Karen MacLaughlin (Rochester Public Schools, Position 3, Minnesota, candidate 2024)
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Karen MacLaughlin ran for election to the Rochester Public Schools to represent Position 3 in Minnesota. She was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
MacLaughlin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Karen MacLaughlin provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 4, 2024:
- Birth date: August 23, 1967
- Birth place: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
- High school: Clayton High School, Clayton, WI (Go Bears!)
- Bachelor's: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 1989
- J.D.: William Mitchell College of Law, 1998
- Gender: Female
- Religion: Spiritual
- Profession: Attorney
- Prior offices held:
- Rochester Public Schools, Director, Position 3 (2020-Prsnt)
- Incumbent officeholder: Yes
- Campaign slogan: Vote for ALL of our students' futures!
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign X
Elections
General election
General election for Rochester Public Schools, Position 3
Karen MacLaughlin and John F. Whelan ran in the general election for Rochester Public Schools, Position 3 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
Karen MacLaughlin (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| John F. Whelan (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Election results
Endorsements
To view MacLaughlin's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for MacLaughlin in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Karen MacLaughlin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by MacLaughlin's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am passionate about public education. I believe strong public schools are the foundation for a strong community. I focus on student safety, belonging, and support. I strongly support development and implementation of the District's strategic plan. I advocate for increased school funding. I collaborate with colleagues, other government officials, and community partners.
A vote to re-elect me to the Rochester School Board is a vote for strong public schools for our growing and diverse community. I support investing in our students and staff so every student has the individualized supports and services they need to be successful. I emphasize thoughtful, data-driven decision making and innovative strategic planning to improve academic success. I prioritize student safety, belonging and support, and removing systemic barriers. I value community input and the voices of students and staff. A vote for me is a vote for a bright future for RPS and students, rather than a big step backwards.
I have been a practicing attorney in Rochester for over 25 years, first as a local prosecutor in juvenile court, and now as a legal aid attorney representing clients who cannot afford an attorney. I am a proud parent of a 2023 RPS graduate. I am a community advocate and former member of the Olmsted County Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Shelter Board. I am proud to have the endorsement of the Rochester Education Association and the Rochester Education Support Professionals.- I support investing in all of our students and staff so every student has the individualized supports and services they need to be successful.
- I prioritize student safety, belonging and support, and removing systemic barriers. In my opinion, student belonging and the relationships students develop with the adults in their lives lay the groundwork for academic success. If students don't feel like they are valued as individuals and that the truly belong in their school environment, they don't have the tools and supports they need to engage in their classrooms and grow and learn. It is my goal to identify and remove barriers to student success.
- In my next term, I want to dig deeper into ways board governance practices can improve student achievement, and implement those practices. I also want to continue the work of the board legislative committee, advocating for additional school funding at the state level, and considering a platform that would reimagine school funding and replace the funding mechanisms related to “free and reduced lunch” with a different and more equitable mechanism now that all students lunches are free across Minnesota.
Strong public schools, removing systemic barriers to education and justice, fully funding public schools, ending discipline disparities and the school to prison pipeline and policies that perpetuate racism, policies that support the needs of transgender and/or gender-expansive students and staff, and supporting equity in education.
The increasing number of talented local elected officials in Rochester, who just happen to be women. I would follow the example of all of these women because as the number of women in leadership and elected office grows, we demonstrate together how our effective collaboration serves the diverse needs of our community.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, Charged by Emily Bazelon.
Understanding the needs of the community, the ability to make hard and sometimes unpopular decisions for the good of the community, following through with what you say you are going to do as a key way to build trust, continuous improvement, making sure decisions and information are communicated clearly to others, the ability to effectively collaborate with community partners.
Persistence, dedication, compassion, humanity, a thick skin, and a strong work ethic.
Prioritizing student success, leadership, effective board governance, data-driven decisions, thoughtfulness, developing policies and supporting the District's strategic plan.
That the world is a little more caring, compassionate and humane, and there are fewer systemic barriers to education and justice when I leave.
The Watergate hearings. I think I was seven.
At the age of fifteen, I decided I needed to start having some of my own income, so I started working as a waitress in a local diner. I remember needing the approval of the school district to accept the job because I was under the age of sixteen. I had the job for about a year, until the owner decided to close the restaurant.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Mr. Stevenson's honest discussion of justice and redemption changed how I view our criminal justice system, and the role attorneys can plan to effect positive change.
The theme to Three's Company (that is sort of embarrassing).
Work life balance.
To provide governance and develop policies to provide direction for the district and the superintendent, and to support all students so they can be successful.
All voters, community members, parents, and students in the District.
I would work with my board member colleagues and District administration to identify the diverse needs of the district's students, faculty, staff, and community and consider and develop policies to meet those needs. I would focus on the needs of historically under-represented groups and groups who face bias, unfairness and systemic barriers to their success. I fully support gender inclusion policies and related efforts to create inclusive environments. I would engage with and collaborate with community leaders, parents and caregivers from diverse communities to understand the needs of our diverse student population and how the District can effectively meet those needs.
I will continue to work to build relationships with Rochester's diverse communities. I support the board and the District's continued work with C.E.R.T., NAACP, Pamoja Women, ACHLA, AIPAC, Cradle to Career, the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, United Way, the Boys & Girls Club, Olmsted County, and the City of Rochester (my guess is I am forgetting some organizations I should include on this list!).
I believe good teaching is best demonstrated by engaging students in the classroom or other learning environment. If students are not engaged, they are not able to learn. I believe this can be measured through formal and informal surveys and feedback, along with more formal observations of teachers in their classrooms by peers and supportive administration and effective feedback and data. I will support advanced teaching approaches by trusting teachers to know what is best for their students to meet each student's unique needs.
I would like to see expanded curriculum in the areas of technology, such as computer science, engineering, computer security and artificial intelligence because I believe these are all growth areas for a future work force. I also support advanced technical training and apprenticeships. I am hopeful we can expand curriculum offerings in world languages at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. I would like to see more support in our district for ALL students taking at least one advanced placement, honors or PSEO class while in high school. I would support expanding our Montessori education program and our P-TECH program to reach more students. If given the opportunity (funding), I would also support universal Pre-K across the District.
I would continue the work of the Board's Legislative Committee to work closely with local legislators and continue to advocate for fully funding public schools.
In my first term, my board colleagues and I worked diligently to modernize our school resource officer contract. I believe this improved school safety and clarified the role of school resource officers in RPS. I want to work to disrupt the school to prison pipeline. I favor restorative justice principles in response to student discipline issues, rather than ineffective punitive responses. I also believe it is critical to provide professional development to all teachers and staff so they can all be confident they are using effective methods to address student discipline issues.
I would support continued funding of mental health screenings for students and increasing funding for mental health professional and counselors. I believe it is important for the Board and the District to recognize the mental health needs of teachers and staff, and support continuing to build collaboration days into the District calendar to support collaboration and wellbeing.
I would like the board to consider policy and/or statutory changes so all school board candidates run as a pool of candidates for the number of open seats, rather than requiring candidates to choose and file for one individual seat on the board.
Rochester Education Association, Rochester Education Support Professionals, GoodParty.org, I have taken the School Board Integrity Project Pledge.
I trust teachers to provide ideal learning environments for their students. I also believe in meeting students "where they are at" and working creatively to help students identify how they learn best, and then creating that environment to meet their needs. I support teachers thinking "outside the box" to meet their students' unique and changing needs.
I believe our District did an excellent job handing the coronavirus pandemic. The District listened to the advice of experienced medical professionals and worked to identify responses that fit the needs of the Rochester community, the families we serve, and students. We were able to navigate the pandemic for a fairly large district with different educational and social needs for elementary and secondary students. I believe the District did an EXCELLENT job recognizing the critical need to get meals out to students and families and creating effective processes for doing so on the urgent timeline these efforts required. The District also developed an innovative and effective summer school program. The District also developed and implemented a successful plan to vaccinate staff and eligible students. Hopefully there will not be another pandemic in the future, but if there is, I believe we will be more prepared to address student and staff mental health.
This past year, the Board has intentionally focused on the goal of developing stronger community relationships. We have held quarterly community engagement listening sessions, with a focus on parents and caregivers. I believe these sessions should continue. We are hoping to expand communication about these events and engage additional community partners to increase and expand participation.
I believe it is critical to hire and retain teachers and staff of color to best represent the diversity of students in our district. I believe retention is as critical as hiring. Retaining and compensating trained and experienced teachers and staff is important to the District to provide needed consistency for our students.
I believe both financial transparency and government accountability are essential to the effectiveness of any governing body.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
