Grand Rapids Public Schools Board Member Aarie Wade is seeking reelection, among a field of 15 candidates. 

Wade is a graduate of Creston High School, which closed in 2013. She has worked in early childhood education for almost 30 years, currently as the director of education at the Baxter Community Center, where she’s been since 2017. She has served on different boards, including the Kent School Services Network.

She started the Black Book Exchange Box, a free library system like Little Free Libraries, which highlights books featuring black characters and culture.

Every year, 16 four-year-olds graduate from Baxter, and Wade said it’s her goal to make GRPS an excellent choice for them to attend.

“My commitment to myself was to stay student-centered. What is best for the kids? How will this decision impact children Monday?” she said.

Wade’s two daughters attended GRPS but later transferred to East Kentwood and Grand Rapids Catholic Central.

“I know that people may have issues, say ‘You took your child out of the district. You put them in private school.’ I did all the things necessary for my family, but that is not always an option for the people who I serve in my community,” Wade said.

Wade’s daughter said switching schools came with a different classroom environment.

“She said, ‘Even the boys knew answers and were raising their hands and talking. Mom, they were listening, but not because the teacher was mean, but because they were engaged,’” Wade recounted. “She said, ‘Mom, I have never been in a classroom where everybody was engaged in learning. I’ve never seen what that looked like.’”

Her daughter’s grade point average went from 2.7 to 3.4 after transferring out of GRPS.

Wade said oftentimes a student’s ZIP code determines the quality of education he or she will receive, an inequity that the district needs to remedy. 

“If you grew up in a school where it was normal to have disruption and normal to just not care or not know the answers or not read the book, are you going to?” Wade asked.

Halfway through Wade’s first term, the board eliminated many of its committees, one of which was the Academic Achievement Committee. Recently, she said, the board has reopened that committee, which she said will allow for them to discuss student success and how to measure it.

“We want them to be prepared for their next level of learning and successful as a district in our test scores, but we need to think about those stories behind those test scores. Think about what our kids are going through in their houses before they leave to school,” she said.

The level of poverty many GRPS students experience directly impacts success metrics like test scores and warrants more funding from the state to address, Wade said. She argued the district must advocate for additional funding.

“Some of our kids are coming to school to be in a safe place, to eat, to be warm. We are tackling so many different things before we get to ‘one plus one,’ and our educators are doing that work. And that’s why we need more money. We’re not educating the same children as East Grand Rapids is, but we’re getting the same money and less taxes,” Wade said.

In the event GRPS cannot secure more money from the state, the recently-passed sinking fund millage frees up space in its budget that would have gone to building repairs for other things like student tutoring. Cost cutting is still necessary, Wade said, in the form of closing schools and consolidating. 

“We’re stretched so thin in this district. We don’t need 11 principals,” she said. “That’s a lot of money.”

The Grand Rapids Education Association, the district’s teachers union, did not endorse Wade in this cycle.

“I know that they fight for teachers. I fight for kids. Adults are going to do what they want to do,” Wade said. “Teachers don’t have to be in this district, but our kids do.”

Five school board seats are on the ballot, and the district is in the process of selecting a new superintendent, potential turnover that Wade said could leave the district without much institutional knowledge. Wade said her first term allowed her to get to know the district, and in the second term, that familiarity would be an asset.

Write to juliana@grherald.com