Increasing & Maximizing School Funding

Public schools belong to all of us. I am a parent of four kids in Beaverton schools, a former public school teacher, and an active community collaborator. I commit to practices that will keep me accountable to the public as a school board director. We need school board members who will hold district management accountable in how they spend public funding, care for students of diverse backgrounds and abilities, and how well they partner with their employees and families in making decisions for our schools. I will regularly hold town halls, visit schools, and call on BEA and OSEA for their valuable perspectives. 

We practice shared decision-making when we vote on school bonds and when we vote for school board directors. Public trust is eroded, however, when we see bond money being spent contrary to voter pamphlet language and when school board directors avoid their constituents and the schools themselves. We need a new paradigm of honesty and transparency on the board. 

It’s imperative that we examine why families are not enrolling their children in our schools, and how that impacts the segregation of schools and funding. This information can then be used to disrupt the segregation caused by wealthier families opting out of public schools, taking with them state funding and leaving behind working class students in defunded public schools. 

The fight to fully fund our schools is a fight that has been going on for a long time and several unions and community groups are organizing around advocating for greater funding in Salem. As a school board director, I plan to use my platform as well as my networks as a community member and parent, to promote, join in, and support the work that is already being done. We are stronger together!