Priorities
Financial Health
Everything a district wants to do for kids depends on getting the money right. Good stewardship isn't only about spending less. It's about knowing what we're buying and what it gives back.
I spent seven years managing election operations for Ottawa County. In that role, I was responsible for spending resources wisely in an environment with no margin for error. I would bring the same care and attention to detail to the budget process for the district, and only ask the community for additional funds when it is essential for meeting our community’s needs.
What I’ll work for
Budgets the public can actually understand
Budgets are essential ways to communicate with our community, and I’ll push for plain-language summaries alongside the official documents. Every member of the community deserves to know where public dollars came from and where they went.
Facing our enrollment numbers honestly
GHAPS has lost more than a thousand students since the 2014–15 school year, and further decline is projected over the next five years. Michigan funds districts per pupil, so fewer students means less state revenue. The per-pupil foundation allowance is rising to $10,300 for the coming year, a 2.5% increase, but that doesn’t offset what years of enrollment loss have cost us in total dollars. That trend won’t reverse on its own, and it won’t be solved by wishful projections. Our board should make facilities and staffing decisions early, while options are still available, rather than late, when only painful ones are left.
Thinking big
Facing hard numbers doesn’t mean shrinking our ambitions. We only have to look across the river for inspiration. Spring Lake attached a fitness and aquatic center to its high school, and it serves high school students during the day while the wider community uses it the rest of the time. Adding multiple purposes to the building gives community members without school-age kids a reason to walk through the doors and feel a direct benefit from the investment of their tax dollars.
This is just one example, and I am not proposing any specific type of project. But I want GHAPS to think creatively, and consider what a capital improvement does for students, what it does for the community, and what it means for the future of Grand Haven.
Community partnership, and housing families can afford
The board should work with community partners — the cities and townships within the district, Ottawa County, and local employers — on solutions that reach beyond the school budget. This includes affordable housing, so the teachers who work here can afford to live here, and so this community can keep growing in a way that’s sustainable. A district can’t cut its way to financial health if the community around it can’t attract and retain families.