Dear Friends and Supporters
I’ve been listening and learning from community members. Some terrific questions have been posed, and I want to share those with you.
1. What motivates you to want to be a board member for CVUSD?
I believe in public education. I come from a family of educators, and I was raised to leave places better than I found them. I’m grateful for the excellent education my children received at Banyan Elementary, Sequoia Middle, and Newbury Park High School, and I want to do my part to ensure that every child in the Conejo has the best education we can possibly provide.
2. As a trustee, how will you be accessible to your CVUSD community?
Listening to and learning from students, families, teachers, school staff, and voters in the Conejo is what I love most about running for trustee, and those opportunities will only expand if I am fortunate enough to be elected. I will seek out opportunities to have conversations about our schools, and I hope that community members will feel comfortable calling on me directly. Reach out with an email or text or via FB, Twitter, or my website. I am here to listen.
3. How will your work experience in educational publishing inform your work as a trustee?
Good question. My work for Pearson Education is about creating learning experiences that help students navigate college and realize their career and life aspirations. I spend a lot of time thinking about how learning experiences in K12 prepare students for success in college and where we can do better. My work gives me a skillset and knowledge base well-suited to dig into the challenges our district faces.
4. What’s one thing you did differently during the Stay Safe at Home period that you’d like to keep?
I want to hold on to the sense of heightened appreciation I feel for ordinary activities like preparing dinner for my family or hiking in our beautiful open spaces. I’m also thinking about how important it is to intentionally reach out--with a call, a Zoom, a postcard--to connect.
5. What’s a book you’ve discovered recently that you wish had been available when you were growing up?
Oh my goodness, I love this question. How much time have you got? I give books as gifts. I loved selecting books for my children, and now I get the pleasure all over again with my grandchildren. Books open up worlds. In hard times, they can help us process pain and trauma. My kids were babies when 9/11 happened. In the aftermath of terrible loss, Mordicai Gerstein’s “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” gave us the beautiful image of Philippe Petit’s breathtakingly exquisite high-wire walk in the sky on an August night when the Twin Towers were just being completed. That’s the powerful work that stories can do.
Please keep the questions, comments, and insights coming!
-Lauren
