Our students are experiencing a mental health crisis. We can help students to thrive by working with teachers and staff to create wrap-around support for all our students in order to foster mental, physical, and academic well being. This includes advocating for the creation of school based health centers in our high schools, supporting LGBTQIA+ youth through inclusive curriculum, strengthening our partnerships with organizations such as Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County to utilize their no-cost teen dating violence prevention program and non-violent communication skills workshops, and exploring creative ways of implementing social-emotional learning throughout the school day such as meditation and breathing exercises and classroom activities to foster emotional awareness.

We can help prepare students for the workforce through partnerships with unions and other organizations to create pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships and introduce students to a wider variety of career paths. We can look towards programs such as the Tulalip Tribes’ TERO Vocational Training Center’s multigenerational approach to pre-apprenticeships. We can also work with the Port of Everett and the Maritime Institute to connect students with careers in the Maritime Trades.

With over 1,500 students and families in the Everett School District experiencing some form of homelessness it’s clear we need to not just be looking at how we can support kids in the classroom and in school to provide comprehensive, wrap-around supports for our homeless youth, but also we need to be working with community organizations such as Housing Hope and Cocoon House in order to properly develop more housing for our homeless students in the district.

Teachers and staff are struggling to engage students in the classroom and navigate students’ complex behavioral and mental health needs. We should be actively engaging with them and supporting the solutions and implementing the changes they propose.

My priorities for the budget are ensuring that in-classroom education is not impacted by cuts and that our teachers and staff are properly supported. We should be looking at all additional available revenue sources and consulting with teachers and staff to find areas for additional reduction.

A recent Snohomish County Children’s Commission report found that almost 40% of indigenous students in Snohomish County are not graduating on time. It’s clear that Everett Public Schools should strengthen its partnership with the Tulalip Tribes to create additional supports for Native Students in the district and educate all students on the Indigenous history and culture of our region as well as finding ways to partner with other urban indian organizations in order to better support our indigenous youth.