural, and socioeconomic differences?
As with ensuring the safety and dignity of our LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming kids, we need to commit to promoting an equitable and inclusive learning environment for students of all backgrounds. My husband and I moved here from Philly four years ago because diversity and inclusion are core values of ours. We were horrified when we saw the discipline data, particularly the unacceptable percentage of suspensions given to Black girls, the multiple student walkouts because of racism, and the presence of a White Student Union at the high school. This is a problem that everyone has to focus on, not just people in the school building. We need continuous cultural competency training and we need to implement–and celebrate– culturally responsive curriculum all year, not just during certain months.
Inequity affects all students. Kids learn with and from each other and when they see students being treated unfairly, it negatively affects every kid’s ability to learn. I believe we should see every kid as our kid. However, for those who do not share this belief, understand that the school is an ecosystem and poisoning some kids affects all kids.
9. How would you ensure that LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming students feel safe, supported, and respected in our schools?
Ensuring that LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming students feel safe, supported, and respected is extremely important and personal for me. The heinous targeting of trans students at all levels of government and the lengths to which organizations are willing to go to destroy people’s lives requires our commitment to go as far as necessary to protect our kids. This is why it is crucial to understand the district as an ecosystem and to recognize the need for administrative roles and support positions that ensure the safety and dignity of our LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming students. We need to continue to celebrate wins like our wellness center and we need to continue prioritizing positions like the Title IX coordinator.
Given the threats from the federal government and the possibility of a change in state leadership, we need board members to unequivocally commit to policies that not only promote student safety and dignity but celebrate students’ authentic selves. That means ensuring that all kids see themselves in the curriculum and feel empowered to bring their full selves to school.
10. With enrollment at the high school declining and reductions in course offerings, how can the board help ensure the school remains an attractive and competitive option for families—particularly in maintaining a robust mix of academic, elective, and advanced courses?
The BOE doesn’t decide course offerings. Those decisions are made by building leaders and administrators, and I believe those professionals are in the best position to make the most effective decisions about courses. As community members, we can advocate for more funding so that leaders have more freedom to offer a more robust mix. And as community members, I think we need to think deeply about our discourse. I am frustrated by the conversations I see and hear about student enrollment and retention. When I read education research, retention refers to graduation rates and how to help students who are at risk for dropping out. To suggest that we should expend limited resources and energy trying to compel students to stay in the public school system instead of leaving for private schools reinforces the same negative and false claims that have been used to defund public education.
I taught at Paul IV and went to Bishop Eustace. The idea that Collingswood High School doesn’t compete with these schools is false. The idea that our teachers aren’t as good as their teachers is false. The idea that their students are more talented, more intelligent, or more deserving of a quality education is false.
