I hope to make a difference in 3 specific areas: preparing all students for the 21stCentury, safety for all the kids and staff, and finally making the school district more fiscally secure.
First and foremost, our children; they should always be at the front of all the decisions the school board makes. All our children need to be prepared for success in the future. That means our classrooms need to be adaptable to state-of-the-art learning and teaching. Many schools are adopting a methodology of “Project Based Learning “ with programs like Future Problem Solvers and Robotics, which takes traditional learning skills and uses them for inquiry, logical thinking, creativity, and communication of ideas. All children can successfully participate in programs like these by using their unique gifts and talents to help each other learn while acquiring and honing new skills. Research indicates that it is this kind of learning that will prepare our kids for success in the future.
Secondly, I am running for the school board to ensure that all of our schools are safe. With the current violence in schools all across America, we need to look at our schools and ask ourselves, “Are we creating the safest environment for all to learn and thrive?” I understand the district is making some improvements this summer in regard to safety on our campuses, and additional investments will be made to ensure safe and secure facilities for our children and staff. I am running for a seat on the board to be vigilant on your behalf and make sure that this happens in a timely manner.
Furthermore, we need to ensure all our children have the emotional skills to maintain their own personal safety and to be able to get support when they need it. Kids aren’t born with the emotional thinking skills to address hard issues, so we need to have trained professionals who can help our children adapt to differences, overcome disappointments, and accept responsibly for their actions. We need our schools to focus on the “US” in PUSD; meaning we must be inclusive to all people regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, social economic status, or learning challenges. Kids thrive when they work together and learn from one another. When every member of the community, from the board of trustees to all the students in the classroom, are focused on “US”, we will have a safer and better learning environment for all. We need to be proactive, so we don’t have to be reactive to keep all our children and staff safe.
Finally, I am running to keep watch on the financial security of the district. We are living in exciting times, but it feels like budget constraints are always the excuse for limiting our ability to progress. I want to work with the district to see how we can get more funds into our school district. I would like to see an increase in grant writing to help improve our learning environments and bring back more full-time teachers for the arts and physical education. We also need to make sure we have common practices across the district and look to our staff to help find new ways to improve our school district instead of just thinking the people on the board know all the answers. I have met many knowledgeable people in our schools, and they have ideas and opinions that we can learn from to help our school district get stronger faster. It is essential that leaders in the school district need to be more visible to listen, learn and lead. But all of this takes time and training, which isn’t possible without the budget to implement it. I want to be the school board member who finds the money to make a first-class education possible for all our kids in Poway Unified.
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