Milan Area Schools

I would continue to encourage parents, caregivers and community members to participate in their student’s educational experience by partnering with the teacher, attending school events, asking questions and maintaining their expectations that they have the right to know what is happening at their child’s school and within the district. I would also encourage students to advocate for themselves so they can help steer their own student experience.

I believe that through building this type of relationship the next organic step would be for these individuals to become involved at a deeper level where they are attending board meetings and providing their thoughts and guidance on curriculum, the budget and district policy.

Our district has put the focus on improving communication to the entire community. A group dedicated to assessing and improving the way the district provides information to staff, parents, and the community has been diligently working to prepare a communication map that lays out how information is disseminated to each group listed above. The goal of this group is to get the needed information to the right group as efficiently as possible.

Engagement with stakeholders - including parents, caregivers, students, employees, and community members is critical when considering critical decisions. To do this, I believe in exercising active listening skills, diplomatic discussions, and informed conversations are critical. Making decisions is not something I take lightly, and as a member of the Board of Education, I am especially sensitive that my decisions have wide-ranging impacts on many levels of our community. As such, I know that every vote and decision must be approached with care and caution.

To do so, I rigorously prepare to fully understand the issue at hand. This includes active listening with stakeholders. Active listening requires not just hearing what one is saying, but consciously demonstrating participation in the conversation (body language, verbal cues), paraphrasing what the other person is saying so that you can ensure you understand their viewpoint, asking clarifying questions to reduce confusion or misunderstanding, refraining from judgement of their viewpoint, and summarizing the key points of the conversation.
I believe active listening is a key tenant of diplomatic discussions. Looking at our society today, we are constantly inundated with reports of how divided and polarized we are as a populous. Despite our differences, however, I believe that there is more we agree on than disagree. This is the premise of diplomatic discussions; by approaching conversations in this way and exercising active listening, I seek to identify those areas of “middle ground” valued by all stakeholders. In making decisions, I leverage points of common agreement and understanding as the foundation of my decisions and the way in which I communicate those decisions to stakeholders.

In situations where I may be asked to make decisions on issues for which I do not have the full range of experience or understanding needed, I express humility at the limits of my knowledge and experience, and actively seek out those with important expertise to contribute. When learning from those with additional expertise, I am committed to the accurate and productive dissemination of information with stakeholders through informed conversations, and cognizant that I must responsibly use this information to guide my decision making.