Guía de Votantes

The School Board has a responsibility to meet the educational needs of every student in the District by building a productive, inclusive, and equitable environment for students, staff, and teachers, while being fiscally responsible and accountable to the communities in the LASD. To meet these goals, the School Board should evaluate and embrace innovative, best practice curricula and expand available curricular and extra-curricular programs that propel the District forward. The District’s “Excellence in Equity” strategic plan is a solid foundation upon which to build our future together, a future that uses each and every dollar effectively, efficiently, and responsibly to optimize the District in a challenging financial environment.

Student achievement, emotional and physical well-being, and equity are the highest priorities. More than ever over the past year, LASD has demonstrated its steadfast commitment to its students. That commitment should continue as our community recovers from the pandemic. Students may have experienced losses in learning, and families have experienced financial and family loss. The focus, as always, should be on ALL students and ensuring equal access to the high quality educational and extracurricular experience our district provides. Further narrowing the budget deficit is another important priority. Thanks to careful budget analysis, some sources of savings have already been identified. Engagement on top priorities for LASD is key.

School districts everywhere must focus on re-centering their educational priorities after a pandemic. For Lewisburg, this includes: Continuing/expanding efforts to provide the best education for each child by meeting each where they are; Enabling teachers & staff to create opportunities for students to engage in active learning while providing space for them ask questions about the world and their places in it; Supporting intellectual and artistic growth, career exploration and robust, award-winning athletics; Recognizing that budgets will be stretched post-pandemic and must be thoughtfully fine-tuned w the focus on spending smart while supporting a K-12 education that best prepares our children for the world they'll enter upon graduation.

A top priority is always providing better support to the children and families supported through special education. I believe continuing to support teachers and families with ongoing education challenges and gaps caused by COVIDs disruptions to standard education. Making fiscally responsible decisions to maintain low property tax growth. This includes oversight on spending of any remaining COVID relief funds.

Keeping taxes low. Even if the pandemic is not the central concern of our K-12 education, the financial fallout from it will go on for years. Families in our community will be hurting and every dollar will count. Low taxes give those families time to recover from the pandemic. Additionally, in the years to come, this will make our community more welcoming and diverse.

A priority is to get all of our children back in school. Children learn more effectively physically in school for various reasons. One reason is they interact more effectively in the classroom. Another reason they need to be socially involved with their peers. Also they need the extra-curricular activities our District offers to our students. At the same time, we need to keep our staff, administration, and students safe from any virus, or any dangerous situation.

Recovering from the impact of the pandemic will take time. Our priorities must include assessing and remediating the impact on student progress caused by the past year’s disruption; recovering from the financial burden caused by the pandemic (e.g., the costs of public health regulatory compliance and the over $1 million cost of charter school tuition paid by the district); and, addressing the on-going budgetary concerns that existed prior to the pandemic. Last year, we were able to avoid a tax increase. However, growing budgetary pressures remain. Given that the overwhelming majority of revenue comes from our local taxpayers, it is critical that the district remain fiscally responsible while providing a quality education to our students.