001Hi, welcome back to the Summit School District Spotlight. I'm Kirsten Anderson, the director of communications for Summit School District, and I'm joined here today by board president Consuelo Red Horse. Hello. Good morning. And also our board vice president, Lisa Webster. Morning. Thanks so much for being here. Today, we're going to talk about uh we're coming back from a three-part segment and right now we're talking about um education in Summit County and we're looking for our next leaders. Yes. Yes. It's super exciting. Um, so in November there is a school board election. Um, we have three seats on the board uh that are up for election. Um, and we're really looking for some interested people um, who are interested in serving the community um, and who are interested in supporting the success of all students in
002Summit County. Great. Um so uh talk about how we wanna how someone might get prepared and get information to uh make this step. It's a great question um or a great statement I should say. So, uh we are offering anformational session about um the board and what its roles and how the election process works on June 3rd from 6:00 to 7:00 at the um the Summit School District professional development building that's located at 152 School Road in Frisco. Um and we are looking at a hybrid format. Not sure how that's going to work at the moment, but um hopefully we can get that because we know people have can have a hard time making it in person, but we want to h offer that um opportunity for um that online um ease of attending or
003providing that access. And I think um some of it too is um also I would say if community members if you know a board member right um we're there we're in your communities um we're spread all throughout the county um and one of the things that we thrive on are making connections and relationships and so um I think that's also a great opportunity if you can't make it to theformational session to find a board member um ask us questions um or just reach out and say I might be interested. So many of us would be um thrilled to share the role of the board. um what you could expect. Um some resources. Um we, you know, if you can't make it to theformational session, we'll likely have a slide deck that will be available that
004we can give you. Um and you know, we're really available for one-on-one conversations. Um and kind of we can lead you probably through some of our experiences as what it felt like to be a candidate because being a candidate is a lot different than being um sitting at the table and making those policy decisions. Uh so yeah, it's just it's really important. Um you know, we're looking at something right now also in August. So um what will happen is we have ourformational session now. Um that's kind of a a kickoff. Um in August there are packets that will be available for interested candidates. Um what's required is um I believe it's a six month you have to be a resident of Summit uh voting one year 12 months a voting member of Summit County for
005a year. Mhm. Um and uh there are certain other pieces um you get a certain number of um of signatures of community members um that are uh forwarded to the county clerk and our designated elected official here in the school district. Um so we'll be looking at having some sort of um uh gathering as well uh when packets are available so people can ask questions they can get answers um and know that we are as a group of seven we are there for them to support anyone who's interested in um in providing support for our students. Very cool. And I think that the um setup and makeup of the board allows members to lean into different areas of passion and um expertise. Can you just talk about a few of the things that you guys
006love about being a board member um before we sign off here? I love getting to visit in the schools and um for instance we uh had the opportunity um to sign up for senior interviews um recently and just seeing the growth of our students and how it's amazing how well prepared they are because if I I look back to me as a young person in their shoes I don't think I would be near as prepared as what they are Yeah. Coming across right now. Um and that's at all levels. Um elementary to to high school. Um and yeah, we'll see we'll have the opportunity to see fifth grade exhibitions this year which won't go away. I'll say with with the strategic abandonment of um international balorate which that is not going away in the high
007school. I'll just make that clear. I don't know how many times we need to say that, but Ivy is not leaving the high school, but it is leaving our um elementary and our middle school um realms. Um but there will be a great replacement in its place. So, the rigger won't stop because IB is not part of it, right? Um yeah, so Lisa was mentioning exhibitions. Really great. You get an opportunity to um visit all the schools. Um, lots of them are overlapping, so we have to make decisions about which ones we want to go to. Um, yeah, I just love visiting the schools. Um, I'll I'll echo Lisa. Um, you know, we have uh structured uh adopted school visits. So, we actually have um kind of built-in time to visit each school. We can
008visit with the principal, the staff, look at classes, go to assemblies, go to fundraisers, volunteer, you know, however it fits people's schedule and um what they're interested in. Um, I love going into classrooms. Um, I recently was invited, uh, for this past year in Miss, uh, Miss Trisha King's classroom, uh, preschool classroom at, uh, Silverthorn Elementary. So, I've been going there every month, um, and just reading with the preschoolers after they have their snacks. And, you know, we read, um, we read books and we talk about, we make connections with their own stories. And you know, it's really just an amazing opportunity to get to know the kids, spent time um in uh senior interviews, and it's just it's amazing to get to to meet the kids one-on-one and especially right before graduation. And so
009at graduation is another huge celebration. Um as board members, we have the honor to actually handing over the diplomas to these students. Um and the connections that we've made with students throughout the year, handing them Oh, it's giving me tools right now. handing them their diplomas as they're walking across even if we just met them that one time in a senior interview two weeks before they graduated is just amazing and you know all the promise uh for their future you know this is just the beginning um kids are gaining some really great skills that will will propel them into the future and it's just I love getting in the classrooms and making connections with students so exciting so yes if you're interested in excellence and education for all students come be part of this very
010thoughtful group and we'll see you next time.