The Board of Education is responsible for setting educational, fiscal and administrative policies of the school district. It hires the superintendent, negotiates staff contracts, and sets the budget. The board members are elected at large and have overlapping terms. Nonpartisan6 year termVote for not more than 2
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Education
BSEE (MSU '03), MA Statistics (PSU '20)
I have been a school board member for most of the last decade and have overseen strategic planning, curriculum adoption, the hiring of a new superintendent, and an improving culture within the school community. I have earned the Master School Board Member award from the Michigan Association of School Boards, recognizing the hundreds of hours of additional work I have invested in learning to be a more effective board member through training, collaboration with boards in other districts, and advocating on behalf of public education to state government. In my day job I'm the Director of Electrical Engineering at Dart Container and have decades of experience managing large projects, stewarding complex budgets, and leading teams of people with different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. I feel I'm well-equipped to handle the kind of collaborative, strategic problems boards are faced with and I believe that shows in the work I've been a part of to date.
The role of a school board is governance and strategy. The school board has one employee, the superintendent. The superintendent is the educator who leads administration of the district in alignment with board direction. Understanding this distinction is critical to being an effective board member.
The board is also the publicly accountable arm of the school district, serving at the pleasure of the voters in our school community. It's why our meetings are open and our email addresses are public. A good board member is accessible and forthright.
The district has made excellent strides in recent years improving district culture and belonging, addressing gaps in student supports, and tackling aging infrastructure. Hard to believe but we are nearing five years with our five year strategic plan and it will be time to revisit that process soon and set a vision for the future. This plan is crucially important because it guides everything we do and one of my top priorities will be to see this process through again with rigor, community involvement, and a belief that we can challenge ourselves to be better. More broadly, I will continue to respond to the evolving needs of our students and ensure that they are receiving what they need to thrive in a changing world.
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