My husband, Mike and I have been married 15 years and have two children. Both are in the city school system.We have always been involved in their schools and believe serving on the school board is a good way to ensure our schools strive to provide the best education, while being efficient with both human and financial resources.

We are small business owners which gives me the experience to stay within a budget, make tough decisions and come up with new ideas to save money when needed. I believe this will give me a unique perspective as a board member.

I currently serve on the board for the Tourette Syndrome Association of GA. I, along with my kids, have Tourette's and understand the struggles kids have to deal with because they are "different". Being a member of the TSA of GA board has allowed me to meet others who have tics and it allows my kids to make friends who accept them as they are. This summer we launched our first camp for Tourette's; Camp Twitch & Shout. It is one of only five in the U.S. I am proud to have been a part of it.

My family attends First Baptist Church of Gainesville where I have been a volunteer for our Wednesday night Missions classes for the past few years. I have also been an active supporter of many organizations here in Gainesville.

I enjoy doing oil paintings as a hobby and have donated many over the years to local charities for their silent auctions.

Why I am Running?

Over the past few years I have attended school board meetings only to feel like the city tax payers were not being heard. Then last year we discovered the school system was in debt and no one knew where the money went. As a result of over spending and bad accounting, our property taxes were raised 12% at a time when people were already feeling the recession. I decided then that a fiscal conservative needed to be on the board to help get spending under control and taxes lowered so people could afford to live in the city. After all it's a great place to live.

Why should this matter to you?

The school system makes up 73% of your property tax bill so whether you have children in school or not, you should be concerned with how your money is spent. Accountability and transparency needs to be in place so every dollar is spent wisely and every taxpayer understands where the money is going. Remember, without a strong school system our property value declines and that hurts everyone.

The tuition program

I have written about the tuition program in the Gainesville Times, not because I wanted to abruptly end it but because I thought it was something the board should be looking into. The board had run out of cost cutting ideas and the tuition program does cost the city taxpayers $1.6 million per year. (That number does take into account the state and federal funds, plus the tuition paid) This program has been around for a long time with no adjustments made. There are no standards in place, no qualifications or limit to the number of students who can enroll. We have two elementary schools that are over crowded yet more students were allowed to come this year. We need some previsions in place in order to keep children safe and make sure we are allowing the city students first choice.