I was born in Kansas City, MO to Marine Veteran parents. My parents always encourage me and instilled Christian and family values along with a hard work ethic. My parents moved my siblings and I to Blue Springs, MO where I graduated from Blue Springs High School in 1990. I went to MCC and studied for my associates and Science. I was accepted into the Physical Therapy Assistant Program at Penn Valley Community College. I also did an internship at North Kansas City Hospital where I worked as a Physical Therapist Tech. My work experience include Customer Service and sales, where I learned to listen to customers to meet their desires. I worked in Quality Assurance and also Furniture Sales where I trained and mentored new employees. I have experience with and knowledge of LSR7 educational programs because my children have benefited from Parents as Teachers, The Great Beginning Early Education Center, IEP for my daughter, Summer Learning Institute, and Struggling Readers for my son. My husband and I are 14 year residents of Lee's Summit. I have two young children in LSR7 schools. I am running for the LSR7 school board because the last couple of years have opened my eyes to how our kids have fallen behind in their education. I am encouraged by some of the programs that Lee's Summit School District offers their students. However, I do believe that we can do more for our district by getting back to educational basics. I would love to see every child succeed and help put LSR7 back on the map for academic excellence.

LSR7

I went to MCC and studied Science. I was accepted into the Physical Therapy Assistant Program at Penn Valley Community College. I also did an internship at North Kansas City Hospital where I worked as a Physical Therapist Tech.

I have experience with our school district's educational programs because I have two young children in LSR7 schools. My children have benefited from Parents as Teachers, The Great Beginning Early Education Center, IEP for my daughter, Summer Learning Institute, and Struggling Readers for my son. My experience with our school district teachers is through my daughter's IEP. For the last 7 years, I have been apart of meeting with teachers, special teachers, occupational, physical, and speech therapists and contributing to the planning of my daughter's individual educational plan. In December 2022, I attended a Struggling Readers event where I learned about readers with Dyslexia. I noted a few struggles that go with Dyslexia and saw these struggles in my son. I was advised to reach out to the Reading Specialist at my son's school to have him evaluated. The Reading Specialist determined that a 12 week intervention plan was needed.

Schools have a direct impact on our community's businesses, property values and economy. For outside citizens looking at the area, schools are the first indicator of the city's well being. Entrepreneurs, that will bring more business and look for cities that are thriving. The school district is a direct partner with families and should support various family models.

One of the things that got me interested in running for our school board is having attended many meetings over the last two years and not feeling like any of the public speakers were being heard or addressed. Many of the community's issues align with my husband's and my concerns. I think the community's greatest weakness is not being able to find solutions to bridge those gaps. Many of the government policies and school district policies we are seeing do not address the concerns and cause more problems. Lee's Summit's greatest strength is still being a desirable place for young families to choose and plant roots. We have many small businesses and a healthy downtown scene.

A major issue facing LSR7 is the lack of transparency with testing scores and proficiency rates which are inaccurately reported by district administrators. However, many community members are aware of the large percentage of LSR7 students who are a minimum of 2 years behind academically. As a result, local businesses are telling us that the employment pool coming from recent graduates, is not as versatile as it once was. The district needs to focus on investing in improving academic progress.

I want to be part of the solution in finding ways to address parent concerns with transparent policies and open discussions. I think the district has a lot of great educational programs. My goals would be to continue investing in those programs. My goals would be to continue investing in those programs and to improve connections with families that need them. This goal aligns with investing in our internal resources and growing our own rather than spending money on third party consultants. To me, this is what equity in education really means and I want to help guide conversation.

I believe that the school board members should be held accountable for test scores and proficiency rates in our school district. They should be held to account when their decisions on educational curriculum contracts are not a good return on investment. They should invest on bettering proficiency rates and test scores. Right now, our school board is comparing our districts test scores to the state, when we should be looking at what the trajectory of our school district is year after year.

At least, 15 to 20 hours a week. I did my research and found that much reading and research goes into Board meeting weeks, plus the actual time in the meetings. I understand meeting nights are 6-8 hours. Work sessions are usually around 4 hours.

I want to have transparent and open conversations. I do not believe the district's strategy in sitting down concerned constituents with the Equity Superintendent is making them feel heard, and their is a void. If elected, I would like to explore Heather Eslick's suggestion of developing an open forum so that board members can actually respond and engage in meaningful dialogue. I learned the effectiveness of this type of engagement in my Customer Service days. I think that being present and really listening to the public's comments at school board meetings is so important in bringing our school districts citizens together. Showing real interest after their comments and following up with speakers who are addressing real concerns. This makes the public perception is one of that they are being included and that their voice is being heard. Emails are another way to follow-up with concerned citizens. It is also important to attend LSR7 events so that the public sees that you as a board member do support and engage with the school district. It shows board members care.

There are definitely a lot more techy type classes being offered today in school. I had a typing class, shorthand class, and a computer processing class. Dinosaur classes in comparison. Technology has advanced so much since I was in school. In college, I took Word Perfect and Windows. I think I would want a communications course in social media or effective messaging. Also, my kids are able to do power points or slide presentations using their Chromebooks. I definitely didn't have access to this technology in school.

One important point of my platform is safety and security for all. I think having policies that make teachers feel safe and secure both physically and with job security. Teachers shouldn't have to go to school and be physically hit or threatened. Teachers should also feel free to file grievances without fear of losing their job. I think another way to retain good employees is to ensure that the district is paying teachers and faculty members fair salaries and that the administration needs to stop allocating tax initiatives to administration salaries and start allocating those bonds to teacher salaries.

I think Independence School District is a figurative guinea pig. Only time will tell. I have a couple of concerns and I don't think this change can have positive academic results coming out of a pandemic. Both older and younger students may lack focus with longer days. Also, parents have to pay for extra child care services or go to 4 day work weeks, which may not be a possibility for every family.

TPUSA is on many high school campuses and has not been an issue. If we allow for liberal clubs, we must allow for conservative clubs. That's diversity. That's inclusivity. That's equity. That's freedom.

It is not the school district's job to take over for the parents for things like corporal punishment decisions, medical decisions, etc. I believe parents should be notified immediately of poor behavior to allow parents an opportunity to engage in corrections with their child. I also believe in consequences that fit the students poor behavior.

Part of ensuring safety and security for all should include conversations around registered firearms on K-12 campuses. I envision this to include 2 armed policemen on duty at the school. I believe there should be uniform operating procedures for all students and staff in all buildings.

Throughout the pandemic I saw a lot of things about the classroom moving to an environment of having the students learn on computers and the teacher is more of a "moderator" in the classroom while the students are engaged in virtual lessons. I think this is a disgrace to education. Children need to have hands on learning opportunities and spend less time working on Chromebooks. They need to develop real relationships with their teachers.

In moderation, gaming can be very educational and fun for children that respond to it. I do believe video games can be used in moderation as a learning tool. I could see this as a recreational activity that the school district supports in the same ways that it does other sports and clubs.

Subjects that are too advance for students in K-5 and should not be allowed in public schools are sexual education, identity politics, or forced ideologies.

Any sexual topic that goes beyond the extent of educating about reproductive organs and basic distinctions between males and females within the human species. If for any reason a teacher or faculty member believes this topic needs to be approached with a student, then they need to contact the parents and the parents only. From there, they can talk about different options and suggestions with the family involved. I do not believe that students should be called by any name other than their legal name they are given unless otherwise stated with parent permission. Furthermore, too many students are graduating "knowing" that they hate either Republicans or Democrats, but they don't know the branches of government. High schools need to be taught the dynamics of our governmental system and political processes, not what to think about them.