Excellence ... Leadership ... Stewardship

Summing up a campaign in three words is difficult--especially for someone like me, who tends to use too many words rather than too few. But these are the three I have settled on, and here's why.

"Excellence" is about setting a high standard for everyone affiliated with the Lebanon schools. We need a school culture that encourages and rewards excellence from all students, all teachers, all administrators, all staff, in the classrooms, in athletics and in the arts. We can't measure every student using the same yardstick, but we can work toward having every student achieve to the very best of her or his ability. "Good enough" isn't the standard any of us wants to see in our workplaces, our government, or even our sports teams! Striving for excellence means refusing to settle for "good enough" schools. As a school board member, I'll do my best to fill that role with excellence as well.

"Leadership" means being part of a board that takes responsibility for the policy decisions of the LCSC. With an annual budget of $32 million and 450 employees, the school corporation has a huge impact on our community. As a school board member, being a leader means studying the impact of different forces on our schools (government initiatives, budget issues, educational programs, demographics) and carefully coming to decisions about how the school corporation can best respond. Leadership also means letting school personnel do their jobs. The board is a policy-making body, and board members must not micromanage the administrators and teachers in the district.

"Stewardship" may seem like an unlikely word to choose. I think of stewardship as our fundamental responsibility to leave the world a better place than we found it. As a board member, this means being a responsible, creative, prudent caretaker of our children, our personnel, our facilities and our budget. A good steward takes care of the present and plans for the future.

Thanks for reading. Please drop me an e-mail with any questions, comments, or suggestions. And don't forget to vote on May 6!