you can help

After many unfulfilling years as an HR and operations manager for several large companies, I realized I needed to make significant changes for my family and my purpose. I was thrilled to embark on a new vending machine concept, taking a giant leap into starting a business in pursuit of the freedom many of us dream of. Six years later, my business is thriving throughout Florida and expanding into Georgia. As growth stabilized, I began praying about what I truly wanted to dedicate my life to, and I always had a passion for teaching. It was during this time that my beloved mother-in-law passed away from breast cancer. She was a lifelong elementary school teacher and one of the kindest people I ever had the privilege to know. She encouraged me to teach and was so supportive of my decision to teach kindergarten. Despite receiving highly effective evaluations over the past two years, my kindergarten classroom was abruptly taken from me this year without a valid explanation. The Alachua County School Board has several policies that are regularly abused, violating the rights of teachers. It appears that the school board is not even adhering to its own policies, shamelessly undermining the rights of teachers to save money at our expense. We need to reevaluate our teacher support policies and start genuinely supporting dedicated educators. Teachers need real help in the classroom, and I am committed to working with the board to address the glaring policy issues our teachers and children face daily, especially as we move forward with the Gabriel Lopez campaign.