East Lansing School Board Election Winners - Why Are They Excited?

In a very close election, preliminary results (16 of 17, or 94% of the precincts reporting) show that Kate Powers, Yasmina Bouraoui, Karen Hoene, and Nell Kuhnmuench have won the four available seats.  If this result holds, it would mark a clean sweep by the four female candidates.

An article with complete covereage of these election results will be published shortly.  For now, here are the answers we received from the four apparent winners when we asked them "What about education in the East Lansing School District excites you the most?"

Response from Kate Powers:

What excites me most about the ELPS is the chance to celebrate our unique attributes; all types of diversity, walkable schools, great educational opportunities and so much to be proud of!

Response from Karen Hoene:

My husband and I chose to return to East Lansing to raise our children because we consider this to be one of the most diverse, progressive and dynamic school districts we have ever encountered.   The friendships that my children have made and maintained with students from around the world have contributed to their open minds, their commitment to justice and their celebration of diversity.  This is what excites me the most about the educational climate in East Lansing and why I seek to serve on the board.

Response from Yasmina Bouraoui:

East Lansing competes academically with all of the neighboring districts. I have watched our students be admitted to and enroll in the most prestigious colleges and universities our country has to offer – public, private, Ivy-league and Historically Black colleges and universities (HCBU’s) alike. We need to maintain, strengthen and improve our academic reputation in order to retain and attract students and families in the district. We can do better. We state that we strive to provide every student with exemplary instruction in equitable learning environments designed to educate the whole child. We need to identify the institutional policies which shape our achievement outcomes and which we can impact for improvement, such as teacher pedagogy and practice, tracking/ability grouping, extended learning time, time-on-task in the classroom, differentiated instruction techniques, multi-tiered systems of support, and culturally responsive teachers who will retain high performance standards for all of our students. We can do that through focused professional development, and by coming together as a community to support teachers and families. We also need to address school culture and climate issues, as it can affect student achievement – whether students feel part of a school community and what measures are in place to promote those [200 word limit reached]

Response from Nell Kuhnmuench:

My work on the Board has provided insight to how education has changed in the few years since our two sons were in ELPS schools.  I have gained a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our school system and of the broader world of education policy and funding.  These experiences have fueled a robust personal commitment to encourage more thoughtful development of the educational parameters in our school system to ensure open, creative, challenging, unique learning will occur for each of our students in a welcoming, safe, sustaining place.  To its greatest credit, public education – free to all – is the very basis of our successful democracy and successful world community.  I have been, and remain, committed through my work on the Board, to bring the best of my thinking and energies to the improvement of our system, right here at home.

It is an honor, privilege and huge responsibility to serve on this Board in a community grounded in the foundations of MSU, where fewer than 15% of all households have a child under age 18, yet a community that values public education and continues to support our schools and the work done in them.

An article with links to all the questions and answers asked of all the East Lansing School Board candidates can be found HERE.

Disclosure: Rebecca J. McAndrews has two children who attend East Lansing Public Schools and is a substitute teacher for the district.