My Priorities

Support Staff, including Fair Compensation

I want to strengthen the support that MMSD provides to staff in two key ways:

Fair compensation: I will work to address the inequitable pay for veteran teachers, and

Professional learning: I will strive to expand the use of research-based practices such as coaching for novice administrators and teachers, and sustained peer mentoring focused on problems of practice. I will advocate for opportunities for educators to learn from each other across schools, so that the talent we currently have can support higher quality instruction across the district.

Proactively Promote Student Wellbeing

I will support student wellbeing through:

Transformative justice: I will advocate for an approach to behavior management that looks at systemic (school-wide and district-wide) factors that contribute to behavioral challenges and interpersonal conflict. This approach builds on restorative practices, which are already implemented in the district to redress harm and strengthen relationships.

Proactive approach to mental health: I will support investments in student services staff so that MMSD can be more proactive in identifying student mental health needs (beginning in 4K) and have greater capacity to meet those needs. I will also advocate for closer collaboration between student services staff and classroom teachers.

Expand Opportunities for Family Engagement

I would like to expand opportunities for family engagement by:

Succession planning: I will support the adoption of district-wide policies that expand family participation in the selection of new school leaders, and encourage school leaders to hold regular family forums.

Family advisory council: I will support the formation of a district-wide Family Advisory Council that can provide feedback to the superintendent and other district leaders on the impact of district-wide reforms on student learning, and represent the voices of different parent subgroups.

Strengthen Dual Language Immersion (DLI)

I plan to collaborate with educators, district leaders, and families to move towards the following goals related to DLI:

  • Strengthen learners’ development of Spanish-language literacy;

  • Expand the emphasis on cross-cultural competence;

  • Increase the racial diversity of English-dominant students in DLI programs;

  • Provide more effective supports for struggling readers from English-dominant households;

  • Expand Spanish-language development opportunities during the summer.

Increase the Effectiveness of English as a Second Language Services

I’d like to work with educators and MMSD to increase the integration of multilingual students receiving ESL services with the rest of the students at their schools;

I plan to collaborate with educators and the district to strengthen the resources and professional learning opportunities available to teachers who work with multilingual students.

I will work to promote the development of oral literacy across subject areas, since it is a powerful predictor of students’ reading and writing development.

I will advocate for changes in how students are identified as advanced learners. Currently, there is a gap in the identification of Latinx students for advanced services.

Support MMSD’s Focus on Continuous Improvement

As an education researcher at UW-Madison, I have worked with urban districts for the past four and a half years. I’d like to bring a systems-perspective to discussions about supporting teaching and learning. My experience in both educational research and evaluation will help me support the district’s efforts to engage in continuous improvement, and enrich the board’s approach to educational accountability.