Rachelle Johnson
Running for school board in Harford County District D
Email: RJohnsonHCPSBofED@gmail.com
Website: www.rachellejohnson.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/rachellejohnsonharfordboe/
How old will you be on Election Day (Nov. 3)?
43
Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what is your job title?
Yes. I serve as chief financial officer for Centurian Construction Company, LLC, where I oversee financial management and business operations.
What is the highest level of education that you completed, and where did you get that degree?
Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Anthropology, Towson University
Why are you running for the school board?
I am running because I believe every decision made by the Board of Education should start with one question: What is best for students?
My husband and I have raised our family in Harford County for nearly 20 years. Through our own children's experiences, I have seen firsthand how difficult it can be for a family when a child is struggling in school. I have also seen the difference it can make when families, educators and support staff come together, figure out what a student needs and help that student thrive.
Those experiences made me a stronger advocate for my own children. Now I want to bring that same passion and advocacy to all of our students.
I also believe my professional experience brings something valuable to the board. I have spent more than 20 years working in finance, operations and leadership. I am able to dig into budgets, ask questions, solve problems and make difficult decisions.
I am willing to do the work, listen to students, families, educators and staff and ask questions when something does not make sense. Most importantly, I will keep the focus on how the decisions we make affect students.
I want our schools to be places where students are safe, supported, challenged and given the opportunity to succeed.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I think I bring a different perspective to the board. I have more than 20 years of experience in finance, operations and leadership, but I also know Harford County Public Schools as a parent and advocate.
Professionally, I spend a lot of time working with budgets, solving problems, asking questions and making difficult decisions. I know how to dig into the numbers, but I also know that numbers never tell the whole story.
I have already spent a considerable amount of time reviewing Harford County Public Schools budgets, staffing information, academic data and other public information. I have also compared central office staffing and salaries with other Maryland school systems because I wanted to better understand how Harford County is using its resources.
I am also a parent who has had to navigate the school system, ask questions, advocate for my children and learn how decisions made at the Board and system level affect what happens in our schools.
I think good board members need to be willing to listen, ask questions and admit when they do not know something. I will not agree with everyone on every issue, but I will do my homework, consider different perspectives and make the decision I believe is best for students.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
I believe the biggest challenge facing Harford County Public Schools is improving student outcomes while dealing with some very real financial pressures.
The two go hand in hand. It is not enough to simply spend more money or add another program. We have to ask whether students are learning, whether they are making progress and whether what we are investing in is actually working.
If elected, I would want the board to look closely at both outcomes and spending. When we invest in a program or initiative, we should know what we expect it to accomplish and then go back and look at whether it actually did.
I would also continue looking closely at administrative and non-classroom spending to see where dollars could be better used in our schools.
At the same time, I think we need to be honest about the financial challenges Harford County Public Schools is facing. There are significant costs for transportation, employee benefits, special education and other required services, staffing and state mandates that cannot simply be cut from the budget.
I do not believe there is one easy cut or one new program that will solve everything. We need to understand where the money is going, whether we are getting the results we should and be willing to make changes when we are not.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
I admire Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Her story has always stood out to me because her path to leadership started with volunteering.
She was a young mother when she agreed to temporarily lead a local Girl Scout troop. What started as simply helping where she was needed eventually led her from community volunteer to CEO of the Girl Scouts.
What I admire most is that even as her career grew, she never lost her focus on service. She believed leadership was about listening, respecting people and helping others succeed.
That resonates with me because some of the most meaningful opportunities in my own life have started by showing up, volunteering or saying yes when help was needed.
I believe the best leaders are not focused on the title. They step forward because there is work worth doing.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, is a 10-year plan that includes increased funding to support early childhood education, higher teacher starting pay, college/career-readiness standards for high school graduates, and expanded services to multilingual and impoverished families, among other goals. Since the Blueprint's implementation, test scores have increased modestly in many parts of the state, but some school officials complain about the costs and administrative burdens placed on them by the Blueprint. Please tell us your views on the Blueprint and how it is affecting your school district.
I support many of the goals behind the Blueprint, including early childhood education, competitive teacher salaries, college and career readiness and additional support for students who need it most.
Where I have more concerns is with how some of those goals are being implemented and paid for.
The Blueprint has placed significant requirements on local school systems, and those requirements are contributing to the financial pressures Harford County Public Schools is facing. I think we have to be willing to ask whether every requirement is working as intended, what it is costing locally and whether the results justify the time and resources being spent.
I do not think we have to choose between supporting the Blueprint completely or opposing it completely. There are parts of it that can make a real difference for students, and there are parts that may need to be changed.
As a board member, I would support what is working, ask questions about what is not and advocate for more flexibility when state requirements create unnecessary costs or administrative work without improving outcomes for students.
Chronic absenteeism has been a problem in many schools since the Covid-19 pandemic. How big of a problem is absenteeism in your school district, and what if anything can the Board of Education do about it?
Harford County Public Schools has made progress in reducing chronic absenteeism, but it remains a concern, particularly at the middle and high school levels.
I think the first step is understanding why students are missing school. Transportation, health or mental health concerns, bullying, family circumstances or a student struggling academically can all play a role. We cannot assume the same solution will work for every student.
The board should be looking at where absenteeism is happening, what schools are doing to address it and whether those efforts are working. I also support early outreach to families before occasional absences become a larger pattern.
Attendance can be an early warning sign that something else is going on. The goal should be to identify the problem early, work with families and help students get back to school before they fall further behind.
Are you satisfied with your school district's policy on AI use by students? If so, why? If not, what would you suggest to improve the AI policy?
Harford County Public Schools recently adopted a new policy on artificial intelligence, and I think it is a good starting point. I appreciate that it addresses academic integrity, student privacy and age-appropriate use of AI.
The bigger question will be how the policy works in practice.
AI is going to be part of the world our students enter after graduation, so I do not think simply banning it is the answer. Students need to learn how to use it responsibly, question the information it gives them, recognize when it is wrong and understand when using AI crosses the line into having it do the work for them.
Teachers also need clear and consistent expectations about what is appropriate.
Because this technology is changing so quickly, Harford County Public Schools will need to continue reviewing the policy. We should teach students how to use AI as a tool without allowing it to replace writing, research, critical thinking and problem solving.
Youth mental health has been a growing concern for years now. Do you think your school district has the resources and personnel in place to deal with this issue adequately? If not, what would you suggest to improve the situation?
Youth mental health is an issue I care deeply about. Over the past several years, we have seen too many young people in our community struggle with mental health issues, and families trying to find the right help and support.
Harford County Public Schools has counselors, psychologists, social workers, pupil personnel workers and partnerships with outside providers, but I am not convinced we have enough resources to meet the level of need we are seeing.
I would want the board to look closely at caseloads, vacancies, wait times and whether students are actually able to get help when they need it.
Schools cannot replace community mental health providers, but they are often where changes in a student's behavior, attendance or academic performance are first noticed. We need strong early intervention, better connections between schools, families and outside providers and staff who know how to recognize when a student may need help.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries? If so, what kind of books should be removed, and who should make those decisions?
Yes. I believe there can be circumstances when a book is not appropriate for a particular school or age level and should be removed or moved to a more appropriate level.
At the same time, I do not think that decision should be made based on a single objection alone or a passage taken out of context. Our school librarians select books using established criteria, and their professional judgment and the reason a book was selected should be part of the conversation.
That is one reason I volunteered to join Harford County Public Schools' Library Materials Reconsideration Committee. I believe the review process should include different perspectives and consider the book as a whole.
Parents already have the ability to restrict which library books their own child can access. When the question is whether a book should be available to all students in a school, I believe a thoughtful review process is the fairest way to make that decision.
