Candidate for
School Director; Radnor Township School District

A proponent for improving dialogue between the School District and the entire Radnor community, Lisa has the experience to lead development of a District strategy to improve information access and encourage community input. In the face of shrinking resources, she supports implementing a strategy that identifies and seeks alternative funding to maintain and expand curricular offerings.

Our district is facing several critical issues + the largest being satisfaction with the status quo. Radnor is an outstanding school district but over the past few years we seem to have become complacent, relying on our past reputation to carry us into the future. The lack of focus and commitment to long-term goals in areas critical to our success, such as curriculum, professional development, technology and human resources, has forced us into a position of trying to play "catch up" with surrounding districts.

Missing from our budget process is clear direction from the board and administration as to where we want our schools to be when the process is over. What do we want for our schools now and in the future, and how can we craft a budget that helps us get there. Without thoughtful consideration of how programming cuts affect the overall education delivered by our schools is short-sighted. This practice is starting to have a significant and measurable impact on our teachers, our staff and our students.

We need to stop reacting and start planning to best allocate our resources as that is the best way to responsibly spend the substantial investment we all make in our schools. We need to stop letting the index drive our decision-making process and first figure out what we need and want for our schools, then create a budget that lives within our means. This will also help set direction for alternative funding initiatives. A clear vision of what we need and want will help us craft a compelling message to approach outside funding sources.

Another area of great concern is Radnor's lack of leadership concerning legislative issues. Public education is currently under fire in our state legislature. From vouchers to charter schools, there are issues up for debate and approval that will seriously impact our schools in the future. For those who favor accountability in our own schools, we cannot sit by and allow for legislation that will give millions of tax-payer dollars to schools that have no requirements for accountability to those who are providing the funding + us. Radnor needs to have a much louder voice in Harrisburg, we need to press our legislature to make decisions that benefit public education as a whole in our commonwealth, to fund mandated programs, and to invest in our future leaders.