Responses to Questions Posed by Champions For Excellence, A Kettle Moraine Public Education Advocacy Group

1)    Why do you want to be on the Kettle Moraine School Board?

I want to be on KMS Board because I believe I have a unique set of skills to address the issues that are facing our children, our teachers, and our administrators, our schools as a whole.  I am first and foremost passionate about children.  I am fascinated with how kids think, learn, and experience both their inner and outer worlds.  I have made a career out of advocating for children’s needs in ways that have challenged the limits of what many believed was possible.  I believe children have the right to feel safe and certain that the adult world around them has their best interests always in mind.  I want to be on the KMS Board to support effective practices and help facilitate new practices that ensure our children have the best education we can possibly provide them within the resources that are available to us.

2)    What is your highest vision for this district?  What do you plan to do to move us toward this vision?

My highest vision is for Kettle Moraine is based on the approach I take with all the individual children I have worked with throughout the last 15 years.  I look outside the box and I am not afraid to have people around me say “that’s just not possible”.  I would say my vision for Kettle Moraine is that all students have an opportunity for an education that equals or perhaps even surpasses what money can buy in a private academic institution.  My sister lives outside of Memphis in an area where they do not have the benefit of a trusted public school system.  I have witnessed first hand the transformation of my nephew and niece in a school where academics truly come first, where the atmosphere is based on two solid principles, a true culture of study and learning, and character development.  Most people would argue that it is impossible to create a private school atmosphere in a public school setting.  I totally disagree.  I, along with my husband, have had the experience of our three-year-old son being in both a private early childhood education program and the one he is currently in at Magee Elementary.  I can tell you that the quality of his current programming at Magee Elementary is simply outstanding. If elected to the school board of Kettle Moraine, one of my greatest challenges to the Board, to the district, and to the community, will be to work together to create an atmosphere of serious academic concentration that I believe is currently unprecedented in most public schools throughout the country. 

3)    How can we affect school funding legislation and action at the state level?  What can the School Board do to facilitate the conversation with our local community and move advocacy forward?

Most of us know what it is like to have to live within a budget.  Many of us have had the experience of having to rely on creativity when it comes to managing our resources for our families, myself included.  Throughout my career I have found innovative ways to advocate for the children I work with so that they might have opportunities they would not otherwise.  I also am a great listener and I have the ability to stay focused when surrounded by strong emotions. I believe it is fair to say that the subject of KM school funding is currently a national debate.  In my opinion, there is a lot of emotion clouding the facts.  When it comes to moving advocacy forward within the community, as well as, affecting school funding legislation at the state level, it will be incredibly important to continue presenting information that is nonpartisan and legitimate that supports our funding needs.  I see this happening in the form of continued community forums and calls to state elected officials and meetings with such persons whenever possible.  I believe with any problem we face there are always three options.  Too often in debates we only focus on the two sides of the disagreement.  We have to find freedom of movement.  I believe if I am elected to the KM School Board, we will find a space in which to continue building the Kettle Moraine dream.

4)    What issue poses the greatest challenge to the District?  How do you plan to address this challenge?

The greatest threat to our District is our collective belief system.  By this I mean the varying beliefs that are held as a collective whole within our community that limit our thinking and our vision.  I don’t want to over dramatize this point, but we only have to look back at ourselves, those of us that were old enough to pay attention twenty years ago, would we ever of imagined a Facebook world?  What has happened in Egypt is largely being credited to the powers of Facebook.  Our children live in a world that is flying forward at an unprecedented rate than ever before in the history of the world.  Last month, the cover of Time magazine had this on its cover:  “2045:  The Year Man Becomes Immortal”.  Now whether you agree with the article or not, these ideas are forming the collective consciousness of our children.  When I graduated from college, I believed there would be jobs waiting for me, a certainty lost on today’s generation of college grads.  The world our children live in today is arguably more complicated.  Cell phones today are a millionth the size of, a millionth the price of, and a thousand times more powerful than computers 40 years ago according to the article in Times magazine mentioned above.  This week’s cover of Newsweek features an article entitled:  “Brain Freeze, How the deluge of information paralyzes our ability to make good decisions. “  New research shows that kids today present symptoms generally associated with addiction with regard to their electronics.  As the technological world advances on our children, I would argue their emotional development is not in step.  I believe it is the responsibility of the pubic schools to not only prepare our children for the future, which is here now, and continuing to come at them fast and furious every day, but to help them close the gap between their unchanged rate of emotional development in comparison with the lightening speed of technology and fast changing global human environment.  In order to accomplish this I believe we have to shift our collective belief system within our community.  I believe we have to look outside the box, envision and understand new forms of learning and supporting learning that has not even taken shape in most peoples minds.  This will require a lot of dialogue.  If Facebook can support a successful democratic overhaul of Egypt’s government, then within our small community, we can begin to dialogue with the use of blogs and other digital media, as well as, continue open forums, to bring people in our community together in order to create the school our of dreams, for our children, so that they may truly be prepared for a world we continue to barely imagine.

5)    What are your “sacred cows” as they relate to the district?  (In other words, what are the things that Kettle Moraine must not compromise?) 

I will not compromise academics and emotional development.  There will be debate on how these “sacred cows” will be accomplished.  I believe supporting our teachers is one of our highest priorities in terms of not compromising these values. I say this not because parents do not have influence on these matters, of course they do. However, when it comes to a child’s educational success or failure, as a clinical therapist for more than a decade, I can tell you how powerful the role of a teacher is in a child’s life.  We know that unfortunately the effect is not always good.  Supporting our teachers also means raising the standard for the teaching profession.  Most teachers I talk to already have an interest in this occurring.   This could mean revamping the entire way in which teachers receive their certification.   As standards are raised however, our culture needs to change the way in which we view the teaching profession.  We need to believe that teachers make the difference.  Parents will plant the seeds, but teachers are the water, air and the sun, and in some cases where seeds haven’t been planted, are the seed layers as well.  Continuing with that metaphor if I may, I would add that parents and our community needs to act as the shield that protects our children and teachers from the harshness of weather that has and will continue to come their way.  

6)    How do we keep education relevant for our students?  What does “relevant” mean to you?

We keep education relevant by staying in touch with current research and knowledge of what other academic institutions around the world are doing that keep their students at the top of the learning curve.  Already teachers in the KM district are incorporating learning styles into their teaching, which has been shown to connect kids to individualized ways of learning with greater success than traditional teaching ways of the past.  Brain research is advancing tremendously and can help shed light on how kids learn and how kids are motivated to learn.  As a KM Board Member, I will continually present research within my field that is directly related to the most advanced ways to educate our children.

7)    What is the most significant “gap” between what our community knows about public education and what the education/administration/board know about the state of affairs with public education? 

Given that until now I have only had the experience of being a community member compared with the tremendous body of knowledge that I am currently tackling in order to understand what I’m told I will need to know as a KM Board member, I would say the gap is large.  The most significant elements of this gap I believe are an understanding of funding and teacher contracts. 

8)    Currently our brightest younger students are not receiving the challenge they need.  I would like to know what the candidates’ thoughts are on the district providing more differentiation in the elementary classrooms.  Would they support grouping children by ability for ALL subjects, not just reading and math?

Simply put, I am a strong proponent for differentiation in all classrooms.  Boredom causes the death of creativity, curiosity, and motivation.  Kids who are not challenged quickly become bored.  Younger children have less control over their ability to make academic choices than older students.  It makes sense that our advanced younger students should have an atmosphere of learning and academic challenge that matches their abilities.

9)    Also, do they support a district-wide use of pretesting for our math units, so children who already know the material can move on to something new?

Yes

10)  Why is public education important to our community?

I believe public education is one of our Nation’s most cherished treasures and most important values. A recent article in the New York Times, entitled “Equality, a True Soul Food” (01/02/11), presents research that the more unequal a society, the more mental illness, infant mortality, obesity, high school dropouts, teenage births, homicides and heart disease.  I believe public education is important to our community because it is our major investment in the future.

11)  What is the role of a school board member?

The role of a school board member is to help set the vision for the district.  It is also to be a mediator, a conflict negotiator, a fact checker, a researcher, an advocate, a decision maker, a fiduciary manager, a change agent, all with regard to the health and well being of our school district with respect to our community.

12)   Should school board members micro-manage a school district?  Or oversee the direction of the district?

I am not in favor of a school board micro-managing a school district.  The board and the administration should help set the standard for the quality of teachers in the district and help guide new policies that foster the highest academic atmosphere possible.  However, teachers, I believe need to feel the freedom of movement and support of a school board and administration in teaching their subject with passion and competence. 

13)   As a school board member, who will you depend on for information?  Superintendent, principals, teachers, students, community members?

As a school board member I will depend on numerous resources for my information, which includes the superintendent, principals, teachers, students, and community members.  It will also include researchers on learning, models for creative funding practices by other districts both in our state and beyond, models for innovative teaching practices in other countries where students are at the top of the global performance scale. 

14)   Does it worry you that the state is talking about making deep cuts in funding for education?  As a member of the board, how will you keep those cuts in funding from affecting our children?

 I believe that most of us would not of predicted the current political climate and the extent to which public education appears to be at risk.  I am both worried and optimistic. I believe there are always at least three choices in any debate.  What are the other choices aside from those currently being represented?  That is where I want to lead the conversation.  Hopefully the effects of cuts that appear to be forthcoming can be mitigated by hard work and thoughtful management.  This will take a new understanding of what is at stake, what the needs truly are, and what it will take to meet them.

15)  In your opinion, how do we compete with countries like Finland, Singapore, and China academically, since all three countries are outperforming American students?

Finland is a country where many of the top college graduates go into teaching.  It is a place where teachers receive top salaries and have outstanding working conditions.  A country where the people revere and love their teachers.  Why else does Finland produce top performing students?  I would argue it is due to a collective belief system.  Finland values education in and of itself without using it as a means to an end.  On the other hand, China understands that education is the only means to an end of working oneself out of poverty and the only means to being globally competitive.  Two different approaches, similar results in that these countries are producing the worlds top performing students.  What they have in common:  education is key to a quality life and they put money where their beliefs are.  We have to get serious about education being a serious endeavor.  Knowledge is power, and power too often determines what knowledge you have.  Adults have the power to shape our children’s future.  As a KM Board member I would do everything in my power to give our children the same opportunities as those in any other district, state, or country.

16) I would like to know how you are going to hold public sector employees (teachers) accountable to those that pay their salaries (tax payers).

Few will disagree, most teachers included, that teacher evaluation needs to be improved.  There needs to be a way to determine what defines quality teaching and what defines learning.  If elected to the KM School Board I will work to advance the effectiveness of teacher evaluation.  I also believe there should be pressure on teacher certification programs to raise the bar for future teachers so that teachers themselves, as well as, tax paying community members, have greater confidence that the best and the brightest are teaching our children.