After 8 years on the Board there is much to reflect upon and celebrate!

When I was first elected to the Board, it was my hope to:

• recruit and retain the best teachers;
• support a quality education for all children that enables them to reach their full potential;
• secure equity of program offerings at all schools; and
• improve literacy skills and school readiness for our youngest children.

And we have had great success! Through tough budget times, we:

• fought to rebuild teacher salaries;
• implemented curriculum changes, including those for our ESL students, resulting in county-wide improvements;
• adopted a social and racial equity policy; and
• added over 30 Pre-K classrooms within our schools.

I am proud of our Board’s many other accomplishments including:

• protecting LGBTQ students in our non-discrimination policy;
• enhancing our student mental health programs and fostering resiliency;
• improving school safety and security;
• adding additional school counselors and social workers;
• implementing later high school start times and full day Mondays;
• providing healthier school lunches;
• establishing the FCPS Portrait of a Graduate;
• developing a strategic plan and aligning it with our budget for greater transparency and clarity;
• presenting a resolutions on gun violence and sexual misconduct.

More recently, we have embarked upon the difficult topic of equity across our school system bolstered by the development of the One Fairfax policy, and began to tackle the complex issue of schools named after Confederate soldiers. I intend to continue this important work.

This year I was once again selected by my peers to serve as our Board’s Vice Chair. I have also served as the Board’s Chair, Chair of the Budget Committee (twice), Co-Chair of the County / School Successful Children and Youth Policy Team (SCYPT), National Legislative Liaison, State Legislative Liaison, Chair of the Public Engagement Committee and Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Streamline and Focus Committee.

I have collaboratively worked with other local, state, and national leaders to ensure that they clearly understand the varied and changing needs of our students. I pride myself on being open-minded and willing to listen to all opinions. I will always work to seek consensus with stakeholders in the many complicated and challenging decisions facing the school system.

Growing up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, I was raised by first and second-generation immigrants in a household where education over all else was valued. My grandmother was pregnant with my father when she and my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island from Hungary. My father was a child of the great depression, a Staff Sergeant in World War II, a Union Leader at Bethlehem Steel and an elected City Alderman.  My mother’s family immigrated from Serbia and Yugoslavia. Losing her father at a young age, my mother’s dream of becoming a teacher never materialized, but she was a active in the community volunteering in the schools, the PTA, girl scouts, and our church. She worked in retail and as a secretary but was always a care-taker for anyone who needed help–always baking, cooking and providing meals for neighbors in need, mothering children other than her own and raising our family while taking care of my grandparents.

My parents provided the blueprint for who I am today. Their words–“Appreciate what you have, help those in need, always work to make things better—and education, that’s the  great equalizer.”  I was the first in my family to go to college. I graduated with a degree in political science and business from Penn State University. I worked for over 20 years in various trade and professional organizations. Once we became parents, I started my own marketing consulting business.

My professional career spans over 25 years with a wide variety of management, writing and marketing experience. I managed my own marketing consulting firm, working with several clients from child development organizations such as Zero to Three, to professional societies such as the American Psychological Association. Prior to that, I worked with several non-profit trade and professional groups, including as the Assistant Vice President of Membership and Marketing for the Independent Insurance Agents of America.

I spent my working years in Fairfax County like so many of today’s parents, trying to balance raising children while maintaining a career, volunteering for those who need assistance, and supporting our local communities, outreach groups and faith-based charities. At different times I was a full-time working mom, a part-time working mom and a stay-at-home mom. My husband was also active in the Franconia District community–coaching local and regional basketball, baseball, and softball teams. I learned much from the jobs of “Room Mom” and “Team Mom”. I was a PTA Vice President at Bush Hill and Springfield Estates Elementary Schools. And, as the PTA cultural arts coordinator for 10 years, I brought music, arts and curriculum enhancement programs to thousands of students and their parents.

I was appointed to Fairfax Citizens for Better Schools to help ensure that funding would be available for capital improvements in our area’s schools such as the renovations in recent years at Edison HS, Bush Hill ES, and Claremont ES.  For over nine years, including time as the chairperson, I served on Fairfax County’s Child Care Advisory Council, ensuring that our county’s neediest children had access to high quality child care and that our elementary schools provided top notch after-school care through our SACC program. I also spent time on several local committees, namely the FCPS Superintendent’s Business and Community Advisory Council, the FCPS Advanced Academic Program’s Committee, and Franconia District Supervisor McKay’s Budgetary Advisory Council.

My experiences as a business professional, in the community, within the schools, and as a parent of children attending FCPS schools, all prepared me for this role as the Franconia District Representative on the Fairfax County School Board. I am seeking re-election on the School Board because of my desire as a parent and county resident to keep Fairfax County public schools among the best in the nation. I believe that maintaining a first-class school system is the key ingredient for raising productive and successful children, and they are our future, essential to keeping our economy thriving here in Fairfax County.