It won’t be Breanne Dedrickson’s first gig with the Wasatch County School District if she is elected as a member of the Board of Education this coming November, but it will be her first time in a policy-making role.
“This is my first time throwing my hat into the political arena,” Dedirckson said. “I was first hired in the Wasatch County School District as an English teacher — a high school English teacher — in 2007.”
It was just after she graduated from Utah State University, and was her first teaching position. She stayed for six years before receiving her master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Utah. Since then, she’s worked as an assistant principal and is currently a part-time administrator for Liahona Preparatory Academy in Utah County.
“It’s a nice balance where I can work one day a week as an educator and then the rest of the days at home as Mom,” said Dedrickson, who has a third grader, kindergartner, soon-to-be preschooler and a not-quite-month-old infant at home. “We’re enjoying all the baby snuggles. We’re just loving it.”
As a parent with students attending the district, Dedrickson said she’s wanted to stay involved and has worked with the Wasatch Parent Network, School Community Council, Safe Schools Committee and Future Schools Committee.
Now she’s ready to try her hand as an elected representative in the district.
“I want to ensure high academic achievement and a high quality education for my own kids and for all kids,” she said. “I’ve been involved as a parent. I’m ready to get involved as a policymaker to ensure that we continue the high academic achievement and the upward trend that Wasatch School District is on. I think it’s so impressive the things they’ve accomplished in the last few years.”
With her experience, she feels she can make important contributions.
While keeping students’ high academic achievement as her No. 1 focus, she also wants to make sure the district maintains an up-to-date, interactive curriculum and that teachers get regular professional development training.
“As a board member, you have different constituents that you’re representing. You have students, you have teachers, you have your taxpayers,” she said. “I think you do that in a fiscally responsible, transparent way.”
Looking back to the COVID-19 pandemic, she reminisced on a point of pride for the district. While most districts throughout the nation struggled to keep their students on track with online classes and remote learning strategies, kids in Wasatch County actually showed progression.
She attributed the success to the schools’ reliance on a solid curriculum, something district Superintendent Paul Sweat has also pointed to when asked about how the district managed to help kids even while school buildings were empty.
“They made sure that all kids walked out with an iPad so that their teachers could continue to contact them, so that they could have access to curriculum,” Dedrickson said. “They still had a communication line open with their teachers, and our teachers were still able to push out content and curriculum.”
That kind of solid curriculum, as well as teachers’ ability to distribute and teach it effectively — is something she wants to ensure stays in the district.
As a teacher, Dedrickson remembered being “100% supported” by administrators who had her back and made sure she had needed resources and appropriate training.
“I remember sitting with my team and looking at students that had holes in their learning and talking about how we can address that, how we can get them up to grade level,” she recalled.
There was one student in particular she remembers.
“I will never forget at the end of the year when he took the state test and I told him that he had passed,” she said. “That kid just lit up. He had the hugest smile and he gave me this huge hug and he was like, ‘I did it! Ms. D, I did it!'”
She said education goes beyond test scores, however.
“It’s not just data. That’s individual kids and that’s learning that they need to be successful in their own lives and students matter. And so I guess that’s why I’m running is I love the students in this district. I love my own kids and I want to make sure that we do what’s best for kids, but we do it in a responsible way.”