I have lived in Cary for 30 years and have always worked with others to make it a better place. During this time, Cary has grown into one of the best communities in the country to call home. This took community leadership and careful planning.

 

Now the Wake County Board of Education is in need of new and innovative leadership that will redirect the Board’s primary focus back to student achievement and learning.  I am running for the Board because I believe that I can provide this leadership and help Cary to be an important part of planning for the next decade.  This continues my lifetime commitment to educational excellence in my profession and as a volunteer for our schools. Our schools have been an important part of our community’s success and growth. My two sons graduated from the Wake County Public School System, and my two grandchildren will soon be entering the school system, so I have a personal as well as a professional interest in preserving and improving the quality of Wake County Schools.

 

Excellence is NOT easy —just ask a successful athlete---but we must set high expectations for all students in order to achieve excellence. My priority is to focus first on improving the achievement of every student—the high achievers, as well as those who struggle to achieve grade-level success. We must set the highest expectations for all students. School is their “job” and they need to value and apply themselves daily to that job. I want to see the students at the bottom of the scale improve their scores, but I also want to see the students at the top of the scale improve their scores. I envision all of our students growing as surely and steadily as a carefully tended fertile young forest.

 

We need to further examine the impact of various attendance models and use this data to show what the Wake County School System would look like if we had no assignment policies. Which schools would be overcrowded? Which schools would be nearly empty? What would be the educational costs and benefits and the financial costs and benefits of such a system? Many Cary residents were not living in Cary ten years ago when current policies were implemented and they need an opportunity to learn about and have input into school board policies. We can reexamine the information, take a fresh look at the data, discuss the issues, and base our policies on this new data. We now have the opportunity to review new and old methods and focus on those programs that provide the very best results for maximum learning for all students and apply those innovations to Wake County.   

 

Many of our challenges are due to a history of inadequate funding to provide enough classroom seats for our rapidly growing population. As a member of the Board of Education, I will work to develop a stronger partnership with municipal, county and state elected officials to find ways to adequately fund the 21^st Century education that we all desire in our community. As the late Senator Vernon Malone often stated, “Wake County has the ability, but not the will, to pay for a first rate school system.” I think he was right. If we are to elevate our students’ achievement, we have to elevate our willingness to adequately fund that achievement.

 

Growth should pay for growth. Ironically, the excellent reputation of our school system has been an economic development tool, which in turn has added to the growth that becomes our challenge. Our challenge is to fairly pay for growth without burdening existing property taxpayers. We can work with elected officials at all levels on creative funding methods—to provide adequate support for the kind of schools that our students and teachers deserve and that this community rightfully demands. 

 

Beyond funding and parental support, experts on all sides agree that the single greatest predictor of student success is an excellent teacher. Wake County must continue to recruit, retain and support the very best teachers for our students. We can support teachers by giving them the planning time they need and by limiting class size. We must set high expectations for every teacher and every student, and then give them the tools to meet or exceed those expectations.  There will be no mediocre schools in our community if we set high expectations and attract great teachers to every school.

 

I will listen carefully to parents and teachers and ask for their creative and innovative ideas to encourage all students to succeed. I believe that the School Board can and should be more “family-friendly” and more sensitive to the unintended consequences for families of School Board decisions. 

 

We must work with community groups to find new sources of volunteers: college grads that haven’t found full-time jobs, retirees, international parents or spouses of international college students. We should encourage PTA groups to organize carpools for parents of their students who lack transportation to participate in school activities, and work with PTA groups to develop programs where ESL students and their parents participate together in school activities to give them opportunities to speak to each other and practice in English (playground projects, community gardens, math or science night at school.)

 

As students connect with other students across the country and across the globe, they should value what makes our country unique and respect the variety of cultures and traditions of other countries.  Students in our 21^st Century schools need to be connected to technology and the world far beyond the classroom. They must know how to use information to make good decisions. They must understand and learn to work with students from other cultures. And they must also stay grounded and connected to nature—which provides daily benefits of clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, healthy food, healthful diets and exercise outdoors—without those essentials for life, nothing else matters.

 

Our schools face many challenges and I’m ready to get to work with you to make a difference. We can build on the strengths of our schools and truly assure a bright future for every child in our community. I would appreciate your vote on October 6.

 

Respectfully,