What in your occupational and community background qualifies you for this elective office?
Maybe most importantly, I am a parent of two elementary school children in the district. So I am personally invested in every decision that has the potential to impact them, their teachers, and their classmates. I’ve served on the Board for the past three years and was actively involved in crafting our current strategic plan, facilitating the passage of two important referendums, and ensuring that funds were appropriately and responsibly allocated to best support our students. I’m also a Psychology Professor at UWL, with expertise in developmental and educational psychology. I earned my PhD in a College of Education and I’ve been involved in teacher education for almost 20 years. I've spent my entire career researching and teaching about child development and promoting evidence-based educational strategies and policies. I’m a strong believer in public education and committed to advocating for inclusive educational environments where all students and staff feel valued and respected.
What issues(s) particularly motivates you to serve on the school board?
I am a strong advocate for public education, I care deeply about equity and inclusion, and I want to ensure that our students and staff have the resources they need to support engagement and learning. We have excellent schools and are a district of choice for many, but I believe there is always room for growth and improvement. We continue to face socioemotional and mental health challenges exascerbated by the pandemic and, while we’ve been fortunate to have great community support, inconsistent and inadequate funding at the state level has led to difficult decisions about where and how limited resources are allocated and which pandemic-era support systems we will be able to sustain/maintain. I want to ensure we’re continually making evidence-based decisions and that we’re including and seeking input from all stakeholders (students, staff, & community members). I also want to ensure that we maintain our high standards and that we’re doing all we can to recruit and retain quality staff.
Are there additional steps your district should take to effectively recruit and retain an outstanding and diverse workforce?
Outside of offering competitive wages and benefits, we need to advocate more broadly for teacher and staff wages that better reflect the critical role they play in our society. Further, we must continually demonstrate a commitment to allying with our staff by actively seeking their perspectives, relying on their expertise and professional skill, supporting their autonomy, and ensuring they always have a voice at the table. We also need to demonstrate a clear commitment to inclusivity and diversity through action. This includes critically evaluating the impact of our policies and funding decisions, and examining ways in which certain groups may be differentially impacted. We have to be willing to listen, demonstrate humility, and amplify diverse voices. This may also involve building more meaningful connections with local organizations and higher education institutions to connect with underrepresented populations and bring more/different perspectives to the table.
With fewer local journalists dedicated to covering education issues, what do you see as your role in advocacy with the community?
I see myself as a key liaison between district administration and community members. I believe that transparency and open, timely communication are key. As noted previously, I think we need to be deliberate and proactive about reaching-out and seeking diverse perspectives and feedback from all stakeholders. I also think that, as Board members, we need to continually educate ourselves on best practices and state/national policy decisions in order to inform/educate our local communities, and to more effectively advocate for high-quality education and support for our teachers and students.
What are the most important budget issues facing your school district? And what are your ideas for addressing them?
The biggest issues are related to the upcoming expiration of federal ESSER funding, combined with lagging state funding. The federal government gave schools extra funds to cope with added educational and mental-health challenges associated with the pandemic, but the state basically reduced its relative contributions. State funding has not kept up with inflation for well over a decade, and even though we have nationwide declining enrollment, costs have not decreased at the same rate, and we have increased voucher programs taking money away. As a district, we put ESSER funds to great use, investing in intervention resources, socioemotional learning, and extra mental health supports. So now we will need to take an even closer and more critical look at how/where we’ve allocated resources, which programs/efforts seem to be most impactful, and what cuts or shifts may need to happen. Thankfully, generous local funding of our operational and capital referendums will help offset some of this.