Background

I grew up in the southeast section of Minneapolis during a time when the Twins were winning World Series and we were receiving record rainfalls and snowfalls. After spending 12 years in Duluth, I moved to St. Anthony Village in 2004 and I have been a resident for 15 years. I am humble and grateful for my lovely wife, Laura and our three awesome children, Xander, Linden, and Brannock, who attend the St. Anthony Middle School and Wilshire Park respectively. Currently, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Higher Education with an Adult Education specialty.

I work at Summit Academy OIC, a vocational school in North Minneapolis, where I lead and manage a program to get underrepresented adults, primarily African Americans and women, into the IT industry. Having worked in higher education and IT for over 20 years, I have a firm understanding of the successes and struggles that affect educational institutions.

I am a systems thinker, a collaborator, a service learner, a project manager, and a servant leader.

Volunteering within St. Anthony

For a number of years, I have been involved with the World’s Best Workforce, a group of educators and parents who review and create initiatives based on five goals per Minnesota Statutes, section 120B.11:

• All children are ready for school.
• All third-graders can read at grade level.
• All racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed.
• All students are ready for career and college.
• All students graduate from high school.

In my spare time, I have helped with issues of equity and adverse childhood experiences through the St. Anthony Villagers for Equity and Community and Family Services Collaborative respectively. I have enjoyed volunteering in the community in association with the Wilshire Park Parents Association. I have also coached and kept stats for various teams through the St. Anthony Boosters. Outside of St. Anthony, I am a board member for my high school alma mater, Minneapolis Roosevelt.  The Roosevelt Foundation provides scholarships to students as well as classroom grants to teachers.

 

As a school board member candidate, I want to ensure that I am listening to the needs of my constituents. Your feedback on what can be improved in our schools, along with what you value, is important to me.  Please feel free to share on the following link:

https://forms.gle/7wpHMfAKv2av4A588

To better understand my focus, below are some of my core beliefs.

Equity is essential for student success and needs to be a top priority

Equity is different from equality.  It is the difference between fairness and sameness. Think about the grocery store. Equality allows anyone to go to the store. Equity allows anyone to get inside of the store because of the automatic doors. Everyone benefits from those doors, not just those in need. In order to have fairness, there needs to be acknowledgement that all students are not the same, which is great; acknowledging and celebrating their differences leads to equity. Being culturally aware, for example, allows for both teachers and children to learn in new ways and understand why accommodations may be necessary. Improving equity then allows for closing the achievement gap (or how I would better illustrate it, the opportunity gap), a key goal within the Department of Education. One way to achieve this is through a tool I used at my school called AVID (Achievement via Individual Determination).

The St. Anthony-New Brighton School District should be known not for STEM education, but for STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics)

According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am an ISTJ. The “I” stands for “Introversion,” the opposite of “Extraversion” and I am an extreme “I.” If it were not for my 9th grade English teacher, Lita Malisci, getting me involved in Arts, I probably would not have eventually gotten where I am at within Technology. While STEM and STEAM concepts were not prevalent when I was going to school, I believe that STEAM could benefit “I”s like me. Combining the discipline of “Arts” with the rest of STEM is critical in allowing students to thrive in innovative and creative ways. Plus, it allows teachers to plan collaboratively.

Early Childhood Education opportunities for all

Early childhood education is critical in developing a solid foundation for our children to learn, once they reach school age.  Our first experience with a daycare provider was terrible; the children were placed in front of a TV all day, while given food and naps. Only their basic needs were met.  Our second daycare provider, Cathy Lake, was wonderful, instilling early childhood education concepts for all three of our children along with the other children she oversaw.  Since we were fortunate enough to have these opportunities in our home daycare, we did not take advantage of the services offered at St. Anthony. However, I understand the benefits of early childhood education for both parents and children. I believe that all SAV families should have the same opportunity to take advantage of these services to ensure that all children are ready for school.

Professional development opportunities and accountability for teachers in universal design for learning (UDL) and technology impacts in teaching and learning

We need to ensure that our teachers are being given the chance to have professional development opportunities to allow for continued growth. One concept that is related to equity, mentioned above, is universal design for learning. UDL allows for consideration of all learners from the start and allows for inclusivity. All teachers should be aware of these principles and should be applying them as such.

Technology in the classroom can really enhance the learning experience and it is becoming very easy to use.  For example, one of my favorite tools is Kahoot, which is a cloud-based quiz tool, meaning that it can be used on any type of device that has a web browser. It allows for comprehension checks, comparison polling, decision polling, as well as assessments. Try out this Kahoot math quiz that is aligned to Common Core standards!