Talia Nissim: Lower Merion School Director Candidate Profile

Educators are faced with increased students mental and health needs, learning gaps, and an ever-evolving world (example: AI). All result in larger caseloads and more differentiation in classrooms. I want to provide teachers real support—co teaching, counseling capacity, protected planning time and professional development.

Does the prevalence of smartphones in classrooms hinder students’ ability to retain lessons taught in school?

Answer is yes! We all notice that students are easily distracted and remember less when phones are present during instruction. At a minimum, it should be ‘off and away’ during class, with health needs, IEP/504, and targeted school devices exceptions when they enhance the lesson. We have to remember: Devices are not the actual problem, unstructured access during instruction is. We should be purposely using school devices (labs, assistive technology) while explicitly teaching digital literacy without fighting with social media.

How do you plan to address school safety, as well as the rise in hoax threats toward schools? If not, what should be done to address that.

Swatting and hoax threats necessitate quick, standardized responses to keep students safe while minimizing disruption to learning. Recently due to a police chase, Lower Merion School children had a 2 hour lockdown. I recommend fully staffed K-12 threat assessment teams with greater collaboration with LMPD, use of Safe2Say tip line, and clear, timely communication with families during an event. I believe we should use playbooks and publish short afteraction summaries, so the community knows what we’re improving.

Are teachers in the district adequately compensated? If not, what should be done to address that.

LMSD salaries are among the most competitive in the region; however, retention is also impacted by working conditions. We need to protect planning time, minimize last minute coverage, and expand/grow our own in the hard to fill areas such as special education and STEM. Through negotiations, we should be able to maintain compensation with cost of living and nearby districts.

What can the district do to better support students who are struggling in school due to factors outside classrooms, such as food or housing insecurity?

Schools cannot do everything, but we can connect families to the current initiatives—free breakfast school, extended summer meals, and a discreet way to get pantry resources. We will strengthen McKinney-Vento supports with a form of case manager navigation so that getting services, transportation and enrollment is more streamlined as appropriate for each family. We will also monitor outcomes such as attendance and course completions to confirm when success or support reached the student needing assistance most.