Why am I running?

As an 22-year resident of Eden Prairie, I wish to serve all our Eden Prairie students and their families. In my opinion, strong schools are the mainstay of a flourishing community, and Eden Prairie Schools is an excellent example. I feel I can leverage my 25+ years of work experience in the public sector, primarily with Minnesota school districts, to the benefit of our Eden Prairie students and families.

If provided the opportunity to serve once again on the School Board, my top priorities will be to first listen and learn from parents and district staff to better understand where continuous improvement opportunities exist in both the short-term and long-term. I also believe it is important to expand the opportunity for those students that may not desire a traditional four-year college degree path. In addition to the typical college preparation Eden Prairie Schools is known for, I would like to see specific curriculum and internship opportunities available for students interested in the various trades. By expanding these opportunities, we can open additional windows to expand creativity, critical thinking, and allow our students to establish a career path prior to graduation.

I will continue to focus on improving the achievement gap by engaging parents and creating a collaborative and strong parent, teacher, and student relationship. I believe the district needs to continue to focus on affordable access to early childhood education and kindergarten readiness programs for all families that wish to take advantage of these opportunities. Early identification along with parent engagement by district staff is essential to meet the needs of at-risk students. Individual learning plans along with continued engagement should be the goal.

Whether you are still waiting to start a family, you currently have children attending schools in our district, or if your children have graduated and moved on, you are stakeholders in our community. I will commit to Eden Prairie Schools’ continued academic success and positive educational experiences for our children both now and in the future to ensure they can reach their full potential.

Finally, I will ensure our district continues to remain fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of Eden Prairie without limiting our children’s ability to reach their full potential. This requires transparency and accountability from the School Board, in addition to cooperation amongst all parties in our district’s community, including administration, teachers, support staff, parents, and students.

Serving on the School Board these last three years has been a wonderful opportunity, learning experience, and it has been pleasure to work so closely with our district staff and members of the community. If I am re-elected, I will continue my efforts to provide upstanding leadership and decision-making to ensure Eden Prairie Schools continues to thrive academically, while providing additional opportunities for students looking outside of the traditional path of earning a four-year college degree. To be successful, we must maintain high standards and expectations for our administrators, teaching staff, and our students. We can only do this by striving for success, being transparent with our decisions, listening to voices within our community, ensuring a safe teaching environment, and remaining financially responsible. I would greatly appreciate your vote of confidence to continue serving on the School Board of Eden Prairie Schools.

What are my top three priorities?

Expanding Learning Opportunities: In today’s ever-changing world, we must be able to adapt our education and teaching to ensure we have the best interest of ALL students in mind. In addition to continuing our excellence in preparing our students for college/university, we must also expand our learning opportunities for our children interested in exploring a trade. We must also have a focus on closing the achievement gap by expanding opportunities for affordable, early childhood education and kindergarten readiness programs. All of our programs should strive to expand creativity, critical thinking skills, and collaboration.

Maintaining Fiscal Responsibility: To ensure continued long-term success of academic excellence and to further expand additional educational opportunities, as a district, we owe it to the taxpayers of Eden Prairie, our staff, and our students to remain fiscally responsible. Whether you have children in the district or not, as citizens and taxpayers of Eden Prairie, we have a responsibility to be good stewards with our finances today and to make wise investments in our schools in the future to ensure growth and success. If re-elected, I will continue to be an advocate of being fiscally responsible.

Setting The Bar High: I will continue to be a promoter of setting the bar, which includes upholding high expectations and standards within the district. Without these values in mind, we’ll set the bar too low, which is not fair to our students, parents, teachers, support staff, administrators, and members of our community. If re-elected, I will continue to set the bar high to ensure continued success and growth within Eden Prairie Schools.