Ruth Wood, candidate for Goddard school board

Name: Ruth Wood

Age: 71

Occupation: Retired Goddard teacher and building principal.

Previous government service: 8 years on the Goddard School Board

Have you run for office before? (Please list any previous offices sought)

Just the two terms on the Goddard BOE

What is the top issue in your race, and how would you address it?

The BOE’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis for our K-6 students. Since an immunization is not yet available for these students, our board is requiring masks be worn at these grade levels. We felt, and I agreed, that this was the only choice we had to keep the students and staffs as safe as possible. The board wanted to keep the schools open and keep students in school. Not only because they might miss school for contracting COVID, but also if they were not wearing a mask, they would have to quarantine if they were a close contact. The state legislature limited our option for remote learning, so this could be very detrimental to learning for quarantined students. Our numbers have gone down significantly since implementation. It is my hope that vaccines for 5-11 year olds will become available soon. As soon as this happens, the board can meet again to address the K-6 mask requirement.

What would your top 3 policy priorities be?

Other than looking at our COVID requirement that I stated above, I do not have any other policies that I feel need to be added or changed at this time. During my 8 years on the board we have extensively looked at our policies. Our district administration has been diligent in determining if we needed to add, remove or change policies as circumstances/situations have changed. This has been especially true to keep us in compliance with state and federal laws. This policy review will continue to be needed each time new legislation is passed that may affect our schools and district.

Campaign website: None