Knudsen cites experience, student outcomes in District 2 re-election bid
BUFORD — Incumbent Steven B. Knudsen is seeking re-election to the Gwinnett County Board of Education District 2 seat, pointing to gains in graduation rates, facility investments and budget management during his tenure while acknowledging ongoing challenges in rebuilding community trust and addressing student needs across the district.
Steven B. Knudsen
Experience and record
Q: You are currently serving on the school board. How would you evaluate your time in this role so far?
A: I am staying true to my belief that GCPS is made up of wonderful and talented school building-level teachers and administrators who can accomplish amazing things when we get them the resources and support they need to do the job.
Q: What are you most proud of accomplishing during your term?
A: We have increased the graduation rate to a 10-year high while lowering the millage rate over a full point. I led the effort to lower the millage rate by 4/10 of a point last year alone. We have passed two SPLOSTs during my tenure, keeping GCPS’s facilities some of the best in the country.
Q: What is one decision you would handle differently if given the opportunity?
A: I wish I had been more sensitive to parents’ concerns during the pandemic. I did not do enough for parents to feel heard during that time or communicate more of the “why” behind my decisions and the decisions of the district.
Q: Why are you seeking re-election?
A: I don’t believe my job is done here. GCPS is a huge organization, and for the issues we’re facing, I believe that experience is incredibly important. A new board member would be learning so much that there is too much opportunity for making mistakes. I also believe that this board needs to be reminded that our role is one of governance and not operations.
Current state of GCPS
Q: What do you believe is the biggest challenge currently facing Gwinnett County Public Schools?
A: Rebuilding trust within the community. We have made rash decisions concerning our last two superintendents, which I voted against. Our performance is trending in the right direction, but it is imperative our performance improves to rebuild that trust. To do that, we must identify our gaps by cluster. Then we must resource those gaps by cluster. That will take a lot of hard work and discipline to accomplish. Our MLL population continues to grow, as does our special education population. The number of students living in poverty remains high, and our gifted and talented population is also significant.
We can no longer take a macro approach to providing the necessary support for each of them to improve.
Q: How has the district changed during your time on the board?
A: Our MLL population has outpaced other segments of growth. There is no additional support from the state for this group of students. We have lost the fine art of piloting programs before full implementation. We have begun to roll out districtwide change without knowing its full impact.
Q: Where do you believe the district has made the most progress? Where is it still falling short?
A: We have made significant progress in our graduation rate — the highest in 10 years. We have made good progress in early childhood education with a 5-point increase in kindergarten readiness. We are still falling short in literacy. This has been a statewide push for almost 10 years. The pandemic interrupted it some, but we have not closed those gaps.
Accountability and transparency
Q: How do you ensure accountability within the school system?
A: We have a weighted school assessment and results-based review every year for every school. That is followed by a school improvement plan specifically developed for each school. We have numerous independent external audits done across departments for accountability on an annual basis.
Q: What does transparency look like in your current role, and how have you implemented it?
A: We have produced a significant number of dashboards on the website to keep our community informed of progress or change. We have recently implemented a board webpage on the district website. I am in the process of standing up an independent social media page to keep parents and families more informed about upcoming issues of concern to them.
Q: How do you respond to families who feel unheard or unsupported?
A: I believe in a chain of command. Families and parents who have issues need to address them at the school level and work their way through to the superintendent’s office. If there is not satisfactory resolution, then I get involved to make sure that everyone has done all they can. It’s important that I see the staff working on the problem. If that seems lackluster, then I work with the superintendent. After all of that, I will do what I can to communicate the district’s position.
Q: What systems are in place to ensure students are receiving the services they are promised?
A: We are very serious about compliance and have a compliance department and staff for each of the areas where student services are mandated.
Students and services
Q: How is the district currently supporting students with diverse learning needs, including those in special education?
A: Our special education staff are some of the best in the nation. They are asked more often than they can accommodate to speak at conferences across the country on special education. We have over 14% of our students, 27,000, who have an IEP. That percentage is several points higher than our neighboring districts, illustrating that people move to Gwinnett for their children with special needs. We support each student through their individualized education plan.
Q: What improvements have been made, and what still needs attention?
A: I answered some of that above with graduation rates. We are a continuous improvement district, and that filters down to the building level. The areas of improvement are numerous, and as a district, we need to help those improvements migrate throughout the system. We have groups that still need attention to improve their outcomes.
Q: How do you ensure equitable access to resources across schools?
A: We have districtwide standards and annual audits to ensure that we provide access to resources across schools. We must continue to review based on the ever-changing needs presented to us.
Teachers and staff
Q: What steps have you supported to improve teacher retention and morale?
A: During my tenure on the board, teacher salaries have increased around 20%. That is a combination of state-provided increases and GCPS adding as well. We encourage our building leaders to create a culture of support for their teachers when more is required of them. Our retention numbers have steadily increased since the pandemic. We have also added over 2,000 points — building-level positions or coaches to support teaching and learning — since 2023.
Q: How can the district better support teachers and paraprofessionals?
A: There are really two ways to better support teachers and paraprofessionals: increase their compensation or decrease their workload by hiring more of them. Unfortunately, state funding continues to be pulled away into other mandated areas, leaving the district to look to increasing compensation only. The state funding model hasn’t been reviewed since 1984 and doesn’t include weighting for MLL or poverty. Federal dollars to cover mandated IDEA services are at about 9% ($35M) of district spend for special education ($400M), when they originally committed to 40% ($160M), leaving GCPS upside down $125M. Those two dynamics make it increasingly difficult to add the number of teachers and paraprofessionals necessary to demonstrate the true support they need.
Q: What role should the board play in addressing classroom-level challenges like class size?
A: The main way we address class size should be by adding more teachers. Since that is more difficult, as illustrated above, we must provide professional development and a culture that retains experienced teachers, quickly matures new teachers and ensures students are engaged. Traditionally, GCPS has done this well, and in many cases still does. In some areas, like MLL, we have to expand services like the International Transition Center, which currently supports the six most needy clusters but should be expanded districtwide. The ITC works on English proficiency before students are immersed in general education. That allows our teachers to be more effective even with larger class sizes.
