What motivated you to run for a position on the school board?
I’ve dedicated my career to supporting children and families, specializing in family care and child development. I’ve seen firsthand the challenges students face both inside and outside the classroom. I want to be able to use my knowledge and experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) to support the children and their families in the school district. As well as, use my experience as a social service program manager to support the staff and teachers of the district as well. I also provide the perspective of being a parent, because I have a 4th grader and a 6th grader enrolled in the district, so I have the experience of knowing what it is like on the other end of board decisions.
What are your top priorities for the school district during your term?
First and foremost, I need to learn the details of how the school district functions and understand the financial aspects of the district. Just in the last three weeks after the election, I have learned a lot and also understand I have a lot more to learn. With that said, I do have areas of the school district I would like to focus on. One, I would like to ensure the district addresses the whole child, academically, emotionally and socially. I would like to start this by understanding the support the district currently has for children to address mental well being and social challenges within the district. Part of this understanding would be to evaluate and understand the district’s current anti-bullying policies and procedures. Two, I would also like to strengthen the partnerships between schools, families and the community. Three, I would like to keep focused on emphasizing teacher and staff retention.
How do you plan to address the challenges facing our schools, such as funding, teacher retention and student achievement?
In order to address the challenges the district has I must first understand how the district functions in relation to the issues mentioned above. If I don’t understand how all the pieces fit together and how they function in their current structure, it will be much harder for me to try and improve it. It’s like any machine or system with multiple parts, you must diagnose where the issues are first before you start making changes. Below are some ideas I have to address some of the issues mentioned in your question.
Teacher retention: I would continue to support the momentum made with Prop E concerning salary increases by advocating for salary increases when it’s fiscally and financially possible. Also, retention is affected by other factors outside of salary rates, such as: positive relationships with colleagues and leaders, career development opportunities, positive school/district culture and values, and appreciation and recognition for their work. Therefore I would focus on a few, or some, of those other factors outside of salary rates listed above initially.
Funding: A majority of the district revenue is from local taxes and funding, so it’s important the school board be a responsible steward of those finances. As the nature of our local, state and federal governments ebbs and flows with funding so must a school district. My intention is to keep the best interest of our students, their families, and staff in mind when making financial decisions.
What issues or concerns regarding the school district are the most important to you and how do you plan to address them or improve them?
An area of interest important to me is the social and emotional well being of our students and families. Students have a harder time performing to the highest of their abilities when they face challenges inside and outside of the classroom. Issues such as anxiety or depression, or even more environmental factors such as, food or housing insecurity. These challenges have ramifications on the district beyond the stress it puts on families. School districts can suffer academically when various emotional, mental and social issues persist.
As an example, during the Student Health Services presentation during a board meeting earlier this year, 2,550 students have reported mental wellbeing conditions. These reports are given at new student enrollment or continuing student enrollment when parents are registering students. With the number of students in 2024 being approximately 9,873, that means a little over 25% of students enrolled have a reported mental wellbeing condition. With my unique and well-rounded experience with mental health, coupled with my work experience implementing and sustaining state funding, I can be an advocate for mental health awareness. While the 25 percent needs our focus, so does the other 75 percent; they are a vital part of all of this too. We are all connected to each other in some way, and mental health is health. If every student feels accepted for who they are, completely, it benefits us all.
Another area of interest I have is to evaluate the use of revenue to hone district-wide progress. I would learn more about the district’s spending by taking a deep dive into the district’s budget with the guidance of the CFO and the other board members. I would also work with the board and the superintendent to understand the progress made recently to implement parts of the strategic plan, especially Theme Two (Safety) and Theme Five (Effective and Efficient). Then I plan to work with the board and administration to support the goals and objectives for the new strategic plan.
How will you ensure that the voices of students, parents and teachers are heard and considered in board decisions?
There are several strategies I intend to harness to amplify the voices of students, parents, and staff. 1) The new strategic plan’s process. Through this process the district is already getting feedback from staff, students, and parents. The district intends to use this feedback to shape the new strategic plan which will be implemented next year. 2) Empathetic advocacy. Thanks in a large part to my social work career, I have a lens with which I view challenges and successes, and that’s from the experience of the people going through those challenges and successes. I am here to listen and learn from the students, parents and staff. I will take what I learn and speak up and out for the well being of the people served and serving the district. 3) Pragmatic decision-making. There are many factors that go into decisions about the school district. I plan to consider as many sides and opinions as I can, to make the best informed decisions while serving on the board.
What measures will you take to improve school safety and create a supportive learning environment for all students?
There are many aspects to school safety and ways that it can be measured. Examples include, the actual building security, how easy, or hard, it is to access the inside of the schools. Safety can also include how safe the students feel within their schools from bullying and harassment from their peers, to feeling accepted for their whole selves. School safety can also be how comfortable students feel within their school communities to be vulnerable and ask for support if they are having a hard time socially, emotionally, academically, and mentally. I would like to understand all these components more fully to assess which one(s) should be improved first. But also asking the children, their families and our district staff their views on what they want to see improve regarding school safety. This is vital because you are all in the schools, interacting with each other and understand more fully what is needed for yourself, and others, to feel safer in our schools.
What is your strategy for improving communication and transparency between the school board and the community?
Again, as a new board member, I need to spend time understanding in more detail what is currently being done to improve communication and transparency. Once I have a more well-rounded understanding of this, I believe standardizing and refining the means and methods by which staff, administrators, and parents communicate is important. This can boost parental engagement, thus improving the student’s success. More engaged parents have been shown to increase student achievement. For example, there are many methods (Peach Jar, Google Classroom, email, ParentSquare, Infinite Campus, Facebook, etc.) used across MSD. Also, while the board has all of its financials and administrative processes posted on the MSD website, it can be an overwhelming amount of information. Parents should have streamlined succinct information about what the board is doing and where taxpayers dollars are going. The hope is by providing clear, concise information on all levels, parents’ trust builds and they feel more comfortable with the administration and board regarding their decisions about the district.
