Pat Beckham for 

Bellevue Public Schools 

School Board

Endorsed by the Sarpy County GOP!

Pat Beckham

Hello, my name is Patrice (Pat) Beckham, and I am running for the Bellevue School Board.  It is a valuable time to get involved whether you have children in school or not.  It is important to have community involvement in addressing the new challenges faced by children in education.  

As a long-time resident of Bellevue, I have a personal stake in the community and want to see it continue to grow and thrive.  A big part of any community, is the public school system.  When we started our family, we talked about moving to west Omaha, but we stayed in Bellevue for two reasons:  our church and the excellent schools.  While I believe that Bellevue Public Schools have been successful in comparison to other schools, I also believe we can improve in areas.

I do not claim to have all the answers, however, my dedication to helping the district and working collaboratively with other Board members will be to improve the education provided for all our children.  I will research, dig into the curriculum, encourage open communication with both teachers and parents, and use my mathematical skills to help the school district effectively manage both their financial resources and their people.

My key issues are:


-Pat

New Voice New Vision

The skills that children will need to succeed in a digital, integrated, fast-paced world are very different than those skills that were needed in the past twenty years.  Educational reforms that focus on communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking will be key to helping our children be ready for the complex world that awaits them after graduation.  There are innovative ideas that have been adopted by certain schools in the United States as well as in other countries.  These ideas offer us a starting place to investigate different approaches to education.  We have to actively look for ways to address this more modern set of skills that our students will need in the digital age.

Another idea I support is trying to encourage alternate diploma requirements for students that do not want or expect to go to college.  There is a shortage of skilled laborers such as plumbers, electricians, welders and auto mechanics.  If we could offer our students the option to start to learn a trade while still in high school and tailor classes to provide hands-on instruction, it could provide these students with a clear career path to a good-paying job after graduation.

Regardless of the world our children will be living in, we have to focus on strong reading and writing skills, as well as basic math skills.  These skills will be foundational to success in life regardless of a child’s career choice.  Too many of our third graders test below proficient for reading and math in the third grade.  We have to think outside the box and find ways to help all of our kids have the key skills they will need to be successful in life and it starts in early elementary school.

I firmly believe that parents have the ultimate authority in making any and all decisions about their children until adulthood.  Therefore, the school has to respect that right.  However, it is important to realize that teachers and parents need to work together to maximize the learning experience for the child.  With the parents’ rights to make decisions for their child comes a great responsibility to objectively evaluate any situations that arise in school.  Parents need to support the teachers as they are essentially the child’s authority while away from their parents.  Teachers need to realize the heavy responsibility they have to care for and nurture our most precious resource, our children.  When there are conflicts, parents need to listen carefully to both their child and the teacher before evaluating the situation.  This will require parents to critically analyze the situation to ascertain what is likely the truth.  Decisions can then be made with mutual respect between the teacher and the parent.  Teachers have a very difficult job, more so now than ever.  They deserve the respect and support of parents while being held to a high standard of teaching and ensuring the safety of our children.

Significant financial resources are deployed to educate our children.  The Bellevue Public Schools’ budget is nearly $130 million.  A significant percentage of our property taxes go to fund the schools.  As a member of the School Board, I will work to allocate our financial resources to best meet the core educational needs of our students and the community.  In my professional life I have been a partner in a small business and have successfully managed the financial side of the business, balancing revenue and expenses.  This experience, along with my affinity for numbers, will be valuable in analyzing the recommended budget and making decisions to effectively spend our resources on our core goal of educating our children.