Lacher-Starace: Encourage innovation, excellence

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BROOKINGS – A South Dakota State University instructor, Jennifer Lacher-Starace is one of the two contenders in the school board election, and she’s running with an eye toward innovation in the classroom and paying attention to the needs of teachers.

Lacher-Starace has taught as an instructor at SDSU’s Department of Teaching, Learning and Leadership for seven years.

“I teach classes on educational assessment, methods of teaching English and social studies,” she said.

Before her SDSU job, she taught in a Wells, Maine, high school for 14 years, an experience that’s served her well in her career here, and would also be of use on the school board, she hopes.

“I think that my teaching experience, not just at the university but 14 years of being a public school teacher positions me pretty well to understand issues in education not just from an administrative sort of leadership perspective, but from a classroom teacher, boots-on-the-ground perspective. I’m excited to really be able to be a bridge, if you will, between classroom teachers and their needs and their concerns and the school board.”

This is important to her because she believes happy teachers are the hearts of strong schools.

She and her husband have two children: an 11-year-old daughter in the fifth grade at Camelot and a 7-year-old son attending the first grade at Dakota Prairie.

With them and her job at SDSU in mind, it’s important to encourage innovation in the classroom here in Brookings.

“As a teacher educator, when I think about where do we send our (college) students when they want to see something that’s really innovative, we send them to a school like Harrisburg that’s doing mass customized learning or we send them to schools in the Twin Cities area to look at a model of personalized education,” she said. “I want them to come to Brookings. We’re right here.”

The school board election and citywide elections will be held on April 11. Lacher-Starace is running against Kevin Sackreiter for the one open spot on the school board, currently held by Larry Rogers, who did not file for re-election.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.