Candidate Q&A

List your top three priorities if elected?

Increasing and/or creating support systems to maximize all students’ achievement. For Middle and High School students, this would include encouraging a wider participation in Honors and Advanced Placement classes of under-represented students. Ensuring high standards for student achievement, grading policies and teacher instruction. Aligning Washington Township’s curriculums from Kindergarten to Senior year to expand all students’ eligibility for the Enroll Honors Seal diploma.

What do you see as the most pressing issue currently facing the district? What will be your approach to addressing it?

My number one priority is this year’s referendum that will continue the existing property tax assessment. Unfortunately, the ballot statement is misleading. It implies an increase when in fact if passed, the referendum will not raise taxes. Given the funding changes passed by the state legislature, the passage of this referendum is especially important if Washington Township is to continue to hire and retain teachers, staff and administration.

I am working with the Washington Township referendum committee to share accurate information about the referendum with the Washington Township families who have students attending our schools as well as with those residents in our district who do not have students attending our schools.

Good schools benefit all. When schools maintain their funding, they continue to provide excellent education to their students. Good schools also maintain property values for all, including those who do not have children attending Washington Township schools.

What area of academics do you think the district needs to focus on and why?

As a former teacher of 35 years, I know from experience that student mastery of skills depends on teachers having high standards for their students while also holding students accountable. At the high school, the trend toward mid-term and semester exam eliminations and exemptions impairs students’ college readiness and skill mastery. For teachers, without the data that exams provide, class instruction cannot be improved, nor can assessments be revised. Exams provide important information for teachers in terms of how well students understand the class material taught, and for students, exam grades reveal how well they have mastered class materials.

The district needs to ensure academic alignment from kindergarten through grade 12. By doing so, it is more likely that all MSDWT students will earn the Enrollment Honors Seal — one seal on the new Indiana diploma. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly become a shortcut for students. The result: a decreased ability to read texts accurately and write convincingly. Washington Township must develop and implement a district-wide policy regarding AI that preserves students’ skills.

Affordability and finances are top of mind for districts and voters. What will be your approach to district finances? Do you support the district’s referendum? Why or why not?

I absolutely support Washington Township’s referendum. Public schools are a bastion of democracy: we teach all children. The passage of the referendum ensures that our schools continue to educate and serve all who enter their doors. As indicated above, the language on the upcoming ballot is misleading. The referendum implies that there will be an increase in the property tax rate. This is misleading as the referendum merely continues the existing tax rate without any additional burden on taxpayers.

Washington Township has historically faced significant academic achievement gaps between student groups. In 2025, 20% of Hispanic students and 22% of Black students in grades three to eight passed the math and English Language Arts position of the state exam — compared to 54% of their White classmates. What specific performance metrics will you use to hold the administration accountable for closing the gap, and what board-level policy changes do you believe are necessary to achieve improvement in student outcomes?

This question highlights the need for a data-driven education policy for all students from Kindergarteners to 12th graders. I would carefully consider data from Washington Township and the results from national educational research. I am particularly interested in these influences: foundational reading and math skills, attendance patterns, the current number of non-white students enrolled in the middle schools’ and high school’s honors-level and Advanced Placement classes. 

We should learn from any state or district that has a track record of success. As an example, I am interested in how we can replicate the steps that Mississippi took to improve 4th grader reading literacy from 49th in the nation to the top 10.

Our district is committed to all students earning the Enrollment Honors Seal — one seal on the new Indiana diploma. With the knowledge gained from the data I indicate above, Washington Township can develop programs that ensure that all students meet grade level markers and that all our students have access to and are prepared for success in the AP and honors-level classes required by the Enrollment Seal.

I was the director of the cohort program. As director, I asked middle school teachers to identify under-represented students who they believed could succeed in at least one honors-level class at the high school. These students were then placed in special homerooms that provided academic support and guidance. Due to the current political environment, this program was terminated. However, I would like to see a similar program renamed, revised, and reestablished.