Katie Carley - Mokena 159 School Board Candidate

Katie is a candidate for Mokena 159 Elementary School District. She has two children in 159 schools, holds a Masters Degree from Lewis University and works as a social worker. We talked about what she would bring to the school board and how she thinks she can strengthen communication and improve our schools.

We have a local election page https://mokenasfrontporch.com/local-elections with candidate interviews and election updates. 

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Chapters

• 0:11 Meet Katie
• 6:50 Parental Involvement and School Communication
• 21:41 School Board Member Role and Decisions
• 35:39 Community Involvement and Advocacy
• 45:57 Getting to Know School Board Candidates

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

All right, katie, thank you for joining me and sitting down to talk with me tonight. You decided to be a candidate for school board for 159, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and kind of share with the community who you are and what's important to you and why you're running. So, just to get started, you want to tell us a little bit about you and your family, sure?

Speaker 2: 0:36

Well, how far do you want me to go back?

Speaker 1: 0:39

Whatever, Maybe you can tell us you're married, kids I am I am.

Speaker 2: 0:44

So I've been married. I got married in 2010. I have two kids, kaylin and Jace. Kaylin is in seventh grade and Jace is in fifth grade. I've lived in Mokena since 2010. Prior to that, I grew up in in a northwest suburb, roselle Sure, and I lived there with my mom and my dad. They were happily married. My dad passed away in 2008. I've got two siblings. I'm the baby, so if that tells you anything about this, I've got two siblings I'm the baby, so if that tells you anything. So I have an older brother and an older sister Went to public school my whole life. I ended up going to Eastern Illinois University and there I got my undergraduate in recreation administration and I got a concentration in therapeutic recreation.

Speaker 1: 1:47

What was your thought when you got your degree? Like what? I don't know if that's what you went into or not, but what made you want to do that?

Speaker 2: 1:55

So we could be here forever as many college students go through. You know what to do. It took a while for me to kind of figure out what I was going to do, but eventually what happened was I had I went there for teaching. You know, I was going to be some type of teacher probably something to do with athletics, maybe gym, maybe be like a trainer and then I had a class where I had to teach kids that were young, and I had a class then where we had to teach kids that had disabilities, and I loved the class with the kids with the disabilities. They were very appreciative of my time, and so from there I looked into what I could do with people with disabilities, and that kind of led me to recreation and that concentration in therapeutic recreation, because that's really working with people with disabilities. It was kind of thinking I would do like OT, pt type stuff with people with disabilities.

Speaker 2: 2:58

But I got a job in college that was working with people with disabilities and from there I never left and I stayed in that field up until 2019. And then I kind of took a break because my kids were in school and they needed some attention from me. So I decided to kind of reevaluate what I was doing, because at the time I was putting in a lot of work, a lot of hours at my current job, and so I decided to kind of take a step back and ended up getting a job in foster care. Like a year later A friend of mine from the past kind of reemerged and asked if I wanted to take a look at where she was working. And I've been in that for about four years and it's been.

Speaker 2: 3:47

It's been great, it's very rewarding so maybe it can't just talk a little bit I'm sure you can't go too deep, but what that involves and what you're doing with that yeah, so I work for a foster care and adoption agency and so we contract with DCFS so I get to experience working with that agency and a lot of what I do specifically is intake and so a lot of what I have to do is read backgrounds on families and kids and kind of their stories and their trauma and then I work with our foster families. So we have, you know, over a hundred foster families that we have and I work with matching the kids to families that could meet their needs. So I do a lot of assessments on kids that have gone through a lot of trauma. They have a lot of mental health needs and I just interview them and then work, you know, with the families to try to match them to a home.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Wow that you must see quite a range of experiences. I do.

Speaker 2: 4:58

Lots of stories. I could tell Lots of stories.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Talk a little bit about how you ended up in Mokena.

Speaker 2: 5:06

So it's a funny question. I was living in Midlothian so after I graduated from college, where I was working at the time was out like like Joliet, and so I had to move. I grew up in Roselle, so I had to move a little bit closer to Joliet, so somehow I ended up in Midlothian um, I think it was just probably closer to Joliet and that's what I could afford at the time, and I stayed there for a handful of years and then my husband and I were living there and we, um, unfortunately, uh, his mom passed away, and before she passed away she had actually bought a piece of land in Mokina and she was going to build there, and so a couple years after she had passed away, we got the land. Um, his dad decided he wasn't going to live there anymore, you know, and he was going to go in a different direction, and so we took the opportunity to take, you know, to get the land from him and we built the house there.

Speaker 2: 6:16

And I mean, I remember growing up, one of the things when I lived in Roselle like we just playing high school sports and things like that, like it was always like Lincoln Way, like we got to beat lincoln way they were always. There was always this reputation, um, that they were so great and um. So when we, you know, heard, uh, or decided that you know we were going to move here, I was like the first thing I thought it was like great schools, like great schools, the great area couldn't couldn be happier. So that's kind of how how we came here. It was not really planned, but it ended up working out.

Speaker 1: 6:48

That's great. What do you do for fun? Talk about recreation activities or.

Speaker 2: 6:54

Yeah, oh, let's see God, old people and fun. I don't, you know I'm going to it's. It's not the popular thing to do, but I love to watch, stay home and binge watch shows on Netflix. Of course, I do a lot of murder shows. You know a lot of 2020 Dateline. I'm into the crime shows. I also, of course, love, you know, doing things with my kids. We do a lot of activities, whether it's their, you know, sports, playing with them. We just got a puppy, like playing with their dog, got a cat. And then you, we just got a puppy, so like playing with their dog, got a cat. And then, you know, I do what most people do to unwind hang out with friends, go out dinner. We're, we're, I would say. Me and my husband are big foodies. We like to go around, try different restaurants, eat at different places, but I mean, that's kind of what you do when you get older, right, you just find places to eat and drink, yeah we're gonna eat and drink tonight, um yeah and your kids are very involved in sports, right?

Speaker 1: 7:48

I know that we've met uh through that with would be football and or baseball.

Speaker 2: 7:52

Yeah, well, pretty much, my son plays baseball okay, he's big baseball guy. And then, um, my daughter is more of a theater, um and dance, so which kind of segues into how this whole board thing came to be. She was going to, she goes to, street of Dreams, so she's done their theater program and she's done their dance program. And when she was going into middle school she got super excited because the school had a theater program. So she's like, oh, I can finally do a play, you know, with the school and my friends. You know not that she doesn't have friends at street of dreams, but you know, this is the school, you know friends, so a lot of people at street of dreams are from different schools and things like that. So so she was excited that she was going to finally get to do that. And then, um, and then the busine thing, and it got put on hold, or there wasn't a director for the theater program there.

Speaker 2: 8:50

And my first involvement with the school board was after I found out there was no theater program, or I don't even know if that's the right way to say it, but after pretty much. You know, that was put on hold because they didn't have a director. So prior to that I was, you know, not involved, you know, with going to school board meetings, or you know I kind of consider myself to be what most people probably do is just kind of hang in the background, like if there's not a problem. You know, I didn't need to go to the school for anything. You know, to my knowledge, my experience with the school has been great. My kids have had awesome teachers. I have never had any complaints. My kids do pretty well in school, so I'm fortunate. I feel like they're learning. You know there's no issues there.

Speaker 1: 9:41

And when is the time frame you're talking about?

Speaker 2: 9:50

When did this happen? So this theater program, oh god, she's in seventh grade, so it's sixth grade. Okay, I think it was sixth grade. Um, right, so last year, so not that long ago, um, and then so so the the theater thing happened and we were disappointed because she was really excited about that and that's what kind of got me talking to other people about, you know, just the school in general and and things going on in the school, school board teachers, and so I started kind of going or watching some meetings and then towards, well, it was probably the end of the year. Then we got the email about the superintendent leaving. Well, it was probably the end of the year. Then we got the email about the superintendent leaving.

Speaker 2: 10:40

So after I had gone to Eastern a couple years later, like in my, after I had worked where I was at after I graduated college, I ended up getting my master's at Lewis in leadership, organizational leadership. So a big part of what I do in my professional life is work on like organizational culture, working with teams, working with conflict management and communication. So a big part of my master's program was teaching me how to basically, you know, help businesses have a healthy workplace culture. And so when I saw the email about the superintendent leaving, you know my leadership brain goes to well, most of the time people leave people. So we had this thing happen with the theater thing. This great woman teacher left, you know, and then we have a superintendent who leaves. So my brain is going well, people leave people. So there's got to be some people issues which I am very well versed in because I'm a big people person. All of my jobs have been with people. I mean, I've worked. You know, the job that I worked with before foster care for a very long time was with people with disabilities and mental illness, and so I mean, like I said earlier, the stories of just the people I've met, the kinds of people I've worked with, the staff that I've, you know, led and supervised, is it all kind of came up in my brain when I was like why are people leaving? Like something's going on.

Speaker 2: 12:10

So the type of person I am, I just was talking to people and investigating and what's going on and are there's issues and things like that, and so that's kind of how I started getting involved. Was the theater thing, then the superintendent thing, and then just gathering information, talking to people and hearing that you know there would be seats available on the school board. And so I was like, well, this seems kind of right up my alley for what I do in my professional life and I have time. Now my kids are older, they don't need me as much. As much as that, you know, tears me to pieces. I have time for myself now.

Speaker 2: 12:52

So, and I've always like, advocated and worked for other people and I thought this is really a way I can work for my own kids so and my own community. I mean, I've been giving and giving to people for a very long time, you know, kind of outside and in my professional life, and I thought, well, this is a way I can give back to people directly in my care. So I was like it's time to do something.

Speaker 1: 13:19

So, looking at the issues that you know put you, you know put you forward or made you decide you want to run, what do you think you bring to the board that would help resolve those?

Speaker 2: 13:31

issues. My background in the master's program that I took organizational leadership I think has would really put me above a lot of candidates. Because of that experience that I have with bringing people together, I think there's some disconnect going on. I think there's areas that can always be improved. Like I'm just a big proponent of like continuous improvement. Like we are great but we could always be better, so what could we be doing to be better? And improving communication? So like one of the things I found out, like when you talk to people right, like everybody's got their side of the story Right and it's interesting to hear everybody's perspective, but then really bringing people together and working to solve problems together, it's not that it's actually pretty difficult to get everybody on the same bus and following suit and working together collaboratively, and I think that that's needed. I think our board needs that.

Speaker 2: 14:55

I think that there also I think there's just time for change. Sometimes, you know, you know we reelect a president every four years, you know, because sometimes change is good and I think just a fresh set of eyes coming in and looking at things is a good thing. A lot of times people are afraid of change, but I like it and I know, I think that it brings forth growth and so, yeah, I think that I would bring that. I think I'm really good at communicating with people. I'm really good at conflict management, like critically thinking, seeing things from everybody's angle. All perspectives, I think is something that I'm really good at.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Perspectives, I think is something that I'm really good at as far as communication goes, how do you looking at what we, as parents, receive from the school? What do you think could be changed or improved as far as communication goes.

Speaker 2: 15:55

So I think that it would be great if we, if all three schools, could get on board with the same type of communication. So I don't know how your experience has been, but I'll get emails, I'll get text messages, I'll get phone messages. There's a lot of communication coming in. I can't complain. I don't feel like people aren't communicating. Sometimes it's like well, did that really need to be communicated 40 times, as opposed to this when I only got maybe one and I missed it.

Speaker 2: 16:28

So I do think that we have improved in communication. I think it would be great if, across the board, like there was a method or an app per se that everybody's using. That, you know, is just like this is how I know I'm going to get communication. So I'm like I'm not waiting for a text, or I'm not waiting for an email, or you know the other. I don't think we're using a lot many apps or at least I'm not anymore, but before it was like download this app for your classroom and like my kids would have different apps, and so it's just like a lot of different things. If we could streamline it and like come up with you know a way that we're going to communicate one, one way.

Speaker 1: 17:12

I think that would be an improvement okay, so what do you see as some of the biggest challenges ahead for the school district?

Speaker 2: 17:20

um, in my opinion, the biggest challenge is that we don't have a superintendent. So I see that as a big challenge. We need leadership and I think that, again, that's something that I really would want to be a part of. I would want to be a part of helping a new leader come in, helping that person to form relationships with people on the board, with, you know, administrators, with anybody. I would like to kind of be be there to help in that situation, because it really starts, you know, with the person at the top, which would be, you know, the superintendent. That's the person leading the school, and so right now, we don't you, you know, we have somebody in the interim, but we don't have that leader who you know, we know is staying. So I think that that would really probably be one of the things that I think we need to focus on.

Speaker 1: 18:15

So, as far as the superintendent goes, that is a process that you know they've gone through to start finding a new superintendent, and what is it that you, as both a parent as well as you know a potential board member, is something that you would look for or think is important to see in a potential superintendent.

Speaker 2: 18:39

So I think that definitely some of the leadership qualities that I would want would be someone who is a good communicator, um, someone who is not afraid of conflict and who will communicate with parents and not so happy parents and school board members and they'll kind of be the face getting out into the community.

Speaker 2: 19:20

So somebody who's going to be present, you know, and like known, I think somebody who is well, I guess I would say like gritty or thick skinned, because, being in that position, there's a lot that you have to deal with and I could imagine it could be tough at times. But I'd be looking for somebody who you know is loyal and you know at the first time of any issues or rumblings or conflicts, like somebody who's going to stick with us, you know, because this is a position that I feel like you know needs longevity. Somebody's got to stay here for the long haul know, needs longevity, somebody's got to stay here for the long haul. We can't keep going through every two years, every three years, you know, having somebody come in because that disrupts, you know, everything that's going on in the district. So I think somebody who's, you know, going to be loyal and you know really dedicate themselves to the position. So those are the things that kind of first come to mind.

Speaker 1: 20:26

As far as longevity in a candidate, that's something that has been an issue. Don White was here, I think two years, and then Dr Cohen was just four years. Looking at that scenario, what do you think where is? Do you have anything you could pinpoint as what you think the issues are? I guess we touched on it a little bit, but I think it's important to figure out what the problem is if you're going to figure out how to avoid it in the future. Is that anything you'd comment about?

Speaker 2: 21:01

Yeah, I mean, a lot of times in leadership you have to do inventories. You got to find out, you know, why are people staying. You got to find out why people are leaving. So I mean, I would think it would be important to do those inventories, you know, check in with the staff and the administration and find out. You know what's going on, what are we doing good, what are people happy about why? What are we doing good, what are people happy about? Why are people saying and why are they leaving? And kind of going back to what I said, people leave. People, you know, in the school district and they feel like the teachers feel like they trust the administration and the administration trusts the board and you know all the way down. So I just think I think a lot of it has to do with relationships, you know, and just people liking each other, liking working together, feeling respected, feeling heard. I think that's what it comes down to a lot of times.

Speaker 1: 22:14

Talk a little bit about how you see the role of a school board member, as well as kind of what you expect the time commitment to be as a school board member.

Speaker 2: 22:25

So I see the role of the school board member being part of, you know, a team that kind of governs, um, the administration. We would work, obviously collaboratively, you know, with the administration. But you know, I kind of see it as like, you know, overseeing, you know, and I think that the board is also there. Obviously it's an elected position, so you have to is also there. Obviously it's an elected position, so you have to keep in mind all of the stakeholders and all the people you're there to represent.

Speaker 2: 23:09

I think, as a board member, I need to listen to everybody, I need to listen to the administration, I need to listen and kind of have a pulse on how teachers feel about things. You know how are? You know, how are parents feeling? You know, how are kids feeling, you know. So I think, overall, like it's our job to have a pulse on what's going on in the district as a whole. But you know we're there to help and to collaborate with, you know, the administration and kind of help them with what they might need too. But it's just kind of overarching, overseeing those things.

Speaker 1: 23:54

How much do you direct involvement? Or maybe where do you think there are points where you as a board member would you know, interject or have more? You know think about areas like curriculum or you know a dress code, all these different areas that school boards deal with. You know, as a school board member, you know where do you think the roles kind of separate or you know where do you feel like it's appropriate to get involved.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Well, I mean, I think that there's, you know there's policies and procedures for everything, and so I think it's our job to you know make sure that we're aware of what the policies and procedures are. I personally don't feel like you know there's staff there to address those issues within the school. So I don't think that it's you know the board's job to be in the schools dealing with you know, issues on a daily basis. But I do think it's the board's job as a whole to listen to people and concerns and then talk about those things and find ways, you know, to find solutions if there's a major issue of something going on or if a policy needs to be changed or something needs to be looked at.

Speaker 1: 25:18

School board members have to make a lot of really important decisions. Talk a little bit about making decisions and the process that you would go through in making an important decision.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Well, I would probably do a lot of critical thinking, depending on whatever the topic is. I do a lot of information gathering, I like to talk to everybody. Topic is I do a lot of information gathering, I like to talk to everybody. So, as much as I can get information from the people that I can get it from, I would you know, I would go to the experts for their advice. You know, if it is about curriculum, well, who's in charge of our curriculum? Well, I would be talking to that person and getting their input, or, you know, whatever the subject might be, you know, I think extracting information from people is number one.

Speaker 2: 26:05

Once you have the information, I think then you start weighing pros and cons. You start, you know, taking into consideration different details, but really, again, like I like to approach, you know situations by all angles and then really just weighing out you know, strengths, opportunities, weaknesses. There's a SWOT analysis. There's different things that you can do to make big decisions, which I've obviously done at work numerous times in many different situations. So I feel like I would do similar things in this situation as well.

Speaker 2: 26:39

It's just you have to sit back and also, I think, take time when you need to take time to make a big decision. And then there's sometimes, you know decisions need to be made quicker, and so you just have to figure out you know which ones, that is, you know what needs to take more time and what needs to be decided on know at a faster pace, but again, I think, working, you know, if you have, you know, seven, six, seven, eight, other brains, you know I feel like that's a great way to be able to do those things with other people's input, and so, yeah, it would do that for me, my tax about 35% of it goes to the 159 school district.

Speaker 1: 27:27

So talk about how will you assure people, or how can the board and the district better assure people, that their tax dollars are being wisely spent.

Speaker 2: 27:37

Yeah, that's a good question. I know that there is a strategic plan. You know most agencies have strategic plans. So I know that there are things that you know the district carves out, you know for potential things that could happen, and so obviously you know always keeping an eye on those things.

Speaker 2: 28:00

And then you know, when things come forward that you know come up that we need money for different resources, I think we need to, you know, do our due diligence to investigate.

Speaker 2: 28:10

You know what it is that we need money for and you know follow our policies and procedures on how we go about doing that.

Speaker 2: 28:19

And so, again, it's just kind of also making sure when we are going, maybe doing major projects, you know that we're getting the right um people for the job. You know we're um. You know doing certain bids, we're doing research, you know, gathering all the information that we can to make sure that we are making the best possible decision that's fiscally responsible for our budget, you know, and for the taxpayers, you know, because I know that that's a concern for a lot of people is, you know, a lot of our money goes into the schools, which is one of the reasons why, you know, I think our schools are doing. Well, we have, you know, a lot of money going into the school district and so I just think that you know carefully going through working with the people that are in charge of our budget, you know, and going through those plans, you know on a continual basis, and evaluating you know what's the first priority and going through you know that that's pretty much what I would say we need to do.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Something that every parent and teacher and everybody that works in a school I'm sure thinks about is security. What can we do, what can the board or the school do to ensure parents and and all of us, that our kids and teachers are safe at our schools?

Speaker 2: 29:42

so I think it starts with communication.

Speaker 2: 29:50

I know that we are doing different drills and our kids are involved in safety drills for those reasons, which I do allow my kids to be ready and feel safe for anything that could come up.

Speaker 2: 30:10

But I think if there are situations that occur at the school, it kind of goes back to like how we get communication out to parents, like if it's streamlined and there's, you know, one direct way, then I think I would feel better about knowing you know that my kids are safe at any given time, about knowing you know that my kids are safe at any given time. And then if there's different things that you know the community and teachers or people in the building feel like need to be looked at to make people feel safer, I think we need to listen to the teachers and listen to the people that are working in the buildings, listen to the kids, again just keeping a pulse on do people feel safe with what's already in place or do we need to make adjustments? And, you know, just go from there. But I so far I've been with the communication I've gotten. I've been pretty pleased with how our school has handled certain situations. So, yeah, I think it's just listening to people and their concerns and then trying to problem solve around those.

Speaker 1: 31:20

What do you think is the best way to address differences of opinion or ideas between both between board members and between a board member and say administration Say you had a difference of opinion with a superintendent or in that what do you think is the best way to address those differences?

Speaker 2: 31:41

Go to the person directly, clear, crystal clear communication talking to that person. I mean, we're all adults, we've all had conflicts with each other. If we have a conflict and it's something that we don't think we can resolve in that moment, then you take some time and you regroup and you come back and you revisit it again. I think that, again, I think that's something that we we as a human race I think just needs to get better at. I mean, you know, I am not afraid to kind of, you know, confront issues head on. You know, like I'm the type of person who if, if, if there's an issue, then I'm going to come to you and I'm going to come to you and we're going to talk about it. I mean, I've just I'm a social worker by trade but, like, I've been in numerous therapy trainings, so I feel like I'm really good at communicating with people and so I would just go to the person and I would get their perspective and, you know, I would let them hear mine out and, you know, I would hope that we could come to an agreement.

Speaker 2: 32:54

I'm also not living in an alternate reality. I know that. You know you can't make everybody happy at all times, but you know, as a board member I have to make decisions, you know, that are going to be best for everyone. And so you can have a conflict with somebody and walk away and maybe not agree a hundred percent, but everybody could still walk away feeling respected and heard. And sometimes you know that's what we have to do as adults we have to hear each other out and agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, you know, if we have to make decisions about things, you know one way or another we have to sit in a room until it's worked out. You know so.

Speaker 1: 33:36

So there are seven candidates running for the Mokina 159 school district. So just take a second and tell us why you are the best candidate or why people should vote for you on April 1st candidate or why people should vote for you on April 1st.

Speaker 2: 34:02

So I think you should vote for me, because I am really focused on helping the district grow as far as leadership. So that is the one I'd say. That is my strength again, kind of bringing it back to just being able to help the culture. I think I would bring that to the board, I think I would bring that to the district, just like I had previously said, like my past experience in working with people of various you know, different backgrounds, I think I'm really good at that, and so I definitely think that'm really good at that, and so I definitely think that we need that right now because of that leadership that we're lacking. I also think something that I do that a lot of people don't do, unfortunately, is just working in the mental health field. I take care of myself, I do a lot of self-care, and so to me, that's another thing. If you're in a position where you're making tough decisions, you have to be well-rested, you have to be in a good state of mind, and so I have no issues with taking care of myself. I go to a great gym called Spanga, which helps me clear my mind every day, you know I also think that I would bring. I think I would bring, I would help bring a voice to the teachers. I really think that we need to listen to our teachers and figure out what they need.

Speaker 2: 35:39

I started off my career as what was called a direct support worker. Through my career I worked all the way up to the administration, and so I really know what it's like to be doing the work from the ground up, and I always wanted when you're the one doing the job, you know the frontline staff, and then you have administration and people making what you think are like decisions for you. You know that can be frustrating, and so I can recall being that direct service worker and that is what made me want to continue to move up the ladder to be an administrator, because I wanted to be able to, you know, make decisions and advocate for the people that are working on the front lines, and so I would really be an advocate for the people that are in the school working. You know I would really want to get people more involved. I'd want to get the community more involved. You know there's not a giant attendance at board meetings. There's not a ton of people who are, you know partaking in school activities, and you know I would do the minimal things too. You know I'll go to the school fundraiser and I'll go to certain things. So I myself, you know, was guilty of not being involved. But I feel like you know, now that I've taken this interest, that I would love to get more community involvement. It's it's an important thing, um and and so I think I would be a big advocate for, you know, get just getting more people involved in things.

Speaker 2: 37:24

You know, I went to a fundraiser for the school and there was four people there. I mean that kind of broke my heart. There was no. No board members were there. Um, you know, there weren't any teachers there. I would really like to be in a place. If we're having a fundraiser for the school, I would really like for there to be parents, teachers, board members, administrators. I would like for all of us to be there together. Yeah, you know it was really sad, you, it was really sad.

Speaker 1: 37:50

So you know, and it's interesting you say that because we just did a episode all about the wooden playscape that came down and that was a fully PTA driven project that raised a hundred thousand dollars and gathered thousands of hours of community volunteerism. And you know, we obviously don't have that now and it's highlighted, you know by things like that and every organization goes through different times.

Speaker 1: 38:21

But you know, as a parent you know, and a community member, those PTA organizations are extremely important, Just my two cents. But it goes to show that you know to have an active community involved you can really do great things right, but without it it is difficult anything done, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 2: 38:42

and you know, like I was, I was guilty of it myself, of not being involved, getting caught up and every day, like said, I was focused on career, home. You know, everybody's okay and I just think, honestly, it's just. I think wisdom comes with age, right, I've learned, you know, should I have done things sooner? Could I have gotten more involved? Absolutely, but I know that now and I can try to help other people see that, I try to help other people see other things they should do for themselves. So I just I would really want to get people more involved.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Talk a little bit. I'm sorry, but talk a little bit about kind of what you've learned in the process since you decided to run. Learned in the process since you decided to run what that's been like having not run before, everything from you know petitions to community feedback, like that.

Speaker 2: 39:37

Yeah, well, honestly, a lot of people have. I've kind of learned that this isn't that difficult, it's not that intimidating, that the people that are on the board are people like me. They're people like you. I think a lot of times, you know, I don't know, maybe people underestimate, you know. Or, like you said, like what's the time commitment? You know, like, am I going to have time for this? I believe that I do have the time now because I, you know, like, am I going to have time for this?

Speaker 2: 40:11

I believe that I do have the time now because I, you know, I have some flexibility built into my life and so that has been a factor in that. So you know, I get that people are busy and they have, you know, work and family and, like you know, do I have time to go do this for the school? Do I have time to go do that? So I definitely understand that. You know that's a big part of how people get involved, and so I've learned that I do have time and that it's not that hard and that going out and getting some signatures wasn't that difficult. Filing, doing the petition thing was very easy. So sitting down and talking with you, it's not, you know, it's mostly painless.

Speaker 2: 40:55

Right. I mean, there's not. It's not rocket science, you know, this isn't anything that is. You know something that I think the average person couldn't do. It's just I just and the type of person who will do it. You know, like the people, why, what are you running for? Why are you doing that? You know, and I'm like somebody's got to do it, somebody has to do it, you know, and so I'm the type of person who will step up when somebody's got to do it.

Speaker 2: 41:28

And it's been fun and it's gotten me out there. I've definitely gotten to meet new people. There's a whole group of parents who I've met who want to be heard. There's just a lot of people who, I think, want to be heard and they need somebody to help them with that, and so I'm your girl for that. I mean, I have been advocating for people with special needs, disabilities, mental illness. I've been stepping up for them for years and years because they don't have a voice and unfortunately, it's like that in our community right now. There's a lot of people who feel like they're not being heard, and so I want to help with that.

Speaker 1: 42:09

Talk a little bit about your understanding of that. The you know the SPED program within 159. Do you feel it's sufficient? You think there's room for improvements? I I don't say I know a whole lot about it, so maybe you can let us know what you know sure.

Speaker 2: 42:26

So I don't know a whole lot either, to tell you you the truth. What I do know, though, is, working in the disability field for as long as I have, I could tell you right now that I'm sure it could be better. People with disabilities are always, unfortunately, the last to be thought about. A lot of their programs aren't the greatest. There's not a lot of funding, and money for that there's always. They always need more support, and so I'm sure that if I went into the school and talked to teachers and paraprofessionals, they would have some feedback for us. I'm sure that they, you know there's probably improvements. I know, talking to parents, they've had concerns over IEPs and different things you know that they have in place for their kids, and so my stance is I'm sure that we can be doing better.

Speaker 2: 43:17

I don't know enough about it to know what exactly that is, but I think one of the things that I would want to do is investigate more in that area, the special needs as well as advanced learning, because those are two hot topics that I've. You know, in talking with people, those are the two main topics that have come up right, because you know the kids that are kind of just sitting pretty average. You know, those are the folks that you don't really hear about, but the kids that need to be challenged more, they need some programming. And then the kids that need more support. You know, those are the folks that you don't really hear about, but the kids that need to be challenged more, they need some programming. And then the kids that need more support you know how much more support do they need? So those are things that I think once, if I were elected and, you know, got into the nitty gritty and learned more, I think I would be happy to investigate.

Speaker 1: 44:10

So, before we wrap up and just give you a minute, if there's anything else you want to share, you want to talk about. I don't know if you have social media or anything where you're sharing information, but just take a minute and you can talk.

Speaker 2: 44:23

I do not have any social media right now. I know, as we move along further and I start to kind of beef up my campaign, there probably will be a page dedicated, so I will definitely try to get the word out about that. But for right now I mean it's just basically word of mouth and then, doing this interview with you, I hope it gets the word out. Going to different functions, I hope we'll get the word out, but you know I'll have to figure out. You know this is the challenge, right? It's like how do we get the word out so people hear about me and about what's going on at the school? It's definitely a challenge, but it's not impossible. There's so many different things now to be able to communicate with people. It's just getting it together. So, to come, to be continued, there will be social media to come.

Speaker 2: 45:20

For right now I mean those of you that do know I mean I am on social media. So if anybody has questions for me, I'm more than happy. You can definitely DM me on Facebook or Instagram. And then I have set up a couple of times through different groups, the Mokina Moms page or the parent page. Sometimes I'll put postings when I'm going to, you know, go have coffee if people want to come talk to me. You know I'm more than happy to talk to anybody. Please, I would. If there's something that you guys want to talk about that's related to this law, I'd be happy to sit down and talk about it.

Speaker 1: 45:56

Well, this is great and this is. You know, what I hope these conversations would be is getting to know you know who you are as a candidate and what you offer to the community should you be elected, and not because you're a. You know a member of the community as well and I think you made a good point of you know the people that are running are all. We're all just community members, we're neighbors, we're, you know, on the sidelines or whatever it is, and with each other. So we appreciate you. You know stepping up to run people. You know it's. It's not oh it something, as you said, can be kind of a challenge to take that first step, but it is can be a very rewarding thing. So when we have it, I'll share your social media or whatever you have. I'll put that on our website with the candidate information and be sure to check out all of our candidate interviews on our YouTube channel and everything's on our website as well. Katie, thank you very much for meeting with me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you.