I’m the mother of two kids in the school district.

Who to choose for the Summit School District Board of Education this year is pretty clear to me. We can choose the incumbents and have the same issues and suspect decision-making, or we can choose the 4 For the Kids candidates who have commonsense priorities and no-nonsense solutions. What I like most about the 4 For the Kids campaign are the academics first and transparency priorities.

Nobody can argue that academics should be a school’s first priority. This is a no-brainer, but amazingly only four candidates (Kim Langley, Pat Moser, Manuela Michaels and Danielle Surette) have made academics the centerpiece of their platform. It’s been well documented that the district’s academic performance has been falling for years. We need board members that will address this.

The other 4 For the Kids priority that I absolutely agree with is transparency. I’ve been repeatedly surprised by some of the curriculum choices and surveys that either seem to have nothing to do with my children’s coursework, are clearly political activism or are simply not age appropriate. At best, this seems like a distraction causing parents to lose trust in the district with no benefit.

For these reasons, I’m voting for the 4 For the Kids candidates. We need more common sense on the board.