I've spent my working life inside Rochester's learning institutions. For nearly 10 years (2013-2022), I was a paraprofessional (Education Support Professional) in Rochester Public Schools where I worked in classrooms, a writing lab, media centers, and across buildings from Willow Creek Middle School to Mayo, John Marshall, and Century high schools. I provided support for deaf and hard of hearing students; I helped kids write essays and college apps; I connected students with the resources they needed to succeed. Throughout it all, I learned the district from the inside out and saw what a budget line actually looks like up close and personal.

 

There's a line in the children's book The Little Prince that has always stuck with me. "Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé." Basically, it says we become responsible, forever, for the connections we make and the ties we create.

 

That's the truest sentence I know about being a parent. It's also the truest sentence I know about making decisions about the direction of a school district. Every student in RPS is tied to us. Tied to us by families who extend their trust one morning drop-off at a time. Tied to us by the work of teachers, ESPs, librarians, counselors, bus drivers, and cooks who keep earning that trust day after day by showing up for our kids even (especially) during the hard moments.

This fall, my daughter starts kindergarten in Rochester Public Schools. I know exactly what that trust weighs, because I'll have now stood on both sides of it.

 

Today I work at the Rochester Public Library for the City of Rochester, where I'm also president of AFSCME Council 65 Local 319, representing front-line city employees. I also serve on the Olmsted County Planning Advisory Commission and Zoning Board of Adjustment, where I weigh growth and land-use decisions.

 

I'm running for the school board because the district is facing critical decisions in the years ahead, and decisions will be made well or badly depending on one thing: whether the people making them don't break the trust of our students nor the trust of their parents and guardians. ​