Student- and Family-Focused

Stephanie will put students and families at the forefront of her advocacy and decision-making. Our district has an incredible diversity of cultures, backgrounds and identities. Stephanie will look beyond diversity as an abstraction, being deliberate in thinking about how our district and city’s diversity can enrich the experience of everyone in our community. Stephanie will actively seek out voices and perspectives of others, especially those voices that tend to be marginalized and silenced, to generate productive conversations that lead to meaningful and creative policy and change.

Language and Immersion Programs

Stephanie is tri-lingual and has taught Spanish and Portuguese language, culture, and literature classes. Her son is in the Spanish-immersion program at Highland Middle. She knows the value of language education and will be a strong voice for the protection and expansion of these opportunities.

Intentional Technology

Stephanie knows that many current and potential SPPS families are concerned about how technology is being used in our schools. As an SPPS parent herself since 2016, she has worked alongside her children as they navigate iPads and the various online tools and applications used in the different stages of their education. Stephanie is committed to holding SPPS administration accountable for transparency around how technology is being used in our schools and the cost to all of us of that technology. She will root her technology policy recommendations in research around best practices and academic success and ensuring that our educators are well supported when implementing changes to policy. 

Federal Overreach

The Trump administration has threatened school districts across the country. A dangerous right-wing culture war targets our most vulnerable students. It is imperative that we elect school board members who will resist federal overreach and refuse to give in to any Trump demands that would harm our students. Stephanie was on the frontlines of organizing against ICE occupation in SPPS and will continue to lead with these values.

Worker Collaboration

Stephanie grew up in a union household. Her dad was a union elevator constructor with IUEC Local 9. Her grandfather was a union ironworker and her uncle is a union sprinkler fitter. Stephanie is a unionized graduate student worker with UE Local 1105. She knows the importance of a protected workforce. She has a strong relationship with Saint Paul educators and collaborated with them on advocacy projects and the effort to resist the ICE occupation and provide mutual aid to community members. She knows how important organized labor is for our community and is committed to governing collaboratively with our educators.

Facilities

Stephanie organized the Wellstone community to save her school during Envision SPPS. She knows how school communities can be harmed by haphazard top-down processes. She believes that any ongoing discussions about the future of our facilities portfolio must be driven by community voices and community needs.

Democratic Governance

Stephanie supports the current Board Initiated Goals Governance (BIGG) model and will work to strengthen the community outreach efforts undertaken by the Board in order to continue to make the work of the Board as transparent and community-facing as possible.

Cross-Governmental Collaboration

Stephanie is committed to working with our partners in the City of Saint Paul and Ramsey County to find opportunities to improve our operations and better serve the Saint Paul community. We can work together to build Full Service Community Schools, making public services and resources available to families in need. And we must work together to find opportunities to create efficiencies and reduce the property tax burden.