Plan for Change

My Plan for Change

My Number One Goal: Students here in our community reach high and succeed.

The Three T’s where I will put my energy, in order to achieve safe, first-class schools for our children: Teachers. Transparency. Today.

These Three T’s will be my centers of positive change for the students in our schools. Here is what I will do from day one:

1. I will listen to students, to parents, to teachers, to people who are face-to-face with our children every day in our schools.

2. I will do my homework: What is really needed in our schools? Are policies working, or are they disconnected? I will ask the questions to which we all want the answers. I will get to the heart of what needs to happen so our schools will be what they need to be for students.

3. I will communicate inside our schools. I will find out what each student needs. As dedicated educators work effectively to make our schools better for students, I will back them up . I will not let important questions go unasked. I will work for open, improvement- focused communication at every level so that schools have what they need and can be what they need to be.

4. I will get transparency: I will eliminate cloudy budgets and slow timelines that keep education dollars from impacting schools .

5. I will be accountable and keep every problem in the radar until it is put right.

6. I will bring perspective: I will work to eliminate any mindset that results in a central office disconnect from the day-to-day, real-life educating that goes on in our classrooms, inside our schools. I will work to restore professional status to the most important people in our schools: teachers. In short, I will bring the perspective that the business of the school district is with the children in our schools.

Here are a few more details regarding my three centers of positive change:

Teachers

Parents know that a child’s experience in school depends on the teacher. Our students need teachers who are allowed to teach. In other words, our schools should be filled with teachers who enjoy professional status, who are free to meet the dynamic needs of their students, and whose work as educators takes place in a professional environment of respect and ability. For great teachers, teaching should be a great career. I will help make Clark County a great place to be a great teacher.

Transparency

In the business world, in the not-for-profit sector, and in parent volunteer organizations, I have seen repeatedly that once things are made transparent, things fall into place. Anything that has no rightful place falls out of the picture. Our schools need transparency from our school board. I will ask the questions, do the homework, and complete the follow-up that will result in transparency in this district, so that the talent, the decision-making, and the resources go where the students are.

Today

If we believe children are the future, what are we doing for students who are in our schools today? Today’s students need safe, first-class schools. They need our community to be a great place to grow up - a great place today, not a decade or two down the road. People who daily look today’s students in the eye will have my ear and my support: today’s parents, today’s teachers, the people who work one-on-one with our students today. I will be inside our schools to listen and learn about what is happening, so we can make the changes our students need now.