LO United for Schools has completed the vetting process of all candidates and with ballots being mailed this week, are recommending that you vote as follows:

Position 2:  Sarah Howell

Position 3:  Karen Delaney

Position 4:  Liz Hartman

Sarah has proven over the last 5 years that she has the time, energy and capability to lead the district.  She has consistently attended and testified at school board meetings.  She has led grass roots efforts for innovative programming like STEM, immersion and IB.  She has been a tireless fundraiser and led marketing efforts for the LOSD Foundation.  She has been given community awards for these efforts.  She is also committed for the long term, with children in the district for the next 15 years.  Her opponent has rarely been seen at board meetings and his involvement in the district has been entirely focused on the Foundation, not the core issues needed to set policy and provide oversight.  There is no question in our mind that Sarah is the most qualified and best representative for this seat.

It would be hard to find anyone who has been more engaged in the LOSD community over the last 10 years than Karen Delaney.  She has attended almost every board meeting, has served on multiple SAC teams at multiple schools, served on the consolidation committee where she was the sole dissenting view based upon capacity issues that were inevitable and where she correctly predicted a need to reopen schools or add portables.  She still has children attending and volunteers in the elementary, middle and high schools through reading groups, mock interview process and countless other fundraising and academic support roles.  Karen also brings many things to the board that have been missing over the last few years – open dialogue with the community, deep analysis of all issues facing the district, detailed oversight of financial reporting as it pertains to all taxpayers and a focus on the entire community, not just a specific audience of the district’s power brokers.  With a law degree from Cornell, an economics degree from Wellesley and experience on the FDIC and Campaign Finance Board, she brings a unique skill set that is seriously needed on any board, an independent voice that will provide oversight above political alliance.

Liz Hartman’s record stands on its own.  She has been involved in the district at all levels and in all areas for over ten years.  She has served on countless committees, volunteered in elementary, middle and high schools and is respected by parents, teachers, principals and other administrators across the district.  We believe the primary reason for this is her consistent focus on a holistic view of all issues and ability to bring people together on issues of many complexities.  She has also served on the LOSD Foundation board for several years, where she championed and co-founded the endowment.  It’s hard to find an issue where she is not well informed and when you do, she knows how to bring the right people together to help make the most informed decisions.  We look forward to working with Liz to help make LOSD even better in the future.

Over 96% of respondents have children in the district and over 98% live in the LOSD boundary areas.

There were several issues with broad consensus:

• College preparedness, Class size and Financial Stability were ranked the most important by the most people
• Safety of Athletic Facilities, Security upgrades, and Standardized Testing performance were ranked the least important by the most people.
• 84% felt local revenue and PERS reform were the most viable options to balance the budget.
• 81.5% felt teacher reductions were not a viable option to balance the budget.
• The top 3 new superintendent qualities were: financial expertise, experience leading a high performing district and innovative problem solving.
• The lowest new superintendent quality was: promoting from within the district.

We are working on another survey that will allow us to dig deeper into the issues that did not have broad consensus.  Once complete we will send out and would greatly appreciate your continued participation.  It is helping us develop questions for our forum on April 4 and we hope it is helping our existing and future board members understand the priorities from the eyes of our community.