About

I grew up in Delaware and lived in every county in the state by the time I was ten years old. My husband and I moved ten times in our first nineteen years of marriage before moving to Coopersburg in 1997. At that time, our children were entering pre-school, fourth and seventh grade and for the first time in my life I felt I had found my true home.

While my husband, Tom, worked as an engineer in Quakertown, I threw myself into volunteering. Throughout our children’s education at Southern Lehigh School District, District, I was president of Lower Milford PTA, a Girl Scout Leader, Assistant Cubmaster and Music Parents President. In 2005, I started working at Southern Lehigh Public Library where I worked at the circulation desk and managed the patron database. For many years I attended school board meetings, usually once a month. After my youngest child graduated from High School, I decided to run for office. This was my opportunity to give back to the district and community that had given my family so much.

I was elected to the School Board in December 2013 and was elected again in 2017. Since joining the board I have represented the school district by serving on the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit #21 Board and the Joint Operating Committee for the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute. I've also served as Treasurer, Vice President and President of the School Board. After retiring from the library on January 30th of this year, I was appointed to a seat on the library board.

Serving on boards is not just about attending meetings. It's a job that requires you to research and read all material before making a decision that will potentially affect an entire community and a generation of children. These decisions are often not black and white. At my second board meeting, we had a vote on closing Lower Milford Elementary School. I was one of three board members who voted against closing because I loved Lower Milford and thought that the community really benefited from having a local elementary school. I was disappointed that most school board members voted to close it but found out quickly that once a decision is made by a majority of members, it’s important to support it and move on.

Last year when the pandemic struck, we had to make incredibly difficult and quick decisions on how to continue to educate our students and honor and preserve their mental and emotional health all while keeping them, their families and our staff, safe. In order to make the most informed decisions possible, we created a pandemic committee of health care professionals, teachers, administration, and school board members We continue to follow their guidance and were actually able to consistently get students into the schools ahead of our original schedules. In October, we implemented a hybrid learning model three weeks ahead of schedule, and just recently, during the third marking period, returned many students to their classrooms four days a week. Because many families opted to learn remotely, which they could do with our cyber learning options, it was possible for our administration team to allow most interested students into the schools while still keeping the spacing recommended by the CDC. These are just two of the many decisions I've had to make over the years.

Just before the pandemic struck, we were about to advance renovation plans at two schools and on our athletic fields. The pandemic presented us with such an unclear financial picture, we decided to put that on hold and staff and administration agreed to forego pay increases. A year later we are faced with businesses closing, properties requesting reassessment to pay lower taxes and potential tax rebates for struggling homeowners.

At our July meeting a unanimous vote was held and students will be allowed back in school full time in the fall of 2021 and masks will be optional. A virtual option with our own in-house Spartan Academy will also be running for families that have any hesitancy about having their students attend in person.