Q&A with Linn-Mar School Board candidate Jodi Treharne

Jodi Treharne is running for the Linn-Mar School Board. She is not an incumbent. Here are her answers to a survey we sent to all of the candidates.

Occupation and Employer: NextGen Healthcare

How and who should determine curriculum?

The Curriculum Director and Principal should ultimately determine the curriculum with the Superintendent and Board Approval only after they have gone through an extensive process of evidence-based research and feedback. Evidence-based research on different curriculum should look at best practices and include discussions with other districts and compare data. Getting feedback from the teachers is critical. Holding feedback sessions and creating a safe environment that allows teachers to provide candid input is essential. Allowing them to speak up and say, “yes, I think that is a great idea and my students will respond well to this” or, “you know what, I don’t think taking away sight words for a 1st grader is a great idea, and here is why I think that…”. Without fear of retaliation.

Why do you want to serve on the school board? What relevant experience do you have?

I am running because I am passionate about our kids, our district and helping us grow, thrive, and gain positive momentum as a district I want to see Linn-Mar be the very best district in the state and I know we are just scratching the surface of our full potential. I am a strong leader with 10 years of executive leadership experience as well as formal leadership education and training through Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. I am a successful business professional and have led a local non-profit for the last decade.

How would you describe your attendance at past school board meetings?

Intermittent over the last few years, mostly online due to work and kids sports and activities, but enough to keep up with what is going on. A few months ago, I changed up the swimming carpool schedule so that I could attend more in person instead of online.

What are your three top priorities for the school district? What will you do to address them?

1) To make Linn-Mar best district in the state, improve our image & get back to common sense policies. I am running because I believe in Linn-Mar. Our kids, our staff, and our future. I think with my leadership skills can help us to take us to the next level. We can Reach Higher Linn-Mar! I think I have a lot to offer as a strong leader, and I am the only candidate at the table with formal leadership education and training. I have two young kids that go to Linn-Mar, and I genuinely want to see us succeed. I don’t want to see us smeared in the media nationally, or called out in a presidential debate for our polices. Do you? I want us to thrive. I want to see some common sense back in place. I know we can do better, and I know I can help us do better.

2) Improve Parent / BOD relations / Restore Trust & Transparency. We can do better than this Linn-Mar. For any of you that have walked into a BOD meeting you can feel the tension. Every relationship starts with trust and that is currently lacking. My goal is to rebuild trust and transparency. We need to treat each other with respect. We need to rebuild this parent, board, and administration relationship. I have spent the last 10 years in executive leadership, and I am willing to put my skills to work to bridge and repair this broken relationship. We can do some simple things like getting more input from the community via surveys to increase that communication and really understand what it is that our community wants. We could also change some policies to allow parents more time at school board meetings. We need to start somewhere Linn-Mar and I say start with your vote for me.

3) More teacher input on polices and major initiatives that impact their daily lives. Teacher burnout is real. The decisions made by the administration and the BOD have a major impact on job satisfaction. Our culture at Linn-Mar and ultimately this impacts the kids. For example, changing our curriculum with little to no data and no input from the teachers can be frustrating. I have found in the leadership positions that I have held that the staff that does the job typically knows best and is the best resource to ask questions and gather data from when looking to make any kind of changes. They always come up with the best ideas and solutions. More teacher / staff input for any new policies and initiatives that we implement can only be a win for our district. We will have better ideas; staff will be more involved therefore happier improving our turnover rate our culture and ultimately creating positive student outcomes. There are many ways to accomplish this, and it could look different at each school. The important thing is having administration and a BOD that is supportive of it and allowing each school the flexibility to implement what works best for them.

What do you see as strengths and weaknesses of the school district?

Our people are our strength. Our oldest son attended LM from 3rd grade until graduation and my younger two transferred 2 years ago from a private school. We have had some of the most caring, amazing teachers, unbelievable coaches, and overall great role models at Linn-Mar. Our people are our strength and when you have great people you can do amazing things. It’s why I know we are just scratching the surface with what we can accomplish.

I have mentioned it multiple times. From a leadership perspective we tend to have a difficult time listening to parents and providing transparency. Overall parents don’t feel heard by our district and our board and that is a major area we need to improve.

We have really allowed ourselves to become divided, and every year it seems to get worse. I know that my professional leadership education and training can be a big asset here, to help us as a district better communicate and work together to unlock our full potential.

Are there any curriculum concerns you have with the district? Why? How should the school board address these issues?

My biggest concern with our curriculum is our lack of data and analytics, and the ability to measure our success or failure. We don’t currently have a great way of tracking our success and failures or comparing ourselves internally peer to peer or externally with best practices across the state. You cannot measure what you do not track. We should be investing in data and analytics software, and taking advantage of software that is currently available to us that allows us to track the successes and identify areas of growth or areas we may need to adjust to achieve success.

If you were required to cut the district's budget, what areas would you look to for savings and why?

A state budget cut seems unlikely since to the best of my knowledge it has not happened since Governor Chet Culver’s 2010 10% cut across the board for schools. Additionally, the Linn-mar district continues to see positive economic growth. Housing starts are steady and property valuations continue to climb. With a budget that is primarily based on student enrollment and property valuations it is difficult for me to foresee a need for across-the-board budget cuts due to the revenue stream. However, in the unlikely event of such a cut, I would try to handle it by looking at all of the different buckets of money and taking a look at some of the short- and long-term plans and see where we could re-structure, defer, re-allocate and / or possibly delay allowing us to prevent cutting anything. Ideally preventing cuts altogether.

I do think it's important when evaluating any budget decision that the mission of the district be at the heart of the conversation. As a District, the mission is … to develop lifelong learners by equipping them with knowledge and skills to confidently meet life's challenges as responsible, productive citizens... Nobody wants to reduce the district budget, what is essential that all budget considerations be evaluated to ensure that at the end of the day the district is able to maintain the district's mission moving forward.

What level of control do you think school boards should have?

School boards play an important role in our community. Effective school boards provide great leadership, vision and effective oversight and do not overstep their boundaries. Here are some examples of effective board leadership:

• Setting sound written common sense policy that upholds the actual law.

• Overseeing employment processes for other school employees through policy.

• Hiring, setting goals for, and evaluating the superintendent.

• Monitoring and evaluating the financial health of the district, ensuring strong financial planning, approving an annual budget consistent with the districts vision.

• Using ongoing, two-way communications and transparency to build trust and support among community, board, superintendent, staff and students.

If the school district had additional funds available, what should they be allocated to? Why?

Definitely special needs as this is an area that is always underfunded. I would also say classroom paras & literacy efforts.

I think there are many things that would be worthy of additional funds such as work / project-based learning. Many of our kids do not go on to college, and helping kids get exposed to trades and allowing them to get credentials is huge. Right now, we have a big transportation problem, so an obvious answer is increasing wages for bus drivers and trying to solve that issue.

What will you do to be responsive to parents, teachers and district staff? What types of communication should the public expect from you?

Certainly, via my email and social media. I do think the Board should do more events that make themselves accessible to the public, the way our city council does with the office hours. Maybe go to the coffee shop or library quarterly and make themselves available for open discussion with the public. I think being accessible would help resolve the current lack of trust and transparency that exists between the board and the public. I would also advocate for changing some of the board processes to ensure parents have more of a voice at board meetings.