1. Academic Breadth: The development needs for our students continue to widen and our schools will need to keep adapting. We don’t need everyone to stride for a 4 year degree, but for our system to proactively support a wide range of career opportunities and to positively encourage our students that success can happen in each of them.

2. Keeping and replacing top talent: We have some of the best teachers in my opinion, but for a lot of reasons less and less people are choosing the teaching field. There is always the risk/reward of the long hours and helping challenging kids and parents, while pay hasn’t kept up with inflation.

3. Artificial Intelligence: How do we use it effectively in the future? Our current students will be the trendsetters in this and we need to find ways for them to use it to benefit their education in a positive way. At the same time, we need to prevent them from using AI to cheat or skip out on really understanding the value of doing work yourself and gaining the depth of the subject.

1. I’m not a politician and I don’t want to be one. I see others take the same approach of the politicians of both sides at our state and national levels. Collect and raise money and create promises. I also see the problem solving steps of create a problem, sell it as a big problem and tell people that they will solve it, then tell people they did solve it. I would rather listen to understand and work as a team to solve actual problems.

2. Others want to create disruption to the school and actively create division. I love our school and want to create unity. We should all want the current school staff to be successful and work to help them be even better and not create extra wasted work for them.

3. I’m a Christian but I don’t want that to be the reason you vote for me. I believe in the freedom to choose and practice whatever religion you want or not at all as long as you do it with respect for others. When it comes to my faith and my values, I like my actions to speak louder than my words. I studied religion while at Hope College and one of the biggest takeaways was how similar all the religions of the world are when you look at the core principles. I have many friends that have great values and are atheist and know many people that call themselves Christians but struggle to live like it.

Goal Setting – working together to establish a vision for the school, and measurable goals to achieve it

Policy Development – understanding current policies, working to improve them, and making sure they align with our goals but also with all applicable laws and regulations

Evaluation of Superintendent – Regular comprehensive evaluations of the performance of the current superintendent and succession planning for the future.

Budget – Ensuring adherence to the current district budget

Curriculum – Reviewing current and new curriculum and student assessments

Assist with Staffing – Reviewing and approving policies regarding salaries, employment, and professional development for staff members

Facilities – Assessing facility needs and assist in communicating plans for our facilities to the community.

Yes to both questions…

I am pursuing initial training through the state. I think it’s important that the board acts and follows and aligns with how the state expects a local board to run. I am mainly using the Michigan Association of School Boards to help me learn all the responsibilities of a board member. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience but all of it comes from the private sector so what I will need to learn more is the difference between the private and public environment and how to work as a board member.

1. Academically Strong: U.S. News and World Reports ranks Vicksburg Schools as high achieving in this area, but I’ve also seen first-hand that VCS balances well the ability for strong students to pursue their best path while those who struggle are also well supported academically.

2. Great Staff and Community: Whenever we had a concern or a teacher or administrator had one for us, we’ve been met with great attitudes and a feeling that the staff cares for and treats the students like one of their own as long as you show them that you are there to support them, as well. I don’t know the turnover numbers, but it’s been great to have some consistency with my kids having many of the same teachers and administrators so that we could work together with them to get the most out of our children’s education. We have also heard similar stories from other parents.

3. Opportunities: Academically there are a lot of big school opportunities from AP classes to technical trades. Outside of the classroom, VCS has a ton of ways to get involved in athletics and has very strong fine arts programs, as well. There is also a strong encouragement from the staff for students to take on these opportunities outside of class knowing that these can be the difference makers to set them up for success long term.

1. Communication: The communication plan is lacking strategies around first picking common platforms to use, but then also how to use them effectively by all those that need to communicate with students and parents. I feel like everyone cares about it but they are all doing it in their own way, which sometimes leads to students that are left out from activities that they or their parents might have wanted them to try to be part of. Even getting the information late or second hand can make students apprehensive about being a part of something extra.

2. Maintenance: Many times I’ve been at the school and have stumbled upon unfinished maintenance projects. My first concern is for the safety of the kids, but there is also an effect on the staff when lack of care or urgency to fix a maintenance problem happens. It can lead to a poor culture.

3. Safety: I’ve always felt that my kids are safe but sometimes in the community the perception is that kids are getting bullied or that incidents are happening and not getting reported or escalated. I think some positive changes could be made to ensure that there are safety goals while transparently reporting that the district is monitoring each incident and working to reduce the occurrences.

During my time at Mann+Hummel, I’ve been the Director of Program Management for North America, which oversees a team to develop hundreds of customer projects for multiple locations worldwide. For the last 4 years, I’ve been the Director of Operations/Plant Manager in Portage with the responsibility of 3 manufacturing facilities with over 600 employees.

I was also the Director of Baseball for 3 years for our local Little League organization.