1. Implementing NVUSD Vision 2040
Our new strategic vision is student centered, grounded in community input and built on a foundation of shared values. I am committed to supporting its implementation every step of the way.
2. Student Health and Wellness
The current board has supported a meaningful expansion of social emotional learning and youth mental health services. Our Wellness Centers offer students access to mental health support and resources, and even just a safe space for a brain break if things get overwhelming. This will help normalize for our students and staff the act of taking care of our mental health.
3. Financial Stability
Responsible fiscal oversight ensures the district’s financial stability, even in in this unsettling time of declining enrollment across the state. Healthy reserves shelter our students from the instability of statewide declining enrollment. This way, we can keep our focus on improving the quality of programming and services for our students.
I have been proud to represent Trustee Area 4 on the NVUSD Board since December of 2020.
There were many factors that first drew me to serve in this role four years ago. First, I believe in the profound obligation of public education. It is a pact we make with our communities to take care of our youth and prepare them for a healthy and successful future as productive and engaged citizens. I am a product of public schools, and my two daughters were educated, Kindergarten through 12th grade, in NVUSD. I am an educator by trade, and taught in public elementary schools for fifteen years. I then worked for five years with the Dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education in research projects centered on literacy development and Multilingual Learners. I bring my lived experience in classrooms and twenty years of accumulated professional expertise to bear as I work with my colleagues on the NVUSD governance team.
I am proud of the District’s accomplishments during my first term.
We have supported a meaningful expansion of youth mental health services, and now all of our middle and comprehensive high schools have Wellness Centers where students can access mental health support and resources, and even just a safe space for a brain break if things get overwhelming. This shift has enormous power over time to normalize the act of taking care of our mental health for our school communities.
We have expanded our Dual Language Immersion program to include a fully enrolled DLI Middle School Language Academy, a program so popular there continues to be a hefty wait list. We have answered the community’s ask for smaller middle schools, too, and now have two small K-8 programs for those students who respond best in a more intimate learning environment.
During my tenure, the board has continued to exercise strong fiscal stewardship that’s critical to maintaining stability and providing high quality education. In 2018, when our current Superintendent was hired, NVUSD teetered on the brink of fiscal insolvency, largely due to poor financial planning and insufficient oversight from our County Office of Education.
While declining enrollment statewide continues to wreak havoc on school district budgets and programs all over California, NVUSD now has healthy reserves and a stable financial outlook. Because of this, we can invest in programming and fund competitive compensation for teachers and staff. And perhaps most exciting, NVUSD has just concluded a year-long process of crafting a new strategic vision, grounded in community input and shared values.
Each decision I make as a Trustee puts the best interests of all 16,000 of our students at the very center. I’m running for re-election because I’d like the chance to keep contributing to the transformative work that NVUSD has undertaken. I hope to earn your vote.
