Biographical Information
Campaign Phone
417-540-0274
What specific issue or motive inspired you to run for school board of education, and what are your qualifications?
I believe in servant leadership. This community has offered me so much thanks to public education and I am proud to serve and offer my expertise to continue the safest, and most educational opportunities for our children. I am a firm supporter of safe schools to educate our children. I am a safety and health manager overseeing 24 locations in the USA. I will always support safety in our buildings. I know this community and will continue to support all efforts to make us the best public school that I know exists.
What are your budget priorities to improve the school system?
I rely on our administration to tell us what the needs are. My #1 priority is for academics. If we need money to improve academics for children, then that is what will come first. I believe we have to spend money for extracurricular areas to further student development, however; grades and academics come before that.
As a board member, where would you look to make budget cuts? Are there any areas you would not consider cutting? How would you determine your budget priorities?
Budget priorities are based on meetings we have with administration. If they further benefit the education of a student, then it becomes priority. Cutting out budget items becomes an opportunity to see what is not adding value to the goal of educating kids.
How would you balance students’ access to books and literature that some, but not all, parents might find objectionable? Who do you consider responsible for what students are encouraged or allowed to read in school: the teachers, librarians, parents or the students themselves?
Our administration, teachers, and librarians are all involved in this process. The key part is that parents understand what may be in the hands of their child. If there is a concern, it should be brought to the administration so that our schools can determine if it should remain. Parents need to be responsible all the time, and that includes knowing what their child is reading.
Approximately ten bills teed up in the Missouri General Assembly would allow open enrollment between school districts and/or expand tax-credit scholarships for private schools if passed. What is your position on open enrollment between school districts? What is your position on state sponsored tax-credit scholarships for private schools, children who are home-schooled?
I am a 100% supporter of Public Education. Everything mentioned in this question relates to taxing all of us for parents who decide to go to private, home school, or charter schools, which are not held to the same standards of academic excellence that public schools are. Those private or charter schools can deny a kid due to a disability, IEP, etc., in which the child comes to us...PUBLIC EDUCATION. We lose funding because the state gives more funding to private or charter schools and we get taxed for it, even though many of those kids will come back to us. Open enrollment is not good for public education. We have to get back to the fundamentals of educating a child so that they can be a valuable resource in our communities. I support Public Education 100%!