Annie McMahon Whitlock-Lowell Area Schools Board of Education

06/30/2025

Educators have a saying: What is fair is not always equal.

Each school district has multiple pockets of money to fund various things, called "categorical grants." There are many of them and it is hard to keep track and report on all of them. And they are restricted to certain things. But this is ultimately good-- this means districts that have higher needs in certain areas may get more money (like the transportation example mentioned in our board meeting). The proposed House education budget suggests taking money for categoricals and putting it in the "per pupil funding" so districts can use it on what they need. Seems to make sense--except what is fair is not always equal.

One other thing that was mentioned at our board meeting is that this solution from the House is only for this upcoming year. The next year's budget? Not guaranteed we will get that redistributed money at all! And no promise the categoricals will come back. Although this budget may be OK for LAS this upcoming year, it will jeopardize future funding for us.

This budget is currently still in the negotiation phase, so there is still time for concerned citizens to make their preferences known to their elected officials. But the K-12 school's budget is supposed to be done by tomorrow, I believe. We shall see!

Say good-bye to soft lockdowns. There will be a change in school safety terminology next year.

05/18/2025

My face in this pic from Lowell's First Look just about says everything about our last meeting. It was full of celebrations: We honored retirees who spent decades working for our students. We said goodbye to Connor Casarez who always brought enthusiasm and positivity to our meetings with his student council reports. We heard about Kids Hope mentors making a difference for students across the district. We heard from a graduating LHS senior in public comment thanking the district for the many opportunities he has had here. As a board, we reiterated our support for staff and students.

I was bursting with pride. :)

04/20/2025

It is important to shout out the ones who got you here for sure. When I was a senior at LHS, I signed up for the "School to Work" class and being a teacher aide in Mrs. Rice's 1st grade class was one of the options. It sounded like a fun way to spend an hour or so every other day, but I wasn't necessarily planning to be a teacher in college. Mrs. Rice let me plan lessons and teach them, work with kids one-on-one, and basically jump right in to the career of elementary teaching. And I never looked back! If she hadn't created opportunity for me to learn or created such a positive environment for her 1st graders, I may never have looked at teaching as something I was interested in or good at. It would have been just another class I took in high school, rather than my career, passion, and life's work. Thanks Mrs. Rice!

There will be a new roof on the Wittenbach Wege Center and new carpets at Murray Lake Elementary next school year.

03/16/2025

**Trying this post again but turning comments off since we can't seem them civil and/or relevant today. This post is about the students. **

By far the highlight of Monday's meeting was the presentation by student leaders at LMS about their work in making every student feel welcomed at school. Principal Wiseman started the presentation by sharing long-standing educational research on adolescent development and how middle school is a time when students need to feel like they belong more than ever. I'm sure the students weren't expecting to have to speak to such a huge crowd, but they crushed it! They were so polished and impressive! Not to mention, the work they are doing is incredibly meaningful. We've got some fantastic students and teachers in this district!

03/03/2025

March is Reading Month! If any classrooms need a mystery reader, I have a massive collection of books and I'd love to read to your class!

03/01/2025

Preschool programs in LAS are top-notch. Teachers at Curiosity Corner and in the GSRP classrooms at Bushnell are amazing. Even better is that the district now has a goal to offer FREE preschool to all 4-year-olds in the district through the GSRP program, regardless of income. GSRP is funded by the state of Michigan and the Kent ISD, and follows a developmentally appropriate early childhood curriculum with trained teachers. Right now, Bushnell has 3 GSRP classrooms, and the goal is to have more of them at Curiosity Corner (more info to come on that!)

Sign up for GSRP here:

Free Preschool Page

03/01/2025

We got to see some Math achievement data at Monday's meeting too, and it looks great! More students are showing growth than in the previous year, and when tracking the same group of students (2nd graders who are now 3rd graders, for example), they are also showing growth from year to year. In 2022, LAS adopted the Reveal Math program for elementary students and it appears the math scores are showing that this curriculum is getting results. In the higher ed world, we like to look at "3 cycles of data" at least to look at instructional effectiveness. I can't wait to see how the scores compare from 2022 to the end of this school year!

02/27/2025

Well this was certainly an eventful meeting. I learned a lot, but not always what I expected to learn. I want to start by saying that typically, the public doesn't get to ask questions of the board during meetings, even during public comment. Admittedly, this meeting was a bit different because it started with a tour of the beautiful LHS library. Being the educator that she is, Mrs. Beachler took questions from meeting attendees throughout the tour. Most of them were legitimate questions, one was not. One question was asked specifically to bully and harass Mrs. Beachler. As soon as I realized what was happening, I should have stepped in to stop the questioning. Instead, I waited for someone else to jump in (certainly not the new person would have to say something, I thought). Upon reflection, I don't feel like this was the right decision. Throughout my campaign, I promised to protect and uplift educators and staff in LAS so they can do what they do best for our students. I talked about the importance of a safe place to work and to learn, and last night's meeting was not a safe place. I won't always be able to control everything in these meetings, but I can (and should) call out inappropriate behavior when it happens. I learned a lot about what kind of board member I want to be and how I want to proceed. Again, not what I expected to learn. :)

More to come!

The LAS Board of Education had a change of venue for their February work session. They headed to the high school to take a library tour.

02/17/2025

My colleagues said a lot of important things here about the K-5 ELA Curriculum and the WIN time at Murray Lake. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to say this in person, but I do want to add to their statements.

We all know that students learn to read at different paces-- some need a lot of support, some just need a little, some don't need any, and some need to be pushed and challenged. The DIVERSITY of abilities in a classroom is what makes teaching so challenging-- a teacher needs to find out what each kid needs and give it to them. You can't just teach the kids that don't need any support, because you're supposed to INCLUDE everyone. A good ELA curriculum will help teachers do this, so when I was able to attend their final meeting, I asked the K-5 pilot teachers specifically if Open Court helped them with this. Immediately, teachers were able to give me specific examples of how the curriculum helped them INCLUDE all learners and give them the opportunity to learn. After all, it is only EQUITABLE that each kid be given a chance to learn.

The Murray Lake WIN time is also a great example of ensuring that every student gets a chance to be successful. Helping students succeed will always be worth the time and money.

The Lowell Area Schools Board of Education approved a new K-5 English Language Arts curriculum at their recent meeting.