OUR PRIORITIES

Provide Good Financial Stewardship

The school board oversees the district budget and ensures fiscal accountability. Prudent financial management of taxpayer funds is necessary to ensure we are efficiently addressing the most urgent educational priorities. There are only so many places to cut expenses, though. If we truly want to make a difference, we need to bring in more money. Urban school districts rely on civic organizations like Rotary, Elks Lodge, Chamber of Commerce, and others to provide additional financial support. Just one school-sponsored 4th of July fireworks booth can net an elementary school up to $100,000.00 per year! We have none of those options here. The Board can and should be helping raise money for the schools through solicitation of charitable contributions and grants, as well as sponsorship from local businesses. We will make that happen.

Keep Politics Out of Our Schools

Education Not Indoctrination

We are trying to teach our children HOW to think, not WHAT to think. None of us want to see biased political messaging sneaking into the curriculum being taught to our children. Fortunately, we haven’t seen any of that occurring (yet) at these two schools, but we’ll be reviewing all the curriculum to make sure it stays that way. Toxic political rhetoric, however, HAS been a distraction in our board room, where there is no place for irrelevant and divisive partisan political debates or name calling. That’s precisely why school board candidates are not allowed to state their personal political party affiliation on the ballot or in the voter guide. It’s also the reason we won’t be soliciting or accepting endorsements by political parties. We all have those friends who are WAY too consumed with national politics and they talk about everything through the lens of Republican versus Democrat. It’s exhausting. Supporting public education is not about Right versus Left- it’s about right versus wrong.

Improve Literacy Rates and Math Scores

Currently, about 40% of our students read at grade level, and around 30% are performing at grade level in math. It’s mind-boggling that this hasn’t a key priority for our current Board! We need to put together a comprehensive, data-driven plan for the district to address mathematics performance and literacy rates. It’s going to take a lot of work and direct engagement with parents, students, and teachers to make this happen. We are committed to finding creative ways to make students more engaged in learning math and English. Let’s make reading cool again!

Address the Student and Teacher Retention Crisis

This district has historically attracted and retained amazing teachers because working at these tiny schools feels more like being part of a family than just another cog in a factory. So why have 60% of our teachers left during the past two years? Many of them have told us they don’t feel supported by the administration, and are unhappy that their voices are not being heard by the Board. We can’t solve this problem by continuing to ignore teacher input when determining priorities and creating policies. It’s time to support our teachers and bring back that family atmosphere we had before this current Board was elected. During these same two years, we’ve lost over ten percent of our students. Some families have told us that the chaos in our board room was a big factor in their decision to pull their kids out of our district. Most of the families are enrolling their children in charter schools outside our community that offer more academic options and enrichment programs. If we want to compete, we need to come together as a community and focus on making these schools better. Now, more than ever, we need community leaders who believe in public education and are willing to leave their personal agendas at the door when they walk into our board room.