Board of Education Candidate Profile: Laurie Kuna

Laurie Kuna may have grown up in Alma, but she has made Lowell her home. The 68-year-old came to the area as a young teacher in 1979 and spent 29 years with the Lowell High School English department. While her teaching days wrapped up in 2010, that wasn’t the end of her involvement in Lowell Area Schools.

In 2012, a friend convinced her to apply for a vacancy on the Board of Education. “I’ve been in education all my life,” Kuna says. That, along with her specific experience within the school district made her a natural choice for the position. Now she has 12 years under her belt on the Board of Education and, noting her age, anticipates this will be the last term she seeks.

“I think I still have something to offer the board,” Kuna says. With the district considering changes to the school calendar, she thinks her experience in the classroom will prove useful for those discussions. Plus, “It’s nice to give back,” she adds.

Kuna is currently the board’s vice president, and she is one of five active candidates vying for four open seats on the November general election ballot.

People-Oriented Educator

For Kuna, education was a logical career choice. “I’ve always been a very people-oriented person,” she says, noting that education is one of the best ways to give back to a community. “You want to help kids become their best selves and go out and become productive citizens.”

While her job didn’t leave much time for other activities — “Teaching English is a 60-hour week if you do it right,” she quips – Kuna did join the Arts Council shortly after arriving in Lowell. Today, that organization is Lowell Arts, and Kuna continues to be a part of the theater committee. She has also taken part in local stage productions, something that she never had time to do while teaching.

Beyond Lowell Arts, she is a member of the Friends of the Englehardt Library and supports the Lowell Area Historical Museum. And then there is volleyball.

Kuna has spent almost as long coaching volleyball as she has teaching English. Over a 40-year span, she has coached at practically every youth level except junior varsity. She was the LHS girls varsity coach for about a decade and currently coaches the 7th grade “B” team.

Twelve Years of Board Experience

When it comes to her time on the Board of Education, Kuna points to infrastructure, hiring and curriculum decisions as among her accomplishments.

“We’ve done a lot of stuff with the infrastructure that I’m pretty proud of,” she says. That includes expanding Alto Elementary, renovating Lowell Middle School and purchasing the former St. Mary’s School to house the district’s early education program.

“The fact that we built the soccer/lacrosse stadium was huge,” according to Kuna. That took pressure off the football stadium which, among other things, gave the grass there a chance to grow. It also helped the district meet its Title IX obligations by giving both boys and girls teams a place to play and host MHSAA events.

As for staffing, Kuna says hiring Superintendent Nate Fowler, Lowell Middle School Principal Abby Wiseman and Lowell High School Principal Steve Gough were “good moves.” And she says the school made good use of its ESSER funds – which were federal dollars allocated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – to pilot changes to the curriculum as it evaluated new programs for math and other subjects.

Overall, Kuna says there is “amazing support” in the district. “The frustrating part is that this small number of incredibly vocal critics… sucks all the light out of the room,” she says. “I think people think we have way way way more power and influence than we do.”

Thinking Big for the Future

When asked why she’s qualified to sit on the Board of Education, Kuna replies, “I think I’m qualified because I have a perspective (as a teacher) no one else on the board has.”

She says that will be useful, especially now that the district is at the “ground floor” of considering a switch from a trimester to a semester calendar. As a teacher, Kuna taught under trimester, semester and block calendars, and she says her insight may prove valuable as discussions continue.

However, when looking to the future, Kuna thinks about more than just the school calendar. She thinks about how a proposed business park near I-96 could change the region, and she notes that the Kent County Youth Fair now has a large property off Cascade. She wonders if it might someday be possible to build upon the district’s excellent FAA program, partner with MSU extension and create a magnet school at the fairgrounds that would focus on agriculture.

“I have been with the district over 40 years. I think I still have ideas and innovations that will help the district move forward,” she says.

Kuna hopes voters will return her to the Board of Education for one more term so that she can continue to put her ideas and expertise to work as a part of Lowell Area Schools.