Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Rescue Union School District

I am the mother of three children who have attended schools in the Rescue Union School District. We have lived in this community for 17 years, during which time I have been actively involved in the school system. Prior to moving here, I participated in other school districts in California, Virginia, and in England for a total of 25 years as a school volunteer.

For the past eight years, I have served as an elected trustee on the Rescue Union School Board. During this time, I have attended all board meetings, the majority of school site Back to School nights, Open Houses and special events. It is my firm belief that presence on school campuses and in classrooms is the key to understanding the needs of the students and our staff. To that end, I accompany the superintendent on weekly site visits to individual classrooms, where I can see our curriculum, programs and dedicated teaching staff in place. I encourage communications from all stakeholders in our educational system and do my best to represent the interests of all RUSD students.

In September of 2005, I completed the Masters in Governance program, a nine module training for board members in the areas of Foundations of Effective Governance, Setting Direction, Human Resources, Policy/Judicial Review, Student Learning and Achievement, School Finance, Collective Bargaining, Community Relations and Advocacy, and Governancy Integration.

In March of 2006, I was elected from a four county area, as a representative to the Delegate Assembly, the policy-making body of the California School Boards Association. I have attended biannual statewide Assembly meetings taking forward and bringing back an exchange of ideas to improve education in legislative actions of our state as well as more frequent regional meetings. Subsequently I have been reelected to this position twice. As a delegate I have served on statewide committees to advance Preschool Education and policy formation in various areas of education. I have also twice been a member of the Planning Committee for the annual California School Board Association conference, crafting seminar and workshop presentations and inviting presenters from around the country to assist in the continuing education of board members.

Each year since 2002, I have attended the annual conference of the California School Board Association, a forum for gathering and exchanging relevant information about the changing needs of education. The invaluable knowledge gained from the sessions and the dialog with Board members around the state provides tremendous resource to our District.

Since 2008 I have served as President of the El Dorado County School Board Association which is a collaborative of all 15 school districts in the county. This group provides a conduit of shared knowledge and experience among the districts as well as planning and providing continuing education experiences for all board members. Some of the presentations have included Board Self Evaluations, District Consolidation options, Effective meetings, Responding to Media, Budget Management - to name a few.

Most recently, I was instrumental in forming the RUSD Green Schools Committee which meets on a regular basis to develop environmental awareness within the District. The Committee's work has led to the lunch recycle program at all seven school sites and enhanced the general recycling and energy reduction at each site.

Prior to my election to the RUSD board of trustees, I held Parent Club offices and worked on numerous school site and District committees with the main goal of improving the educational experience for the children of Rescue Union School District. It is my belief that teachers, parents, school staff, and community members working together to improve our children's education will give them the sense of community they need to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Additionally, I served as the School Site Council Coordinator for two RUSD schools - Lake Forest and Marina Village for three years. I spent 8 years as a School Site Council (SSC) participant gaining vast experience in the planning for school improvements and managing the budgets designated to implement these plans. As district Site Council Coordinator I assisted the Superintendent in training new site council members at each school site. In 2003 new state requirements for the development of school plans required that we once again retrain all site council members.

As a an original member of the District's Student Housing Task Force, I am continually concerned about issues regarding the housing of our students. These issues have involved reconfigurations of classes to create the 20:1 class size reductions, multi-track year-round educational schedules, school attendance boundaries, and the continuing need for more classroom space at individual sites and new schools. In 2009, a new Boundary Committee was formed to reevaluate attendance areas and I was involved in developing and presenting data to committee members.

I have also worked on the District Budget Task Force to help develop priorities for the use of District funds to best meet the needs of the students.

I was a member of the Leadership Team for Marina Village school which works through the California School Leadership Academy to develop team building strategies to continue to improve the education for Marina Village students.

As a parent at OakRidge High School, I was involved with new parent orientations, site council and STAR testing over the course of eight years. Additionally, I have been a Little League Coach and a member of Friends of the El Dorado Hills Library.