Four candidates running for Wrangell’s School Board participated in Monday evening’s candidate forum. Incumbents Liz Roundtree and David Wilson sat with challengers Bonnie Ritchie and Brittani Robbins. They spoke about why they’re running for two of the three-year term seats and what their values are. KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki and the Wrangell Sentinel’s Jonathan Dawe moderated the event.
The municipal election is Oct. 7 at the Nolan Center, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Opening statements
Bonnie Ritchie: Hello. My name is Bonnie Richie. I live here in Wrangell, Alaska. I’ve been here for over 20 years. I have three children. They’re generation six from Wrangell. I have one in fourth grade, a freshman in high school, and also a junior in high school. Our family’s mostly been a fishing family and I absolutely love the community that I live in. I have a heart to serve this community and I am involved with lots of different things here.
David Wilson: My name is David Wilson. I’ve lived here in Wrangell for 27 years, more years than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life. So I consider myself pretty much a Wrangellite. My wife is a teacher. She just retired after 43 years of teaching. I’ve been around education and coaching. High school football, high school baseball and working in other areas in school districts south and here in Wrangell. I’ve graduated six students and a foster daughter from Wrangell High School. All six of my children graduated from here. My daughter came back with her husband. Kaylene Harrison and and my youngest son is here, works in the harbor department. I love Wrangell. I love the schools and what Wrangell can bring to our students, our community. I’m deeply committed to doing all that I can to help further and help progress our school district and students.
Brittani Robbins: Hi, thank you for having us today. My name is Brittani Robbins, I’m a lifelong Alaskan. Thirty-six of my 40 years have been here on Wrangell Island. I have served on the school board previously for a three-year term. (I) serve on the borough assembly currently, and currently running incumbent for the one year seat for now.
My family moved here in 1989 to run what is now Wrangell IGA in 1998. We purchased Wrangell IGA in 2008, well, it was Benjamin’s. Became Bob’s IGA, sold (it) in 2018 and is now Wrangell IGA.
Interestingly, it came to me as I’m sitting in this room with these three amazing people, that I used to make Bonnie’s favorite coffee. I graduated with Dave’s second oldest child, and my daughter and Liz’s daughter are going to graduate together. It’s a really homey room right now. That’s really in a studio that I used to have a show in when I was in high school. That’s kind of a really warm feeling that I’m getting sitting here right now. So thank you for having us.
Liz Roundtree: Hi. So I prefer Liz, just throwing that out there.
We have been here eight years. I currently work at Wrangell IGA, in the office or the liquor store is where you’ll find me. Been on the school board for three years. We moved here because my husband got a job offer with TSA. I couldn’t say no, because of how adorable Wrangell looked from afar. Got here, fell in love. I joke that they’re gonna bury me in the basement because I am never moving again. I have three kids. My oldest is a freshman in high school. My next one is an eighth grader. And then I’ve got a nine month old son.
(I) did all kinds of other things: Girl Scouts, Chamber board, no longer doing that, either one of those. I am the post adjutant for the American Legion. So if you have any questions for veterans, I can help you out there too. I can’t think of anything else.
What motivates you to run for the school board?
Wilson: I see our children as our greatest resource for the future. They are so important, and their education is tantamount to what their futures will be. I think that I am motivated, because, as I said, I graduated six students from here. I saw what they went through and the many great opportunities they had. They’ve all gone to college. I want to see us continue to give them the best opportunities that we can with the resources we have. Whether they’re college bound or whether they’re trade bound, or whether they’re going to be fishing. I think we’ve got a great program.
Roundtree: I was originally motivated to run for the school board three years ago to give the community a voice. Kind of learned the community only comes out when they really want to. I’m still hoping they would come out more. The community needs to have more involvement in our students and our schools.
Robbins: There’s a lot of motivation. I have three years prior on the school board. Prior to that, I actually worked for the school district. I saw some inner workings that gave me pause, as well as some great inner workings. I saw some things with students, interactions with students. I really built a deep connection with the district in some areas. I really wanted to see Wrangell Public Schools flourish and grow. Additionally, like I said, I’ve been here my whole life. I went to school here K-12. This is also my school. There’s this other connection there that I want to watch my school continue to be a great school. I have two kids in school, seventh and ninth grade, which is terrifying. I’m very empowered by what we can give to our students and the voice we can be for our students, our staff and our community.
Ritchie: I knew that I wanted to be involved in some way. I wasn’t sure exactly what that looked like. I just kind of felt like I really did want to be helpful with the school with the school system. I’ve homeschooled my kids. With my kids being enrolled in the public school now, I really want to help out in whatever way that I can. When this came up, I decided that this was not only the right thing for me to do. But as a parent with kids enrolled in the school, I felt like it was the responsible thing for me to do. Also as a member of the beautiful community of Wrangell that I live in.
Is there anything the school district can or should do to increase enrollment, or is that simply a function of a declining population?
Roundtree: I don’t want to steal his thunder. I think there are ideas, and if you have a moment, maybe you should ask the superintendent, because he has some fabulous ideas, and I don’t want to steal his thunder.
Wilson: We’ve certainly had a declining population but I think that we still have ways of attracting students. I think the better programs that we develop, there are some that are homeschooling, that if we can give them the right motivation, the right choices, they will come back.
As I said, I had six students graduate here, but I’ve also got seven grandchildren that have all been in the schools, and I’ve watched them as they’ve grown, look for more and more opportunities, college classes being one. The counselor that we had helped my son, Daniel Harrison, who now works for the city, spend the last two years taking college classes to where he almost got his Associates. He’s been able to branch out and get into a lot of the different classes that you know we hadn’t had before. So I think we can bring them back.
Ritchie: I like this question. Like I said I’m primarily a home school mom, and I think that I know most, if not all of the home school families here in Wrangell, or whether they do independent teaching or whatever, and I think that it’s just really important that our school district and our public school system encourages opportunities for home school families. I think that if they felt like it was a safe place to kind of explore options, I think that more families would be willing to enroll their kids in public school, in some classes, if not all the way.
Robbins: Of course, there has been a decline in population. We saw that in the mid to late 90s. I graduated in the 2000s. I’m not quite that old, but yes, we saw the start of the decline of population and that has been ongoing. We do have a much higher population of senior citizens in Wrangell than we do the parent and younger age group. I don’t think that is the only issue, though. I think there are absolutely things that can be done. That’s definitely a discussion that is ongoing with the district and with the borough. There are some ideas that have been put out there. There have been ideas of a homeschooling program that we would do similar to like PACE in Craig. Let’s talk about a program where we bring in kids to work in the VOC tech, and they get counted as students in our district. That increases our funding from the state, which is where the real problem lies.
What do you see as the biggest issue facing the Wrangell school system and students in the coming years? What are the solutions that you can see for these issues?
Ritchie: I guess that I would have to say that I’m not comfortable making a huge statement about that, because I guess I haven’t really dipped my toes in the water too much to know. I feel like one of the biggest things that we should do moving forward in all areas is transparency and honesty so that we can make a good decision on what needs to happen, or if there are changes that need to be made, so that those can happen.
I think that the solution would be, again, all things transparent and honest and communication with the parents and staff in the school.
Robbins: On a grander scale and a 20,000 feet view, I would say it is our decline in population. It is our lack of housing that was discussed when we were here as the assembly. It is our need for more jobs that would bring families to the community, and not just those jobs, but the housing to be able to accommodate those families.
We get more students in the building, we get more funding. We get more funding, we get better opportunities for classes and extracurriculars and after school activities.
And I want to just echo Bonnie that transparency is really key. And then, as someone who helps out in the district a lot and has been on the school board, communication is a huge key there that I think is a lacking position between whether it’s between the two buildings or it’s between the borough and the school or the staff and the teachers, versus certified versus classified. So I think that communication and transparency is one way to help that.
Roundtree: Like Brittani was saying, funds, budgets, figuring out there’s no wiggle room in the budget. So finding funds and creating wiggle room in the budget for all the cool stuff that our students deserve, whether that’s through fundraising or getting creative, bringing in exchange students, or more population, there’s ways to get creative. The community needs to put their mind together and come up with ideas. It can’t just be the five people sitting on the board making decisions and changing everything without the input. We only have so much brain power.
Wilson: Well certainly, the communication has already been mentioned. I think (it) is a big spot that always needs to be worked on. And I think that the district has been working. They’ve developed a good communication plan. Each year, we’re getting further and further and continually developing that.
But I think our biggest obstacle right now is funding. I think (with) the state and federal government, nobody is willing to come to the table and really bring it about. I think our borough has been working hard at it and I think we can all work even harder, the district and the borough assembly. But I think that getting the state to answer and come to the table with what they need to do. But with funding we can continue to grow.
We have partnerships in our community, and the partnerships that we have, some of them are key with the tribe and with different businesses in the community. We just developed having Tlingit and Haida bring their Head Start into our building. It’s a big step in another partnership that we have.
As we develop those partnerships, we’re going to be able to develop more and more opportunities for our children, and some of it will even bring opportunities for economic development in our community, which will bring familes, will bring money. And when people look at a community to move into, they’re going to look at education and health care. The school board’s responsibilities make sure that education is an attractive thing for people that want to move into the community.
It’s unlikely that there will be significantly more state funding, borough funding, or a significant increase in enrollments. If that holds true, the district faces another budget gap next year and the years thereafter. What are your ideas for balancing spending with revenues so that the district can stop drawing on its declining reserves?
Wilson: I am person of faith. I believe in miracles. So I’m still hoping that the state will start to see something. I think that the message is getting stronger and stronger through to the state. I think that there are more and more people. Last year, I took heart with the number of the people in the legislature that were speaking out wanting to see our state own up to its responsibilities. But I think that as we go forward, we’re developing partnerships, and the more partnerships we can get, the more programs that are coming in. Some of them are going to bring income. And we’re looking at developing an ad hoc committee this year to look at ways to bring in revenue.
Ritchie: I’m not sure if I have a right answer for that, but what I can say is that I like to think that I’m a solution finder. Instead of focusing on the problem, I like to see what is the best solution that we can come up with. So that’s what I can say, that I could offer. That’s all I got.
Robbins: This is a really tough one. I don’t know that we can say, at least not in the next fiscal year that we’re going to start drawing on our on our reserves. It is a trickle down problem with the state, as Mr. Wilson pointed out, and on my own personal level, I do lobbying for it.
I spend hundreds of hours talking to legislators going to Juneau, I’m going to DC in the spring, doing some similar work for that. And that’s on my own time outside of what I’m doing for my regular job. It’s tough, because there are legislators who care a great deal. I’ve seen legislators come to tears in those seats and on those boards, and no matter how far they get, it either doesn’t pass, or it gets to the governor and it gets vetoed. So there is a huge struggle there. And I don’t know how much really the district can give in terms of their time to work on that, but I don’t think on a local level, there’s a whole lot of wiggle room there.
Roundtree: Just gonna say what everybody else was saying. On a district level, we’ve made cuts where we can make cuts, and it’s going to get to the nitty gritty soon.
So I don’t know, maybe we should join Brittani and start lobbying. Everybody start writing letters. I mean, I don’t know what else we can do at this point. Like I said, we got to get creative, and we need more mind power than the five people that are sitting on that board. So it’d be great if the community would email us, text us, call us, give us some kind of idea, help us.
In your estimation, what does the school district do particularly well?
Robbins: For what we have when we’re talking about funding and our resources, I think that we do excellent activities and getting the community involved in our activities. I think there’s a great deal of community involvement in our sports and things to that nature. And I think we do a great job there.
I also think that we do a great job keeping our students as gauged as best we can in a district where we have very little excitement to offer. It’s great that we offer the core classes, that’s really important. These kids need those classes. They need that knowledge. But it’s really hard to make kids want to stay when they don’t have anything exciting or fun to do outside of that. And a lot of our teachers are good at making those topics a little more exciting.
We do have a fair amount of things that keep kids wanting to come to school every day. And I think that is one thing that we excel at here at Wrangell Public Schools.
Ritchie: I think that we have some fabulous teachers in the school district. I can’t say enough good things about the teachers that show their love and care for each student that comes through their classroom. That’s appreciated a lot.
I also think that our sports is awesome, and the fact that we are able to take students and help have them travel around Southeast Alaska. I think that’s an amazing experience, and I think that they do that very well also. So that’s what I have to say about that.
Roundtree: I believe the school district does a great job putting the kids first. From the administration level all the way down to the paraprofessionals. I’ve always known and seen them go out of their way for the kids, whether it’s helping them with homework, helping them after school retake a test. Coaches are helping, spending extra time with players, getting them to where they want to be physically. The people that work at our school district is part of the reason why I’m never leaving. Because no matter what, at the end of the day, they have that heart for our kids.
Wilson: So I think one of the things that we have is we have a staff, administrative, teachers and paraprofessionals that care about the students more than I’ve ever seen anywhere else, and I’ve been in other communities and stuff. But the way our teachers and administration care, the way they reach out, we have teachers that come up with such innovative ideas that really involve our students in new things. Laura Davies, with her videos that she has done, has brought tremendous excitement to our students, and it’s going to continue, because we have that kind of a staff.
What makes you a good candidate for the school board seat?
Roundtree: I am dedicated to our kids and to the district as a whole. I don’t know. I love Wrangell and I love our kids. I’ve enjoyed the last three years on the school board, and I would love to continue to hopefully, maybe bridge that gap between the community and the district.
Robbins: Wrangell is my lifeblood. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember, and being Southeast lifelong, but raised in Wrangell, there’s a very special connection that I have with our K-12 district. And there’s even at least one teacher still teaching there from when I was at school. It’s no secret that one of my major passions is education, even on the assembly and in my own personal lobbying time, that is one of my major priorities, is education.
And it’s not just Wrangell, it’s a statewide passion that I have. Alaska deserves great education. Wrangell deserves great education, and I think I have a lot of passion and energy when it comes to finding ways to provide that great education, or even just speaking out to our legislature or our federal government in trying to get the resources we need to have a great education. So I think that’s a big part of it, is that passion and energy.
Ritchie: I think that I would be a good candidate for the school board because I have done some school at home, and so I understand both the beauty and the challenges of teaching kids that have different personalities and interests. I think that I can offer a fresh perspective from the community.
I am involved with a lot of things in the community, a lot of the things that the kids are involved with. Like I said, I have a heart to serve the community, and I am a parent of kids that are in the public school. I also just think that it would be great to just try new things in our school, things that maybe we haven’t tried before, and I feel like I can maybe bring a creative idea to the board.
Wilson: I really care and love our students, and I want to see them flourish. I have eight years experience on the board. I’ve learned and been able to advocate and work with other school board members throughout the state, with AASB, the Alaska Association of School Boards. I know most of their officers and most of their people that work there. It’s a big job, and there’s a big learning curve, and I will work and study hard. I don’t let down. I prepare myself for everything that we discuss, everything that we’re working on and learning and I think that I’ve got a dedication and a compassion that is unstoppable, and I will always work that way.
What are the two things you want to see the district improve?
Roundtree: I we had all the money in the world, I would love to see more extracurriculars and arts. And we got a great music department, but like pottery and painting and ceramics, acting and plays. All those things, if I had a budget for trillions of dollars, I would love to see that. I know there’s a few teams that are working on fundraising, but I would love for the school and the teams themselves to fundraise and not rely on the booster club, the WAC (Wrangell Athletic Club). I think that’s it.
Robbins: Liz is right. If I had all the money in the world, my answer might be a little different, but with limited resources, I would love to see the same thing – extracurriculars, like I was saying earlier.
I think that there are aspects of education that keep kids wanting to come to school every day that go beyond those standard core classes in the curriculum that we are required to do by state law and federal law. I understand that there are requirements for that, but having extracurriculars like acting, debate, speech and finding creative ways to fill those positions, for example, I would love to volunteer for that. However, I can’t work for the school district, and if I can’t work for the school district as a school board member, then the kids wouldn’t be able to get credit for that course. So there are creative ways to kind of think about that. I know that’s only one.
I think the other thing would be finding money, but that’s really hard to do in times like these.
Wilson: As I said earlier, we’ve been working and working on our communication with the community. I’d like to see us continue that, to even improve it more, so that we can develop more partnerships.
You know, what we’ve done with T3 and the Forest Service and some of the other programs that have been developing, I see as a great opportunity. I think there’s more out there.
I think there’s more partnerships that can be had. Communication with the families, with parents, getting parents involved more. I would love to see us get the parents more in the schools. We’ve been doing some literacy nights that have helped bring in some but I think we can do even more. So I think that’s another thing that we could do to improve.
Ritchie: I want our public schools to be a strong school system that offers quality education. I would like to see each student reach their full potential by mastering a subject before maybe moving on to the next one. I think that checking a box just so that they can get them through is not what I like. So I would love to see (that) more specifically targeted at the subject before moving on.
And then the other thing is just like I said, because we are in such a small community, I think that it’s really important to just encourage other students who may come from a different background.
What do you see as the most important role as a school board member?
Ritchie: I think that the most important role as a school board member is to have an open mind, to be able to find solutions to problems and to have a love and a care for the kids and the students and the staff in the school district.
Robbins: Bonnie nailed that. It really is about having the care for the students and the school. It really is about having that open mind, that creativity and it’s about being prepared. The things that are brought forward to the school board are not small things, and making sure you’re prepared for the entirety and not just a single item that maybe is important to you. Finding that importance among other people, and finding out why those are things that are important to the community or the school or the staff or the students. And making sure you’re really understanding the whole picture, and you’re not there for a single specific item or agenda.
Roundtree: It’s hard to say it any other way than the way the two ladies here just said it. But being open minded. Don’t go in with a mindset if it’s my way or the highway, like you need to be open to changing your thoughts and opinion, because it’s not about you and it’s not just about your students. It’s about all the students and the entire community. It doesn’t matter if it’s what’s best for my daughter, it might not be best for Bonnie’s son, so you have to keep your mind open and available to all of the big picture, not just this small little picture.
Wilson: I think the most important role we have is to motivate and inspire our students. We need to do everything we can to help them realize their dreams, help them realize the visions that they have for their own lives. I think we have teachers that help them develop those visions as they’re going throughout the years and as they help them and nurture them, then we need to turn them into lifelong achievers. So motivating and inspiring the students is, I think, our most important role.
We have to work with the budget policy and curriculum and everything else to get there. But that’s the end result that we want, is to motivate and inspire every student that we have that comes through our schools.
What role should the board play in supporting teacher professional development?
Roundtree: The board? I believe that should fall on the administration, but I mean, it’s budgeted. We approve the budget, but other than that, the teachers and the administration should decide, other than what’s required by law, what they need to develop professionally. I mean, who am I to tell them where they need to grow. They work together all day, every day. They have a better idea. I’m not in the classroom. I mean, that’s just me.
Ritchie: Wow, I don’t know the answer to that one, but what I can say, and I don’t know the logistics, but I believe that the teachers should have strong support from the board, and I think that we should be a place that they should be able to communicate with. We should be a people that they should be able to communicate with.
Robbins: So Liz is absolutely correct. It is not the board’s place to have any say in teacher professional development. The board oversees the administrator and the superintendent only. We can have conversations with the superintendent and give our personal position outside of a board situation.
There cannot be more than two board members with that superintendent at that time. It’s okay to be supportive of whatever professional development these teachers might be wanting to get or are getting, and they can absolutely reach out to a board member and say, “Hey, I think it’s an idea.”
And then that board member can take that information to the superintendent and say, “Hey, you know this is where some of the ideas that came from teachers, and that is where it ends.”
The board directs the superintendent, and the superintendent only.
Wilson: This last year, we wrote and adopted a new strategic plan, and in that strategic plan, everything focused is built around the students and the students learning, but part of that is making sure that the staff and the teachers get the development they do.
And so that’s part of our goals, is to make sure that there’s opportunities for teacher development. We encourage the administration to find the opportunities for the teachers to get out there.
And then we need to budget. We make sure that there is a way to budget funds so that they can go and get the development they need. But what Liz and and Brittani have said, we ourselves don’t put our hands in it, but we certainly need to be supportive, and we certainly need to make sure that there are resources there that can help feed that development.
What’s your stance on addressing bullying, discrimination or mental health challenges in schools?
Roundtree: That’s a good one. I think our school, at least from what I’ve seen, does a great job with this.
My children have been bullied, and the current secondary principal has done a fabulous job nipping it in the butt and protecting those that need to be protected. I think it should be zero tolerance, bullying is just the worst possible thing ever, because it can shape somebody for the rest of their lives.
I think we could do more, but I think we’re doing a fabulous job, at least in the secondary school because I don’t have any kids in the primary.
Ritchie: I agree with what Liz said. I think that there should be zero tolerance for that as well. And I think that being able to have the students feel like they are comfortable with communicating these problems to the principal or teacher or whatever is really important. And so that’s how I feel about that.
Wilson: This is an issue that in the eight years I’ve been on the board, we have never stopped working at, and I think it’s improved over the years.
As Liz said, we have an administration that is working very hard at it, and they’ve done a great job. I know there are people that don’t agree, but I know that they also, if they sat down with the administration and visited with them, they would learn what’s being done or what they could do to help.
I think it’s an important zero tolerance, definitely. But it’s something that is an ongoing issue and an ongoing project. We can’t stop working at it, and we’re going to continue and as long as we have to.
Robbins: I’ve seen a lot of improvement over the years, which I’m really proud to say I’ve seen because of course, bullying has never not been a thing, and I don’t think ever will not be a thing, but it is great to see the changes that have come in the recent years. We do have an exceptional administration right now, and I’ve actually worked with all of the current administration as well, and I have seen amazing things coming out of this group that I’m really excited about.
Not the most recent previous administration, that was a great administration as well, but there are previous administrations I have seen that I felt were falling very, very short, if not being bullies on their own.
So I’m really happy to see what I have seen. I’m happy to see it moving forward. And it is something that has always been on the table. Always been part of working on and trying to get better at zero tolerance is really hard to do, but I think it’s really important because there’s such varying levels of bullying, discrimination or mental health issues.
What is your philosophy on parental input and making curriculum decisions?
Robbins: Please come. We have a curriculum committee. It is public. We would love your input on that. We do have standards that we have to follow to some extent, whether that’s federal or state. But please come and join that committee, and not just the curriculum committee, but come join our policy committee. Come join our budget committee. Right now, there’s only about three of us that keep showing up for that one, but we have these committees, and they meet every single month. So please join a committee. Please give us that input, because that input is what can help us drive what’s going to happen for the next generation, and we want you to be a part of that, not just the board. As Liz has pointed out many times, the board is five people representing varying opinions, and we want those opinions to come forward and not just be the five people sitting in that room that day.
Wilson: I believe it’s vital. I think it’s a part of the curriculum, choosing a curriculum that can’t be missed and can’t be ignored.
As Brittani said, we have a curriculum committee. In the eight years I’ve been there, we’ve worked and worked and worked and the last three years, our curriculum committee has worked very hard coming up with new curriculum for math, science and language arts. This year, we’re doing social studies and physical education.
We need input from the community. We need input from the parents that have the students in the school, the grandparents that have the students in the school. You’ve experienced education. You’ve experienced the need for good curriculum. Our past superintendent used to say that for social studies, history ends in Vietnam. Well, that doesn’t end there. So this year, we’re going to make sure that we get a curriculum that’s going to help, but we need the parents there to help us.
Ritchie: I am a bit of a curriculum junkie myself. I absolutely love finding new curriculum. I think that as our world continues to grow and change, I think it’s super important to kind of keep up with the new curriculums, and if parents are involved in finding those or having new ideas, I think that is amazing.
Roundtree: Can I just say ditto? No, they said it. The parents should be at the curriculum meeting.
When I showed up and I was on the committee, it was all teachers and administrators. Other than the teachers themselves being parents, I don’t think there were parents in the room, so I would love for the parents to come out to these meetings. You can come in, check out the curriculum we’re checking out, take it home, peruse it, bring it back, check out another one. Tell us what you think. I don’t know why they don’t, but they should.
Closing statements
Robbins: Once again, thank you, Colette and Jonathan for having us today.
I’m really excited about what is happening within our school district. Already, like I said, I’ve had the opportunity to work with all of the three administrators. I did work with Mr. Clark previously, but the new (principal at the) elementary school, and Dr. Garrett, the new superintendent. I am really excited about the energy I’m seeing from these guys. So I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen next.
As I have said before, lifelong Alaskan. What I remember of my entire life in Wrangell, K-12, WPSD graduate, two kids in the district, and I am just incredibly impassionate about education. Because education is the future of this planet, and if we don’t have kids who are getting a great, well-rounded education, and are excited to receive that education, then who knows what’s going to happen later?
We’re already seeing some scary things happening within education, from the federal government down. And so I just really want to put out there how important education is to me, especially in Alaska and especially in Wrangell. These are all my kids. And I think that a lot of, like these other candidates here, can say the same thing.
When I first started working at the school district, I said I came in here with two kids, and I walked out the first day with 250. I love these children. I remember when Bonnie’s were born, I graduated with Dave’s kids. It’s just a really special place for me, and I’m extremely passionate about education.
Wilson: I really appreciate you having this forum that we could come and answer questions.
I too, am very, very passionate about education, and one of the things that I sometimes overlook, that I don’t want to overlook, is that we need the students themselves. We need the students’ input into their own education. When we talk about parents and curriculum, we need students on the committees to be coming.
We’ve had some of the most profound statements and best statements made by students that have sat on the committees in the past, especially the curriculum committee. We had students attending, and they added so much. So we need to get community involved, the parents involved. We need to get the students involved. It’s their education. And when they get involved, and they have some buy in, they have skin in the game, and they work at it.
I want to be continue to work hard, as I have, and work even harder, and I pledge that I am not going to let down, and I’m going to do everything I can to get the best education programs that we can buy and that we can field, that we can dream, that we can bring about with students, community board members, the administration, the teachers. Everybody working together can achieve much more than five people on a board or just the teachers by themselves, or administration by themselves. It all has to come together, and I want to be part of that.
Roundtree: I hate talking about myself, so I will say thank you, and I will say I have enjoyed the last three years, and I hope to continue, whether I’m on the board or not. I am so excited for the new superintendent and the administration and what their thoughts and ideas are. The things I have heard and we have discussed are fabulous, and I would love to stick around and see it through and be a part of it.
Ritchie: Thank you guys so much for having me. I feel like I’m new (with) all these vets here. And so anyways, I just feel like whether you have a past of home schooling your kids or public schooling, I think that we can all agree as a community that education is one of the most important things that we have here.
And so, like I said, I have a love for our community and a love for our kids, and I just want to do the best I can to help make our public schools the best that they can be.
