This Q&A is part of Tiger Times Online’s coverage of the 2025 school board election. The election will take place on April 1. For more information, click here.

The following Q&A has been edited for concision and clarity.

• Why are you running for the District 7 school board, and what’s the most important skill or experience you bring?

I am running for the school board because I have the skills and experience to contribute to positive change. As an alum of the district, I care very much about the district and this community. I have small children who I plan to enter into the district. My experience as an attorney will lend itself well to the role of a board member. I work in policy and regulation and have extensive experience dealing with stakeholders of all levels. I can talk to people at all levels of an organization. That lends itself nicely to the school board, where you have high level administrators, teachers, students, and community members. You’re interacting with people at many different levels.

• Should you be elected, what specific policies would you like to see enacted or changed, and how would those changes specifically benefit students in our high school or in the other schools?

In terms of policy, I’m more interested in understanding how the current policies are being utilized, evaluated, and implemented, and what is being done to ensure accountability with what is in place to make sure that they are being used as intended.

• Are you in favor of increasing or decreasing school funding? If so, where would those funds come from/be allocated, or where would you cut back?

School funding is a tricky topic. I advocate for strong public schools, and oftentimes with that is a price tag. You want to make sure that you’re paying staff and teachers adequately and competitively within the region, so that you get staff and teacher retention. Raising school funding can be tricky, because it’s often tied to what the community is willing to vote for. The fact that I’m here demonstrates that I care deeply about the public schools. With that is trying to make sure there is adequate funding for making it a strong school district, and being a wise steward of the money that does exist, making sure that whatever funding is being allocated is being allocated appropriately, thoughtfully, and with teacher and student well being and excellence in mind. The bulk of money, aside from construction, is really teachers and staff, and that is the appropriate place to look at making sure there’s adequate funding.

• Who do you believe is the school board’s primary constituent? Is it the students, the parents, the teachers, the staff, the community, or someone else?

Since it’s an elected position, community members are voting, and so we are responding to community members. What we hear from community members, whether it be parents, teachers, students, or other administrators, is what we have to consider. Should I be elected, it would be what I would have to consider for making a decision. Community engagement, and the ability to get input from the community is so important to this job. Without that, how are you responsive to the folks who voted you in? With any position you’re going to have people who have different interests. It’s beholden on the board to take in all of that information, be receptive to getting the input from those different stakeholders, and then using that information, communicating with the rest of the board and figuring out what everyone agrees is the best way to move forward.

• School boards, in general, have become more contentious and gained more attention in recent years with many larger political movements. Do you think any of the larger things we’ve seen in our country will affect our school board specifically?

This position is intended to be nonpartisan. Most people can agree that having a strong public school district is a good thing, and educating our children is a good thing. It’s hard to say at this point what the impact of what’s happening in the world around us is going to have on our specific district. But if we focus on the priorities, making sure that our students and teachers feel supported in the effort to ensure high quality education, and that we are good stewards of the public’s money, then we have a way to keep our eye on what’s most important, even if there are lots of things outside of our control.

• Are you satisfied with the current curriculum offerings in our high school? If not, what changes would you advocate for, and why? Are there specific subjects or skills you feel are lacking?

Not having students in high school, I need to educate myself more, understanding the whole array of offerings at the high school. I’ve heard that there’s still quite a strong Fine Arts program. I would like to spend a little more time acclimating myself to and understanding. But I would be curious to know if there are things that you think are important as the student here, that need to be offered too.

• What specific resources and support systems should our district provide to address student mental health and well-being?

Such an important topic. Continuing to have counselors at different grade levels to support students is really important, for kids to know that there are resources available, and to make it very clear to students what the resources are that are available to help them if they’re having any sort of mental health challenges.

• How would you ensure the school board is transparent and accountable to the community?

It’s definitely been a challenge in this COVID and post COVID era, to figure out what the right balance is for board members in terms of community engagement. I love engaging with the community. I think it’s a really important thing. Getting people’s input is really critical, talking to teachers, parents, community members, and students, and understanding what the challenges are and their perspectives, and how to solve those challenges. It has to be a collaborative effort.

• How do you plan to help all students become ready for college, careers, or other forms of post-secondary success?

It’s a huge responsibility of the board to make sure that there is oversight over the administration of the district. One of the jobs of the board member is to evaluate how the highest-level administrator in the district is doing, and that trickles down. First and foremost, it’s looking at, are we meeting certain academic metrics? Are we consistently doing the things that we need to be doing to uphold policy? Are we getting strong attendance? Are our youngest members learning to read at grade level? Are all of them, and what are we doing to course correct if they aren’t? Some of this is more the responsibility of the administration to implement, but the board has an important role in ensuring that goals are being met and that we are steering the ship in the right direction.

• What are your views on the recent push to change EHS to a 7-period day and changes to the start and end times?

There’s a lot to be considered there. It’s not going to be an easily resolved answer. I love the idea of a seven period day. I think it gives students more opportunity to take classes that they may otherwise not get a chance to take, elective courses that they’re interested in, but for reasons that they have certain requirements they need to get into college, or they’re taking fine arts, performing arts. This is a great opportunity, but there are also considerations. How is this impacting the currently existing classes? Are we shortening those classes? Are we considering how this is impacting teachers, and the number of student contacts they’re having? Is it impacting how they’re teaching, if we’re shortening the day or each period? How is this impacting families, transportation, sports? There are a lot of considerations that merit community input. I know there have been some surveys, and I’m hoping that many people will take the opportunity to complete those. But I would love to see a more collaborative community engagement, because these are big changes that are going to have ripple effect of impact, and are to be taken seriously.

• What are your views on replacing the bathrooms near the cafeteria with a single gender-neutral bathroom?

Some of the major concerns around the bathroom had to do with safety, from my understanding, ensuring that whatever design is a design that is safe for students. I know there are some bullying concerns, whether or not people can see what’s happening in the open spaces within those bathrooms, how the doors open and shut, opportunities for getting out, if there is bullying. As long as there is a design that is safe for all students who would be using such unisex bathroom, I take no issue, but the safety is the biggest piece that I’ve heard from both sides, is that we want to make sure this bathroom is something that’s not going to cause any safety concern.

• A lot of districts have faced staff shortages. How do you propose District 7 is able to maintain staff and have high quality teachers?

Ensuring that people are compensated well, not just in salary terms, but also what benefits teachers are offered, making sure that they’re comparable to those in neighboring districts. Making people feel like they’re a part of a culture that they want to be a part of is a big deal. Teachers and students have been through so much with COVID and post COVID times. Making sure that people’s voices are heard, whether they be teachers or substitute teachers, and they feel supported in their jobs and that they can do their jobs effectively and have the support they need, I think that that goes a long way.

• Are there any other policies you’d like to discuss?

The students should be the main focus of any board, ensuring that all students have an opportunity to reach their full potential. A big component of that is also ensuring that the teachers, substitutes and the staff have support and are retained, and there’s consistency, and that there’s a good pipeline of new teachers when we have teachers retiring. Those two pieces, and coming back to your previous comment about transparency, communication, and accountability. That’s another big area that has to be a focus. The community deserves to know when things are happening and why, ensuring that level of communication, and there’s two way communication, and that the board and the administration are being held accountable for their decisions, and that there’s an accountability by the board for what they’re proposing to do.

• Give me your final pitch for why people should vote for you.

First and foremost, I am a willing listener. I genuinely want to know what folks’ concerns are, and I want to be a problem solver to help understand what those issues are and then identify ways we can move forward productively to get better outcomes that will satisfy a bigger group of individuals. I’m a learner. If there’s something I don’t know about, I’m not going to shy away. I will do everything in my power to learn about it, to learn about it well, and to understand risks or benefits, talk to as many people as I can who are experts, and come to the table with the best educated understanding of an issue as I can.