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Occupation
Physical Therapist
Qualifications for office
School Board Member since 2021, current Board President
Education
Masters in Physical Therapy
I am the proud parent of two Riverview graduates. I appreciate the education and opportunities my children received in our small school district. While my children were in school, our board made personnel cuts in the music, art, nursing and guidance programs. Realizing how little I understood about the workings of the board, I became a regular meeting attendee and then was elected to a position in 2021. I have served on the Education, Finance, and Eastern Area committees and currently serve as the board President. I have learned how important it is to listen to opinions of fellow board and community members, that may vary from mine, and to respect the professionals in the trenches, all while keeping our students first in mind.
Budget season is always uncertain. State funding is never known until after school budgets are due. Yearly costs for pensions, health and dental insurance, inflationary costs for electronics and energy, and contractual obligations increase. County assessment appeals are in question. State mandates, such as the requirement for a resource officer, are handed down from the state with no supported funding to the districts. I believe it is our duty to prevent waste, to manage costs and to maintain the quality of the district, but also to avoid compounding the deficit every year. If you avoid raising taxes, even a small amount, year after year, the district will be set up for major cuts down the road. Educating the community is essential.
As a school board, we hire administrators and teachers with the expertise to make decisions regarding curriculum. As a board member, I expect that all curriculum is backed by research and updated on a regular basis. I support training for all staff as needed and yearly data analysis to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum over time. Regarding access to books, I will never ban a book that is determined by our school librarian to be age appropriate, from being on the shelves. Access to information is essential to learning and growing. While parents always have the right to determine what their children read, the school library is open for ALL children to seek information.
