hello Forest Lake Area residents my name is Laura and I am running for the Forest Lake Area School Board I am a married mother with four children all of them which have um gone through the forest lake area schools my oldest is 22 my youngest is nine um we have lived in this community since 1998 and we love this community and we do love the schools but like like many in this community I have many concerns with the current direction that our schools have been taking and I just believe that it is time for a change so I am running for one of the four open seats the election is November 5th I'm running with three other fantastic individuals that share the common core values that I have and we are running under the acronym tank it stands for the first letter of our last names it makes it easy for you to remember when you go to The Ballot Box who you want to vote for T is for tuat a for antonson n is for and K is for Castle I would love it if you would take the time to check out our websites reach out to us email us call us and let us talk to you more we would love to have that opportunity but what I think this election represents is more of the same you can have either more of the same or you can have a change there are four others running together as a slate with the title the ranger team those represent the status quo those represent the incumbents if you want more of the same vote for them if you want a change vote for tank Think Tank and what I would say is our platform is a focus on on academic achievement that is the goal how are we going to measure it how are we going to improve it that is the priority and as you all may know the state posted the proficiency scores and we have been doing very poorly on all measures academically this is just not acceptable the school board are the top leaders and they direct the school district anything from pick picking career curriculum to hiring the superintendent to creating policies so the school board members are extremely important who you pick will determine how the school district will be run what the priorities are what the transparency is how your money is spent and I will say that the four of us the think tank we represent as a priority academic achievement we will be laser are focused on making improvements for our kids in their academic performance next is really a focus on parental rights which is an acknowledgment that parents are the sole responsible party for their children and there is nothing that the school district should do that should undermine that as far as you know honoring the parents and needing parental consent involvement um they are really the primary educator and sorry I'm pretty passionate about that as I have my children in the school district um next is really a focus on finances how are we spending the taxpayer money are we getting the most out of it are we being thoughtful on large expenditures to get the most out of the money what is that plan as some of you may have heard there is a reimagine 2025 in which there is plans to really reconstruct the school district to shift sixth graders out of the elementary schools into the middle school now regardless of what your opinion is on that topic what really is motivating that is uh budgetary problems we have serious money problems in the Forest Lake School District so there are dire measures that they're taking to correct that well my questions would be how did we get there what was the oversight how are we spending the money why are we in a position right now where we need to consolidate and close a school I think that the residents should have a continual and very solid understanding of the finances for our district it is our money they are our children and that leads into the fourth point that the four of us think tank that we stand for and that's transparency I believe the school board members should be representatives of the people I should be totally transparent with you about what what's going on what the decisions are that we're facing so that we can hear from you and we can make the decisions that represent our community wishes again I believe that the decision will come down to do you want more of the same or do you want to change Think Tank represents change and I believe it's the change that our community wants thank you so much for your time I look forward to serving you on the Forest Lake Area School board