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This story was corrected on Sept. 1, 2010. An explanation of the correction follows the story.

Lisa Lloyd isn't running for the school board because she's angry. She's running because she feels it's her responsibility.

The Potomac mother of four students in Montgomery County Public Schools believes that average citizens like her with experience in the school system have a duty to get involved. Once on the board, she would like to examine the budget for cost-savings and push for more science, math and engineering learning programs in the schools.

She said her experience as a treasurer and vice president at a swim club and a day school, respectively, have given her perspective on how funding for programs is not always available. This lesson, she said, also should apply to wish lists people may have for the school board.

"I want to be able to have the opportunity to look into the operations and just see. I think the public needs to see how the board is working for them," Lloyd said.

Lloyd is running for an at-large seat on the school board against current representative Shirley Brandman and Lyda Astrove in the Sept. 14 primary. The top two vote-getters in the primary will face off in the Nov. 2 general election.

The biggest campaign issue for Lloyd is the $2.2 billion schools budget and how it is managed. Although she said she had not identified specific sections of the budget to drastically reduce, Lloyd pointed to her school system experience and her private-sector work at Toyota as useful background for finding out which programs and personnel areas could be made more efficient.

The number of upper-level administrators, for example, should be reduced, while the remaining highly paid administrators be given more responsibilities, Lloyd said.

"In times that are tough, you have to make it work," Lloyd said. "In private business if you don't make it work, you're gone."

But teachers should be left out of any budget-cutting talk, said Lloyd, who argued that teachers too often are made scapegoats in the budgeting process.

Teacher hiring decreased 41 percent from last year to the current year, statistics from the school system show, although many teachers managed to retain school jobs due to retirements and relocation within the system.

"If it's not a performance issue, and it's not an enrollment issue, then they shouldn't have to worry," Lloyd said of teachers.

In the classroom, Lloyd praises what she calls the stellar academic record of students in recent years, and she also is not overly concerned about the achievement gap between demographic groups. Yet, she is worried that too much time is being spent studying for math and reading tests like the Maryland School Assessment, and not enough time is set aside for students to explore crucial academic areas. For example, she would like students to spend entire days studying in science, technology, engineering and math classes.

That would help students for the future job market, Lloyd said, while she doubted less time studying for standardized tests would affect the school system's graduation rate. Math programs that emphasize comprehension over speed, meanwhile, would help students over the long term, she said.

"My kids are all in accelerated math and get good grades, but they need to relearn things because they speed them along," she said.

aujifusa@gazette.net

-Residence: Potomac

-Political party: Nonpartisan

-Age: 46

-Family: Husband, four children

-Education: MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management

-Professional experience: 11 years with Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., in market and export development

-Community experience: MCCPTA Rep for Beverly Farms Elementary School; board of directors vice president for Geneva Day School; treasurer for board of directors at Regency Estates Swim Club

-Key issues: Excellence in test scores without sacrificing the "childhood" of students

-Website: None

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified whom Lloyd is running against for the at-large seat in the school board.