Teresa Rae

Teresa Rae

Office seeking: BCSD Zone 5

Education: Bachelors of Science, Civil Engineering (United States Military Academy, West Point); Masters of Science, Logistics and Business Management (Florida Institute of Technology)

Occupation: U.S. Army (retired)

Family: Brian Rae (Husband of 29 years), Daughter Victoria (current University of Idaho Sophomore), Daughter Helene (BFHS Freshman)

1. What inspired you to run for elected office? My inspiration for running for school board trustee is twofold. First, I have a passion for children and ensuring EVERY child has access to a quality education that affords them every opportunity to pursue whatever path they wish to as an adult with the end goal of becoming HAPPY and productive members of society. Second, as with my 20 years of military service to our country, I have a passion to continue to serve by volunteering in our community in various capacities in order to make this county a better place to live.
2. Besides political experience, what unique qualifications would you bring to office? Most of my unique qualifications stem from being in the Army for 20 years where I served in various staff and leadership positions all over the world, both in garrison and in combat. The ability to gather information, formulate plans, communicate effectively, make informed and timely decisions, and work well with others are just some of the things that make me uniquely qualified to be a school board trustee. What makes me hyper-relevant as a trustee, specifically in Boundary County, is that I have one child who recently graduated from BFHS and another that is currently a freshman, both of which attended schools in our district over the past 9 years. This affords me not only a community-member perspective but also a parent perspective on issues surrounding our schools and our district as a whole.
3. What are the three most important issues/problems facing the city? The three most important issues facing our county school system are as follows: 1. Ensuring our students receive the best possible education by continuously refining our curriculum to make sure our instruction is current, relevant, and effective. 2. Fighting for additional state and federal funding in order to be able to pay our employees a livable wage, be able to compete with the current labor market, and to be able to attract and retain quality educators in our district. 3. Continuing to responsibly address issues associated with our aging facilities to include running a new bond in 2022 that will replace the existing bond that allowed this community to build the high school 20 years ago; the new bond, with little to no increase in tax rates, will allow us to build a new elementary school to replace Valley View (70+ years old) as well as fund much needed repairs/upgrades to all of our facilities.
4. What are your solutions? My solution to any problem is to be involved, and in this case, to KEEP being involved. I started attending monthly board meetings over 7 years ago because I saw that our schools had very little security and were in disrepair. I volunteered my time to head a facilities committee that ended up formulating a 10 year plan in 2015, and I am proud to say that 6 years into that 10 year plan and over $1.5 million later, we are almost complete with the repairs/upgrades identified. During that time, in 2017, I was elected to the school board, and over the past 21 months, I have been a part of another facilities work group that has formulated our new 10 year plan which includes a new elementary school. My goal is to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem, and I know how to get stuff done.
5. What is the first thing you would do if you are elected (or reelected)? The first thing I will do when/if I am reelected is to thank those that voted for me, and then I’d get back to work being an effective board member.
6. What issue is not being given enough exposure in your race? What is it and why is it important? (Please be specific.) School board members need to be non-biased and make decisions free of personal agendas. This is important because a board member may not agree with the personal choices of students/staff, but they have an obligation to have input to and make decisions free of personal biases and agendas.
7. If you could only get one thing across to voters during your campaign, what would it be? (Please be specific.)

“Our kids are worth whatever it takes” is the mantra in our school district. The school board approaches every decision with the mindset of what is in the best interest of our students, period.

1. Do you think the existing government is going in the right direction? Why or why not? (Please be specific.)

Specifically for our schools, Idaho State needs to step up their game and fully fund public schools so that we can continue to provide a quality education to every child in our county and state.

1. What question should every candidate be asked? What is your answer? Every candidate should be asked Question #2 of this survey, specifically what qualifications make them uniquely qualified for this position. Please see my answer for this question.
2. What would you do to help employers attract and keep workers when the cost of living here is so high? This has been the #1 issue our school district has faced this school year (besides COVID issues) as we have tried to attract and retain qualified educators. This problem is going to get increasingly more challenging because as everyone knows, we have seen up to a 30% increase in wages just in the last year for entry to mid-level positions, however our district is on a “fixed income” funded by federal, state, and local taxes which means we do not have the ability to increase wages drastically like the private sector. As such, several positions in our district have gone unfilled which places an undo hardship on existing staff OR forces us to cut services (bussing, learning aids, custodial, food service, etc.) This is the top issue we are taking to the state legislature during our Idaho State Board Association’s conference in November.
3. What would you do to address the lack of workforce housing in the area? This is not a school board issue, however I would hope that city and county commissioners are working together to ensure we have responsible growth plans that address our county’s housing needs.
4. What will you do to involve residents in the decision-making process? We involve business owners, patrons, and community members in everything we do. We value our community’s input and know that together, we are stronger than any one individual. One area that I know we need to improve and are working on is an effective communications strategy for our school district so that everyone in our county is informed on what is going on in our school district and what issues we are facing; this will go a long way in making sure our residents feel valued and part of the decision-making process.