Five Years of Learning, Asking Questions, and Moving Forward!

When I joined the Board in 2021, I started by looking at the data. I wanted stronger outcomes in reading and math, greater progress for English learners, fewer disparities between student groups, and schools families were proud to choose for their children. 

Five years later, I'm proud of the direction we've moved—but I'm not interested in pretending the work is finished. Some of the ideas I brought to the Board started as questions or goals and grew into programs I'm incredibly proud of. But that's how good governance is supposed to work. One trustee can raise an idea or ask a question; it takes a Board willing to explore it, a superintendent who can lead it, and staff with the expertise to turn an idea into something that actually works for students. 

That's the record I want to share here: what we've accomplished together, what I've learned along the way, and where I believe we still have work to do.

From Board Goal to a Classroom

Dual Language Immersion was one of the goals I brought with me to the Board.

When I first began digging into our district data, I focused on outcomes for English learners. I wanted us to think bigger about how we could support language development and academic achievement while also giving Oakley students the opportunity to become truly bilingual and biliterate. 

I began advocating for a dual language program, and it eventually became a goal of the full Board. From there, our superintendent and staff did the real work of researching, planning, staffing, engaging families, and building a program that could succeed. 

In 2025, Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion opened at Laurel Elementary. It began with TK and Kindergarten and will grow by one grade each year. 

This year, that work became personal in a new way: my own daughter is now a student in the program. 

There is something pretty special about watching an idea discussed at the Board level become an actual classroom full of children learning in two languages—and then dropping off one of my own children there each morning.

Growing Our Own Educators

Some of the work I'm most proud of started with a problem I kept seeing come across the Board agenda. 

When I first joined the Board, I was surprised by how many Provisional Internship Permits (PIPs), Short-Term Staff Permits (STSPs), and other emergency staffing approvals we were being asked to approve. I understood why. Schools needed teachers in classrooms, and there weren't always enough fully credentialed candidates available. But every time another one came before us, I kept thinking about what we could do differently. 

That was personal for me. I entered teaching on a Provisional Internship Permit. I was placed in a mild/moderate special day class as the teacher of record while I was still learning how to teach. I was good with kids, and I was able to turn around a class known for significant behavior challenges, but being good with kids and knowing how to manage a classroom is not the same as being fully trained in how to teach. I was learning the profession while I was already doing the job. 

So when I joined the Board and saw the number of PIPs and STSPs coming before us for approval, I understood exactly what those acronyms could mean on the other side of the agenda item. We needed teachers in classrooms, but I kept wondering whether there was a better way to prepare and support people entering the profession. 

Then, at a California School Boards Association conference, our trustees did what we often do at conferences: we divided up, attended different sessions, and came back together afterward to debrief and share what we'd learned. Trustee Sherry Seat had attended a session about another district developing its own pathway for preparing educators. 

That caught my attention. 

About seven months later, during our Board goal-setting process, I brought forward the idea of exploring what an educator pathway could look like in Oakley. Could we provide stronger preparation and mentorship? And could we build a pipeline of educators who were already learning in Oakley schools? 

The Board supported exploring it. Then our superintendent and staff took the idea and did what good staff do—they figured out how to make it work and made it much bigger than the original idea. 

What developed became Oakley's Strategic Educator Pathways. Today, that work includes teacher residency and intern pathways, mentorship and induction, and counselor residency. The residency model gives aspiring teachers the opportunity to spend a full school year co-teaching alongside an experienced mentor while completing their credential preparation. 

And in 2025, the California School Boards Association recognized Strategic Educator Pathways: From Residency to Retention with a Golden Bell Award. 

That’s what makes this one so meaningful to me. It started with something I saw as a new trustee, connected to something I experienced as a new teacher, and became a question I brought to the Board. What our staff ultimately built from that question became much more than I originally imagined. 

Building a Stronger District

Some of the most important decisions I've been part of as a trustee aren't tied to a single program. They're about the overall direction of the district. 

One of the biggest was selecting our superintendent. Our Board came together around Jeff Palmquist, who joined Oakley Union as superintendent in 2021. 

Looking back over the past five years, I'm proud of the direction we've moved. When I first joined the Board, t. I've watched that climate change. Concerns still come up—they always will in a school district—but I've also watched our leadership become more responsive, and issues get addressed rather than allowed to linger. 

I don't credit one person, one trustee, or one decision for that. A Board sets direction and expectations; the superintendent leads; and administrators, teachers, classified staff, and everyone else in the organization do the daily work that determines whether those goals actually reach students.

The Data Still Matters

I first ran for the Board after digging into the California School Dashboard. Five years later, I still believe our decisions should start with what the data tells us about our students. 

Success Is More Than a Test Score 

Reading and math matter. They are foundational, and we should absolutely expect our students to make strong academic progress. But I don't believe they are the only measures of a successful school experience. 

Kids should also have opportunities to find the things that make them excited to come to school—science, music, art, technology, physical education, electives, clubs, and other experiences where they can discover their strengths. Not every child will shine in exactly the same place. 

My goal is both: strong academic outcomes and schools where students can explore, participate, have fun, and experience success.

Learning, Then Putting It Into Practice

One reason I continue my own education is pretty simple: I never want to assume the way I've always done something is the best way to do it. 

I believe in continuing to learn, looking at research and evidence, and then asking how what I've learned applies to the work I'm already doing. Last week, I attended a guest lecture on collaboration and conflict that gave me another opportunity to do exactly that. 

We explored five different approaches to conflict: competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising, and collaborating. 

As we talked through them, I immediately started thinking about my experience serving on the Oakley school board.

Different Perspectives. Shared Purpose

As part of the training, we completed an assessment based on the five approaches to conflict. My result was collaborating. I wasn't particularly surprised. That's generally how I approach disagreements at work and in life. When more than one person is involved, we won't always get everything we want. You have to listen, work through differences, and find a way to keep moving forward. 

That matters in school board governance. The five members of our Board are very different people. We bring different backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, and perspectives to the table, and we don't always agree. I don't think we should. Healthy disagreement can lead to better questions and better decisions. But when disagreement becomes personal conflict, relationships break down, and the conflict itself can start to get in the way of the work. A board can spend so much time fighting with itself that it loses focus on governing. 

I'm proud that our Board has worked hard to keep disagreement from becoming dysfunction. We establish goals together, work through our differences, and keep our shared responsibility to students at the center. We also make an effort to listen when our community has concerns. At times, we've created opportunities outside the formal structure of a Board meeting for community members to talk directly with trustees and staff, ask questions, and share perspectives we need to hear. 

School board elections are nonpartisan, and I believe that's important. We don't all share the same personal beliefs or political viewpoints—and we don't need to. Education doesn't belong to one political party or ideology. Our responsibility is to the students, staff, families, and community we serve. 

Collaboration isn't about avoiding conflict, nor is it about everyone agreeing. It's about being willing to work through disagreement without letting it stop the work. That's how progress gets made, and that's the kind of governance I believe in.

The Work Continues

Five years on the Board has taught me that meaningful improvement in education takes time. New curriculum, new programs, and changes in instruction may take years before their full impact shows up in districtwide data. 

But long-term improvement can't be our only measure of success. As a trustee, I want to know what we are doing for the students who need support today—not just what outcomes we expect to see years from now. That means asking for the data, making sure resources are directed where they're needed, supporting evidence-based approaches, and holding ourselves accountable for whether those investments are actually making a difference. 

There is still work ahead, and I think that's part of responsible governance. What does the data tell us? Who is succeeding? Who isn't yet? What is the district doing about it? What can we do differently for the students we serve today? And are we seeing results? 

Those are the questions I brought with me to the Board five years ago, and I intend to keep asking them.