Candidates for Board of Education
I have proudly served as a Board of Education member for the past 14 years. I am familiar with staffing, budget, operations and management, and I have been dedicated to helping the Board make fiscal and policy decisions that best serve our students. I focus on issues, keenly aware that meeting the needs of staff enables them to meet the educational needs of our students. I am honored to have been included on the EACC “Apple Ballot” as an EACC-friendly incumbent. While change is natural and necessary, having someone on the Board of Education who is familiar with policies and present issues is also important.
All four of my children graduated from this school system. I visit the county schools, attend special events, and take the time to listen to concerns and ideas of students, parents and staff.
I want our schools to be parent and community friendly organizations, creating bridges from home to school, as I believe parental involvement is key to student success. I want to increase the school system’s use of technology, using every possible tool to engage all families. I want to add mental health counselors and resource officers to all schools, and I would like to recruit more highly qualified teachers in specified content areas such as special education.
Charles County has a good school system, and I would like to continue my work to make it better, ensuring that schools remain responsive and accountable to the parents and taxpayers, and supportive of our educators. Throughout my tenure, I have been committed to transparency, and I strongly believe that issues and concerns should be debated in the public eye instead of behind closed doors. I am familiar with the Maryland Public Information Act and the Open Meetings Act, and have challenged the propriety of meetings and discussions that may not meet requirements of the law. The public should receive information that is accurate, complete, balanced, and easily accessible, and has the right to know where their elected leaders stand on important topics.
I am not shy about asking tough questions and demanding answers — It is a necessary part of making adjustments to move forward and improve. I am objective, I do my research, and I listen to the views of others because it is imperative we make informed decisions.
I strive for balance: Experience allows me to readily navigate the complexities of the school system, but I am constantly looking for new and more effective ways to ensure our schools are safe environments conducive to learning. My tenacious advocacy for staff, students, parents and community over the years has yielded a well-respected reputation that I fully intend to maintain. I am Ready, Willing, and Abell — I am Ready to continue participating in decision-making for our schools; Willing to continue to set high standards for our school system; and “Abell” to meet challenges facing the board. Parents send us the best they have every day; I promise to continue to give the best I have to them.
Charles County voters should vote for me for board of education because I am a fighter and I will fight for my daughter and every child; including the 800plus poor and homeless children who currently attend the Charles County Public School system. As a community we are not doing enough for our students and I want to be the voice for change for the tax payers who wants and demands more from our public schools.
I currently work in the school system as a substitute teacher and see firsthand some of the challenges our teacher, staff and students face and we need to make some fundamental changes to improve the system. My goal is to work with the board of education, teachers and the community on a common goal of making Charles County the No. 1 school system in the state of Maryland. I am a lifelong educator and want the opportunity to represent you and bring success and accountability back to our great community. To implement these changes, I will continue to ser ve the community and be an advocate for the needs
Charles County voters should choose me to be the next Board of Education member because I am uniquely qualified to continue to bring needed changes to the Charles County Board of Education. For the past 29 years, I have worked with the federal government as a program manager with experience in creating policies, budgeting and networking with other DOD agencies to leverage expertise amongst employees. As a veteran, business owner and a parent deeply involved with our schools for 22 years, I have a solid understanding of how change happens in our county and the leadership skills to be successful. Open communication between all members of the educational community — the board, parents, administrators and teachers — is of utmost importance. We need to put our school children first in the decision-making process. As a business owner and parent, I have intimate knowledge of the issues and challenges facing our schools. Having attended school board meetings and speaking to the parents and teachers, I understand how the process works. Students, parents, and educators need their voices to be heard before decisions are made, and I want to be that voice for them.
In my current job I serve as a trusted advisor and primary point of customer contact for of all our people. I will be visible in the schools and in the community building relationships with quality community and business partners. I plan to utilize technology to increase parental involvement by at least 50 percent. In addition, I will work to create transparency that will foster positive dialogue that will result in building the trust of the community.
It is my primary goal to streamline the current school systems by improving the basic structure and processes within the school system, which will create uniformity. I will work to eliminate inconsistencies IT services and capabilities. I plan, organize and direct the operations of the IT division. I determine organizational structure, budgetary and personnel requirements. I analyze complex data and present it clearly for directors and decision-makers (often through surveys, visits, and interviews), and diagnose issues quickly for my team. I perform regular customer outreach to determine customer needs and meet their expectations. I provide timely, consistent, convenient and intelligent interactions across all interaction channels. I collaborate with multiple directorates — many of the projects assigned to the Enterprise Change Control Board are cross-divisional in nature and require substantial coordination across and between directorates.
If elected, I plan to apply and errors to drive positive results from our staff and student performance throughout our entire school system.
In addition, I would like to enhance and implement programs concerning school safety and crisis management to promote a welcoming environment for students and teachers to be assured that their safety is a priority daily. I also believe that quality after school programs are needed to support increasing student’s performance.
If you desire change, excellence, higher educational standards, and accountability vote for me on June 26. my skills to improve productivity and efficiency to implement processes that will allow our students to be first. I’d like to introduce financial literacy and entrepreneurship programs to engage and stimulate the students’ minds, with goal of reducing problematic behavior within the schools. Additionally, I’d like to see all programs, including vocational programs, available to students in all high schools, thereby making a wide variety of skill training accessible to all students. Based on my conversations with students and parents, they are excited about the idea having vocational programs available in all schools, and the opportunities it would bring. My platform seeks to achieve this and other innovative programs through the Charles County Board of Education.