Why I'm Running

Detroit Lakes Public Schools is facing declining enrollment. It's not unique to us — it's happening across greater Minnesota. But how we respond is a choice.

One path is to shrink. Cut sections, trim the course catalog, thin out the activities, and become a smaller version of what we were. The problem is that families notice, and open enrollment makes leaving easy. Shrinking to fit tends to produce more shrinking.

The other path is to be the district families choose on purpose. That means protecting the things that make a Detroit Lakes education distinctive: the college coursework, the arts, the activities, the coaches and advisors who know every kid's name. Those aren't extras. In a district our size, they're the whole competitive advantage.

I know this because I lived it. I'm a Laker, class of 2011 — valedictorian, student council president, state diving champion, and a kid who was in band, choir, and eleven musicals. I graduated from the University of Minnesota a year early with a double major, largely because of the college coursework I was able to take right here. I competed on the Gophers' Division I diving team and studied entrepreneurship and nonprofit management.

Since then I've spent fifteen years designing educational and civic programs. I ran the Philanthropy and Youth program for the Barry Foundation. I produced the Aspen Ideas Festival for the Aspen Institute, where I saw up close what serious leadership and civic engagement look like.

I came back to Detroit Lakes on purpose: to build a software company and an event studio here because I believe young people should be able to build serious careers in this town — and because a school district and a community rise or fall together.

I also grew up in a house where education was the whole point. My mom taught music in the Detroit Lakes public schools for more than 25 years. Over her career I watched the job change — more mandates, more testing, more time spent on things that aren't instruction. Teachers are the reason a district is good. We should be making their work more possible.

Detroit Lakes gave me a great deal. I'd like to give some of it back.