Cindy Petersen has made a return stop at the Lynden School board. Having lived in Lynden for 41 years, serving her first stint on the board from 1989 through 2004 and having seen all seven children and two grandchildren attend Lynden Schools, Petersen was ready to again serve the board when a vacancy opened in 2022.
“I strongly believe that public school education that is available to all is vital to preserving our democracy,” she says. “Having the best educated, critically thinking populace possible seems even more vital in today’s world of a plethora of information sources freely available.”
As a board member, she can work toward these goals by adopting polices that ensure quality learning and teaching for every student, every day and in every classroom, while adopting a fiscally responsible budget and hiring and evaluating the superintendent.
Petersen says the Lynden School District has positioned itself to be a leader in providing educational resources to meet the demands of the rapidly changing world. “Leadership is open to finding ways to address and meet the variety of needs students bring to school,” she says. “Working with parents who are a child’s first and most important educator is a goal. Engaging all community stakeholders in the responsibility for this community’s education is being developed more fully.”
She believes that schools and students benefit most when the school board represents diverse viewpoints, can have healthy discussions and then come to a mutually agreed upon direction. “This is something I learned when I was previously on the Lynden School Board,” she says, “and it seems even more essential now.”
