Pillars of Campaign

Financial stability through good governance:

I will not rubberstamp spending. Decisions around budgets and spending must involve robust discussion of the proven and expected impact on academic outcomes. Fund appropriation must be laser focused on building educational environments that are safe and effective for our children and educators. At all times when the School Board faces financial discussions, I will ask: “How is this impacting our children’s academic outcomes?”  The Debt Reduction Plan is a starting point in these efforts.

TWI and Equitable Academic Resource Allocation Champion:

Well-implemented Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs promote equity and narrow education gaps. We must ensure District 65 implements its TWI and dual language programs with fidelity to capture the full benefits of these programs. For too long, TWI has been left on the sidelines in District 65. As a Board Member, I will emphasize the careful development of our dual language programming. We are already investing resources into TWI and have committed to middle school dual language expansion. We need careful oversight to ensure these programs meet their potential so that our returns on investment are realized for our students, families, educators, and community.  

Transparent evaluation of curriculum decisions and measurement of academic outcomes:

Evaluating the curriculum and the measurement of academic outcomes should be a discussion including teachers and parents in addition to administrator. Stakeholders should understand what is being taught, how it is being taught, and what is being assessed with current outcomes measures. We need to explore additional outcomes measures to further understand academic achievement of our students. Education of standards based grading should be strengthened and how to use it reviewed regularly with  teachers and families. Data-driven approaches must be used to inform these decisions. Raising the bar for those who have been historically under-resourced as well as those who excel in areas is the primary goal… academic excellence.

Listening and engaging with community:

I am a mental health provider and have decades of experience being a careful, respectful, and reflective listener. I will carry this expertise into my role as a Board Member. I pledge to listen first and make myself available and approachable to my constituents. I want to meet, speak and engage with you regularly. Meaningful, direct engagement with the School Board is an absolute necessity for our community and something that has not been emphasized enough. Public comment at a School Board meeting cannot be our only form of community engagement. As a Board Member, I will have regular office hours and serve the whole district with transparency, integrity, and approachability.

Rebuilding Trust with community:

The first step to rebuilding this trust is admitting the mistakes that have been made, determining specific reasons for those mistakes, and implementing protections to prevent them from being repeated. We must learn from history.

Board-led Student Assignment Process:

When and if school closures are necessary, an honest process will yield better solutions and community buy-in. The Student Assignment Planning (SAP) process should be public and a Board led committee (pursuant the Open Meetings Act). Too much of the process to this point has been internal and lacked meaningful community input. Decisions coming out of the SAP process need to be logical, clear, and grounded in data. We can and must improve this process and I am committed to doing so.

Continual re-evaluation of technology use in classrooms:

Technology has a role to play in our educational environments but must be thoughtfully utilized. While the pandemic accelerated adoption and utilization of technology such as iPads across the District, we now must engage in ongoing evaluation of the use of these tools to ensure they enhance learning outcomes and foster engagement. If technological tools are not positively impacting learning or equity outcomes, their use should be reconsidered. Technology can also be a large budgetary consideration and we need to evaluate our return on this investment and middle-ground of spending versus impact.