OPENING STATEMENT

Thank you, Mary, Good Evening Everyone and hats off to the LWV & my fellow candidates. Not only are you cultivating discussion tonight, but you graciously agreed to a date change resulting from a scheduling conflict I had.

According to one area newspaper, Im the perennial candidate for the Mounds View School Board. After looking that word up, I accept my being an enduring candidate. Ive endured because a board candidacy provides a platform to do what I value mostadvance a good cause.

As a current Ramsey County Library, NYFS & youth baseball association board member, Ive furthered many causes, but the ones Im most proud of relate to MV Schools.

At the building level, Im proud of establishing a Parents Night Out Event that became a tradition at an elementary school.

At the district level, Im glad to have helped CHANGE a policy requiring middle school math students to have their grades factored into their high school GPAs.

At the state level, Im pleased an inadequate 9th grade writing exam I did a Masters Degree project on is an assessment of the past for Mounds View students.

I know advocacy and politics may seem at odds to you.

But personally, I wouldnt be running for the board a third time unless I thought there was something important it could accomplish. Let me say the academics, arts & athletics opportunities this districts students enjoy are extraordinary, and skys the limit for many graduates.

Because of this excellence, student enrollment may begin to outstrip district capacity for kids to be educated. Additionally, many district families & area professionals would like to see an adjustment to the school start time.

The convergence of these two conditions makes it a good time for the district to look at new scheduling & instructional options to maintain the excellence we all want to preserve.

Ill try to elaborate on some of those possibilities throughout the forum.