Mary Gunn.

Mary understands that the budget is a primary responsibility of the school board. She would align spending with the district's strategic plan and protect the needs of students and teachers in the classroom before reducing instructional programs, teachers, or classroom resources.

• Review non-classroom spending for duplicative administrative functions, overlapping programs, outside consultants, underused software subscriptions, and other potential efficiencies.
• Reject across-the-board cuts made simply to balance the numbers. Evaluate each program by its cost, measurable results, and alignment with the strategic plan.
• Preserve programs producing results for students while finding efficiencies where they have the least direct impact on learning.
• Be transparent with administrators, teachers, parents, students, the Troy community, and suppliers.

Mary expects classroom instruction and intervention materials to align with the state-mandated use of science-of-reading-based materials, state guidance, and dyslexia laws.

• Support budget resources aligned with literacy and dyslexia requirements.
• Advocate for the time and expense needed to train teachers in the science of reading.
• Require the administration to demonstrate that intervention materials, progress monitoring, and professional learning align with those requirements and the district's core literacy curriculum.
• Prioritize resources that directly support effective literacy instruction and intervention, including professional development for teachers.

Mary's first step is to understand the needs of students with special needs and their families through surveys and focus groups.

• Engage students, parents, and the teachers who support students with special needs to strengthen partnership and trust.
• Use that feedback to establish areas for improvement.
• Require regular progress reports to the board so it can determine whether changes are actually improving services for students with special needs.

Technology should support learning, not replace good teaching. Mary favors very limited iPad use in elementary school, where direct instruction, handwriting, printed materials, and hands-on learning matter. Technology should be used for specific instructional purposes or standardized testing preparation, with paper-and-pencil testing used where appropriate.

• In middle school, introduce technology as a skill without allowing it to dominate instruction. Teach practical applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, along with research and digital responsibility, and generally keep school-issued devices at school.
• In high school, move toward laptops or Chromebooks that reflect the tools students will encounter in college and the workplace.
• Establish a board AI-use policy with guardrails while allowing administrators to update detailed regulations as technology changes.
• Address student privacy, academic integrity, age-appropriate use, approved programs, teacher oversight, parent transparency, and citation of AI-generated material.
• Train teachers and administrators on opportunities and risks, including inaccurate information, bias, privacy concerns, and overreliance.
• Review approved AI tools for student-data protection and educational value. Students must still demonstrate their own knowledge and critical-thinking skills; AI should not replace student work or a teacher's professional judgment.

Troy has a robust process for vetting books for libraries and classrooms. Mary would ensure that process is followed and that materials are appropriate for the age and grade level of the students who can access them and serve a legitimate educational purpose.

• Handle concerns through a fair and consistent process rather than labels such as “book banning.”
• Use professional review, evaluation criteria, piloting, parent and community input, and board oversight.
• Hear parent concerns through the district's established process.
• Consider an entire work and its educational purpose, not one isolated passage, while recognizing that material appropriate for high school may not be appropriate for elementary or middle school.
• Ensure parents and educators are heard and decisions rest on educational value, age appropriateness, and student needs.

Mary looks beyond the acronym DEI to the actual goal: every student should be treated with dignity and respect, have access to rigorous academic opportunities, and be protected from discrimination because of who they are.

• Keep education as the district's primary mission.
• Require funded programs to have a clear purpose, be age-appropriate, comply with the law, and support a safe learning environment and student success.
• Measure outcomes and ensure resources are used effectively.
• Respect different backgrounds while remembering what unites Troy Schools: children who are safe, academically challenged, respected, and prepared for their future.

For Mary, diversity is personal, not theoretical: she is married to a Native American.