1.  What has been your involvement with the community and school district? Describe your leadership and volunteerism in the community. Did you or your children attend school in the district? Have you volunteered in or been employed by the school district?
Service is extremely important. The three primary ways that I serve are through the Hancock County School District Board of Education, the Rotary Club of Poplarville, and Crane Creek Baptist Church. Through the Rotary Club, I am able to connect with business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian services. Church service is faith-driven and rooted in the mission of supporting spiritual and physical well-being. My 16-year-old daughter attends Hancock High School. In the beginning of my professional career, I had the wonderful opportunity of teaching mathematics at Hancock High School.

2.  Why do you want to serve on your school board?  
Serving on the HCSD School Board offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on education in Mississippi and support the Hancock students, staff, faculty, and administration.

3.  Students from low-income households often need additional resources to achieve academic success. What should your school district do to ensure that all students are successful?
Continue providing access to basic needs such as free/reduced meals, school supplies, and clothing; provide tutoring and mentoring; encourage parental/guardian support; offer counseling/mental health support if needed; show them a pathway forward to either college or a career following high school graduation and connect them with the needed support.

4.  What strategies would you support to create a safer school environment?  What can your school district do to address cyberbullying, mental health, and physical safety?
Implement secure entry systems to school grounds; maintain a strong relationship with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and support our SROs; train staff regarding trauma, emergency response, and mental healthcare; educate students about cyber bullying, mental health, and physical safety.

5.  What do you see as the most pressing infrastructure needs facing your district?
Safety and HVAC systems considering the size of our district remain at the forefront of our infrastructure focus.

6.  Mississippi school districts are funded by a mix of federal, state, and local funds. The state contributes to local school districts through the new Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF). The MSFF is intended to fund teacher salaries, retirement and benefits, transportation costs, facility maintenance, utilities, special education, and other programs. What role will you play in advocating for full funding of MSFF for your district?
I plan to continue working and meeting with Mississippi legislators regarding the needs and impact of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula and advocate for a economically-healthy, sustainable funding formula that benefits Mississippi public education and ,most importantly, our students.

7.  Vouchers for private school tuition divert public funds away from public schools and toward unaccountable private schools. Do you agree that tax dollars should be used for only public schools and not for non-public schools? Why or why not?
Yes, primarily for accountability of our taxes.

8. In Mississippi, academic standards are set by the Mississippi Department of Education and local districts choose curricula from an MDE-approved list. Do you trust educators in your district to teach using their professional judgment and training or should teaching be further regulated by school board policy or law? If you believe teaching should be further regulated, how so?
Yes, I trust the educators in the Hancock County School District.

9. Mississippi is experiencing a severe teacher shortage. What strategies will you support to recruit and retain high-quality educators?  
Mississippi has taken a giant step forward in allowing retired teachers under the PERS system to return to the classroom. However, I believe more incentives can be enacted. When an educator retires in Mississippi, the educator will begin receiving PERS funds. When the district hires a teacher for replacement, the district will still pay fully for a first-year teacher, at minimum. A PERS retiree should receive their full benefits and have an opportunity to receive a full first-year’s teacher salary (with appropriate yearly increments following) which would be a tremendous incentive for teachers to continue in the profession that they love. This would reduce the teacher shortage tremendously and provide qualified, experienced teachers for our greatest asset — the children.