It is my great privilege to have been elected on Tuesday
evening to serve as the president of the Douglas County school board.
I want to thank my predecessor, Kevin Larsen, who served on
the Douglas County school board for four years and as its president for two. He
truly cares about the DCSD community and poured his time, effort, and heart
into being a school board director. I know he will continue to do a lot of good
work for students as a private citizen.
The Douglas County School District has a new board of
education, and with it comes new opportunities. The district has opportunities,
both to build on past successes and to seek continuous improvement. The board
has opportunities, to come together with the sole purpose of providing a
quality education for our kids. I am not interested in looking backward. We
will move forward to serve our community.
We represent the people of Douglas County—all of them. We
are agents; they have provided us with this district and entrusted us to manage
it. We will do the work that it takes to empower parents to ensure that they
can drive their children’s education. Our community wants a district that works
for them.
By incorporating feedback from
parents, students, citizens, and staff, our model of education is one of
constant improvement. We will show the people of our district that we have one goal: cultivating
a system that will help kids succeed. This will be our clear standard. I want
us to educate students, not advocate for adult interests. We will put kids
first—where they belong.
We won’t always agree. But as Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives Paul Ryan has said, “We have nothing to fear from honest
differences honestly stated.” We will use our differences to contribute to a
robust discussion and to share ideas. We can do this and come to a better
understanding of one another, with the public as witness.
The citizens of Douglas County have chosen every one of us
on the board to act on their behalf. They have placed great trust in all of us.
I thank my colleagues for doing me the honor of allowing me to preside over
this board. I look forward to working with them and the citizens of Douglas
County to advance excellence in education for all of our students.
