When the St. Cloud School Board selected Debbie Erickson to fill the seat vacated by Cindy Harner in June, it marked a milestone in a long career of volunteerism for her that has centered on the Clearview Elementary School in Clear Lake.
Erickson was one of six finalists selected from the 11 candidates who applied for the open seat. Each of those candidates had an individual interview with the board members at a special meeting two days before the June regular board meeting, Erickson said, and she was selected to fill the vacancy after the board deliberated the results of the interviews that same evening.
The questions included evaluations of each candidate’s individual strengths, opinions on issues such as closing the “achievement gap”, race and curriculum and a variety of district processes, including the new technical high school proposal.
Erickson said she first learned of her selection through an item on a blog composed by a “St. Cloud Times” reporter later that same evening, and received her official confirmation from the board the following morning. Her seat on the board will be up for re-election in November, 2016, and she is anticipating running for re-election, she said in an interview on Wednesday afternoon.
At the time of her selection, School Board Chairman Dennis Whipple was quoted as saying that Erickson’s “prior experience in the district made her a great choice.” He also stated the decision also came down to her “involvement in 742 and the passion for education and the community.”
Erickson has a daughter who is a fifth-grade student in the Spanish Immersion program at Clearview, and she said that “having a child in the school system” was also a positive factor in her candidacy for the board position.
She is a graduate of Harding High School in St. Paul, and has a BA from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. She worked in the marketing/communications area for a number of corporations in the Twin Cities and in Chicago when her physician husband Jason Erickson was completing his medical residency. The couple moved to South St. Cloud in 2004, and their daughter was born in 2005.
At the moment, the upcoming referendum election is a front-burner issue for Erickson, who served as co-chair of the bond referendum committee before joining the school board.
She has a long list of other educational involvements, including serving as president of the Clearview PTSA for three years, current membership in the Immersion Parent Advisory Council, the United Way Early Learning/Early Literacy Community Solutions Team and the Local Education and Activities Foundation (LEAF) board of directors. Erickson also served on the District 742 Strategic Planning Team (2013-14) and the District 742 High School Task Force (2014-15).
Erickson is especially proud of the work with the United Way, which includes a literacy program serving 10,000 students in central Minnesota who have free books mailed to them each year from birth to age five. It is a program that was started by singer Dolly Parton, Erickson said, which has provided more than half a million books to young students around the country. Erickson was a co-founder and fund-raiser for the local effort.
There are “two branches” to the approach to the fall referendum Erickson said, in that the board may provide information on the issues but cannot officially advocate a vote either way, though board members and district employees are free to campaign on their own time as they see fit. The district has sent information mailings to district residents regarding the referendum, she said, and a series of public forums will be held around the district in advance of the vote.
While Erickson enjoys being able to bring a Clearview perspective to her work on the school board, she remains mindful that the board is charged with making the best decisions possible for the school district as a whole.
Of her role as a school board member, Erickson said:”It has been great to be part of the team and do what I can to help advocate for the students.”
