About Me
Hello! I'm Elizabeth Larson, and I have three kids in the West Des Moines school district: 6th grade, 9th grade, and 10th grade. Our family has been living in Clive since 2013. We chose to buy a house in the West Des Moines Community School District for its academic excellence and variety of activities offered to students both during the school day and after.
My husband and I both grew up in the Pleasant Valley school district in Eastern Iowa where helping my mom set up her 3rd grade classroom for the coming year was an annual end-of-summer activity. I completed my undergraduate degree in Business Management, but the pull of teaching was too great. My time as a Supplemental Instruction leader at Iowa State (similar to group tutoring) inspired me to pursue my teaching license in secondary math education resulting in a M.Ed and a teaching job in Muscatine.
I have been lucky enough to stay home with my children, but once they started school I started going back into schools too. First, by helping in the office at Crestview with Monday folders, and then volunteering in a kindergarten classroom while my youngest was in preschool. Before I knew it, I had spent 7 years coordinating Booster Pak volunteers, 4 years on the executive committee of the Westridge PTA, 2 years co-leading the Indian Hills CPI, brought CultureAll and Derek Anderson (children's author) into Westridge, organized book fairs and many after school clubs, led Challenge of the Books, been a homeroom parent, spearheaded a number of fundraisers for schools in the district raising well over $100,000, and still serve as treasurer on the Staff Recognition Committee which celebrates all WDMCS staff annually.
My dedication to the schools did not go unnoticed. I have been asked to serve on the School Community Network, the School Improvement Advisory Committee which also serves as the district's equity committee, and the Community Education Advisory Council as well as asked to sit in on interviews for potential staff members and travel to Indiana (by school bus no less) to check out a model school for project-based learning. The number of hours I have spent striving to make our schools the best they possibly can be is too many to count, and yet I feel pulled to do more by serving as a School Board member.
Please support my candidacy for School Board. Our kids deserve to feel safe and like they belong at school as well as challenged academically. It's my promise to strive to make that a reality for all of the kids in the district every single day.
My husband and I both grew up in the Pleasant Valley school district in Eastern Iowa where helping my mom set up her 3rd grade classroom for the coming year was an annual end-of-summer activity. I completed my undergraduate degree in Business Management, but the pull of teaching was too great. My time as a Supplemental Instruction leader at Iowa State (similar to group tutoring) inspired me to pursue my teaching license in secondary math education resulting in a M.Ed and a teaching job in Muscatine.
I have been lucky enough to stay home with my children, but once they started school I started going back into schools too. First, by helping in the office at Crestview with Monday folders, and then volunteering in a kindergarten classroom while my youngest was in preschool. Before I knew it, I had spent 7 years coordinating Booster Pak volunteers, 4 years on the executive committee of the Westridge PTA, 2 years co-leading the Indian Hills CPI, brought CultureAll and Derek Anderson (children's author) into Westridge, organized book fairs and many after school clubs, led Challenge of the Books, been a homeroom parent, spearheaded a number of fundraisers for schools in the district raising well over $100,000, and still serve as treasurer on the Staff Recognition Committee which celebrates all WDMCS staff annually.
My dedication to the schools did not go unnoticed. I have been asked to serve on the School Community Network, the School Improvement Advisory Committee which also serves as the district's equity committee, and the Community Education Advisory Council as well as asked to sit in on interviews for potential staff members and travel to Indiana (by school bus no less) to check out a model school for project-based learning. The number of hours I have spent striving to make our schools the best they possibly can be is too many to count, and yet I feel pulled to do more by serving as a School Board member.
Please support my candidacy for School Board. Our kids deserve to feel safe and like they belong at school as well as challenged academically. It's my promise to strive to make that a reality for all of the kids in the district every single day.