As a member of the School Board, my goal is to plan for the future with innovation, accountability and results as the primary drivers.

Innovation
The obvious thing that springs to mind when invoking the term innovation is technology, but in my mind I see it as a way of looking at programs and policies that takes into account the expert teachers, expert administration, expert parents and expert community. Parents are a child’s first teacher and should be part of the dialogue; for example the school system has taken some good first steps into seeking that input like parent university and the town hall phone calls, but I want to take it further and reach out to parents who are not routinely involved.

Accountability
Every teacher I talk to says, “I want to be held accountable”
I have a great respect for the profession of teaching. I ask teachers to teach my children and their peers everyday. I want their teachers to feel supported and respected so that they can do their jobs effectively.
The government has an idea of what it means to be a good teacher- it is a testing based analysis. While testing has a role in evaluating a teacher, fundamentally testing compares apples and oranges. I don’t think our community wants test results to be the #1 reason teachers are fired and hired. The community wants a comprehensive evaluation of whether children are engaged and learning. Tests are not complete indicator of learning on a comprehensive level.
Having accountability is a two way street. To demand excellence from teachers, as we do, we must also demand excellence in the support we give them.

Results
The current school board has been getting results, I want to keep us on that path. Success is narrowing the gap between the economically advantaged and disadvantaged; ensuring that people who have choices want to be and stay in our school system; and high school graduates are prepared to achieve their goals.

Difficult decisions are part of the process, reconfiguration has been a difficult decision and will continue to be an important commitment made by this school board. I will continue to advocate for an open and transparent process that brings in as many voices as possible during this process.

Please email me any questions you may have. Thank you for reading.