What are your campaign focuses?
I am a product of FISD and believe it is one of the key reasons for my success in college, work and life. I want FISD to be the same springboard for my children as it was for me. I want to help guide the district’s future and ensure that all FISD students had the same opportunities to excel that I did. Friendswood ISD is moving from the assembly line model of schooling to an individual education plan for each child. This allows students to explore and find their passions while in school and then leave FISD to pursue those goals. This can only be done by expanding opportunities and choice, especially at FHS. We must continue to teach the core skills that all kids must know but we will need to continue to explore more programs as the changing workforce creates jobs that have never existed before.
Do you have children or grandchildren in the FISD system?
I have two children, Cooper (FHS Class of 24) and Bailey (FHS Class of 28). Cooper is currently attending Texas A&M Galveston in the Maritime program. I also have six nieces and nephews currently attending FISD.
What is your perspective on standards based learning (SBL) ?
Friendswood has had three grading systems for K-5 in its history: 1) letter grades of E,S,N and U for the first 50 years, 2) 0-100 for the next 30 years and 3) 0-3 in SBL. Systems 1 and 3 are focused on performing certain skills that are the building blocks for the rest of a child’s education. I think the value of the system lies in measuring whether students are mastering the skills they need to progress to the next set of skills. SBL is more work for teachers and for parents to follow the work being done in the classroom. The biggest challenges that need to be monitored are training of teachers, especially new teachers, and communication between teachers and parents. I would not scrap the entire system that seems to be producing real results, especially among those that are most at risk.
What is your perspective on the current learning reassessment policy?
This system is so new I do not have an opinion yet. I want to hear feedback from teachers, students, parents and administrators on the actual implementation of the system. I agree with the goals of actually measuring what a student knows and masters versus extra credit items increasing a grade. This has to be balanced against the accountability and the process of reassessing students and resources for teachers to facilitate that reassessment.
I think as we get through the first nine weeks it will be interesting to see how the system works and whether changes need to be made.
What are your opinions on current teacher workload and pay?
Teachers are underpaid for the requirements that are not placed on them today compared to 10-30 years ago. I think that holding teacher pay hostage to a failed ESA/voucher vote in 2023 when that could have been passed on a stand-alone basis was wrong. As we have added many new responsibilities to the entire education system, we, as a society, need to look at how we provide education and are all of the new things being added appropriate for the school setting or do we need to shift some aspects back to other professionals. If we are going to keep the current arrangements, then we need to value teachers like professionals that we would use in other settings. This fundamental shift is the only way to solve the state-wide and even national trends of far more teachers leaving the profession than entering the profession.
What specific parts of the current FISD system are you hoping to change?
I have served on the FISD Board of Trustees for 16 years and we have made many changes during that time. I do not have major programmatic changes that I want to make but want to continue the focus on providing opportunities for our kids to explore their passions and then to go accomplish them when they leave FISD. I also want to continue the focus from last year of focusing on our employees being seen, heard and connected and implementing feedback that we hear from that process.
What is your position on current bond initiatives for facility improvements?
I think the new facilities that were built as part of the 2020 bond will serve our community well for the next 50 plus years. I am happy that we built a new Cline and did not build on the old Cline site which eliminated many logistical challenges. The new CTE, fine arts and athletic spaces will allow our programs to expand to better serve our children for generations to come. We have knocked out the major investments that need to be made in FISD and I think future needs will be incremental changes that are much smaller in size.
