Mrs. Elizabeth Crossley is running for a school board position in District 5 of Scott County Schools, KY.

Elizabeth can be reached through email at: crossleyforscottkyschools@yahoo.com

Her campaign website can be found at: https://m.facebook.com/crossleyforscottcounty/

(For more detail on the exact questions asked, see the Survey Guide)

TOPIC ESSAY ANSWER MOTIVATION:  The largest thing that motivated me is how education of our children was seen as less important than other issues. I understood the loss of a couple months of education while we figured out the seriousness of COVID, but by fall, we knew the risk to children was very low and we should have went back to in person instruction. Now I see other issues creeping up throughout our country’s schools including CRT, “medical treatment” of children without informed consent from parents, as well as the social contagion that gender dysphoria/gender identity disorder has become. I want to get ahead of these issues rather than reacting after it comes to our district in full force. ROLE OF EDUCATION:  Education is immensely important, especially K-12. Public education has been a good system for many years, often times better than some private institutions. It has served our country well. Items such as reading, math, science, history, and the arts should be in public education. Items such as personal beliefs, religion (excluding the historical side of it which can be taught in classrooms, and most issues relating to sex should be handled by the family. CURRENT DISTRICT ASSESSMENT:  Our school district is fairly good. It does need some improvement in catching up our children on items they have falling behind, such as reading. One potential way to do this is extra time focusing on this. I plan to help make sure our educator’s have time and resources to do this. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE:  We need to give the professionals we hired to teach our children, teachers, the tools they need in order to teach. We need to work on reducing things on their plate that do not contribute to their ability to educate students. Metrics around education should focus on improvement of students not an across the board testing score at the end of the year. TAXING & SPENDING:  The first step to balancing almost any budget is not bringing it more, it is about looking at what is going out. Are areas appropriately funded? Are there areas with overspending? If, after that it looks like more needs to be coming in, this information should be presented to the public and their input is needed. Those paying the taxes should be represented and participate in that decision make process. CHARTER SCHOOLS:  I have not had much experience with charter schools. There is potential that anything that is not directly run by the government could be better, but it could also be worse. I do feel if a school district is doing what it needs to do, then there is less need for alternatives such as charter schools. SEL & DEI:  I work in a public institution that activity pushes DEI, including pushing outside recruitment for positions that are easily filled. DEI typically creates a larger divide than it should create. We have come a very long way from Jim Crow days, or even times when I was a child, the later in large part because the world has become so easily connected thanks to technology. I think DEI misses the mark because it does not think about the individual, but rather, groups individuals into a whole based on characteristics that are not usually in their control. Social-emotional learning should begin at home. Sometimes schools may need to aid in it, but, for the most part, this is something that should be home based learning. RESOURCE ALLOCATION:  There should be a base line division of resources, but, like anything else, sometimes others need more attention. Decisions for need of more resources should be based on the individual not based upon a demographic group. STUDENT DISCIPLINE:  Discipline, in most cases, should have a base line of guidance with other factors such as previous disciplinary actions and if it is felt the incident would occur again. Alternative schools have a place in the current school system. It can help both students with behavioral issues and those who may not do well in the larger school setting. COVID:  It was an error to only go mask optional when it seemed to the outside the board would have little choice. ANY ILLICIT PERSONAL CONDUCT:  I have no felonies and my record is clear of anything but traffic ticket(s). I am currently an RN of 12 years within the state with no disciplinary action and no investigations with the Kentucky Board of Nursing. OTHER THINGS VOTERS SHOULD KNOW:  I want to give parents more of a voice in the education of their children.