From Susan Anderson

Monroe

To the Editor:

I strongly support Rich Deprez, Dylan McGuire and Kevin Eckdhal in the Monroe School Board elections taking place April 5. Incumbents Deprez and McGuire, as part of the current board have collaboratively helped establish goals for the district which are already bearing some fruits of success despite the challenges of the past two years.

In 2018, the SOAR program was launched, allowing Monroe students the opportunity to earn credit toward graduation while gaining real world experience in community businesses. This fall, the LAUNCH program will offer evidence-based collaborative learning with students working together to solve real world problems for local businesses while mastery standards for courses like statistics and English are woven into the project.

As a retired school occupational therapist, I applaud the board’s focus on social and emotional wellness of staff and students. Research tells us that students must feel safe at school and build strong relationships with teachers and other students, in order for their learning brains to fully engage. When teachers feel supported and competent in their roles, as in the recently-established professional learning communities (PLC’s), students do better as well.

Candidates McGuire, Eckdhal and Deprez have expressed a specific commitment to full inclusion of all of our students regardless of who they are and where they are from, a sentiment that I believe is widely shared in our community. That the student-led Equity 4 Everyone program at Monroe High School has grown to 25 students since its inception in 2020 and welcomes discussion of any equity issue speaks to the school climate fostered in part by the current school board.

Can we do better at excelling in academics? Of course and that too, is part of district goals. But each student is more than a test score and offering “an engaging and rigorous curriculum which offers diverse educational opportunities for all students,” is a creative, thoughtful strategy offered by the current board to achieve that end.

I believe that Deprez, Eckdhal and McGuire are the candidates to bring these goals to further fruition and they will have my vote on April 5.