My Top Priorities

CUSD 300 accounts for a majority of every property tax dollar received and has an annual budget of around $360M.  Strong fiscal discipline is mandatory.  

 

If elected I will work to ensure money is spent on programs that provide the best learning opportunities for students, work experience for educators, and facilities to provide safe environments.  I will also review staffing levels to identify area's where the district under, and over staffed.

 

I will work to bring back under the district many budget items that have been pushed to parent organizations such as playgrounds and teacher supplies.  Parents should not be expected to fundraise for what should be considered the basic needs of our students and staff.  

 

By passing this off to the parents it presents an inequitable approach to providing much needed resources. 

Our students need to have the resources available to ensure they are college and career ready.  That means they need to receive a top education that puts them above average state expectations, which CSUD 300 is currently below for ELA and Math.  

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This includes things like providing more access to STEM programs at younger ages, expanding the language emersion programs throughout the district, increasing the availability and variety of Pathways programs, providing additional resources for special education programming, making tutoring resources available for those in need, providing broader opportunities for early childhood education, and expanding honors education to younger students.

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Our students also need programs that develop the whole child such as the arts, extracurricular organizations, mentorship programs and athletics.  These are important ways that our children build a sense of community.  

 

Finally it's vital that we provide the nutrition necessary to foster learning.  That our school cafeterias provide nutritional menus that align the body and mind. 

To have student success you need to have the best educators and staff.  CUSD 300 has many phenomenal administrators, educators and staff yet continues to be short staffed in the classrooms. This results in large class sizes and overworked educators. Some teachers currently have 100's or even over a 1000 students under their remit.

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District 300 needs to be a career destination for educators.  We can do that by providing teachers with the support and resources needed to excel at their jobs.  By providing the latest training to keep them up to date on technological innovations.  By having the administration staff that is seen as partners and advocates.  By listening to and involving educators when it comes to district planning.  By rewarding those administrators, educators and staff that excel at their roles while holding accountable those that do not.

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With the right resources and support, I believe that the district will be a career destination and able to recruit highly qualified educators and staff.

Two of the biggest issues facing education today are physical safety and mental health.  The first priority should be for our schools to provide a safe environment for students and staff. 

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In the recent facility master plan parent meetings I attended, updates to buildings to ensure the safety of our children was the number 1 ask.  It's top of mind for many parents as we witness the horrors that others have had to face.  We must do everything in our power to ensure that those tragedies do not happen at our schools.

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Mental health is also a major issue facing education today and often is linked to many school tragedies.  With many students reporting having anxiety, depression and other mental health issues there is no question that we need to have enough resources available to students such as peer support and counselors to help avoid escalations.

 

One of the ways we can continue to help is for the district to strongly enforce its zero tolerance policy on bullying, harassment and discrimination.  It needs to be known that these actions are taken seriously and those that break this policy will be held accountable without question.