What I Believe
Education is more than what happens in the classroom.
Academics, leadership, athletics, the arts, life skills — the whole experience is the education. Detroit Lakes has always understood this, and it's produced remarkably well-rounded graduates. That's worth protecting deliberately, not by accident.
Students aren't interchangeable.
Kids are capable in different ways, and the research bears that out. Our job isn't to run every student through the same pipeline and sort them by the same test. It's to help each of them find what they're good at and give them room to get better at it.
Every student should feel safe and welcome.
Regardless of background, race, socioeconomic status, or upbringing, everyone deserves a learning environment where they feel like they belong.
The landscape is changing and we should be honest about it.
Attention is fragmented, information is everywhere and unevenly reliable, and many of the jobs our students will hold don't exist yet. Adaptability is a core skill now, not a soft one.
Teachers need to be supported to teach.
A district is only as good as the people in front of students. My job on a board would be to make their work more possible.