Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills, experiences, and perspectives would you bring, and why would those contributions be valuable in the office you are seeking?

I have two children, one of whom is in the 1st grade in the dual language program at Emerson. Having seen first-hand how dedicated and committed their teachers are, I wanted to get involved. I was moved to serve my community in a way that can continue and improve upon the educational experience not just for my own kids but all the kids in our community. 

My experience as a classroom teacher, an instructional coach, and a director of content serving school districts, has afforded me the opportunity to support teachers and school leaders to develop their content knowledge and work collectively to provide equitable learning experiences for students. By joining Berwyn’s school community and board, I want to continue to support our district leadership using my own 21 years of education experiences and knowledge to serve the community that we have chosen to raise our children in.

2. When in the past have you had to balance competing interests? What process did you use? What did you learn?  

I have had the privilege of working in education where the majority of stakeholders whom I have worked with, are working towards the same collective interest- deepening students’ content knowledge and improving their educational experience. This past year, I have had to learn to balance my full- time work designing professional learning for school districts with supporting my children in e-learning. This year has taught me how to juggle the many responsibilities that teaching my children and working full-time have brought. Prioritizing and triaging what needs to get done is the only way I have succeeded in balancing these competing priorities during the past year. I can relate to and identify with all the other parents in our district who have been put in impossible situations due to a historic health crisis. 

3. What does transparency in government mean to you?  How would you put it into practice? 

Transparency is openness, accountability and honesty in elected positions. In local governance, this especially includes the ease in which community members can access the process and identify what is happening. I will adhere to all the legal requirements of the Open Meetings Act. Transparency can be achieved in a school board setting by publicizing school board meetings (especially to citizens who do not have children currently attending the schools and to those who do not have access to social media), and also having an open channel of communication between the board and the community we serve. Feedback and input from our community is essential, and I will work hard to achieve this goal by working with other board members and the superintendent.

4. As more of our local discourse happens in social media, what is your view on how local elected officials should communicate with and respond to constituents? How will you engage with the breadth of the community, and not only those on social media?

I believe it is extremely important to engage with constituents, both on and off of social media. As a potential school board member, I am excited to attend school functions to engage with the community and identify the strengths and weaknesses in our community. It will be my priority to serve on an engagement committee within the board to ensure continued dialogue between members of the board and constituents. As a candidate, I have already demonstrated by willingness for open dialogue by participating in forums with the stakeholders in our district, including teachers and parents. I feel strongly that I be present in future conversations in order to better serve the needs of everyone within our community. 

5. What barriers do you see for community members who wish to engage with District 98? How would you work to reduce or eliminate those barriers?  

As a parent, I receive regular communication about decisions made by the board. I think it’s important to widen our communication reach to members of the community who may not be privy to the same level of information that I receive. I believe the Engagement Committee could play a strong role in advocating for consistent and clear communication from the school board. 

6. What do you feel are the three biggest issues facing District 98, and how do you intend to address them? 

Pandemic – it is extremely important to get the students in District 100 safely back to school and to catch up academically. This is going to take a partnership between the school board, the administration, and parents. I will support the teachers with professional development around social learning and academics, as well as ensure that our schools will be held to a high safety standard when in-person learning begins again. 

Engagement – We will continue to support parents to be actively engaged in their children’s education, knowing that they have been playing a crucial role in their children’s educational journey over the past year. I want to improve and emphasize communication with the community as a whole, especially targeting those who do not have children who attend our schools currently. 

Resources and facilities – My goal is to ensure that I am consistently improving on our facilities and providing the most up to date resources in order to support the students and families in our district, while at the same time keeping in mind our fiscal responsibilities to the community.

7. How do you define equity? Have recent events and discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking? 

Equity is a central focus of my campaign. A global pandemic forced teachers, administrators, students, and families to make an almost instant switch to remote learning, redefining how instruction happens in classrooms around the globe. At the same time, a reckoning with systemic racism fueled by generations of police brutality and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor demonstrated the urgency of supporting teachers to connect current events with experiences in the classroom. I believe it is more important than ever to focus on anti- racism in our educational institutions, and this includes comprehensive plans that focus not just on students but also on teachers, administrators, and the community as a whole. Teaching all students requires us to critically understand and center racial identity to disrupt patterns of harm our country has inflicted on communities of color and that our education system continues to perpetuate. As an educator who continues to center equity in the work that I do, I hope to bring the same passion to my role as a member of the school board. I am committed to centering the needs of students in the equity work that we engage in as a district.

8. How do you plan to solicit feedback from people who may be experiencing this community in a different way than you? What barriers do you believe may exist in this process?

The District 100 board needs to work hard to identify the people in our community who are underrepresented, and then develop a comprehensive plan to involve them in the decision making process. This needs to be a purposeful outreach effort and include in-person connection that takes place both on and off-line. Meaningful engagement may require the use of interpreters and translation of materials, meetings that take place at more convenient times to working people, and childcare options. District 100 owes it to our community to ensure that we have feedback from not just the loudest voices, but also those who are silenced by their circumstances. 

9. Name an influential Berwyn community member. How did this person’s influence change Berwyn? As an elected official, what do you imagine your influence will be on the community?

[The candidate did not answer this question.]

10. Educational and business leaders have begun to use a "cradle-to-career" framework when talking about education. Please discuss the role of District 98 within the “cradle-to-career” framework.

As a school district, it’s essential that we support our students not just in academics, but in the wraparound supports that guide their social developments. Our role as a school board is to meet the needs of our students in their social and emotional needs that will allow them to succeed in whatever career path they choose. I am committed to continuing to meet our students needs from birth to adult, including collaborating with the high school and college programs, as well as preschool and early education. 

11. What lessons learned from the implementation of remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic do you believe will be applicable going forward, even after the pandemic abates?

I am very proud that District 100 navigated the pandemic so successfully, and part of the

reason why is that they were already equipped with the technology that made the switch to remote learning possible. In these trying and unprecedented times, parents, students, teachers, and the entire community have struggled to cope. Students having the immediate ability to see their teachers and classmates on their iPads was incredibly beneficial, especially in the first few uncertain months. Remote learning can continue to be helpful for our students in the future in the case of inclement weather, stopping the spread of other (less catastrophic) illness in our schools, and even allowing teachers to communicate more easily with parents via online platforms like Zoom. As a board member, I will work to ensure that District 100 stays up to date with technology and continues to equip our students for a future that increasingly depends on their use and knowledge of technology.

12. Special education is mandated by federal law. How will you set up structures to ensure ongoing concerns of families engaged with special education are addressed? What do you believe are the biggest issues facing families and children with special needs, and how will you work to see their needs are met?

Although it will not be my role as a board member to set up structures for special education, I will continue to support the superintendent in enacting federal policies. My role and ideas will always center evidence-based research in order to achieve our goals of equitable education to ensure every student has the access and opportunity to consistently engage with grade level appropriate instruction. Identifying students who need services and communicating effectively with parents of these students should be our number one goal, as well as prioritizing accessibility of the programs.

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[The above answers were supplied on 3/20/21.]