What are the primary strengths and weaknesses of your district’s schools?  How can your district make public school a more attractive choice for local families?

I think that District 8 has supplied quality programs and negotiated COVID 19 with the least amount of interruption and negative effects, nevertheless all School Districts and students have been affected. The commitment District 8 has implemented to focus on meeting the students’ needs; educational, social, and mental has helped our students with setbacks from the pandemic. Continued focus on rigor in educating District 8 students and giving them the options for specific tutoring and learning opportunities need to be followed for full recovery.

Depending on the size of their district, School Board Members decide how to spend $10s of millions of dollars, or even $100s of millions, in taxpayer money each year.  How would you seek to prioritize the funds being stewarded by your district’s School Board?

District spending should prioritize student’s learning needs to ensure the best education; teachers, administrators, student support (classified) employees, curriculum, safety, school buildings/facilities and extra-curricular activities. Working with other School Board members and the District Administration to ensure taxpayer funds are going to those priorities will be my focus. District 8 has NAFIS (National Affiliation of Federally Impacted Schools) due to housing on Fort Carson and the District has been able to construct new facilities and been able to keep teacher and employee wages more commensurate with the cost of living without having property taxes raised in several years or a necessity of pursuing school bonds.

In recent years, established freedoms, including that of speech, peaceable assembly, exercise of religion, and medical autonomy, have been impacted by various mandates adopted by schools across America.  As an elected representative of the citizens of your district, how would you seek to secure the Constitutional liberties of your schools’ students and staff?

School Boards can legally opt out of some State policies which recently have affected free speech, exercise of religion, medical autonomy and peaceful assembly. Careful review of policies and making sure the policies meet the students, teachers, and community members (parents and constituents) Constitutional liberty rights is a responsibility I take seriously and plan to fulfill.

What do you consider to be a parent’s role in a child’s education?  Do you believe that any information about a student should ever be withheld from a parent?

Parents’ concerns should be addressed to teachers initially and if not handled there, by administrators and the School Board as necessary. No information about a student should be withheld from a parent and policies that support withholding information from parents/guardians should be omitted or changed. Parents are the persons ultimately responsible to raise their children and to make sure the education of their children are receiving meets the standards they want for their children-no entity should supersede the rights of the parent.