(4/2022) My name is Karen Yoho and I am running for re-election to the Frederick County Board of Education.

Before I even retired from teaching for FCPS in 2018, I began to run as a school board candidate. I made it through the primary and was honored to receive the second highest number of votes in the general election. The four elected members were sworn in early in December. I felt our Board was working well together to accomplish goals for our students and staff. I greatly enjoyed attending myriad events as a Board of Education member, as well as preparing for and attending our regular meetings and committees. I became involved with our state organization, Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) which allowed me to network with school board members from across the state. Things were moving along nicely, and then a little more than a year into our term, Covid struck.

Things moved rapidly. One minute our Board was at our early March meeting; the next everything was shut down. We then proceeded to enter the most difficult time most of us could ever remember. Healthcare workers and first responders quickly earned our accolades for their heroism on the front lines of a deadly pandemic. Teachers and other school personnel joined the list of those we put on a pedestal for stepping up to do what they could for students.

As the pandemic wore on, our collective patience ran out. Suddenly, those school and healthcare personnel had to do more with less. That included the support of the public. Decisions were either taken out of our hands by other governmental agencies or officials, or alternately, and often unexpectedly, thrown back to us with little warning. We made the best decisions we could with the information and knowledge available at the time. Any decision we made, we knew about half the people affected would be unhappy. Believe me, no one signed up to be in a decision-making position while dealing with the worst pandemic the country had experienced in over one hundred years. But we persevered because that is what we were elected to do, and we all took our responsibilities seriously.

While I am extremely pleased that we did not lose any of our students or staff to Covid in our schools as they did in other states, I appreciate that our students and staff did not come out of the past two years unscathed. On the contrary, there is much to be done in this "new normal". I was there during the hardest of times and I would very much like to be there to help with the recovery process.

Since I was a kindergarten aide at the local elementary school as a high school senior, I have devoted my life to advocating for and helping students. Whether as a volunteer (PTA, girls youth softball, and Scouts), an employee of a school system (media aide, substitute, and elementary teacher for 25 years), or finally as a Board of Education member, children have been the focus of my attention and care.

I am also a firm champion of public schools. As my BOE page says, "Mrs. Yoho believes that the public school system is the foundation of our nation and that it works best when all participants collaborate for the benefit of those we should put first, our students."

Our students have been through a rough time. We need to do all we can to support them. I have learned so much in the past four years and would appreciate the opportunity to continue in my role as a member of the Frederick County Board of Education.