My commitment to education is both personal & deeply rooted. The education I received at Orono from kindergarten through high school was foundational to my success and motivated me to bring my family here to cement their future, I am driven to ensure that our community's students have exceptional educational experiences. I believe that education extends beyond textbooks, encompassing diverse interactions & hands-on activities. Recognizing that each student learns differently, I am dedicated to supporting individualized learning through dynamic methods. My goal is to empower teachers with the resources and support needed to cater to each student's unique needs, fostering an environment where every student can achieve their fullest potential.
My top priorities are providing students with diverse learning opportunities, equipping teachers with ample resources, and upholding Orono Schools' six pillars of excellence—Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. These priorities ensure we foster a supportive learning environment, empower educators to excel, and instill core values that guide our students, ultimately enhancing both student achievement and school culture.
My first step would be to evaluate the school’s priorities for the academic year with other board members, followed by engaging teachers, parents, students, and the community for input to ensure transparency and understanding. Then reviewing expenditures to find inefficiencies and exploring alternative funding, such as grants or community partnerships. I would plan to implement gradual cuts to minimize disruption and regularly monitor the impact to ensure educational quality is maintained.
I would prioritize equitable resource allocation and support programs that address racial & economic disparities while ensuring teachers & staff have training on cultural competency & bias. It is imperative to keep programs, such as tutoring, SPARKS & STRIVE. Regularly assessing and adjusting policies to drive fairness and inclusivity while helping students understand what and why racial & economic disparities exist and how their school provides opportunities to close those gaps is critical.
As a parent of elementary-aged students I'm around the schools often for events and plan to use every opportunity to talk with fellow parents & teachers. Involving educators & families in decision-making committees to obtain their input on key issues will help make sure we have the necessary buy-in. Making sure there are opportunities for feedback will also help ensure success. A collaborative approach fosters trust and guarantees diverse perspectives will shape policies & practices effectively.
My career has focused on community service through work in non-profit and governmental organizations for the past eighteen years. In my clinical work, I have provided care and counseling to people of all ages experiencing illness, trauma, and the stressors of life. I also have extensive experience in adult education from training and supervising chaplains and mental health professionals. As a researcher and healthcare leader, I have led projects to improve mental health in individuals and organizations. For the past two years, I have served on Orono Action, advocating on behalf of the school district to the state legislature. Few people have the academic training and breadth of public service experience that I have.
We are seeing concerning trends in child and youth mental health concurrent with elevated levels of burnout and exhaustion in teaching professionals. These challenges exist in an increasingly polarized political landscape. To address these issues, my priorities are to:
1. Enhance Student and Staff well-being;
2. Focus on process improvement grounded in known best practices and dialogue with students, staff, and families; and
3. Keep the board centered on local, non-partisan governance
The Orono School District has a strong history of fiscal stewardship. To alleviate funding gaps for needed programs, we can apply for grants, make effective use of community donations, or where appropriate, utilize a levy. If there were truly no other options to bridge funding gaps, deliberate conversation would need to take place with staff, students, and community members to identify a path forward.
Addressing disparities in our education system is a challenging task for any single school district to take on alone. Locally, it is important to trust our teaching professionals and empower them to make use of best practices in the classroom to address disparities and empower students from many diverse backgrounds. Broadly, we need to advocate for policy and funding changes at the state and federal levels to ensure communities have the resources they need to bring about equity and equality.
As a parent, I recently took part in the district’s strategic planning process. In Orono, this process encompasses a community survey as well as extensive conversations with parents, community members, and school staff. The strategic planning process refined our district’s mission, vision, and values through input from hundreds of people. Staying connected to our district’s core beliefs will drive my decision-making process as a board member.
Successful school board members must be good listeners. There are many stakeholders involved in public education—students, families, teachers, auxiliary staff, administrators, and taxpayers. They are all critically important to the functioning of a school district, and their voices must be heard. As an incumbent, I have balanced these interests through my work negotiating contracts, encouraging professional development, supporting Community Education programming, and connecting with families. If re-elected I will continue to use taxpayer dollars wisely to provide high quality education to our students.
First, we must have an orderly environment to facilitate learning. Our district has invested in technology upgrades and training to continually improve safety on campus. This includes supporting mental health initiatives. Second, we must ensure that our youngest students achieve literacy and math competency and our oldest students are prepared to face the world after graduation. Finally, we need to accomplish this all while being a careful steward of taxpayer money.
No one wants to be responsible for budget cuts. Salaries and benefits make up the vast majority of school district spending, so unfortunately that is the place to make the biggest impact financially. Specialized classes and extracurricular activities could be negatively impacted. Fortunately our district has been very prudent with our resources, and we are in a stable place so that these cuts will not be necessary in the near future.
I believe all students are entitled to a quality education. Our district has strong relationships with our kids who need more assistance, and personalized approaches for the entire family are key to supporting these students. Unfortunately talking about racial and economic disparities in education can be a polarizing topic. Fortunately helping students in need is not a zero sum game. Our administrators excel at finding and appropriately utilizing funding to support all of our students.
The strategic planning process, which took place last year, is an excellent example of how the district engaged teachers and families in the decision making process. Surveys, community conversations, and a planning committee all helped to shape our district’s new strategic plan. As a board member, I intend to follow a similar strategy. I will utilize multiple methods of outreach to help discover community opinion, especially about potentially contentious issues.
