Susan Audrain Seeking A Seat On Tredyffrin/Easttown School Board

Pennsylvania's Primary Election is May 18. Retired nurse Susan Audrain is a candidate for School Board Director for Region 3 in the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District. She sees a need for charter school policy reform. As a nurse, she once averted a nurse walk-out by working with human resources.

Terms expire in TESD Region 3 for Tina Whitlow and Mary Garrett Itin, neither of whom is listed as a candidate for reelection.

She explained why she is running for election.

Susan Audrain

Age: 76

Position Sought: Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Region 3 School Board Director

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Family: Sherri Crane and her husband Andrew who live in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Janet Audrain McGovern, Ph.D., and her husband Paul McGovern, M.D., who live in Berwyn along with my two grandsons, Connor and Sean, ages 17 and 15 years old, respectively.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?: No

Education: University of South Florida, Bachelor of Science in Nursing 2000; St. Petersburg Junior College, St. Petersburg, Fla., Associate in Science in Nursing 1997.

Occupation: RN, BSN, Retired. 14 years experience in nursing.
Five years at Bryn Mawr Hospital, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, where I provided nursing care for critically ill patients and chaired the Unit Council, a quality improvement committee responsible for identifying any quality of care issues and developing action plans and policies to resolve issues.
Five years at the University of Virginia Medical Center, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, where I provided nursing care to critically ill cardiac patients.
Four years at Bayfront Medical Center, St. Petersburg, Florida. I provided care to oncology patients while pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of South Florida.
Nine years of experience as the Anesthesiology Department Administrator at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Fla. I prepared and managed multimillion-dollar budgets, evaluated issues, identified root causes, and developed action plans, policies, and procedures to resolve problems.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office: Committee Person and Chairperson for Easttown Township Democratic Committee

Why are you seeking elective office?: I am running for T/E School District, Region III School Board Director because I want to ensure the continued educational excellence for all T/E students and to use my administrative, organizational, and critical-thinking skills to serve the community.

The single most pressing issue facing our school district is: Our school district's most pressing issue is to provide a comprehensive, multifaceted evaluation of students and support plans for academic, social, and emotional support to address any learning losses following COVID and remote learning. The America Rescue Plan, through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Plan, provides financial support to schools for COVID-related expenses including learning losses. I will support the continued comprehensive student evaluation and specialized plans to address any learning losses.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?: Many of my administrative and nursing skills are transferrable to many settings. In nursing, all interventions are based on assessment and identification of root causes of a problem which informs the development of action plans, policies, and procedures to resolve issues. In nursing, decisions are grounded in science and data.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform: Although the American Rescue Plan provides short-term funding to address the COVID-related issues, the problem is that the funding is short-term. TESD faces long-term funding issues which are exacerbated by the state's unfunded/underfunded mandates. Example: Whenever a student leaves a public school to attend a charter school, the funding follows the student. The charter school tuition is paid at the per-student rate at public schools irrespective of the actual costs per student incurred by the charter school. Prior to 2010-2011, the state reimbursed school districts up to 30 percent of the charter school tuition. Elimination of the reimbursement shifted the burden to taxpayers.
For TESD for 2018-2019, brick and mortar and cyber charter cost the school district $141,724 and $354,458 respectively. The percentage is small at 0.3 percent, but the amounts are significant. Taxpayers must be informed of the impact of these unfunded/underfunded mandates on the TESD budget and taxes.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?: Whenever I began as the Administrative Director of the Anesthesiology Department at Tampa General Hospital, the department was in disarray due to the resignation of the department chairman. I averted a walkout of nurse anesthetists by working with Human Resources to establish regionally competitive salaries, implemented new scheduling models to reduce overtime for nurse anesthetists, met with service vendors to update service contracts for equipment, implemented new anesthesiology department billing procedures, hired, managed and developed orientation materials for 36 employees.
I developed and computerized a department inventory management process that other departments adopted. In short, I am a problem solver with unique skills to develop and implement new policies and procedures.

The best advice ever shared with me was: Set high goals then focus on the steps necessary to achieve those goals, not on the obstacles in your way.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?: After assisting my children in obtaining their college degrees, I decided it was time for me to attend college. So at 48 years old, I began my college education at St. Petersburg Junior College obtaining an Associate in Science in Nursing then obtained a Bachelor in Science in Nursing at the University of South Florida. I worked full-time while pursuing my degrees.