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Guest column by Angie Hoffman

If you don’t know me yet, my name is Angie Hoffman. I currently serve on the Albert Lea school board and am finishing up my first term. I’ve been married to my husband, Robert, for 15 years, and we are both lifelong residents of the area. Together, we’re fully self-employed and own a local real estate brokerage, as well as several local investment properties. We don’t have kids, but we are passionate about animal rescue and have four rescue dogs.

The events of 2020 made me realize the importance of regular citizens getting involved in all levels of government, and this ultimately led to me running for the Albert Lea school board that same year.

Being elected, I began my term in 2021 and was eager to contribute both new ideas and a listening ear. I quickly realized that school boards in Minnesota now operate very differently than in years past. It is viewed as generally inappropriate for board members to speak with district employees, and it is discouraged. Administration determines what information board members are able to receive, or potentially not receive. We typically are not involved in providing guidance while ideas are being considered, and instead, we approve decisions after they’ve been made. We are largely separated from what is happening on the ground in the schools for which we are responsible.

To be clear, this way of operating is not unique to Albert Lea, and it may work well enough most of the time. However, it has always concerned me that if the school board does not have meaningful involvement in impactful district decisions, then the public does not have meaningful representation over their schools.

There are so many things to cherish about our school district, especially our students and our staff. We have much to be proud of and much to protect. We also face many challenges right now, including declining student proficiency, employee burnout, student behavioral issues and increasing costs.

I’m running for re-election because I believe we need our school board to become more engaged in our district for us to serve effectively and make informed decisions. We need to be more plugged into what is happening on the ground in our schools, we need to be more accessible to district staff, we need to get more information from administration and we need to proactively provide guidance into important decisions.

At times, I’ve stood alone in these concerns; however, there is now increasing interest on our board to make improvements to how our board functions. We can make reasonable shifts to our current governance model to increase public accessibility, transparency and representation.

My hope is to leave our school board in four years knowing our key leadership positions are set up for success and that our board can effectively steer the district on behalf of our community and students.

Angie Hoffman is seeking re-election to the Albert Lea school board.