LIST OF ISSUES
Communication
Communication is a top priority for our district. Teachers need parents actively involved in their children's education to succeed and parents need to have the information necessary to be involved. I would like to focus the district’s attention on:
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Sharing data collected that show where students are at risk for failure on state test.
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Having clear standards and communicate how students are selected for classes starting in middle school. Have at least one meeting with parents each year to describe how students are grouped and how these decisions are made. These decisions have great impact on what classes student are prepared for in high school and follow students for their entire academic careers.
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Developing a communications system for blended and non-traditional families. Who does the school contact first and when?
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Outreach to parochial school parents. We should look for opportunities to support all our families. Can those parents participate in after school care, or activities they may have an interest in?
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Having a date, time and location for all entries on district and school calendars.
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Board meeting minutes posted at least 24 hours prior to every meeting. Changes in meeting time or location published on the calendar whenever meetings are first changed.
Fiscal Responsibility
Fiscal Discipline isn't something that happens while reviewing the district budget. It happens with every vote. It involves asking about alternatives when items are proposed.
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Every decision to spend money on an item is a decision to not spend money on another item or to ask the taxpayers for additional tax dollars. Every item the Board approves should be seen through this lense. If I wouldn’t want to ask my neighbor to pay for something, or I don’t want to cut another program, then I will vote no for that item.
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The District will begin deficit spending over the coming year. We have to really determine our priorities and ensure the next levy is as small as possible.
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Responsible leaders have to ask hard questions even when it’s not popular. Only by doing so can we seek alternatives and discover other possibilities to accomplish goals in creative ways. The only way to find those alternatives are to methodically question our assumptions. I commit to being a Board member who does the hard thing because it’s right, not because it’s popular.
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A Board member’s chief duty is oversight. I commit to being an independent voice for everyone in this District, never forgetting why I’m there.
Student Performance
Student performance is why we are here. The District exists to prepare our children for the future through education.
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Develop and share data about our students wherever possible to help teachers and parents focus on student achievement gaps.
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Encourage students to challenge themselves by taking more academically rigorous classes.
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The State of Ohio’s report card system is broken. It fails our students by placing them into demographic groups and judges the entire District by those it determines are most likely to fail. We should primarily concern ourselves with looking at every child in our District as an individual and meet their specific need. I do not want the District to change its focus from individual students to group assumptions and stereotypes.
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We must continue to advertise and cheer-lead AP and CCP classes. 10-20% of the student body realistically could enter college as sophomores. We have to continue to support our excellent counselors and teachers to make these programs successful. The District has correctly invested a lot of time and money in these programs and we need to make sure parents and students know how to get the most out of them. Our counselors and staff have been nothing short of phenomenal and we have to continue to support their efforts.
Community
The Three Rivers Community is relatively small demographically but still has a wide range of people. The fact that our district is small creates opportunities that larger districts don't have, but our size poses challenges as well.
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We have a responsive school system when parents have concerns. I would like to work with the administration to be even more proactive and less reactive to the problems we face. We needed 10 new buses this year because we didn’t anticipate that many older buses would fail inspection under new standards. While action was taken to remedy the problems in the transportation department, this episode points to the need for proactive planning.
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Our community has entrusted our District with a beautiful new building and the funds to operate it. We must guard that trust and honor the sacrifice our community makes every time they pay property taxes. I promise to be a guardian for that trust and I am deeply thankful to all of those in our community who make our school possible. As a Board member I would vote with that thought in mind.