"Why I'm Running" -by Kim Aubrey-Larcinese

     The first person I asked to sign my petition to be on the ballot for the upcoming election is a friend of mine. Our children go to school together, and we’ve volunteered on Woodland’s Home and School together for a few years. But she completely threw me for a loop when she asked me one critical question: Why do you want to run for school board? 
     I knew on some level why I was doing this, but I hadn’t quite thought about how to articulate it, let alone share it with anyone. I’ve since had time to think it through, and what it comes down to is this: I am not a person who points to a problem and looks to others for solutions.
     I wasn’t always this person, but over the last 15 years, I’ve been married to a man who comes from a family of volunteers. If there was ever a job that needed someone to step up to do it, someone in his family was there to fill it. I’ve come to embrace this philosophy in my life.
     I’ve volunteered on several committees through Home and School and served as a member of the executive board. I’m a merit badge counselor for the local Boy Scouts and an active committee member with Troop 182. I’ve volunteered in various capacities with my sons’ baseball and soccer teams when there was a need that had to be filled. And now, as I’ve been paying closer attention to the workings of our school board, I’ve come to realize that this is another problem that needs solving, and I can’t look for someone else to step up to do that. 
     Our school district is the backbone of our community, and as such there needs to be strong connections between those schools and the people outside of them. When a community is invested in educating their children, schools flourish. My hope is to build partnerships between the schools and our community stakeholders – the businesses and residents who all have a vested interest in helping our children succeed. Education is not just a concern for the children in our schools and the parents of those children. It’s not just about the people inside the school buildings. There are untapped and inexpensive resources in our community – corporations and organizations that could benefit from partnering with our schools, older residents with valuable experiences and perspectives to share, and students who are not being offered every opportunity to succeed.