Rae announces bid for school board seat

I would like to introduce myself, for those of you that don’t know me — my name is Teresa Rae, and I am running for reelection for Boundary County School District 101, Zone 5 (Naples).

I have been a board member for the past four years and have been attending board meetings since late 2014 as a volunteer facilities planner for our district. In the past seven years, our district has been able to budget for, plan, and complete close to $2 million in much-needed renovations, repairs and upgrades to all of our schools.

I am also the lead board member negotiator for the school district as we negotiate personnel contracts annually with our local teacher’s union. I'm involved in our quarterly community CTE (Career Technical Training) meetings that are designed to target programs for students that promote career and technical programs specific to our region and are focused on what our students want to experience in our CTE program. I have also served the past two years as the vice-chair of the board, ready to assume the duties of the chair in his/her absence, assisting in running board meetings efficiently and effectively, and providing timely and knowledgeable decisions pertaining to school operations.

Upon retirement from the Army in 2012, my family and I moved to Boundary County. My husband, Brian Rae, is a third generation Bonners Ferry resident, and after both of us completed 20 years of active duty in the United States Army, we knew we wanted to raise our two daughters here in God’s country. My education consists of a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the United States Military Academy (West Point, Class of 1992), a master’s degree in logistics (Florida Institute of Technology, 2002), as well as various leadership courses throughout my 20 years of service. My career culminated as a Battalion Commander in 2008-2010 and then as a Deputy Brigade Commander in combat (Iraq) in 2010-2011.

Prior to becoming a school board member, I worked at Valley View as their computer lab teacher for four years (2013-2017) and am currently the president of our local chapter of Fuller Center for Housing (formerly Habitat for Humanity), Fry Healthcare Foundation board member and Festival of Hearts director, and most notably, volunteer coach/referee for Parks and Rec volleyball and basketball, as well as a volunteer middle school volleyball, basketball and track coach.

We have two beautiful daughters — Victoria (19) who graduated from BFHS in 2020 who now attends the University of Idaho and Helene (14) who is a freshman at BFHS involved with volleyball, basketball and track with a passion for anything creative like art, band and choir.

My passion is our county’s kids; they are truly worth “whatever it takes.” I want every student in all of our schools to be challenged to become the best that they can become, to offer them opportunities both in and outside of the classroom that challenges them and helps mold them into the best human beings that they can possibly be, and to set each of them up on a path of their choosing that allows them to become successful, happy, productive adults. I am ready to take on the challenges of the next four years and would greatly appreciate your vote of confidence on Election Day, Nov. 2, 2021!