Candidate for
Board Member; Sycamore Community School District

The current five member Sycamore Community Schools District's Board of Education has a successful relationship and is a thriving partner with the Sycamore Administration. With a composition of four females and one male, only one member has school aged children, the others' children are Sycamore graduates. I strongly believe that there needs to be, at minimum, two members with school aged children attending a Sycamore school.

My husband Barry and I, with our three children, have lived in the Sycamore Community Schools District since June of 1991 (16 years). Two of our children are graduates of SHS and our youngest is a freshman in SHS. At present my primary commitment is being a member of the City of Blue Ash Board of Sites Arrangement and Board of Zoning Appeals.

If elected, I will be coming to the table as a well-qualified member of the school board. My accomplishments include a BAUP (Urban Planning) from the University of Illinois (Urbana). Following three years of working in the private sector and receiving a full assistantship to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago, I earned a MBA with a specialty in real estate finance and human resource management. As a graduate student and with two of my professors, I launched a real estate relocation analysis business.

My work experience includes being an analyst for a number of commercial real estate firms, working as an independent management consultant, writing a "war game" for a small consulting firm contracted by the U.S. Department of Defense, substitute teaching and starting a home-based invitation design business. My volunteer responsibilities have been varied. I have served on a 425 student private School Board of Directors as well as on the Board of Directors, of the 125 family USA swim team, the Sycamore Flying Fish. Other volunteer commitments include room-mother, Girl Scout leader, and working on sister-city projects.

Flying over the Sycamore High School IMC are forty-nine flags representing the forty-nine countries of the Sycamore student body. Despite this diverse population, amazingly less than five percent speak English as a second language. Our community is labeled as affluent but that over eleven percent of our students come from disadvantaged homes. Irregardless nearly every student passed the various state exams. In our high school ten percent of the population is identified as disabled, yet by eleventh grade, 100% have passed the Ohio Graduation Test. With nearly twenty-five percent of the student body non-white, the district has successfully embraced its diversity.

One interest of mine is "cultural competence". Cultural Competence goes beyond embracing diversity to having the ability to function successfully in other cultural arenas. Simplistically put learning about Roman culture and upon arriving in Rome, as the English idiom says, doing "... as the Romans do" and doing it with comfort! Cultural competence occurs when people immerse themselves in foreign cultures and bridge the gap between embracing differences to emulating each other's differences. I have taken part in a number of events involving bridging cultural gaps. This past summer I spent ten days assisting a foreign high school basketball team compete in a tournament against such teams as Walnut Hills, Withrow and Aiken. Off the court the team socialized with Sycamore high school students, one of the highlights being a day spent at the Blue Ash Recreation Center. One boy, of Ethiopian decent, expressed his pride in meeting Cincinnati's Mayor Mallory. The team was victorious on the basketball court; everyone was victorious as they gained cultural competence.

Another interest of mine is education options that take students beyond the high school building: 1) dual-credit and 2) post-secondary educational options (PSEO). Both of these options are available for students of all abilities, but primarily geared toward the upper classman.

Dual-credit is the offering of college classes on high school campuses during non-school hours. Parents or private grants underwrite the tuition costs. Beginning April of 2005, I had the opportunity to become involved in the offering of Sycamore's first dual-credit class. The response has been phenomenal.

A PSEO permits high school students to take college level courses at local universities. The State of Ohio underwrites the tuition. Originally developed to help small rural districts offer diverse curriculums to their upper classman, it has become a regular teaching alternative thru the University of Cincinnati. At the same time the Sycamore Community Schools District is home to the UC satellite campus of Raymond Walters. Currently Blue Ash Elementary and Raymond Walters share a unique relationship and an incredible neighborly exchange of knowledge. Transportation between the campus and SHS is easily attainable through our current bus system, what a treasure we have in our own backyard - it is time to expand upon this relationship.

In the coming years the Sycamore Community Schools District's Board of Education will be faced with reviewing the teacher's union contract, reviewing a renewal of the limited levy of 2004 and trying to stay afloat among numerous state financial reductions and Ohio constitutional amendment reviews. If elected as a school board member I will be prepared to manage these issues, communicating and educating taxpayers, while keeping true to my mandated responsibility of ensuring the educational needs of students, respecting taxpayer dollars and supporting the employees. This will guarantee that Sycamore continues to receive an "Excellent" rating by the State of Ohio Department of Education.

Though I steadfastly believe that the Board of Education must work together as a "team", I feel each member must come to the table as an individual ready to present facts, opinions and talking points. Five opinions are heard and ultimately the board "teams" together with a majority consensus for a win-win result.

I am spending numerous hours reviewing the Sycamore School District financial reports, the district's report card and speaking with district residents and employees. What I learn will help me implement policy judiciously and with fiscal responsibility. I am a devoted volunteer, community participant and if elected as a member of the Sycamore Community Schools Board of Education, I will show you my spirited enthusiasm as a civic leader.