Guía de Votantes

Students learn best when together in school. Social, emotional, and academic growth happens when children and their peers are able to learn alongside one another and this element is currently missing from our students’ lives. Learning in its very essence is social. When students are not given these authentic opportunities, we are directly impeding their growth.

We will always be faced with challenges and must make decisions that support the whole child. Holding students and their wellbeing (and all that it encompasses) at the forefront of decision-making will always result in the best possible outcome and must be done with resolve each and every time.

I have a responsibility to analyze factual data and community input to make decisions. I believe in objective decisions for the welfare of our students and staff. It is difficult to separate emotions from facts, but necessary. Factual data and proven science must guide decisions. NW is staffed with those who act with integrity to provide our students with a safe place to learn and grow. We are fortunate to have tech for remote learning, however my goal has always been to maximize the time students spend in face to face in person learning. I support full in-person learning aligned with govt mandates and CDC guidelines, and support remote learning options offered by NWLSD for families who are not comfortable with a return to in-person school.

Our district has put a lot of effort into collecting data that is relevant to NWL, not the Lehigh Valley as a whole and I know they will continue to do so. Working together to keep our sports and activities going, even during the winter months has been a great step in keeping the mental well being of students in the forefront. I will advocate for the district to return to a regular 5 days school week while keeping our staff and students safety a priority. My goal is to help create a more well rounded school board by providing a voice for our younger students.

As a healthcare provider, I am familiar with objectively reviewing data to make evidence based decisions. As a mother, I’m intimately aware that a child’s well-being goes beyond health. As the wife of an educator, I’m also aware that a child’s well-being cannot be achieved without that of their teachers’. Every student achieves well-being in different ways and at different paces. The pandemic has shed light on just how multi-faceted the needs of NWL students are. I believe that as a school community we need to balance risk with accommodation. While getting back to the classroom on a full-time basis is a priority, we have to continue to push ourselves to consider better ways to reach all children in and outside of the traditional classroom.

The measures I will take are to advocate for students to have an enriching, safe environment where they can maximize their educational potential and physical and mental health and wellness. Measures include encouraging school, staff and student leadership to survey students and families in order to identify the priority needs and collectively work to reduce student’s risk factors, build protective factors and resiliency. An additional measure is to follow evidence based health guidelines that are feasible to keep students and staff safe while allowing students to regain normalcy in their routines to academically and socially thrive and succeed as a person, a student, and as a positive contributor to our community.

The need to get all of our children back to a full 5 day schedule but yet ensure our students & staff have a safe environment is my top priority. The only way we can get back to school as we knew it prior to March 2020 is to have all of us buy into the COVID plan the administration has adopted. The need for students and staff to stay home if they are experiencing any symptoms of COVID is the best way to contain any spread and to not have large amounts of COVID related quarantining. The disruptions of closing for a few days, going remote those days and then reopening is not a formula for success. We need to mitigate the environmental health issues but yet keep our students engaged. Being open to all ideas is the key.

I will work with parents and community members on advocating for their voices on what their children need to be successful in school. I would hope to start a parent roundtable to discuss important education issues and ways that we can work together as a community to build up our school district. Additionally, it is important to keep the lines of communication open with faculty and staff at the district. They are at the forefront of education and can speak firsthand about what it takes to educate our children. Mental and emotional health is extremely important for both students and staff. I will work with district-level administration to ensure that our students have access to programs and our staff has the supports they need to teach.

Schools are facing a major challenge in managing the recovery from the pandemic. There will be a need to assess the academic losses that have occurred and to make the necessary adjustments to the curriculum. School professionals will need to be attentive to the mental and emotional needs of students as they reacclimate to a normal school experience. Teachers and support staff know how to do these things but administrators and school boards will need to assure they have the support and resources to meet these challenges. Also, schools and their administrators/boards need to maintain structures and processes for ongoing enhancements to the instructional program and vigilance in creating a safe and caring school environment.