About

As a person, I don’t enjoy talking about myself.  I’d much rather hear the stories & wisdom of the people I’m with.  I love tucking away– for possible future application — the favorite phrases & mottos people share with me.  You never know when you’ll need a quality life reflection to get you through.

The standard, sound-bite bios of many political candidates are not my forte’ either.  Still, potential voters have the right to know what makes a particular candidate tick.  I’m pretty straight about my personal traits. Because I place a lot of value in things like facts, intellectual honesty & objective measures, allow me to share a bit about my Top 5 strengths–  as determined by a Gallup Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment I took several years ago.

Five themes that most define me are ideation, input, learner, context & connectedness.  Each will be explained as it pertains to past or potential involvement in Mounds View Public Schools:

Ideation

In 2006, I created an outing at Island Lake Elementary School that continues to this day as Dad’s Night Out.  Since the school’s cornerstone carnival wasn’t until Spring, the Fall event was designed to gather dads and their kids for an evening of futuristic presentations, a thinking game with Jeopardy music playing in the background, some old-fashioned juggling fun and a little ice cream.  Moms might have some peace & quiet to themselves at home, if only for an evening.

It turned out well, as this article may indicate:

Inaugural Island Lake Dad’s Night

Particularly rewarding were the new relationships the event helped establish, like the one I formed with event partner & area dad Jon Grayson, who is a good friend to this day.

Input

I’ve made inputs to the Mounds View School System since the first Curriculum committee meeting I attended in 1999, when my about-to-be-a senior daughter was 1 year-old.  Much of that input was solicited by the district in the form of committees, advisory groups, task forces, BILT teams, principals’ meetings, and yes– even school board appointments and elections (since one bonus of running is that candidates are granted a special meeting with the superintendent and/or existing school board).

I’ve been a continuous MVCAC (Mounds View Curriculum Advisory Committee) member for 5 or 6 years now.  District curriculum coordinator Gretchen Zahn’s meetings afford residents unique access to the district’s educators, and attendees stand to acquire a lot of programmatic knowledge that helps parents navigate the educational journeys of their children.

Joining the MVCAC is well worth participants’ time, and based on a district announcement at the 8/18/15 school board meeting, one might also desire to inquire about the upcoming parent focus groups to be held regarding the transition from the electronic SchoolView portal to a new platform because TIES is no longer willing to service the plan Mounds View Schools has with it.

Learner

To serve best, a school board member needs to stay current with trends in the field of education.  I’ve been working at this since I began writing about education 25 years ago as part of a second undergraduate degree I obtained from the University of MN- Twin Cities.

Staying apprised of school matters is particularly rewarding in the state of Minnesota, given it is often ahead of other states in the implementation of initiatives like the now widely-accepted post-secondary enrollment options (PSEO), charter school movement & formative assessments for students.  Mounds View Schools provide as wide an array of creative learning options for kids as any district, which is a wonderful thing.

Minnesota is blessed with a plethora of accomplished policy folks able to fold decades of experience into contemporary visions that not only turn out knowledgeable & skilled students, but aim to meet the needs of a rapidly changing workforce.

Since the advent of social media, I’ve gained a number of prominent educational contacts with whom I’ve formed mini-mutual admiration societies, and were I to be elected, I would continue looking to them (and you, of course) to inform my judgments on matters before the Mounds View School Board.

Context

Perhaps you would agree that putting things in context is a practice in too short supply in the everyday world.  As attention spans jump from texted symbol to symbol delivered by people we cannot see or hear, the problem is only growing worse.

In my view, understanding context boils down to factoring in what went before, or around, something in order to assign proper meaning to it.

For the vast majority of situations, factoring in what went before something brings a heightened sense of appreciation.  Having grown up in the typewriter era, along with the accompanying white out and smeared pages, it’s astonishing to think that a few minutes after writing this, you will be reading it in the comfort of your own home, with almost no “production” required.  The ease with which we can write, edit & publish today is incredible, yes?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve introduced a historical example to help my own kids “get” how good they’ve got it, and this fundamental belief fuels me to work hard on education matters.  My visits to– and writings about– innovative new schools, as well as many impressive modern-day colleges, also move me to impart the fruits of learning to as many people as possible, which I would cherish being able to do as a board member for the Mounds View Public Schools.

Regarding the question of context “around” something, one way to do this for students is to insist on their staying with a multi-step assignment, an in-depth paper or long book, or sustaining academic effort for uninterrupted blocks of time.  Such absorption cannot help but create a more understanding set of learners.  At the same time Mounds View brings in new tools for learning, they need to hold space open for older ‘tried & true’ methods.

Connectedness

I deeply value the luxury of  taking off the ‘thinking cap’ to dig in and help at our district’s schools.

Besides building new events like Dad’s Night, I’ve pitched in at scores of existing ones, classroom activities, school functions and field trips throughout the dozen years my kids have attended Mounds View Public Schools.

From ticket taking to Special K-bar baking, preparing scripts for talent shows to performing custodial duties at Winterfest, chaperoning trips to Laurentian Environmental  Center & Valley Fair, and helping kids with their math & writing skills– I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Mounds View students over the years, and getting to know many teachers & families in the process.

Having worked within MV schools at three levels (elementary, middle, and high school) qualifies me, in my opinion, for making policy judgements at each of them, since education is somewhat of a ‘new animal’ at each step in the k-12 track.

Standing at the intersection between many Mounds View educators, students & families and the leading policy thinkers alluded to in the ‘learner’ section has helped me become a kind of informational conduit I believe you would find valuable to have on the Mounds View School Board.

Thank you for taking the time to learn how I might be an asset to the Board, should you decide to help put me on it.  It would be rewarding to hear if you learned something worthwhile in the process of reading this section.