“In the End, It’s About the Kids”
Dear Wellsville Central School District,
I have had the pleasure of serving on the Wellsville Central School Board of Education for 6 years, serving as Vice President since 2019. In those six years, I have learned a lot about how a school runs behind the scenes, the difficulties facing school districts from a financial and community perspective, and the burden of making unpopular decisions without the ability to validate those decisions to the public. Being a board member is not easy; there is no decision that will make everyone happy. In this day and age, when someone is unhappy, they turn to social media and can say whatever they wish. The Board and the school at large remain silent, not because we want to, but because we have to.
No decision is made without thorough discussion and a presentation of the facts. Unfortunately, those facts generally cannot be shared with the public due to privacy or executive session laws. Usually, these decisions are centered around individual events or issues, and the stakeholders in those issues may have a personal stance on the decision, whether for better or worse. But, the reason I made the decision to run for the school board six years ago was to make sure that the students, ALL students, had access to the best education experience possible.
We can single out certain aspects of the last several years and assess personal opinion on whether the decisions made by the administration or the board were right or wrong, but the most important question is: How has the education experience at Wellsville Central Schools improved over the last decade? Graduation rate is up. We have robotics, STEM, E-Sports, and more. There is a reason why Wellsville has so many out of district students and I am beyond proud to have been involved in the creation of some of these improvements.
I am asking for your vote because through my tenure as a school board member and Vice President, my sole focus has been and always will be on the safety, well-being, and education of our children. The mission of the school board is to make our students contributing members of society through excellence in education. That mission is read aloud at each and every board meeting. I take that mission very seriously, and I implore every voter to contemplate that mission statement when you are sitting down with your ballot and are marking your three choices for the board for the next three years. Whether you ultimately decide that I should be one of those choices or not, it is imperative that you exercise your voice and vote on May 21. I am so thankful to the community for giving me the opportunity to serve you for the past six years, and hope to continue to do so well into the future.
