1. Why are you seeking our endorsement? What does the endorsement of our unions mean to you personally?
There are multiple stakeholders in the district, the students and parents, community at large, the other board members, the school staff and the administration. I would hope that each of these would support me for the school board as I will be working for and with all of them if I am elected. For the unions, specifically, these groups have the most direct interaction and consequently the most impact on the student and parent experience. Therefore, I would like to start a relationship with these groups as soon as possible to both introduce myself and to understand better their thoughts and concerns
3. How has your racial identity shaped and informed your world view? How are you actively working to expand your own racial and cultural lens?2. Why are you running for the school board? In your opinion, what is the most important role of a board member?
First and foremost, I want to serve my community and the district. To me, the most important role of the school board is to provide stable governance for the district and to serve all students. I believe my professional background and family experience can bring the skills and perspective to help continue to support stability and respect in our district board. If elected, I also believe this opportunity will help me learn and grow significantly.
I recognize my path has been different than those of other races, genders, and other potentially marginalized communities. I have benefited from coming from a somewhat normative social economic background. So, my first step is to recognize this difference. Then to listen, learn, and seek out opportunities for further exposure. I also see that I have a role to advocate and act to support all communities.
4. As described by the Minnesota School Boards Association, what does governance mean to you in terms of board work and the role of the school board members?
The primary role of the school board is oversight and governance of the district through partnership and review of the superintendent.
5. As a Board of Education member you are responsible for one staff member, the district’s Superintendent. As a Board, what are some ways that you can strike a balance between support and accountability of our district’s Superintendent?
I would define the relationship with the superintendent, similarly to how the question was phrased, support and accountability. This partnership is like many professional relationships where groups work together, help each other learn and grow, where there is also oversight is in the job description of one of the parties and the other has the ownership over leadership and outcomes. This was actually one of my first questions, I asked Dr. Funk when we met to discuss his views of the school board.
6. What has been your personal involvement or knowledge regarding unions and collective bargaining? How would you, as a school board member, interact with union leadership?
I have had limited exposure to unions and collective bargaining. This is something I am excited to learn more about. The unions are a key stakeholder, and I look forward to setting up communication opportunities and relationships with leadership to enable listening and learning for both parties. Specifically, I would like the opportunity to understand the diversity and scale of perspectives that the members represent on different topics
7. Share examples of systemic and institutional racism that you have experienced or observed in Stillwater public schools. How will you work toward dismantling those barriers?I have had limited exposure to the institutional racism in our academic settings. What I have seen is a vast under-representation of kids on free or reduced meal programs, kids of color, and girls in our GATE programs.
Probably the most direct example of institutional racism I experienced was in the athletic setting. During a high school basketball game, I saw a white, male coach yell at ref and nothing happened. Then later in the game, I saw a black, female head coach ask for clarification on a call, and she received a technical foul. I am not sure if this was due to race, gender, or some other context I don’t have, but to me it appeared to be clear issue based on race.
As someone in the majority coming from a place of privilege, I have a duty and key ability to act as an advocate and ally to help translate experiences and support mind set shift. I look forward to supporting the district efforts to dismantle institutional racism as able.
8. How do you think decisions should be made that impact curriculum, assessment, staffing, and school management? What are the roles of teachers, paraprofessionals, and administration in these decisions? What is the role of the school board in these decisions?
As I currently understand it, its governance role, meaning that the school board is responsible oversee, seek community input, pressure test, approve, fund, and support and promote the outcome. The teachers and staff are at least key, if not the primary stakeholders for the curriculum. Both the admin and board will need teacher input which could include setting goals of the any new curriculum, the key problems and potential solutions in the current curriculum, review of potential curriculum changes, define transformation or change management requirements to support transition and any organization impacts that should be considered to support changes.
9. How do you define collaboration? What would collaboration among your fellow board members look like to you?
To me, a collaborative school board would be working together with healthy tension, pushing for data driven comments and decisions, respectful disagreement and accountability.
10. What steps would you take to actively work on trust-building with each of these groups? a) District administration; b) District staff including paraprofessionals, custodians, food service workers, counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, secretaries, school bus drivers, early childhood educational assistants, community education staff, technology support staff, nurses, and teachers; c) District students and families, including racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse students and families; d) Fellow board members; e) Our community at large.
Building trust has been key to my professional success. I frequently work with teams that start in a low-trust environment. Over all my approach to trust building professionally would apply to all these groups. First SHOW UP, be present and authentic, listen and learn, share with vulnerably, and be as transparent as possible. Follow up and accountability are also key parts of trust building with any group of people. Some of these groups are more straight forward to connect with to me, others less so. I would be eager to discuss this and get your thoughts on my approach to various communities.
11. Describe current and future initiatives that you feel are priorities for our district.
I am not coming to the board with an agenda. My goals would be to first and foremost serve all students, demonstrate financial responsibility, use structure and data in decisions, and push for higher quality or prominence in board communications.
12. Thinking about the next five years, there are bound to be economic challenges facing public education in Minnesota and in our district. How do you propose to address these economic challenges?
First find out what’s going on. What’s driving the imbalance. Then find out the timeline, is it temporary or long term (acute vs chronic)? Work with Admin as they work with stakeholders to share the problem statement, potential solutions, reviewing to make sure the changes are aligned in both time frame and curriculum impact as best possible. Additionally work to review the revenue side for opportunities to increase revenue for both short-term and long term problems.