Stacey Mounce Arnold School Board Candidate Statement (At Large)

My name is Stacey Mounce Arnold. I graduated from the Winona Senior High School and received an excellent education. District 861 prepared me well for college and beyond. I am married to Chris Arnold and we have four children. I have a successful family dental practice that has been in existence sixteen years. I have been actively involved as a board member of the Winona Area Chamber of Commerce. I have been on the executive board and long time supporter of the Women in Business organization. I am treasurer of the Winona County Dental Society. I am a member of the Winona Health Auxiliary and have put in many hours promoting the importance of our local healthcare system in our community. I continue to support and advocate for our secondary educational facilities in Winona. I have given many hours and have been actively involved with the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Riverfront Plan. I have been a strong supporter of Maxwell Children’s Center—helping it move onto WSU’s campus and educating our legislators to see the value and importance of this model. I feel strongly that having a center on all college campuses in every secondary education community would benefit families and give a great start to these young lives. It is two-fold in the sense that the college students that work at the center learn valuable skills that will definitely help them in their chosen career paths (usually education, early childhood, nursing, physical education, etc) and also when they decide to become parents. (I am not a supporter of the satellite Maxwell center that went into Madison school because the district needed the space for other staff and programs and shouldn’t have given the space to an outside entity.) I grew up in this town and I care about this town. I have loyalty and obligations to help my community be a community that we are all proud of—in business, industry, healthcare, and education. I believe I bring many “hats” to the table that will help in decision making and understanding the big picture.

My vision for Winona Area Public Schools is to transition slowly in the direction of reprioritizing our goals for our children in our community. I see a need for a new image on all fronts where everyone plays an important role in creating the “new wave of education”! We need to educate everyone (parents, children, staff, teachers administration, board, and the whole community) that they have a role to contribute to the success of the future of our kids. Some of these groups are already doing that, but the collective whole is not working together and valuing the importance of education and at what cost it takes to have a successful system. We need to support each other in reaching this common goal.

I am interested in gathering the facts and utilizing the information to serve the best possible result. I want teachers and staff to feel that I am an open door for any feedback they want to give me. An environment that encourages a free flow of ideas will promote a healthy work environment(which is compromised right now) and create discussion and positive communication. We need to empower and embrace everyone’s potential and expertise and wrap it in respect and develop mutual understandings that will bring productive outcomes with people feeling like they contributed to the overall success. Right now the school system is lacking these dynamics. If you do not have mutual support you will generate a lack of excitement and low morale and then the quality of your system decreases.

I feel we need to refocus on the legislation that is in place today. The allocation formulas for school funding is designed for districts to fail. It needs to be reanalyzed. The proof is in the number of school districts that have had to rely on referendums and operation levys. I also see a need for more business backround individuals to be on school board. If you look at the history of our school board’s decisions, they have cost us more money than was necessary. Part of those decisions was based on the fact that they chose not to listen to the committees that were formed to research different problems and issues that were needing to be addressed. We need to delegate duties, listen to our community volunteers that do the research, and make tough decisions.

There are always going to be challenges in public education—funding issues, declining enrollment, increasing overhead costs, increasing special education needs, etc. I do not have all the answers, but I am willing to work hard with others to find solutions. I am also ready to make tough decisions—we need to find a home for ALC. Once we get the tough decisions handled, and get back on track, then we can focus on the KIDS and their education.