District 834 Q&A: Kathy Buchholz (incumbent)

Name: Kathy Buchholz

Age: 55

City: Afton

Education: Bachelor of arts from Gustavus Adolphus College

Occupation: Former science teacher and college admissions counselor; and marketing research director serving Fortune 500 companies

Family: Married with two children who attended Stillwater Area Schools

Civic involvement: Served past seven years on Stillwater Area School Board; member of Stillwater Noon Rotary Club; supported Yellow Ribbon efforts within Washington County

The Bulletin asked District 834 School Board candidates the following questions:

1. What do you see as the major issues facing District 834?

2. If the district should find itself in another budget deficit, would you be in favor of going out for a levy referendum? If not, what would you cut?

3. How can the district incorporate technology into the classroom?

1. Align our resources of time and money through completing our strategic planning process grounded from input across our community, the ultimate owners of our public schools; hire and retain the best staff through implementing an effective annual performance evaluation system; update our student achievement policy to ensure success in the 21st Century; continue to increase visibility, transparency and trust with community members; advocate for stable state funding so all students, no matter where they live, have access to adequate learning opportunities for students to successfully complete in the 21st century.

2. Our current levy referendum will expire and need to be renewed by our voters during fall 2013. I will support going out for a levy referendum next year in order for our school district to continue to provide the programs and services valued by our community. Completing our strategic planning process early 2013 will help our district determine the resources needed to provide the programs and services needed by our students to succeed in the 21st century.

3. The role of technology continues to expand for students within Stillwater Area Schools. Students and families are encouraged to use a wide array of technical products to access a variety of tools to individualize instruction for our students. Whether the tools are provided by families or within the classroom, our students, K-12, are using a variety of technical tools to personalize their instruction. Some examples of how technology is used at our elementary and secondary schools are the use of Moodle, online courses, Google apps, student e-portfolios in the Cloud and the flipped classroom.

Kathy Buchholz is an incumbent for District 834 School Board.

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