Why are you running for this position?  What are the three main attributes that make you the most qualified for this position?

The stakes are too high for our children and the future of this country to sit on the sidelines. With student learning outcomes declining, the threat to children’s safety increasing, parents being marginalized, and teachers leaving in droves, now is the time to get back to basics. The focus should be on reading, writing, and arithmetic and creating a conducive, safe learning environment where our kids can be successfully equipped and prepared for adulthood in partnership with parents.

3 attributes-

1. As a Mom, I have skin in the game and am personally committed to protecting and helping this next generation to get ahead. 

2. As a former CIA analyst and diplomat, I have deep expertise analyzing policies and working with various stakeholders to achieve the best possible policy outcomes - the Board’s primary duty. 

3. I have the business and finance background that is needed to efficiently manage this district’s almost $700 million budget and responsibly steward taxpayer dollars. 

Conroe ISD projects a $17.72M shortfall for 2024-25 fiscal year. How do you propose to fix it?

It is important to be fiscally responsible and maintain a balanced budget. It is essential that the Board thoroughly understand how the budget is created, not just top line items, to hold the district accountable for its spending decisions of taxpayer dollars. Utilizing a zero-based budgeting system would improve cost-efficiency and require justification of expenses to reduce waste and maximize value-added activities that directly support CISD’s goals. In the meantime, an independent, third-party audit should be conducted.

Did you vote FOR the 2023 $2 Billion CISD School Bond? Why or why not?

I align with the Mama Bears who unanimously voted to put 4 propositions on the ballot in 2023. That said, there were parts of the bond that were misleading, including what the true cost to taxpayers would be with the net tax rate change and the role that SB 2 played in that rate change. If future bonds are ever discussed or needed, I will work with the Mama Bears to ensure it’s ‘right-sized,’ responsible, and necessary to keep up with the district’s growth.

In your opinion, what are the three most important roles of the school board and if elected, how would you contribute to those important roles??

1. Govern: First and foremost, the Board serves as the governing body to oversee, provide direction/vision based on community and parents values, and establish policies for the district to implement, per the Texas Education Code. This includes hiring and evaluating the Superintendent.

2. Financial Oversight: it is the Board’s responsibility to review and approve the budget to ensure taxpayer money is used appropriately and in alignment with district goals to improve learning outcomes.

3. Community: The Board, which is elected by the people, represents the community and should therefore represent and hold fast to the values the community espouses.
   

   As a strong leader who listens to her community and has policy and finance experience, I am positioned to serve this community well. I will ensure the Board sets the overall tone for the district to adhere to, not the other way around.

What are the three biggest challenges facing the board and how would you address these challenges if you are elected to the Board??

1. Student learning outcomes are declining as violence in the schools are on the rise 

2. Losing teachers to surrounding districts or to another profession

3. Parents voices are being marginalized as  

It’s hard to focus or excel in academics with disruptive/violent children in the classroom and rampant distractions like cell phone use. Supporting teachers and giving them the ability to remove these children from the classroom will go a long way towards improving learning outcomes, along with reviewing and improving curriculum. This would also improve the morale and retention of teachers who are juggling many tasks in a day. Teacher salary is also an issue that should be adjusted for once the budget is balanced and waste identified. For parents, I would ensure the parent portal is robust, user-friendly, and transparent, and I would also empower the SHAC to be truly parent-led and in charge of its own bylaws.

How much access do you believe parents should have to their children's curriculum? classroom? teacher? online?

Parents should have full access to the curriculum and should be the ultimate decision maker in their child’s education.

Do you support allowing all students to use bathrooms, showers and locker rooms, as well as participate in sports, based on the gender with which they identify, not the sex they are assigned to at birth?

Absolutely not, it is not appropriate, and I’ve already been speaking out publicly against this.

Would you, individually, take public, overt steps to have pornography removed from LSC classrooms. libraries and campuses?

Yes absolutely. It is crucial we protect our children from sexually explicit content of any form. I served on a subcommittee in the 88th Texas Legislative session focused on protecting Texas children from sexualization, and I will continue to advocate for the innocence of our children. 

Do you believe a teacher should be required to use a student’s preferred pronoun?

Absolutely not, it is against their First Amendment rights.

Would you actively pursuit an annual third party financial audit of the ISD?

Yes, as I mentioned above. As a former internal auditor myself in the oil and gas industry, I am always a fan of rigorous financial reviews!

On May 14th, 2024, the CISD Board adopted new bylaws for the School Health Advisory Council(SHAC), consisting of 21 members(2 by each board member & 7 by the superindent) while removing public comment at their meetings. What are your thoughts about this?

I watched at the Board’s meeting in May their blatant overreach of this state-mandated, parent-led group, and I spoke out publicly against this in public comment. The majority Board took away the ability of the SHAC to make/amend its own bylaws and robbed parents’ ability to apply for and serve on the SHAC. This is unacceptable - parents should be given their uncensored voices and bylaws back, and not only that, parents’ voices should be heard in more committees across the district.

What is your position on implementing a gender fluidity policy to remove all gender subject matter books & materials from CISD?

There needs to be a comprehensive gender fluidity policy at CISD, which I’ve publicly spoken in favor of. As part of this policy, it needs to be explicitly stated that district personnel should not withhold from parents any information on their child when it comes to gender issues.

Should CISD have LGBTQ+ books in their libraries and classroom libraries? If so, why? If not, why not?

Books should be age appropriate and all vulgar and sexually explicit materials should be kept out of schools. This includes discussion of sexual matters like mechanics, feelings, orientation, or gender identity issues, which should be reserved for the home.

What's your opinion of programs such as Common Core curriculum? Critical Race Theory? Social Emotional Learning? International Bacculaureate?

There’s no place for Common Core, CRT, or SEL in the schools, and I will work to ensure these programs are not taught at CISD.

Will you work to remove harmful materials as defined in Texas penal code 43.24 from all school property? Additionally, do you support removing the “educational exemption” from this law?

Yes, absolutely. As I mentioned above, in 2023 I worked at the state level during my service on the subcommittee for protecting Texas children to advocate for HB 900, which provided regulation of library materials. The subcommittee also fervently advocated for repealing the obscenity exemption from 43.24 in alignment with the Republican Party of Texas Legislative priorities for the 88th session, and I will do so again during the next session. 

Do you believe that parents should be allowed to monitor classrooms in person or cameras?

Parents deserve transparency in the classroom, but in a way that protects all parties’ privacy and doesn’t violate FERPA laws. While I do believe cameras should be in classrooms for transparency reasons, parents should be able to monitor the curriculum and the classroom via a parent portal and through direct contact with teachers/administrators.

Would you pledge to vote against any attempt to authorize any CISD employee salary that would be more than 50% above that of the Texas Governors salary?

Yes.

What role does the Superintendent play at Board meeting?

The role of the Superintendent is to implement the Board’s vision and guidance. Per the Texas Education Code, the Superintendent should have the opportunity to present at the meeting any oral or written recommendations for the Board to consider, but this person should not be running the meeting.

Do you support HB1605? If so, why? If not, why not?

I support HB 1605 overall, although it has a few cons on the technology front. This bill adds substantial rigor to the curriculum review process for reading and math, identifies high quality materials for districts to use for free, and aligns with the TEKS. It replaces 3 queing with a phonics based approach and is consistent with the classical education model, which I support. It gives parents much more transparency into the curriculum through a parent portal, and it allows parents the right to temporarily remove a child from a class or school activity. It gives districts discretion in selecting which, if any, of these materials it would like to adopt. However, HB 1605 does make a drastic move to digital content, which I believe should be balanced with print versions readily available.

How do you think HB1605 screen time policy of 4 hrs/day affects children?

HB 1605 does not explicitly state the 240 minutes of instructional time per day should be on a screen, it is merely a window. School districts are entitled to $40 per student per year to purchase these materials, and they are entitled to an additional $20 per student to cover the costs of printing these textbooks. I would support more funding to print these materials, which I think would be a more effective–and less distracting–way to learn.

Would you support a motion to inventory the books contained in classroom libraries & post on website?

Yes, but a system would need to be put in place to share the load equally amongst staff and not take away from instructional time during the school year.

What is your understanding of the Pico case?

The Pico case is a landmark Supreme Court decision from 1982 that addressed the issue of the First Amendment with respect to books within public school libraries. The Supreme Court voted in a 5-4 decision that school boards couldn’t remove library materials if it violated First Amendment rights and the suppression of ideas (political and religious for example). However, they did state that school boards have the responsibility to remove ‘pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable’ books from schools, which Texas Education Code 33.021 cites. TEC also states ‘obscene content’ is not protected by the First Amendment.

Would you vote to implement Biden's Title IX changes?

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on July 11 prohibiting the Department of Education from implementing this new Title IX rule, and it applies to the entire state of Texas. That said, I spoke publicly against the 4 board members who refused to adopt a resolution against the changes to Title IX, and the Board should include explicit policy against this as part of its comprehensive gender identity policy. I am determined to protect girls and keep each biological sex in their own private spaces and sports teams.

Has this board done its job in providing a platform of educating students with critical thinking skills instead of critical race theory? Please explain.

Overall, I do not believe so. While CRT has been officially banned by the Texas legislature and is not technically in the curriculum, there are hints of CRT ideology in the supplemental materials, and even more so now a focus on ‘equity.’ Some members of the Board perpetuate this mentality with their race based thinking instead of one based on merit and character.

Do you believe the Bible should be returned to the public school library? How would you implement that?

The Bible is already in the public school libraries; it has not been removed.