CONSEJO ESCOLAR DE LAS MPS

I grew up a public school kid in Memphis and Atlanta. I owe the curiosity and tenacity I carry today to the educators who shaped me. Moving to Minneapolis fifteen years ago changed my life. I left corporate work behind for more meaningful work in nonprofits. I met my husband here, and we’re now raising our MPS first-grader in South Minneapolis.

My career spans finance and operations across for-profit, nonprofit, and government work — forecasting budgets at a Fortune 500 company, then serving as a governor-appointed board member for Perpich Center for Arts Education, where I helped steward a $15M budget. Through my small consulting firm, I help nonprofits with strategic planning and financial oversight. I’ve also spent years in civic work close to home: statewide communications lead for Moms Demand Action, PTO board member, and mutual aid coordinator.

Three events pushed me to run. My daughter started kindergarten a week after the devastating shooting at Annunciation. She experienced her first school safety drill soon after. Last fall’s narrowly averted educator strike showed me how fragile our staffing and funding situation really is. Then came the ICE occupation, which showed me both the fragility and resilience of our community. If there’s ever been a time we’ve understood “there’s no such thing as someone else’s child,” it’s now.

This campaign is my commitment to the students, educators, librarians, social workers, counselors, and staff who make up MPS. I want every person in our schools safe, supported, and set up to thrive. I bring financial rigor, board experience, and deep community roots to this work, and I believe the communities most affected by the Board’s decisions deserve a voice in making them.

Principals and educators have the most direct, trusted relationship with students and families. We must give our principals and site councils room to make choices that fit their school’s needs, especially for communities where a one-size-fits-all approach has historically failed kids.

Standardization plays an important role too. A 2025 audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found 25 MPS schools had 48 different morning bell times and 34 different afternoon bell times. Each was designed for a good reason: to accommodate students’ IEPs. The collective effect, however, significantly complicated transportation and coordination of special education assistants (SEAs). Consolidation would save transportation costs, freeing up dollars to strengthen special education support.

Too much flexibility can leave families navigating a patchwork system school by school. That said, principals need the autonomy to communicate with families quickly and to make decisions that fit their schools.

Increasing enrollment should always be a priority, whatever our financial situation.

An enrollment issue that deserves more attention is parental concern about the gamification of early learning. Momentum against big tech in the classroom is building fast among families, and I believe it’s already shaping enrollment decisions in ways MPS hasn’t caught up to yet.

I’m glad MPS is focusing on transition years (pre-K to kindergarten, fifth to sixth grade, eighth to ninth grade) and expanding Pre-K access. I’d add more K-8 options to that list of enrollment retention strategies since many families want to keep siblings together. In addition, I consider protecting staff compensation and reducing class sizes an enrollment strategy since strong, stable teaching teams are what keep families choosing MPS.

On the expense side of the equation, we know that rigorous financial oversight can (and recently has) saved the district millions of dollars. This is an essential role of the Board.

For cutting costs, few options remain that won’t erode MPS quality, safety, or enrollment. Meanwhile, transportation, food, and healthcare costs keep climbing for the district and for staff alike. Some employees report healthcare eating nearly half their paycheck, with raises that haven’t kept pace with inflation.

MPS isn’t alone in facing the urgent need for more funding. State-level advocacy has to be an active part of the Board’s work this term. I bring that kind of legislative advocacy experience through my work in gun-violence prevention and protection of arts education.

Family, student, and community voices are essential to the decision-making process. I want that to show up concretely in how decisions get made.

Student voice belongs in this too. Students see their schools in ways adults can’t, and I want to make sure I’m personally hearing the perspective of students in my district.

For these reasons, I’ve committed to hosting an online constituent listening session every month if elected because transparency should run in both directions. I want to explain what’s happening at the Board level, plus hear what’s working in schools (and what isn’t) directly from students and families.

First, I’m encouraged by Minnesota’s READ Act for evidence-based literacy instruction as well as MPS teachers’ dedication to getting up to speed quickly. I’ve been lucky to see reading instruction firsthand, since my daughter just completed her kindergarten year at MPS.

My concern is that the Minnesota law funded new curricula, but not the full cost of training, which is intensive. For example, LETRS training requires roughly 86-116 hours. Even after lawmakers added more money for training pay, superintendents across Minnesota say it’s a stretch.

Second, I want to protect and rebuild the reading specialists, literacy interventionists, and librarians who do early, targeted work. MPS eliminated all 400 of its pandemic-funded intervention positions during the 2024-25 budget crisis, and librarian positions were cut back again this year. Fortunately, a late revenue windfall helped restore some of them. These roles need steady hours and steady funding.

I also want to make it easier for our best literacy teachers to not only stay in Minneapolis classrooms but to work in the classrooms that need them the most. Across the board, mentorship and manageable workloads matter, especially with the intensive training being asked of our educators.

Third, I’d like to see MPS make even greater use of the reading data it already collects to steer resources toward the students and schools that need the most support.

On a final note, reading on grade level begins in kindergarten but literacy instruction must continue all the way to graduation. That’s why keeping up the pace and training support for Phase 2 educators will be an important responsibility of the next MPS Board.