Turtle Creek Resident Seeks Seat on School Board

Selena Johnson, who spends her days working as a child advocate, has decided she would like to spend her spare time doing so as well.

Johnson of Turtle Creek is running for Woodland Hills School Board in the May 17 primary.  She works for Child Protective Services in Allegheny County and feels her daily work in child welfare would help her to advocate on behalf of students in the Woodland Hills School District as a board member.

“I’m a strong advocate for education, that’s why I chose to run for school board, just to make sure that all children across the board have an equal opportunity for education,” Johnson said.

Johnson is running on the Democratic ticket only in Region 1, which encompasses Turtle Creek, Churchill, Chalfant and Wilkins, where there is one open seat.  She is also running in the At-Large race, which has two open seats, on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.

In her day-to-day work, Johnson meets with children in school districts throughout Allegheny County, attending magistrate hearings about truancy and helping students work towards independent living situations, as an advocate for children and their families.

“What our goal is, is to create a plan to try to work on whatever the situations are, with hope they don’t reenter the same problems.  Sometimes it’s just a breakdown in communication, or there may be family problems that we just don’t know about,” she said.

Although she has no children in the district, Johnson volunteers with the Woodland Hills Football Boosters and Braddock-North Braddock Little League.  She has a six-year-old niece in kindergarten at Woodland Hills Academy.

“It’s a responsibility that even if you don’t have children or if you have children within the school district, you should be a part of it because every voice counts.  Every voice counts.  We need to encourage more people to come out to the school board meetings,” she said.

At a recent Woodland Hills School Board public budget meeting, Johnson spoke about neighborhood school closings and how she believes it will affect the community as a whole.

“Myself, as far as closing a school, especially in a distressed community, feel it would not be suitable for parents who want to be more involved,” she said of the possible closing of Fairless Elementary in North Braddock.

Johnson’s platform focuses on several issues, the main three including decreasing school dropouts, creating an in-house truancy program and advocating early academic literacy.  She also would like to take a non-traditional approach to education.

“A non-traditional approach to academic achievement is being more inclusive of families,” Johnson said.

She also has an interest in creating an after-school program for students in kindergarten through third grade, focusing on the arts and wellness, both physically and mentally.

As Johnson made her way throughout neighborhoods of the district, she said several parents mentioned the use of school uniforms.  Johnson said she would like to see them used in the elementary and junior high schools, but not the high school.

“I think all children should have their own individuality as they age, however, a lot of these children currently do struggle with clothes and what they wear and self-image,” Johnson said.  “If we’re all equal in the classroom, you don’t have to worry too much about problems with self-image."

Johnson has lived in the Pittsburgh area for several years and in Turtle Creek for the past two years.  She is the local president for the National Association of Black Social Workers and serves on the board at the Resurrection Baptist Church in Braddock.