Laurie Kuna lckuna55@comcast.net

1. Please tell voters a little about yourself, how long you have lived in the district, and why you want to serve on the Lowell Area School Board of Education.

I came to Lowell in 1979 to teach English at Lowell High School and except for a two-year layoff (the ’81-’82, ’82-’83 school years) have lived here since then, so 43 years. While laid off, I returned to MSU and earned an MA. I was rehired in August of ‘83 and taught at LHS until retiring in 2010, a total of 29 years with Lowell Area Schools.     

Over my career, I taught English 9, 10, 11, 12, Shakespeare, creative writing, advanced composition, American Literature, journalism and, early on, a couple sections of phys. ed. I also taught/advised the school newspaper staff, which wrote and produced the LHS newspaper for many years.

I’ve coached volleyball for at least 35 years in LAS: 11 years as the Varsity coach, 2 as 9th grade coach, and the rest at LMS with 7th and 8th grade teams. This includes volunteering with the 7th grade White team since 2012. I’ve also done volleyball color-commentary for several WRWW broadcasts and have been the P-A announcer for many matches.      

 In 2012, I ran for and was elected to the Board of Education and currently serve as vice-president. We’ve had tremendous success as a district over the past couple of decades, but there are always aspects that can be improved. I would love to continue to use my experience in education and knowledge of this community to serve the school district and all its stakeholders by continuing on the Board.

The past few years have seen unique challenges to public education, and I feel uniquely qualified to help meet those challenges because I’ve been in the classroom and know the history of the district and how we’ve met those challenges in the past.

I’m also a forward-looking person and understand that any school district can’t rest on past success but needs to continue to look for new ways to educate our students. It’s our district’s goal to prepare every student to become a contributing member of society and in order to do so, we must invest in the resources—be it personnel, infrastructure, technology, classroom materials, transportation, etc.—needed to bring world-class educational opportunities to our students.

2. In what ways have you invested, volunteered, and engaged with the district and the Greater Lowell community?

I’ve been a member of Lowell Arts since 1979 and have held every board position except treasurer. I’m once again on the board of directors and also serve on the theater committee. I’ve acted in several of Lowell Arts’ plays and volunteer in many ways: box office, at the Fallasburg Festival of the Arts, gallery events—pretty much anywhere I’m needed to lend a hand.

I’ve been a member of Friends of the Englehardt Library for six years and work during their sales at events like the Riverwalk Festival. I’ve also volunteered at Pink Arrow events, including working at the scorer’s table during the volleyball match and driving a golf-cart shuttle prior to and after the football game. As stated earlier, I am a volunteer coach at Lowell Middle School.  

1. Please define what you understand “parental rights” to mean regarding public school districts, what you know about mechanisms LAS has in place to support paretal rights, if you see those as inadequate or lacking, and if so, what you would propose as a board member to address concerns.

To me, the issue of “parental rights” has come into being since COVID as a mechanism for injecting political beliefs into an apolitical institution. Parents have always had the right to advocate for their student(s)’ education, and that hasn’t changed. However, the perception of a certain segment of society regarding the scope of those rights has.

 Parents have access to every aspect of their child’s education, and it is their right and responsibility to advocate for their child. The district communicates to parents via newsletters, social media, the district’s website, individual schools’ newsletters and open houses, course syllabi, class reading lists, the grading portal, parent-teacher conferences, emails, phone calls and in-person meetings. The Lowell High School student handbook is available for parents of high school students. Parents may request a meeting with their child’s counselor or teacher(s) outside of regular parent-teacher conferences and have virtual or in-person options for those meetings.

The media center has a list of Frequently Asked Questions posted on the district website and contact information for parents who need more clarification on these policies and procedures. Parents can see what types of materials their student checks out of the media center and can restrict access to any materials they don’t feel fit their family’s philosophy. They can also request alternate classroom materials for certain lessons or units.

 School board meetings are open to the public and meeting times and locations are posted. At those meetings, parents have the opportunity to make public comments on subjects that may concern them. If they can’t attend these meetings in person, they can watch the video stream through the website. They may contact the Board of Education directly via email and call or email district and building administrators.

 While parents have the right to advocate for their own children, they don’t have the right to determine what other students get to read, listen to or watch. And their individual concerns don’t take precedence over the goals and mandates of the district as a whole.

 The mandated responsibility of public-schools is to educate to the best of their ability every child that comes through the doors, regardless of factors like race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or cognitive ability. To that end, it falls to the district to provide the resources, instruction and support students need to become well-rounded individuals whose scope of knowledge will prepare them for life in the multi-faceted society that exists in this country.

 Districts also must follow state and federal laws regarding public education, civil rights, funding sources and curriculum, to name a few, and they must stay within their budgets.

 Many of the mechanisms LAS has to facilitate parental rights have been in place for the 43 years I’ve been associated with this district, and the advent of more sophisticated technology has resulted in even more sophisticated avenues for parents to utilize. I don’t see these as inadequate or lacking. LAS does a very good job of addressing individual parents’ concerns for their student’s education and works with parents to assure their children are succeeding. Just because a parent disagrees with the scope of their rights doesn’t mean their rights are being violated.

2. In recent years, LAS has added an elementary math coordinator, literacy coordinator, after-school tutoring programs, summer school, and middle and high school mental health support. Work is underway to determine how successful the programs and projects initiated with Covid-era ESSER funds have been, and whether they can be maintained when those run out this school year. Some may continue by using the district’s general fund, and others only if there are new grants available.

If there are not adequate funds or grants, some tough decisions will have to be made that may not be unanimously popular. What sources might the BoE explore to help make those decisions?

The programs added with ESSER funds were designed to help our students recover from learning loss during COVID, and data suggests that they were successful in doing so. The employees hired with those funds knew up front that they were not guaranteed a job with LAS when that money went away. However, the district has managed mostly through attrition to employ many of them. Experienced, quality staff are at a premium, so it’s to the district’s advantage to retain these people whenever possible. And while staffing needs are often determined by student count—especially at the elementary levels—making this somewhat of a moving target, LAS administrators do a good job of hiring positions to fit students’ curricular needs while maintaining a healthy fund equity balance to keep the district fiscally strong.

The BoE and central office administration look at student data on a broad range of standardized tests, surveys and grade reports to help determine whether to keep, add or cut programs. Our administrators study research on learning acquisition, student social and emotional needs, and child development, to name a just few aspects of education, and examine our existing programs to see if we’re meeting those needs in the best and most cost-effective way. They also examine our programs for compliance with state educational standards. The district’s goal is to help each LAS student achieve their full potential and become a self-sufficient, well-rounded contributor to society. To that end, we use as many tools as are at our disposal.

Our CFO, superintendent and curriculum director apply for as many grants as are available to fund a wide range of district needs. For example, local grant monies were acquired to purchase the new LPAC sound system, keeping general fund money available for classroom needs while upgrading a sound system that is as old as the high school. The Lowell Education Foundation provides grants directly to classroom teachers for innovative programs/materials that are outside the district’s or individual building’s budget. This is another example of teachers obtaining useful materials for their students from monies that don’t come from the general fund (or their own pockets). Often, teachers share these materials with other staff, resulting in more grant applications to acquire more of this resource to benefit more students.

Education is people-centered, so data can’t tell the entire story. While data helps us determine student academic needs and how well our programs are meeting those needs, every district employee—from bus drivers to custodians to secretaries to para-pros to support staff to counselors to teachers to administrators—help round out the picture of individual students. Our staff members are best positioned to fill in the blanks that data can’t and thus help the district achieve its goal of helping students reach their full potential. Often, teachers make referrals to appropriate staff members for individual student assessments or alert a counselor to a student’s non-academic needs. The district partners with an outside counseling group to assist students in ways that are beyond our capacity to provide. To my knowledge, there is no way to quantify this aspect of education, so when talk of cutting programs to save money starts, my instinct is to look at ways to reduce costs or increase revenue streams that don’t directly affect students. I’m happy to say that this philosophy is shared by my fellow board members.

If and when it becomes necessary to cut a program or programs, I’m confident that the people the district has in place to make those decisions will do what’s best for the district while providing a high-quality education to our students.

3. How would you assist a parent or community member in addressing an issue when they are asking you to solve a problem or make a change that is outside your scope as a board member?

When approached by a parent or community member on issues that are outside my board member scope, I try to be completely honest in what I can or cannot as an individual board member do to solve that problem. I also thank them for trusting me enough to feel comfortable to approach me. If the issue is with a classroom teacher, I explain that there’s a proper chain of command that needs to be followed, starting with the teacher. If they feel they can’t address the issue with the teacher, then I recommend the next step in that chain is to go to the building principal. If the issue isn’t with staff but with policy, I direct them to the district website and any and all FAQ documents it contains. Or to call Central Office and ask for help. And I encourage them to bring it up at a board meeting. Several years ago, I was approached about an issue and recommended the person attend a board meeting and broach the subject during public comment. I explained that the Board can’t act on an issue they don’t know about. The person took my advice and attended the next board meeting to voice his concern. It turned out that once the whole Board learned about the issue, we moved to address it. The fix was actually quite simple. Still, it needed to be done.

4. Besides core subjects, students learn teamwork, initiative, respectful debate, informed decision-making, and critical and independent thinking. Please articulate the value of learning these skills in school.

While experience can be the best teacher, it’s better to learn certain skills in a school’s controlled environment rather than first-hand in the real world. Individuals who don’t learn to make informed decisions, think critically and independently or work as a team while in school will be at a distinct disadvantage after they leave. And often, acquiring that knowledge first hand comes at a steep price. If they don’t have initiative and can’t debate respectfully, their ability to provide for themselves or a family will be severely restricted and their contribution to a vibrant society curtailed. Success is defined in many ways and is often unique to the individual, but I believe in no case is it defined as lacking the above-listed skills.

Schools are a microcosm of society and provide students with opportunities to practice life skills, but making a mistake in school won’t have the potentially devastating effect on a student’s life that making it as an adult could have. For example, if a student gets into a fight at school or steals something or is disrespectful, the maximum penalty is expulsion and perhaps reparation for property damage. Doing any of these in the real world can lead to incarceration, bodily injury or, in the worst case, death.

Students also have the chance to learn from mistakes and correct them before the consequences of their actions result in severe penalties. They have caring, trained adults to help them deal with frustration, anger and hurt, give them guidance toward becoming self-reliant and empathetic and move them toward becoming successful adults. They can learn how to be better friends and how to respectfully disagree with others. And the latter skill also leads to developing negotiating skills which are invaluable, especially if they become parents.

I don’t think you can overestimate the value of acquiring these life-skills. The fact that students have the opportunity to do so while the stakes are far lower than they will be after they leave school only makes it more critical that schools provide them with those opportunities.

5. ‘Feeling safe’ in school varies given learning styles, peer group/social dynamics, and home situations for the more than 4,000-plus members of LAS staff; administrators; parents; elementary, middle, and high school students; as well as for those with special needs. What is the BoE’s role in striving to meet and simultaneously balance all of these?

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6. Lowell Area Schools has implemented policies and programs supportive of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; social-emotional learning and Positive Intervention Behaviors and Support. Are you supportive of each of those items? Why or why not? Is there anything you would advocate as a board member to affect or improve upon those areas?

In order to reach our district’s goal of preparing students to enter society with the skills necessary to thrive, the BoE has approved of the district’s policies regarding DEI, SEL and PIBS. I support each of these initiatives.

DEI helps foster a feeling of belonging among students and dispels the idea of “other.” We all want to belong, to fit in, and it’s through DEI programs that we can help our children realize that “different” isn’t bad. That it’s perfectly fine to not be exactly like anyone else. That diversity, in fact, makes our society not just good but great, not just strong, but super-powered. When our students leave Lowell—for college, the military, work, etc.—their chances of moving to a place exactly like Lowell are almost nil. If we don’t prepare them to be open-minded and accepting of those different from them—in whatever way—we’ve set them up to struggle and quite often to fail.

Inclusion, to me, dovetails off diversity because it teaches our students that they belong, regardless of their physical attributes, different family values, or other differences. It empowers children to become their best selves through helping them see their value and the value of their classmates. Inclusion goes a very long way toward helping students be resilient and comfortable in their own skin. Representation is also invaluable to the mental health and wellbeing of our students. If they don’t see themselves in the books they read or the videos they watch or in the professionals they interact with, they don’t see themselves in those roles.

The term “equity” is badly misunderstood, and that’s why DEI programs are so important in our schools. Back in 1999, I was part of a lawsuit against the Michigan High School Athletic Association. At the time, girls’ basketball was a fall sport, and volleyball a winter sport, and Michigan was one of only four states in the Union that had that alignment. It was during this lawsuit that I learned that “equity” means comparable, not “equal.”

Basketball is the easiest example because at the time boys’ volleyball wasn’t played in Michigan high schools.

So, if high school girls’ and boys’ basketball programs were comparable—or equitable--back in ’99 with girls playing in the fall and boys in the winter, then boys’ coaches would be willing to switch their programs to the fall and let the girls play in the winter. Obviously, that didn’t happen because the programs were light years from equity. In order to comply with Title IX and Michigan’s Elliot-Larson Civil Rights Act, the MHSAA switched volleyball to the fall and girls’ basketball to the winter, among other scheduling adjustments for boys’ and girls’ sports.

This generation of students has enjoyed equity on the courts and playing fields for years because of that switch, and I can’t help thinking that if DEI had been something schools were teaching back then, a lawsuit like the one that forced the MHSAA to comply with Title IX and Elliot-Larson would never have been needed.  

Because society is diverse, it’s the district’s obligation to help students realize that not everyone is like them, and that this isn’t a bad thing. It’s through our diversity that we are strong as a nation. Every team needs the different skills of its members to be successful, and it’s through the ability to recognize that diversity makes us more able to weather adversity and disaster that we find true success as a group.

Social Emotional Learning is critical to students growing up to become resilient adults. Children, obviously, mature at different rates, and it’s through our SEL programs that we can meet them where they are in the moment and give them the skills necessary to deal effectively with whatever life throws at them. It helps them understand themselves in ways that will benefit them not only at that time but throughout their lives. Again, learning these skills in a controlled environment with the help of professional and caring adults is far safer than learning them through personal experience.

In the same vein, Positive Intervention Behaviors and Support (PBIS) meets students where they are and teaches them how to act in a manner that reduces personal conflict and increases their chances of success in the world. Not every child is taught at home about appropriate behaviors outside the home. It’s through programs like PIBS that LAS can help students gain the skills and self-awareness necessary to successfully navigate the rules and norms of their environment. These skills increase their chances of being contributors to society and reduce the chance that they will run afoul of social norms and even laws.  

7. What steps have you taken so far to learn the main issues that face this district and/or the current board? What are the top three areas of focus for the district as you see it?

Having been on the board since 2012, I’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand what issues LAS faces. I’ve also had many opportunities to attend state and national school board events and training sessions, giving me a broader perspective on the issues facing all of America’s public schools.

The top 3 areas of focus, for me are:

 1. Fiscal Responsibility—It is the duty of the Board of Education to steer the district toward delivering an exceptional education for students while maintaining a fund balance that keeps us safe from deep budget cuts and staff/program reduction. We’re a financially conservative board, and while that sometimes goes against my personal philosophy of putting as many resources as possible into the classrooms via staff and materials, I know we have a duty to district taxpayers to make sure the doors stay open, and the lights stay on.

The Board has done an outstanding job of this. For example, LAS is the 3rd biggest busing district in Michigan. Our bus fleet drives 2700 miles per day—the equivalent of a round-trip drive to Florida—resulting in approximately 486,000 total miles on the fleet per school year. Buses now cost around $150,000 each, which doesn’t include the cost of fuel, insurance, maintenance or staff pay. We annually purchase 3-4 buses to keep our fleet safe to operate. By taking steps to increase the longevity of our fleet—we’re close to completing a bus wash which will decrease road wear on the buses’ undercarriages—we can reduce operational costs and still provide safe transportation for our students.

 2. Safety.

 We must continue to provide learning spaces where students feel safe from verbal, emotional or physical threats, whether that be from fellow students, staff or other adults. Among the initiatives in place in LAS, the PBIS program helps ensure that our students learn in a safe environment by giving them the skills, as stated above, to work together with their classmates, teachers and staff members in a positive way. Continuing to support our students through such programs as PBIS is essential to their overall well-being.

 Over the past several years, the district has redone the entrances to all of its buildings to better protect students and staff from intruders. Much of this necessary upgrade has been done through various grants and the sinking fund, but some has come from the general fund. Fortunately, infrastructure upgrades need to be done once every twenty years or so, meaning we’re saving money over the long haul by making the upgrades now.

 Soon after I came onto the Board of Education, LAS began using a School Resource Officer (SRO). The program has proven so successful that we now have two officers working for the district. They are invaluable as support to our administration and staff. They coordinate with city and state police when a situation warrants. Also, they often work directly with students by helping counselors and teachers educate on such dangers as on-line and social media safety. They also are a presence at athletic contests, meetings and many other district events.

  3.  Continued academic improvement. LAS does a very good job of preparing our students to become contributing members of society. There is always room for improvement, however, and I believe that we’re on the right path when it comes to developing/implementing programs that meet our students’ emotional, physical and intellectual needs. As a board member, it’s my personal commitment to the shareholders of our district that LAS will continue to improve on meeting every student’s need.

8. Do you think the current process at LAS for receiving, investigating, and resolving a request to remove a book from the district libraries is thorough, fair, and respectful of all parents’ rights?

Yes. The book review policy is clearly stated in the LAS Media Center’s Frequently Asked Questions and outlines the procedure to be followed for a book challenge. 

Any LAS stakeholder can challenge a book and must follow the outlined procedure in order to do so.

The panel reviewing the book consists of seven people—three from administration (including the building principal whose library the book is in) a parent, a student and two teachers.

They read the challenged book and then evaluate it using the Miller Test for Obscenity, the Federal standard set in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling Miller v California. In that case, the USSC established the guidelines for determining whether a work is obscene and thus violates the law. (Notice that the word “pornography” doesn’t appear in the ruling. Pornography is protected speech. Only obscenity and child pornography are not protected by the 1st Amendment.)

The panel then follows a standard set of questions which coincide with the requirements of the Miller Test and after discussion of those questions vote to either remove the book from the district’s collection or keep it. 

It’s not required of the Board of Education to vote to accept or reject the panel’s ruling, but in the case of the two book challenges that took place early in 2023, the board voted to uphold the panel’s recommendation to keep both books.

To me, the procedure in respectful of parents’ rights because every parent has the right to go through the challenge procedure. Their rights aren’t violated just because the outcome they sought wasn’t reached by the panel or the BoE.

9. How can or should LAS set itself apart from other area districts to attract and retain qualified staff and support positions, given budget constraints and talent shortages?

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10. How many school board meetings have you been to or watched recordings of, and do you see the current board as lacking in any area?

Over my 11+ years on the BoE, I’ve attended all but probably seven of the 246 board meetings available to me to date. And three of those I watched via live- streams. Although sometimes illness or personal situations occur to keep Board members from attending meetings, I’ve never seen a member that has missed an inordinate number of meetings. And, since we’re provided with a weekly superintendent update and the appropriate documents prior to each meeting, it’s a simple matter of reading the materials to know what will be discussed at each meeting. We’re also free to contact Nate or anyone else in Central Office for more information on aspects of the meeting we might have missed and the issues discussed.

11. School boards are multi-faceted and dynamic, and serving can be challenging, time consuming, and complex. How would your personal and professional strengths and skills complement the Board? How would you handle differences of opinion to stay focused on the goal of improved student learning?

Our board is strong because the people who serve on it aren’t necessarily in lock step with the district’s policies and procedures or with each other’s personal philosophies. And we each bring a different perspective and differing skill sets to the board, so we’ve got “experts” in many different aspects of the board’s scope of governance. It’s through respectful questioning and discussion that we move the district forward toward the goals we’ve set for delivering the best education possible for each of our students.

I think my personal strengths and skills developed over years of teaching and coaching add to the skills and strengths of my fellow board members. I’m an excellent communicator and problem solver, but I’m not a numbers person. Fortunately, I don’t need to be, as we have an excellent CFO in Sonja Hodge and Board members who deal with numbers who can explain the nuances to me. I ask for clarification when I don’t understand something, and I believe this serves to help each board member better understand the issue at hand. I’m a team player and put my own personal views behind the needs of the district and the Board’s majority opinion.  

Even if I’m right, I won’t fight to the death to make a point if it compromises the overall goals of the district. That type of behavior is better left to arguments over sports teams and politic and has no place in the Board of Education room.