Melissa Burkland

My professional background as an attorney has made me a great listener, negotiator, and has given me the ability to consider complex and differing positions carefully in order to make strong decisions for our educators, students, and the community. My family background is deeply rooted in public education and has made me a strong supporter of it. As a parent, I have observed how passionate, caring, and talented our educators are and I want to be in a position to listen to them, support them, and ensure they have what they need to continue to make our students thrive.

1. Supporting our educators during fiscally challenging times. Our funds are not keeping up with rising costs and we need to be laser focused on supporting educators and protecting our resources.
2. Making sure our policies, long range planning, and strategic plans are all geared towards positively impacting all students and helping them achieve.
3. Serving with authenticity and transparency and communicating clearly so all community members know how valuable and important public education is and are supportive of it.

The biggest challenge is fiscal. The Board approved a deficit budget this year, and we’ve had to make difficult decisions to bring our spending in alignment with our resources. It will continue to present a challenge and it will be critical to have a Board that responsibly marshals resources.

The biggest opportunity is our people. I have experienced the greatness of our students and educators personally, as a parent, and now as a Board member and I can say without hesitation that our educators are unparalleled and our students are remarkable. They are our most valuable and important resource.

I would prioritize the Board’s guiding principles regarding class sizes and rely heavily on the content experts – our educators and administrators – for what is important for students.

One of Fargo Public School’s strengths the arts – visual, musical, and theater, and I will always strongly support the arts. These programs can help make students feel connected to school and a part of the community and I will always advocate to ensure we have a strong arts program.

I will also always support any programs or classes that work to eliminate achievement gaps and follow our guiding principle of tiered instruction.