1. What motivated you to run for the school board?
When teaching teachers and preparing/training educators for the classroom, I observed outstanding schooling and numerous ways to use staff, district resources and money wisely.
2. What is your own experience with public education?
My bachelor degrees were in School Community Leadership in Recreation Education, Elementary Education and Reading. I was a recreation director in nursing homes while my husband attended college after the air force and a PTA president when our children were in school. Our severe needs foster teenager helped me understand mental health issues and bullying in public education. My master’s thesis was a schema for valuing differences when teaching. I taught children and teachers pre-K to university, including “homes” for troubled teens. I learned about legal aspects of public schooling when I earned principal and superintendent certification, but I knew that was not my niche.
3. If elected, what skills will you bring to the job?
Some Gibraltar school board members have been serving the district for years and understand legal requirements and rules of order to ensure a well-run board meeting better than I do. Effectiveness of a school board is equally dependent upon interactions between board members and administrators to promote high levels of performance and achievement. Among other things, as a curriculum resource, I can offer suggestions based on experiences and research. I have seen what works and what is a waste of money.
4. What are the current challenges facing the district?
Schools in Wisconsin that define “excellence” using test scores for comparison lag behind in the current technological knowledge explosion. The most important challenge is encouraging knowledgeable staff to use their abilities to meet the needs of each child. Schooling must be a place where motivated teachers enjoy teaching, students are excited about learning and where parents and communities are energized to be involved.
5. What opportunities do you see in the district?
Unlimited. When schools and communities research critical concerns about health and safety from economic and ecological perspectives, opportunities abound to instill in students an appreciation for and understanding of how fortunate they are to be part of preserving such an extraordinary landscape: the school district has unique towns and villages with talented and insightful people and more shoreline than any school district except Hawaii. In addition, the schools adjoin Peninsula State Park and 3 non profits. The district embraces amazing theater, arts, music, recreational and learning opportunities. The Pulse, a non-Gannett newspaper, is a high quality non partisan resource in the district. Exceptionally generous people care about human rights, equity and sustainability. Many who “can” have donated to the arts, recreation and organizations that help people in need or who quietly “pay it forward” in many ways. This is the community I love and Gibraltar schools are literally in the center of it all.
6. What is your vision for public education in the community you hope to serve?
My unpublished post graduate research showed when students work together, they are engaged and empowered and there is a direct relationship to improvement with few discipline problems. My vision is to empower staff to effectively collaborate with communities for the health, safety and achievement of children and improvement of communities within the guidelines of the law. Each child will learn to problem resolve to be an effective decision maker in our democracy when they graduate. They will have opportunities from experiences to put on resumes.
7. What are your views on transparency of information, and what kinds of school district information should be made public?
Some information is, and should be, protected by State law. Beyond that, there is no place in schooling improvement for Bullying Speech (BS) — bashing, badmouthing, belittling, distraction and deflection. We need to focus on facts to make decisions, but also must protect people’s legal rights.
8. If a parent comes to you with a particular school issue, how do you see your role as school board member to resolve that issue? Depending on the issue, the parent should be “guided” to the best resource to get help to address their concern or see a different perspective.
9. Do you see yourself primarily as a representative of the community or as a representative of the school system? Depending on the concern, sometimes one, sometimes the other and sometimes both are required for effective decision making.
10. What do you see as the most important role of the school board?
A school board member must understand and support the Wisconsin Law, 118.01 and the Gibraltar District commitment to engaging minds, empowering learning and achieving excellence. When we work together, we can encourage children in the Gibraltar Schools to become the best that they can be based on their abilities.
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