Brittany Bower, who helps run her family’s property-damage restoration business, is running for the Area B seat on the San Marcos Unified School District board of trustees. The San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates running for school board in districts around San Diego County about their policies, plans and priorities. Here’s what Bower told us about hers. Why are you running for school board? What makes you a good candidate? My goal is to bridge the gap between the classroom and parents, while prioritizing students’ education and mental health. San Marcos has great schools, but if we don’t have leaders on the board who are willing to ask difficult questions and make hard decisions, we risk losing those great schools and settling for mediocrity. Brittany Bower (Courtesy of Brittany Bower) I will always be accessible, listen, engage with the community and put students first in every decision. I bring a diverse set of experiences, having spent my career in business administration and helping run a local small business, along with extensive community service experience. I will bring a new perspective to the school board, making sure there is generational balance and all voices are being heard. I am not coming to this race from an educational institution. I believe an outside perspective can be helpful in ensuring the board is fulfilling its purpose of representing the community. What is the most important issue currently facing your school district? The most important issue San Marcos Unified School District currently faces is campus safety. In recent years, SMUSD has moved away from accountability measures like the dress code and guidelines for cell phone use and has taken a hands-off approach regarding vaping and drug use on campuses. We are doing our students a disservice by giving up on accountability and creating distracting and potentially unsafe learning environments on our campuses. What are the top three specific things you would seek to accomplish on the school board? In addition to what I mentioned above about campus safety and wellness, my priorities include: Ensuring parental engagement — Open communication between the board, administration, teachers and families builds trust and fosters a supportive educational environment. I support creating welcoming campuses where parents feel heard and involved in their children’s education. Supporting student mental health — The lingering effects of distance learning have intensified student mental health challenges. I support funding for counselors, psychologists and intervention to address issues early. Prioritizing mental health is vital for fostering a safe, nurturing and academically successful environment. What would your approach be to district budget planning and spending? What would you do if your district had a budget shortfall? We should be prudently managing our facilities and capital assets so that we don’t constantly need to go to taxpayers to approve unnecessary debt. We also must build reserves to safeguard against future financial instability and ensure budget transparency and long-term planning to ensure high-quality, sustainable education. We must also address the fact that San Marcos Unified is seeing declining student enrollment, as more families choose to send their children to charters, private schools or home school. We should be asking why that is and ensuring that there are choices available to those families to continue with SMUSD in the manner that works best for their families. How should your school district raise student academic achievement, and what would you do as a school board member to accomplish that? With a safe and positive classroom environment comes classroom engagement and a space where students can thrive in their education. Implementing goal-setting, tutoring programs and sharing academic assessments with students and parents, we stand to raise academic achievement within San Marcos Unified School District. As a member of the school board, I would start by addressing the safety issues within the school district, implement student guidelines and make sure that students’, teachers’ and parents’ concerns are being heard. Where there is trust and communication, there are positive learning outcomes. Do you think anything currently offered in school curricula or libraries should be removed? If yes, what, and why? If no, why not? The issue of inappropriate curricula has received much attention in recent years and become a political topic. This is unfortunate, as our school districts should be able to bring parents, teachers and community members together in a collaborative way to ensure that curricula are age-appropriate, without the debate devolving into partisan bickering. That is the approach I would take on the school board. It is our job as adults to protect students from topics that are not serving them mentally or educationally while also making sure that politics is not interfering with the education of our students. What do you think is driving student absenteeism in your district, and what would you as a school board member do to reduce it? Rising absenteeism is a symptom of the larger problem of the district moving away from accountability in our schools. Absenteeism has a direct financial impact on the district and more importantly, on a student’s academic performance. It is important that the district maintains accountability for all behavioral issues, including skipping school for non-excused purposes. Do you think schools should notify parents if their child’s gender identity or presentation at school changes? Why or why not? This is an issue that the state has addressed through recent legislation, taking away these policy changes from the purview of the school board. However, more broadly speaking, I do believe that we should be keeping parents informed of all decisions impacting their students, whilst keeping student health and safety as the top priority. It is important for students to feel safe and heard and for adult intervention when necessary.