VOTE411 Voter Guide

Practicing Chiropractic locally for 36 years. Area Rotary club member for 30 years. Treasurer of Onalaska Area Business Association for 27 years. Onalaska School Board member for 20 years, holding all of the offices.

Being part of an excellent school district of choice for families, teachers and other staff. Providing broad opportunities for all of our students and witnessing their successes.

Expanding our current efforts. This is a major long term focus, facilitated primarily by our Human Resources personnel. Our current external and internal communications are successful components of our broad outreach. A long range part of that is our process of exposing our students to teaching careers when they express an interest. A piece of our retention plan is to regularly receive feedback from current staff and teachers, and respond to concerns.

This certainly is a concern, and a situation that has changed dramatically. Look at broadening our direct communication to families. Expand social media presence. Personally be available to discuss current topics and concerns with community members. Encourage local journalism to present important information.

Continually look at our budget to assure we meet the needs of our students and at the same time be competitive in recruiting and retaining teachers and staff. Finding a way to continue funding the social and emotional needs of our students. Maintain the comparative value of education to our tax payers. Continue to monitor and be involved in current legislative impacts.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My background both in the business world and in the community provides strong qualifications for election to the Onalaska School Board. Professionally, I have worked for over 25 years in a variety of supply chain and technology consulting roles in process transformation – my work is generally focused on relationship management, organizational culture, and business development. This experience offers a diverse point of view for organizational dynamics and relevant work-force skills. In the community, I have been active as a volunteer in the schools, parent groups, and as a leader in community organizations. Additionally, I have three children in the school district, providing me with an acute point of view of the student as well as a parent in the community.

There are a number of issues facing public education in Wisconsin and in particular in Onalaska. We need to be focused on continuing to provide high quality career or college -ready education for all students in the face of declining enrollment, the expansion of voucher and charter school programs, and state funding not keeping pace with cost increases. These challenges require investment of time, critical thinking, and creative problem solving at the board, administration, and staff levels to effectively mitigate issues and maintain the standard of quality education that we expect.

Onalaska is a destination district where we enjoy exceptional support from the community and school staff. To retain and recruit we need to continue to offer competitive compensation, provide a workplace culture that rewards creativity and excellence inside and outside the classroom, and partner with our workforce to seek and maintain a mindset of continuous improvement in all aspects of our mission - seeking high levels of learning for all involved in the district , including students, staff, administration, board, and community.

With the changing dynamics of local journalism, it is incumbent on schools and community leaders to champion the needs of the schools. Actively working to communicate with the community can be effective through a variety of methods, including social media, parent and community forums, and by requesting support of local media to generate awareness of the success of activities and initiatives within the schools.

The most important budgeting challenge at hand is related to state funding and revenue limitations. The Onalaska community has been exceptionally supportive of the District through operational referendum and our recent capital referendum. We are investing in building projects that will support safe and effective environments for our staff and students in their work and learning objectives. The fact remains that public school districts have been forced to rely on one-time federal funds to make ends meet in the post-pandemic era. Those funds are expiring, and school districts across the state are faced with making decisions about services and programs. We need to concentrate our focus on the certified staff and supporting services that serve to educate our students. Additionally, we need to continue to advocate for support from our state representatives to properly fund public education.