Democratic candidate Andrea Wellnitz qualifies for Oconee Cty. BOE Post 2 run


Today I qualified to run for Post 2 in the Oconee County Board of Education. 
I am running for the Oconee County Board of Education because I believe in the importance of quality public education. I have 2 children who attend Oconee County Schools and I have a vested interest in seeing Oconee County Schools continue to succeed academically. I envision a district where communication, student success, and school climate are our top priorities. 
School climate encompasses the experiences of individuals in the school and research has shown that positive school climate has been linked to positive student development, learning, academic achievement, effective risk prevention and health promotion, high graduation rates, low dropout rates, and teacher retention. (Thapa, Cohen, Guffey & Higgins D’Alessandro 2013) School climate affects students’ mental and emotional health as well as their academic success. To help make our schools safer, we need to continue to focus on the social and emotional health of our students and to continue to build connections with community resources that assist us responding to the needs of our students and our school community. I believe that all of us involved in the schools want our children and students to be safe and to succeed. I also believe that communicating both internally and externally is an important piece for fostering trust with families and students. 
I earned a Master’s of Social Work from The Ohio State University and I have over 13 years of experience working on a range of social service, community outreach and educational projects. My experiences include working as the Director of the Child Development Center at Gallaudet University and as the Operations Manager of Head Start programming over a two county area. Over the years, I have worked with at-risk families to assist them in setting and achieving goals. Working with educators, communities, and students has always been a driving force in my life.
I want to know your hopes, concerns, and dreams for Oconee County Schools. Over the next few weeks I will be creating a website and a Facebook page so you can view my platform and have a way to contact me. Early voting starts on April 30th and the General Primary is May 22nd. I look forward to hearing from you!
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