board governance... it is the the most important duty... is setting the goals and setting the overall direction and governance.

I feel that there is another area that really needs a lot of focus and that is going to the capital and advocating for resources.

the first and most important thing is a board member to be a voice listen to both the parents the educators and the students to understand where the needs and the gaps are.

I'm really excited about our pilot this year where we have a student leadership group that is coming to the board meetings as student representatives.

I can tell you there is nothing stronger than a student voice speaking with a legislator sharing what the education they're receiving and what it means to them.

student agency is super important because it increases engagement and it makes this student feel that they have choice and control over their learning and education.

I'm a firm believer in it because I think if you look at the work that was done, the audit was done that included parents, teachers, a number of people and advocates for our schools, you will find out that there was good discipline there and prioritization of the work.

we got to a point where we're being very responsible with taxpayer money and we're able to give the buildings the things that were prioritized highest and that have been asked for for years without actually increasing the tax burden on community members.

education is much different than than it is than than we were there. So the emphasis on small group spaces and flexible furniture and and all of those things are very important.

Bullying is a social emotional learning topic and I think that when we talk about bullying at the different levels I've seen from the district different social emotional curriculum rollouts for the elementary level, the middle school level and the high school level.

we need to continue to gather data. This is one of the things we ask about every year in the survey and I think it's going to be just really important to continue what we've bullying has been around forever and we're never going to totally eliminate it.

In the middle school, my daughter had an opportunity to participate in a program which I thought was best practice and could be shared in multiple grades. It was called the women of color.

I know our teachers are on top of this issue and I I would call on all of us parents to you know be vigilant and and that I worry about social media which is you know is a tough area.

I think Minnetonka does a great job. We have the best and brightest teachers and there are different learning styles, but I have to say that my experience has been that our teachers work with the different learning styles.

One of the biggest things that or things I'm proud of is our momentum program where we've really taken shop class and brought it back to the high school and supercharged it with all the different opportunities in automotive and construction aviation.

And the thing that's really cool... about Minnotonka is that we have something for every student. Not only do we have programming where students can kind of self-select into things that they're in engaged in and interested in.

I'm running on a campaign theme which I've kind of really like to champion which is a Ford Ready learning pathways. And really what I want to do is actually kind of make sure we instill listening to personalization and having unique learning styles.

One thing that I would be curious about doing is similarly to the case group that goes to the capital to advocate for funding for public schools. I would like to see something like that. Another group created with teachers and educators in mind going to the capitol to talk to legislation about different gun laws and fixing that problem.

There's also a strong emphasis on building student connection and community so that a student would feel comfortable speaking up if they thought something was wrong and not happening right.

safety has been a journey for Minnetonka for every year. We're always making improvements and so there isn't really anything that administration supports that I wouldn't take a look at from that standpoint.

as a district that relies on over a third of our enrollment from open enrollment, congestion and traffic has been something that's been in front of the board for as long as I've I've been on the board.

I feel like then we should say ebikes are not permitted within the school foundations or the the parking lots of the schools and then let that be at home conversation to have if there's going to be out on the street or in the neighborhood and if they're going to use it themselves.

I have heard from parents who drive their kids that that's the time that you hear what's happening in a ch with a child is in that car ride, that 10-minute car ride, your child may tell you what you would never hear.

I'm kind of of the notion that maybe there are some creative ways that ebikes could be used at the high school that would kind of minimize some of the traffic congestion as a practical solution.

I think that is something that's really important. We have to be inclusive of all of our students in our district. We have to make sure that value, all voices are valued, all students feel welcome in our buildings, that we're making sure that we are meeting students where they are.

Equity, we want to meet kids where they're at. For kids that need more, we give them more and we give them what they need. Kids who need challenges um, need to be challenged more, we give them what they need.

I know one of the things that we've been looking at and and trying to recruit um more diverse staff members whether it's um in administration, in teachers or in counselors from that standpoint. So um students can find someone that looks like them.

I would say that we have 11,500 unique learners in this community. And I would certainly hope that as a school district, we are making sure that every student realizes that we are glad you're here.

what I would say is if there's dissatisfaction in the middle school and the very first thing you need to do with survey results is dig deeper.

I would say it's you know it's a tough time in the life of a student and also which tr can translate to making it a tough life you know time in the life of the parents a bit.

moving to the block schedule so we can address some of the schedule scheduling conflicts and be able to have more electives and now with the referendum and if it's passed being able to invest significantly in those buildings.

one thing that we see with surveys is that sometimes we'll see one of these drops and then it turns out that it was just a blip and the next year it comes right back up. And so I think looking longitudinally at the data is going to be really important.

In the past two years 40 teachers and 40 paras have been laid off due to budget cuts and those were done at the that was money at the state level that was cut. Those losses affect every classroom, every student and every program that makes minnotonka exceptional.

That's why I'd like to explore the creation of a Minnotonka Legacy Endowment, a sustainable funding source designed to help fill financial gaps, funding for for staffing, and preserve the programs that define Minnotonka.

Protecting the classroom first. What we need to do is keep cuts away from core instructions and quality teachers.

revenue is tied to the pupil count. And so, we don't really have the capacity to keep adding students and adding students. We can continue to advocate at the capital for more funding.