GEA Board of Education Candidate Questionnaire

-2021-

Candidate Name: __Noel Petra________________________________________________

1. Will you pledge to support educators’ collective bargaining rights in your district throughout
contract negotiations and other labor-management interactions to ensure that teachers are
respected and their rights not infringed upon?
[X] YES    [  ] NO

2. Will you pledge to include the local teachers’ union in discussions surrounding all matters
related to your local school district, its schools, and its funding?
[X] YES    [  ] NO

3. Will you oppose all proposals that would censor teachers from teaching about inclusion,
diversity, and equity?
[X] YES     [  ] NO

4. Please share with us what it is that distinguishes you as a champion for teachers, students, and
public education? My two children have benefitted from our incredible teachers who have
helped mold them and their friends into young adults that surpass my highest expectations.
Our teachers are the key to our future.

5. How will you continue to ensure that the schools are resourced at the level they require in
order to continue our recent history of success? I will vote to make sure our schools are
funded to a level that will maintain or exceed our current success.

6. In Guilford, teachers collaboratively write the curricula which are then approved by the
Board. Teachers are afforded a wide degree of professional latitude and academic freedom
when selecting supplemental materials and designing daily instruction within the confines of
those Board approved curricula. If elected, will you continue to support these professional
and academic responsibilities and freedoms? If no, why not?
[ X] YES [ ] NO – They’ve proven their value to the system through results.

7. Some candidates have stated that Guilford teachers are teaching Critical Race Theory in their
classes and are indoctrinating their students into a leftist, Marxist ideology. The BOE, the
Superintendent and the President of the GEA have all publicly stated that this is not true.
How do you respond to these statements? I firmly believe that CRT is being used as a scare
tactic by the extreme conservatives to scare weak-minded people into voting for them.