Policy Positions

Expand on the District's reputation for exceptional student academic achievement, going beyond traditional definitions of excellence.

I will continue to demonstrate commitment to serving the greater good through inclusive practices.  Drawing on my and my family's experience in the BIPOC, LGBTQ+, SpecEd and neurodiverse communities, I will continue to use my unique perspective to ensure those communities have a voice at the Board's table.

Develop and support strategies that sustain and strengthen future fiscal outcomes.  This will be particularly challenging with the recent issues with inflation and the effect that that has had on supply chains and material costs.

Additionally, the recent state legislation, while including the largest amount of funding for public schools, resulted in only a modest increase to funding to our District.

Leverage open enrollment to regulate class sizes and [co-]curricular offerings.

Distinguish the District as a leader in developing effective, evidence-based measures to prevent and address health & safety concerns.

As the Board's representative on the Mental Health Advisory Committee and TonkaCARES, I can use my medical and research knowledge to improve our students' health and wellness.

I was seated just in time to cast my vote to approve the Board Goals last winter, in which the Board had already recognized the literacy rate shortfalls that had affected the entire country, in advance of the state legislature authoring and passing the READ Act.  A literacy coordinator was hired, and plans were already in the works to find an evidence-based, science-backed reading curriculum before that Act was passed.  If re-elected, I will continue that work to ensure all students receive the support they need in order to attain (and surpass) literacy benchmarks.

I think transparency is an important issue to address, because it is a subject on many voters' minds.  Elected officials and public institutions need to be transparent because their constituents and those they serve have a stake in the game.  In a school district, transparency is usually delivered as communications from the administration/school board, as conversations between the administration/school board and the various stakeholders, and through direct involvement of stakeholders in the policy-making process.  The School Board has already increased its interactions with stakeholders, including visits to PTO/PTA meetings, student listening sessions -- and I've been able to attend the vast majority of the various district events that I have been invited to (the SAIL graduation, the MHS Cultural Fair, the Minnetonka Research Symposium, and the Junior Class' sessions with Dr. Berenbaum were some of the notable events I was honored to attend).  The secret? Keep an extra name tag in your car...

There are many ways to improve transparency in our district.  While Open Meeting laws require adequate notification of school board meetings to the public, our lives are busy and it is often difficult to attend every meeting -- it's only because of a supportive spouse and cooperative children that I have been able to attend the vast majority of meetings in person over the past two years.  Currently, only Regular Meetings are live-streamed for community members to view online.  By also live-streaming Study Sessions and Special Meetings (the latter of which is recorded, but neither are currently live streamed), busy parents and other community members can gain better understanding of the school board and how it comes to its decisions.  While the School Board has discussed this in the past 8 months, further work must be done to make this a reality.

I would also like to see more opportunities for community involvement, in the form of listening sessions (such as the Orono School District has implemented) and increased involvement in district committees.

Additionally, a number of school districts have student representatives as non-voting members of the school board.  Not only would it give our most precious stakeholders a voice, but it would give the students involved a valuable experience in policymaking.

I will continue to use my experience as a current graduate student in a technology-oriented field (Healthcare Informatics, which is the data science of medicine) to facilitate the development of innovative educational programs and delivery systems for our students to help them prepare for further education or in their future careers.

Advocate for the teaching and support staff to maintain and improve their ongoing training to maintain their ability to provide world-class education to our students, as well as give them the skills necessary to create a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for all students that allows each student to achieve their full potential.  We were able to increase the number of professional learning hours from 8 to over 20 in June, and I'm eager to see what additional support we can provide to our teachers and staff.

Develop policies that will ensure our ability to recruit and retain the highest-quality teachers and support staff so that the district can continue its reputation of being one of the best school districts in the nation.  The addition of Anjie Flowers as the District HR Director has already resulted in significant changes, but we can't rely on our reputation alone to bring the best teachers and staff to our halls.

Continue to seek out new ways of decreasing our environmental impact with sustainable practices.

Create thoughtful and intentional policies and instruction to utilize technology for the effective delivery of education ("good screen time") while teaching, coaching, and modeling limited and appropriate use of technology outside of the virtual or real-world classroom settings.

Look for opportunities to improve our nutrition services to that we can deliver healthy food options for all students to meet their individual needs.  The District has prepared for utilizing the new Free Breakfast/Lunch program -- re-election will allow me to continue to make additional improvements and monitor the outcomes from the changes that are implemented.