Staff writer
Brigette quietly shown up and advocated for our children for over a decade, long before this election. Brigette an operating room nurse with 35 years of experience who trained at Shock Trauma, University of Maryland, a United States Army Reserves Nurse Corps, as a direct commission as a first lieutenant after 911 and a dedicated community volunteer, Board secretary to the Paul Chester Children’s Hope Foundation and Medical missionary traveling abroad helping to perform life-changing surgeries on the indigent children of the area, She has built her life around service and leadership.
Briggete has invested with skin in the game, she has two daughters who graduated from Marion County schools, and she currently have a granddaughter attending Dunnellon middle school. What’s been missing on the School Board is a disciplined approach of assessing, intervening, and evaluating-the same cycle she use every day as a nurse. Despite rising budgets, Marion County has remained in the bottom academically for years. That’s unacceptable. She says if elected, she will raise the bar for students, reject mediocrity, restore fiscal responsibility, and ensure every taxpayer dollar is spent efficiently- especially in school construction-so we can put those resources back into the classroom where they belong.
As an operating room nurse she, knows that excellent professionals stay and grow where they are giving real pathways to advance while remaining in the work they love. Brigette says the same must be true for our best classroom teachers. We need to create paid teacher leadership and mentor roles to not only help mentor those alternatively certified teachers, but also strengthen teacher quality and support in high needed areas. By making reading proficiency a non-negotiable priority, she will raise the bar, close achievement gaps, and ensure every child gains a strong literacy foundation they need to succeed. Building stronger schools, stronger students, and stronger future for Marion County.
PUBLISHERS NOTE: I endorse Brigette Smith she is a no nonsense person and is dictated to improving the schools for our Children! TomL Publishing LLC
Tom Loury.
