Four years, and what they added up to.

D64’s buildings needed serious attention. Aging mechanical systems. Doors and locks that no longer met a modern safety standard. Instructional space that hadn’t kept up with how our kids learn. In November 2024, voters approved an $89.1 million bond referendum with 64% in favor, a decisive margin for a tax question.

Then came the harder part. Our administration and staff ran construction across all eight schools and wrapped it up in about a year. Anyone who has watched a public construction program knows how unusual that is.

For years, D64 families who wanted full-day kindergarten had to pay for it. Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, they will no longer have to. Every eligible child can enroll in the full-day program at no cost.

A decision like this only happens when a district’s finances are in order and a board is willing to spend its funds on a priority rather than study it for another cycle.

District-wide, our students are not only performing at high levels, but they are showcasing exceptional growth. Last year, 68% of D64 students met their math growth targets and 66% met them in reading. That’s meaningful movement, and it came from instructional work in classrooms, not from a board initiative.

We have not yet met our district’s growth goals for our eighth graders. And part of why I’m running is to support our district as it continues to work to meet this ambitious goal.

When a district can’t serve a student’s needs, that student gets placed outside the district, away from their neighborhood, their siblings, and the friends they started kindergarten with. It costs the district a great deal of money, too.

We invested in specialized programming that lets D64 serve students who need the most support. That includes extending our Structured Learning Community for students on the autism spectrum to the middle school level, along with social-emotional supports at Lincoln and an Academic Life Skills program at Emerson.

This is the least visible item on the list and the one that made the rest possible. Boards that argue about management decisions don’t pass referenda. They don’t hold a strategy long enough to find out whether it worked.

Since 2023 this Board has been steady, professional, and clear about the line between governing and managing. I served as vice president for two years and now chair the Education Committee and serve on the Policy Committee. Steadiness sounds like a small thing, but everything else on this page depended on it.