Kelly Datka

Taxes / Budget While there are community-wide benefits of being a destination district, it makes little difference when you open your tax bill. We are all called to be good stewards of our money. Well, I believe when you're spending others' money, that responsibility is even greater. We must adhere to our mission when we are creating the budget and asking for additional funding. Education We must strategically attract and retain quality staff, especially staff that directly serve our students. These are the people who directly affect the students' educational experience. We cannot undervalue the importance of a high quality professional in front of an energetic, young mind. There is too much at stake to put our students in the hands of anything less. We must be pro-active in addressing this issue before it impacts our students on a large scale. Taxes / Budget Enrollment is projected to continue to decline. This will decrease our aid for years to come. We must be mindful of that as we look at our current spending and plan for future budgeting. We cannot control decreased funding, but we can plan for it now to lessen the burden in coming years. Through thoughtful planning, we can control the impact of decreased aid to minimize the effect it will have on the quality of education for our students.