Cammie Dean draws on her varied experiences

Noting that long-time voters in the predominantly white district supported her candidacy in 2002, she considers herself a board member for everyone in the community.

However, she feels that her varied experiences - as a secondary student in Texas, as a University of Iowa graduate and as Clarke College's director of multicultural student services - give her unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing the school district and its families. Dean recently visited with the TH in an extended interview. Highlights follow.

TH:In the 2002 Dubuque school board election, you were the first African-American candidate elected to the job. How significant was that for you personally, for the minority community and for the white community in Dubuque?
CD:For me, I don't know how significant it was. It's certainly a point of pride. I know for my family it was very important. My great-grandfather (Savoy Nixon) was the first president of the NAACP in Texas. And for my family, it was kind of another notch in history for the Dean family.

For me, I think the greater significance than making history was just having the confidence of the people of Dubuque and really feeling that you come further into community membership. Particularly in Dubuque, it can be hard to acquire.

I do think that it was important for minorities in Dubuque. In a place where there's a growing population of minorities, but not a community of minorities. It's hard to speak of a black community or a minority community because there aren't any really identifiable community centers or churches or areas where people are congregating. It just doesn't exist here. Actually, maybe it doesn't exist here yet.

I think it's important to see leaders in the community, people who are established and really becoming a part of the community because a lot of the minorities, and particularly a lot of the African-Americans, are at that beginning point where they're realizing how difficult it can be to become a part of the Dubuque community.

In the general community, there have been a lot of people working very hard in the interest of diversity in Dubuque for a long time. For them, I think that I may have been kind of the crowning jewel on their efforts. Because it can get frustrating as you keep chipping away and chipping away at sort of that inclusivity mountain. Generally, I think there's kind of a message that there are more important things going on than just the color of a person's skin, and I think that Dubuque made that decision when they elected me.

Probably the thing that I'm most proud of is I didn't win by going out and motivating a whole bunch of new people that never voted before to run out and support of me. I gained the confidence of the people that are always the ones going to the polls, always the ones choosing leaders, and I think that that makes a huge statement about where Dubuque is.

TH:Do you find that the contact you see from people in the community are members of the minority community? Are they making special effort to seek you out, or is the communication coming through fairly evenly spread?
CD:I think that it's fairly evenly spread. I don't feel as though - and I don't know, it may be to my detriment or maybe to the district's detriment - I don't think I'm kind of being seen by minority families as sort of the "minority representative."

On the one hand, that's a statement that I'm getting the same information and sharing the same perceptions as the entire board. But on the other hand, I sometimes wonder whether or not our minority families are engaged enough at all. If it was necessary for me to be that conduit, I would gladly be that conduit, but thus far, I don't know that that's happened.

TH:How would you describe your first year on the school board?
CD:Probably typical. Difficult. Lot to learn. A lot of information to kind of soak in and a lot of methodology that you kind of have to pick up along the way.

I think I probably spent more time listening than talking, but I certainly don't believe I've held back on my opinions. But a lot of time watching how things work and how things happen. It's been an education in itself just figuring things out. I've enjoyed working with the board. They've been very helpful. They've answered all of my idiotic questions. They've been very encouraging. I think that we work well as a team, even when people get frustrated on occasion.

It's been a good year for the board. It's been an excellent year. We have opportunities now financially to do some very important things, both for the district and for the community. I'm just proud to have been a part of it.

Educationally, I think that we're in a good place and we're moving in the right direction. It's been a bit of a roller coaster but a wonderful experience.

TH:So, the first year, you had a lot to learn. Would it be fair to say that you were reasonably quiet - fairly quiet? - during that time?
CD:For me, yeah (Laughs). Certainly, I wouldn't say extremely quiet. When I think my views needed to be expressed, I said what I needed to say. I think that now that I really have an understanding of things, I might be a little more so vocal than people are expecting. (Laughs) I don't know. People may be surprised at what they've unleashed on the world, but I am looking forward to my second year.

TH:In September, the school district released its annual report. What things particularly caught your attention?
CD:First and foremost, I'd say pride. We have a great educational system in Dubuque. You see the number of students who intend to pursue higher education after high school and students taking the ACT scores and they're better than average. They're beating the best of them out there and I think that that's a reason for us, as a community, to be very proud.

Even in areas where we've had difficulty - Audubon School is one that comes to mind - we've seen the challenge, we've identified it, we've figured out how we're going to deal with it and we fixed the problem. Those sorts of things are wonderful things to see when you're looking through a report like this.

Probably the most disappointing thing for me that caught my eye were the achievement scores for African-American students, which are undeniably on every level lower than what is acceptable and probably our next challenge to identify, figure out how we're going to deal with and move past.

TH:One number jumped out: Reading proficiency, eighth grade African-American students. Proficiency is a little under 6 percent, compared to about 64 percent for white students. Another thing that I wondered about: A big, big drop-off over a two-year period, 38 percent to 27 and down to 6. Obviously, we're talking about different individuals here. But is this a blip on the screen, does it have to do with the dynamics of the community, with people moving into the community, or all of the above?
CD:I don't think it's a blip on the screen and I think that the changing numbers are very significant. Of course, you're looking at percentages, so you're not seeing numbers, but the number have grown. I have no idea how many more African-American students here who were transferred in from larger urban areas out of state with very different educational experiences.

They're struggling here. They may have been struggling at home and that definitely has an effect on the percentage of students that are here and performing at the level of proficiency that the State of Iowa has set.

Do I think it's a blip on the screen? No. I don't see that population dropping off. I think that it will continue to grow and I think that we'll continue to look for and create ways to deal with a growing population.

TH:Earlier in our conversation, we were talking about your experience at your at Castlebury High School (Fort Worth, Texas). You indicated that many of the other African-Americans at the school tended to be in special ed, and you sort of raised your eyebrows. I don't want to read too much into this, but was there some concern that maybe there was some profiling? That if someone is a minority student and if they're showing some difficulty, well, maybe we'll just throw them into special ed?
CD:Definitely. In my past experience that's something that I saw happen fairly often. At that point, there wasn't always a distinction between behavioral differences and learning differences. So, someone who would skip class, sort of disturb class too often would be treated in the same way and isolated in the same way as someone who had a legitimate problem.

I'm on the Educational Programs Committee and we've had presentations throughout the year on special education. I had asked that very question: Is there a tendency for minorities to be over-represented? And the general opinion is that's not the case. I also think that special education in this district is different from special education that I saw when I was growing up in that we do our very best to integrate children with behavioral disorders, children with learning disorders as much as possible into mainstream classrooms.

So there's not that same type of isolation. And I'm glad to see that because I think it benefits every kid in the room.

I do, of course, have a fear when we're looking at these scores that as a community we come to the belief that "black kids just can't read." I know that's not the case.

But when they're disadvantaged in their previous education when, as I mentioned, the students that I deal with here at Clarke, their parents' education was probably not that great, either. When you combine those things and figure out how to support kids whose parents either may not feel comfortable with or may not be capable of helping their kids with their homework or helping them to learn to read if preparing them for kindergarten or, for that matter, preparing them for eighth grade.

When you combine those things - that disadvantaged background and a lack of education in the family environment - it's a double-edged sword that these kids are kind of stuck with. But that is not genetic. We as a community need to remember that and figuring out how to deal with it.

TH:Is it more socio-economic? Is it more based on income levels, whether people have to work two or three part-time jobs?
CD:Right, exactly. Income levels certainly plays a part in it. And the family's previous educational attainment. You can look at a given student and look at how far his parents got in school and you can almost predict how far that the student will get - unless there's some other intervention there that will help them along the way.

College was never a question for me, but I had a grandmother and her two sisters who had college degrees. At that point in time in the '40s, when they were growing up, it was insane to think of three women with degrees. But that was a decision that was made in our family. At some point, education became a factor. I had that as an example before me. There was no question of my going to college. No choice, really (Laughs).

But at the same time, we're dealing with a situation where you know, 70, 80 years ago, equal education wasn't even the case. Still these kids have grandparents and great-grandparents who didn't have satisfactory educational background. So, generationally, we're dealing with that. Yes, definitely socio-economic. It's definitely related to people's income and people's class level.

TH:How much responsibility do parents hold - as opposed to their teachers - for the education of their children?
CD:That's a good question. I think that ultimately, a child's education is in the hands of the parents. Parents choose where they live. Parents choose how they get their kids to school in the morning. They can have the greatest influence. We have great schools here, but even in the worst possible educational situation, if there are parents who are determined for children to succeed, then a way will be found for that happen.

Yes, teachers have a responsibility, especially in this environment with No Child Left Behind. Districts and schools and teachers are being held almost entirely accountable for what happens in the classroom. But I think that it's unfair to say that if the kids aren't learning, it's completely their teachers' fault. Because here we have a population of students who, in a lot of ways, some of the damage has been done before they ever get into the eighth-grade classroom.

This is baggage that's being brought with them from wherever they're coming from. For the majority of students, if a change is going to happen, parents are going to have to be involved. I can't say that enough, of the importance of parents being involved. If they're not comfortable with, they're not capable of supporting their child's education, then the importance of finding someone who can is a piece of that.

We've been doing a lot of family exploration, background, ancestry-type things. The great-grandfather that I mentioned, who was the first president of the NAACP in Texas. He was born on a plantation in New Iberia, La. I believe he ran away when he was 14 years old. He did not even speak English. Being in Louisiana, he grew up speaking French. He ran away to Texas. Actually, his sister came to get him and bring him home.

On the train on the way back, they met a man who happened to be a minister and who talked to them about the importance of education and how what he wanted to do, if he wanted to change his life, what he needed to do was to get an education. And his sister, his older sister, left him with that man and allowed him to go and get his education. And he was the father of those three grandmother figures of mine who had degrees.

Families can make decisions. And I'm not suggesting that we all cart our children off and send them away to other places, but we can find people who are willing to help. We can get them to tutors. We can get them to the library, to participate in the things that are going on. And all of those things have an impact.

I'm always harping about the library and here's my sociologist bit. Cultural capital is an important thing and kids that have 50 books or more at home have that access are more likely to pick one up and read one. And if you don't have them in your home, there's the library. It's free. Go.

Having spent a lot of time in those Vanguard and talented-and-gifted programs, the thing that I know more than anything above all, is that a lot of the learning and a lot of the knowledge that kids gain as they're growing and developing happens in after- school programs. It happens on the weekends. It's the things that kids are exposed to that give them a thirst for knowledge that, yes, support the things that happen in the classroom, but it's that additional support and the reinforcement of the importance of learning that will take us further.

TH:Another number had to do with the graduation rate and conversely the drop-out rate. I noted that the drop-out rate for black students was three times greater than for whites and, compared to Hispanics, twice as great. What do you see behind those particular numbers? Is it just another indicator of what we've already talked about or is there something more when we're talking about drop-out rate?
CD:There is. I am talking about kids that do not have a vision of the future. They probably do not know and have never seen - except for television - African-Americans or Hispanics who have gone on to college, who have a career, who are making big money, that "long dough," as they say, that isn't related to something illegal. You don't need a diploma if you don't have a goal.

In a lot of ways, that's the situation that we're dealing with. There's a lack of goals. There's a lack of role models for those students in the community.

We're at a weird place in our growing black population in Dubuque where we have an overwhelming lower-income level population and we have this itty-bitty small professional population. They're really almost invisible. How do you say, "Oh, yeah, I want to be a teacher," or "I want to be a doctor," when it looks impossible? We're dealing with a generation overall - black, white, it doesn't matter - of kids who have difficulty doing long-range planning.

That's a talent for the Generation Next or whatever they're being called at this point. Just looking toward the future and understanding the consequences of the things that they're doing. If you don't see yourself doing something that needs a diploma, then what are you doing? You're wasting your time.

TH:You mentioned vision for the future. What do you see yourself personally doing 10 years from now, when your daughter is in high school and you're further along in your career?
CD:That's an interesting question. I don't have a clue. I really don't. I love what I'm doing and if there's still a need for it, which I really don't foresee there not being a need for multicultural services in higher education, I can see myself continuing to do this sort of thing.

Occasionally, I entertain the idea of scrapping this and becoming a teacher and really getting in the classroom where you have that captive audience to deal with. That's very tempting. But as of yet, I still see myself in the role that I'm in now or certainly something similar.

There are other things on my list though, things that I've not ever done that I would like to do. Writing has always been an interest. Actually finishing a book that I start would be a beautiful thing. I would like that 10 years from now that I've done that. I don't know.

TH:You mentioned writing. Do you have other hobbies?
CD:Do I have other hobbies? Who has time for hobbies when you're on the school board? I have these things I used to love to do that are now just piled in the corner.

I am secretly domestic. I love to do little crafts. I'm the Hot Glue Gun Queen. Little crafty things. I love to read. I'm also a member of a black Greek sorority, which takes up a little time as well.

And although I never have time for it, doing stepping and stuff like that, I also enjoyed.

TH:Stepping?
CD:How do you explain a step song? It's kind of - I don't know if it's dancing. You make rhythm with your body like stomping and clapping and things like that. It kind of comes out sort of a combination of marching and cadence calls that a lot of soldiers learned when they went off to World War II.

When they picked that up, came back and then they had the GI Bill and could go to college. They took that and sort of combined it with the heritage of the black Greek organizations and somewhere in all of that you get this bizarre thing that's called stepping or stomping that's kind of dancing without music or dancing while making your own music, I suppose.

And I'm a Girl Scout leader, so that takes up some time. I love to cook. My students will tell you that. I love to cook. And I love to cook international things.

That's one of the ways I incorporate some of my students' culture into my life is when their moms visit, having them over and having them teach me something in the kitchen.

TH:So looking back when you were 10, 12, and going to school in Texas, Iowa has been quite an experience for you. CD:Oh, my goodness, yes, it has. I could never have predicted where I would be. I mean, definitely not.

TH:Is that something you share with the students you interact with?
CD:I do. Actually, I think my most intimate encounters are when I visit the multicultural education course or the Race and Gender course and I really talk about some of the terrible things that happened to me when I was in high school and my experiences in that way and kind of the transition. I really kind of skimmed over a lot of that as we've been talking today, but kind of who I was and how hard it was for me to be who I am now.

A lot of times you'll sit in a class or you'll read a book that 66 percent of African-Americans are divorced or will be divorced. But it's just a statistic and when you meet an African-American you don't know, you still don't know anything about them.

But there are cultural things that are a part of me that I would like to share, so that respect of the individual and respect of the culture. I think I'm the ultimate example of that. The need for both of those things because you could not look at me and the statistics for African-Americans and come up with who I am. If I can share that with students, I jump at the chance, every opportunity I get. Series : Newsmakers Copyright: Copyright 2003 Telegraph Herald Signature: 03