Election 2024: Meet Saline Board of Education Candidate Shari Barnett

Voters in the Saline Area Schools district will elect four members to the Board of Education in the upcoming general election. The candidates are incumbents Jennifer Steben, Susan Estep and Brad Gerbe, and Darcy Berwick, Kelly Van Singel, Shari Barnett and Jason Tizedes.

We asked questions of all the candidates. Here are Shari Barnett's replies.

Shari Barnett

Bio

I have lived in Washtenaw County for over 26-years. My daughter is preparing to start her senior year at CMU and my son is a senior in Saline High School. I have been a professional at the University of Michigan Medical Center for 34-years. Throughout those 34-years, I have served in both clinical and leadership roles including Respiratory Care Clinical Specialist in the Trauma Burn ICU, Manager of a Clinical Research Project Management and Quality Data Monitoring Unit, and Assistant Managing Director of a Clinical and Translational Research Education, Mentoring and Career Development Unit. Currently, I am serving in the role as Program Manager for the Clinical and Translational Research Program in the UM Section of Thoracic Surgery. I moved into this role 11 years ago to work with faculty to build a section based clinical research program and today it boasts a robust portfolio of basic science, clinical, and outcomes-based research, and numerous internship opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students and postdoctoral research fellowships.

In terms of volunteer activity, I have volunteered for two terms as Research Chair for the Michigan Society of Respiratory Care. Prior to moving into the Saline Area Schools District, I was very active in my children’s elementary school and served as PTO Secretary for two years at Childs Elementary School. At Lincoln Middle School, I volunteered as guest instructor to teach the unit on the respiratory system in 8th grade Anatomy & Physiology Class. In addition, I had the pleasure of serving as chair for many dances and formals.

In the Saline Area Schools District, I am in my 3rd
year serving as co-lead for the High School Wrestling Team’s Parent Committee, and like all parents, I have volunteered for countless hours of fundraising.

Why are you running for the Board of Education?

I chose to run for school board at Saline because working with students, building educational experiences and assessing outcomes and value added or impactful work is something that I have built my career around and have a lot of passion for. I feel my education and experience could translate well into making positive changes and enhancements to the district. I believe this is a good time to reassess many of the district’s policies and practices to verify that we are serving the community to best of our abilities, being good stewards of the budget, and exploring innovative ways to deliver education that will prepare the next generation of critical thinkers. I also feel the community and district would be better served with a school board comprised of a more balanced representation of backgrounds, skills, talent and ideas.

Why should voters choose you?

If voters choose me, I will guarantee to listen to all stakeholders, treat them with respect and empathy. I believe we are all owners of the district and need to work together to make sure we are providing the best education possible while respecting our diversity. I am known to have incredible attention to detail and will thoroughly investigate all options and potential outcomes to any decision. I believe my skills and training would bring a new perspective to the school board and balance the voices and approaches to problem-solving, education delivery and meeting the needs of our whole community.

If awarded with the opportunity to serve as Saline School Board Trustee, I would aim to utilize the lessons learned from the exceptional leadership of my workplace (UofM) and encourage a K12 version of BASE (Belonging and Inclusion, Accessibility, Safety, and Experience). Rather than several appointed committees working in silos, I would love to see a BASE committee formed to (1) implement strategies focused on enhancing belonging and inclusion of every student, staff member, and family, (2) develop processes and workflows to ensure that every student has access to additional academic and social supports to help them succeed and flourish, (3) commit to the highest level of safety and security during all hours of operation, including after school extracurricular, sporting and special events, and (4) design and implement qualitative needs assessment and survey sampling strategies to evaluate student, staff and family experiences and then commit to making changes to improve those experiences

If elected, what are your top priorities?

If elected, my top priorities would be to (1) explore and encourage investigation into issues leading to student loss; (2) promote and support the high academic rigor that Saline Area Schools are known to uphold; and (3) encourage the district to continue partnering with families to ensure tools and resources are available at home to help the student succeed; and (4) encourage the district to implement more outcomes assessments on the changes made to academics, pedagogy, priorities and implementation of social and emotional learning supports.

The board’s transgender policy states that school staff shall not reveal a student’s transgender status to the student’s parents. Do you agree with this policy? Why or why not?

The policy adopted in 2021, states that in general, school staff shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s transgender status to others, including the student's parents or guardians and other school staff, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure. Recent court cases challenging similar school policies across the country, have failed to result in forcing policy changes in those districts. These court cases are brought forth and cite the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that establishes protections to parental rights. The 14th
Amendment safeguards a parent’s right to direct the educational upbringing of their child and provides fundamental rights to parents to make decisions regarding the care, custody, and control of their children. This right is considered a protected liberty interest, meaning that the state must provide due process before interfering with these rights. In March 2023, Gov. Whitmer signed a law to broaden the anti-discrimination law to apply to both sexual orientation and gender identity. However, this law did not address the issue of school districts notifying parents that their child has changed their gender identity.

Since I am not an incumbent, I do not have information to know how often this policy is referenced in terms of withholding of information from parents about their child’s gender identity. Personally, if I had a child who was experiencing questions pertaining to their gender identity, I would want to know this information so that I could provide them with support. However, I realize that not all families are alike, and these issues may be more distressing for some parents and children versus others. In fact, there may be instances where a child would want this information withheld due to real and/or perceived threats in the home. In situations where the child’s safety and welfare are at stake, the school is mandated to report the incident with CPS, so this would in turn bring the issue to the knowledge of the parents.

That said, outside of situations where the safety of the child could be an issue, I do believe the best outcomes are likely in situations where the information is shared with the parents or guardians and the school chooses to work with the family directly and/or via social service referrals to help and support the student and the family. The policy does not detail the process for which the school obtains information about the students consent to notify the parent or guardian so I would be interested in those details. It may be relevant to know if it is by default “no, do not share information with the family”, and only shared if the student proactively informs the school that it is ok to share the information with the parent or guardian, or is there a purposeful conversation to document consent to sharing information in each instance.

The board used to have a 10 percent cap on schools of choice students. What do you think of schools of choice and how should the district use it?

Currently, there is no cap, but the policy does state that the Superintendent will strive to enroll out-of-district at approximately 10% of the student body. The policy was last updated on April 23, 2024. Prior to the final decision date for this year (which occurred in August), the SOC students comprised over 11%, but there was potential to permit more based on vacancies when the final student enrollment numbers were assessed. This is up from 7.9% in 2019/2020 and the 2021/2022 school years.

I think SOC is a good option to offer. Saline is a terrific school district, and many SOC students and families benefit from the education and services provided. In turn, Saline benefits from the increased diversity of prior educational experiences from the SOC students entering the district. There are numerous pros and cons, but I do believe that there should be a cap. Unlimited SOC may benefit the district pulling students in from other districts but unlimited influx to one district and exit from another could put devastating strain on the financial health of the district that is experiencing the greatest loss. This can potentially hurt the students that remain in the district losing students since it is most likely the families with more resources and information who take advantage of SOC and can facilitate transportation out of the declining district. This would then negatively affect the students who are left behind and may already be at a disadvantage. I also feel unlimited acceptance of SOC students can delay or prevent school officials from addressing the issues that are leading to increased number of vacancies in the district.

What’s a strength of the district? Do you think there may be ways to leverage that strength to improve education in the schools?

The strength of the district are the teachers and staff who put so much work into educating our children. I am astounded each year at the dedication and willingness to go above and beyond to help our children learn and provide additional support when needed. I am also appreciative of the level of communication that the school provides to students and families. I know that some benchmark and achievement scores are declining in some areas. I know my son has at times required additional support from teachers to complete assignments and prepare for exams. If a student is willing to put in the extra time, I know the teachers and staff will avail themselves to helping that student. This dedication is what sets our district apart.

What’s a weakness of the district and how should it be improved?

In discussions with family and friends, and based on my experience attending school board meetings in other districts, I think one weakness would be the periods of conflict and at times dysfunction, of the current Saline School Board. I think a balanced board comprised of unique and diverse perspectives with a commitment to cooperation and compromise for the sake of the district and education of every child would be an improvement and allow for continued progress forward.

Should the board be more careful about adopting policies that are cited as reasons to leave the district for private schools? Why or why not?

I have yet to see cited reasons for why so many people have the left the school district. Since 2016, the district is down over 1000 students, and it is not low birth rate as the driving factor. However, despite numerous calls for exit interviews and survey of families choosing to seek different options for K12 education, no effort has been made to systematically collect this information. Aside from having this concise information, I do feel it is in the best interest of the district to conduct a needs assessment to gather information to help inform on what issues are most important to families, students, and staff. This information could present as valuable to guide us in future years since public education will continue to evolve and parents/guardians will have more options for education of their children.

As a board member, what obligation do you have to the people with whom you disagree?

School Board Trustee is a nonpartisan role and has a duty to represent the community as a whole. Whether you agree or disagree with a stakeholder in the school community, a board member has an obligation to maintain functionality of the board through collaboration, respectful and constructive discussion, and in some cases, compromise. As an elected board member, a person has the responsibility to educate and provide for the safety and welfare of students. If disagreements arise, it’s the responsibility of each board member to prioritize the obligations of the role, and resolve disagreements for the sake of the district, the students and mission of the board.

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