To ensure vibrant schools and the economic wellbeing of our entire community we must nurture and support positive outcomes. This week we lost one of the most critical and probably hard-to-replace members of our Albert Lea Area Schools’ administration. Why did she leave? I believe the negative and combative atmosphere that has surrounded the school board, the school board meetings and the administration, particularly over the last year, played a significant role in her resignation. In the last six months it has been painful to watch the personal and very public attacks on board members and the administration of which Lori is a part.

Lori Volz is an extremely competent deputy superintendent and financial officer who has saved the taxpayers of Albert Lea millions of dollars and delivered millions more in grant monies to Albert Lea Area Schools. She will be greatly missed and almost impossible to replace.

It is a devastating loss to both the school district and the community. Only time will tell how much that will cost the taxpayers of Albert Lea and Albert Lea Area Schools. I am running for school board because this purposeful atmosphere of negativity is wrong. It is harming both the school district and the community. The consequences can be severe, and Lori Volz’s resignation is a perfect example of just how severe those consequences can be.

Thank you, Lori, for your personal and professional dedication to Albert Lea Area Schools and our community.

Ellen Kehr

Albert Lea