First and foremost, the students. All the students. From Pre-K to High School. Including Special Needs students. Every student matters. I believe we need to listen to the teachers, staff and students as to what they feel would help our district improve. We need to keep our effective teachers, assistants, therapists, support staff and bus drivers in our district. We should strive to keep our students in our district. We need to support our special needs students and staff. We need to support them all to provide our students with a good education, and inspire our community to be one filled with life-long learners. We need to support our diverse cultural community and find ways to work together for all to recognize and respect our unique experiences in this community.

My first experience with budgets was when I was 18 working my way through college, doing work study on campus as well as working weekends. In four years I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ornamental Horticulture in 1978.

In Santa Fe, NM, I was the Greenhouse Manager at a large business, where I ordered plants, seeds and supplies for up to a year in advance, and hired seasonal workers as needed.

My priorities in the BPS budget would be to see how the work of administrative personnel and expenditures are benefiting our students, and if needed, cut administrative positions. I would look at where we can add more support personnel in the classrooms to work with the students on all levels. I would also like to look at salaries for staff that are barely making a living wage, like custodians and educational assistants.

I would prefer to see the Superintendent’s compensation tied to student progress and district staff performance evaluations of the Superintendent. Certain types of data can be interpreted in very disparate ways, depending on how you ask the questions. What you can do is measure a student’s reading level, comprehension level, and their gains in those levels. I know there are state standards, but not all children learn the same way or at the same age. Diagnosticians can measure a student’s academic abilities, identify specific learning disabilities, which helps teachers be able to better differentiate instruction for students as needed.

The Superintendent should use every means at his/her disposal to support the teachers, students and staff. Provide the schools with the help they need, keep class sizes small, provide counselors and mental health staff to give students the support they need to be able to function in and support a learning environment. Everyone needs to work together.

I agree with the premise of the Davis Bacon Act that wages for construction workers on federally funded or partially federally funded projects should at a minimum be comparable to the salaries of similar workers in the communities where the projects are to be completed. But I wouldn’t want workers’ salaries go down by a lot in poorer rural areas of the state where the prevailing wage might be a lot lower. Some Individual states have set their own minimum threshold amount of project value where the Act is applicable, as opposed to the $2000.00 minimum threshold enacted in the original Davis Bacon Act. I’m not sure why states have done this, but I do believe people should be able to make a living wage as well as have compensation for the extra training and certifications they have to improve their skills. I also believe in supporting our local businesses as much as possible.

I welcome the business community members’ input into how our students are doing in the job place. I think they can give the Board valuable input into where they see the jobs will be in the future and what skills our students will need to fulfill those job requirements, as well as how well current students are faring in their jobs. Personally I support our local businesses, and many of them do employ our local students.