My Bio
As a twenty year resident of Cromwell, I bring over fourteen years of experience in our community. My involvement began with our Parent Teacher Organization, where I coordinated various school fundraisers and events with our volunteers. After serving as the PTO president, I subsequently served on the board of education starting in 2016 and was re-elected twice. For the last four year term, I was also voted chair twice and led our school board through many challenging situations. Throughout this work my husband and three children have been a constant source of support.
Professionally, I am a fourth grade teacher in a Catholic school in Waterbury, where I also take on leadership roles related to school security. Prior to this, I worked in Portland Public Schools as a special education paraprofessional for several years. My time on the Board of Education inspired me to pursue teaching, and my dual perspective as both educator and board member continues to shape my commitment to students. I am dedicated to supporting children with the greatest needs and to collaborating with board members, educators, and administrators. I look forward to continuing this work in the years ahead.
My Key Issues
Equitable decision making
Our school board has always operated in a non-political fashion as it really has no place in our meetings. Many of our policies are state mandated and we uphold the law while supporting our entire population of students. Over the years, our board has supported many changes brought to us from the administration, including new programs such our transition program for students that benefit from continued programming after graduation, several new course selections at the high school, an expanded preschool program, as well as an in house social services program for students with emotional needs. We are always looking for ways to help support our students while keeping a strict budget.
Continued partnership
In recent years, I have collaborated with our school administration, Mayor and Board of Finance chair to streamline a new process in planning for our facility needs as well as keeping in mind the needs of the town. This planning has helped us to have a forum for discussion of the many larger projects in town and the members of this committee have strategically assembled a prioritized list of needs along with a timeframe for potential completion. This is a very fluid process, but it is a step in the right direction toward collaboration with the town in maintaining our assets as a whole.
Moving our Schools Forward
Through the hard work of the administration, town leaders and the building committee, we opened a brand new STEAM middle school under my leadership. We have also supported changes made to our curriculum which our teachers have embraced and we are now starting to see our test scores move in a very positive direction. Schools are a major factor when families move into towns so it is paramount that we continue to strive for excellence.
Financial Responsibility
Supporting our annual budget process each year is one of the most important roles of the school board. This process begins in October for our administrative team, and our board reviews it thoroughly beginning in early January. From here, we present our adopted budget to the board of finance and finally it is voted on at referendum. I believe our success over the years in passing our budget is in the transparency and collaboration between our school district, board and our stakeholders. This is not always a given in many other districts, so I believe it speaks volumes for our leadership all around.
School Security
Under my leadership, we have increased our security over the years and are constantly reviewing and improving our plans. In 2013, I petitioned to obtain an additional school resource officer with the collaboration of our board of education and town officials (see link to story). We successfully added an additional SRO due to these efforts and didn't stop there. We also added a third to our force last year and we start the school year with all three in place. Our district has also implemented an anonymous reporting system for students which I also advocated for. This is an important resource for our district which allows students to anonymously report concerns and they are vetted through the sandy hook promise professionals and our police and school systems are immediately notified. I'm proud to say that Cromwell has been a leader in school security and continues to invest in security features. Although we are unable to discuss security measures in place in order to maintain the integrity of the plans, rest assured that Cromwell Public Schools has been extremely vigilant over the years an not just as brief knee jerk reactions to the horrific incidents that occur in our world.
Send Me a Message
Have questions or suggestions? I would love to hear from you!