Consider Your Vote for School Board Carefully

I am back and ready to pick up where I left off with just a slightly different approach— less confrontational and more friendly towards the real issues that face our district and the people that help make those decisions on behalf of our kids.

Running for the school board is something not to be taken lightly or with a grain of salt, but with reverence that the most important thing is that our children get the best education by the best teachers, and we have that. The teachers in our district are the epitome of the best. They care for our children, show compassion and help our children by example.

Teachers take a beating because of the money they make, but they deserve every penny. Being a product of the Cleveland schools, there were teachers that excelled even with all the adversity they encountered and in my opinion were not paid nearly enough for what they dealt with on a daily basis.

An example: there are 40 students for every one teacher. Can you imagine one teacher trying to teach 40 students at one time? We don't realize exactly how lucky and blessed we are to be in a school district that is among the best in the state.

My family moved to Westlake when my 8-year-old daughter was 9 months old because we needed to leave Cleveland after a drive by shooting at the house next door to us ... We chose Westlake because we knew this was a city we would feel safe raising our family in. We had heard wonderful things about the school district and we knew this is where we wanted to be, and we are thankful everyday that we do live here.

So when you consider who to vote for the school board, search your heart and find what values matter to you, and vote for those candidates that represent your values and who you have faith in and know that they put your children first and pettiness aside.

Whoever you vote for, make sure you make an informed decision by seeing where they stand on those issues that matter to you, attend the meetings that they will be attending, email them and let them know what is important to you. Only then can we be assured that our children are in the capable hands of a board that will work together to make the schools even better than they already are and help Dr. Keenan in the matters, that matter to us as parents and as the community.