Terri
Cunningham-Swanson
School Board
About Terri Cunningham-Swanson
My name is Terri Cunningham-Swanson. My husband, Duane and I set down roots and bought a house here in Plattsmouth a little over 2 years ago. We had rented a home here for 2 years prior and fell in love with the town and are now permanent residents. I am the mother of six and grandmother of seven.
I have worked for over a decade in and around schools in several districts throughout the metro area. I started as a Para Professional in Westside School District, as well as Bellevue and Omaha Public Schools. I transitioned to working as a school bus driver since 2015 in OPS, Millard, and Plattsmouth. This year I am driving for Conestoga.
I have also worked in 6 area school districts as a Guest Speaker in Health Class, teaching middle school and high school students Healthy Relationships. Over the years, I have gotten to know many students, educators and administrators. I have seen, first hand, very wonderful programs and teachers who care deeply about their students. I have also seen some very troubling failures, especially in the last 6-8 years, as programs are being brought into the schools that are objectionable, by any reasonable standards. Parents and Grandparents need to be intimately involved in the education of their children and know what is happening in the schools in their community.
Upcoming Events
My Platform
Parents Rights
Parents are the ultimate authority in their children's lives. Healthy families are a vital structure in society. I strongly believe that parents have the final say when it comes to their children in areas of medical decisions. As well as participation in any and all school questionanaires and data collection. And of course, what type of curriculum and additional programs the school will be using to teach their children. Parents should have open access to preview curriculum, programs, library books, classroom lectures, guest speakers and materials used in the classroom and in extra curricular activities. Total transparency between school administration, teachers and parents should always be our goal.
Traditional Education / Curriculum
As student performance continues to plummet in America, academics have been put on a back burner to social programming. Our schools need to return to their original intent, to educate our children. We need Reading, Writing, STEM, Civics, American and World History to be the curriculum of our schools. And the text books for these subjects need to be free of CRT, CSE, SEL, and other forms of indoctrination. The time has come to return to basic academic standards that once kept American students at the top of the world's academic performers.
Accountability / Transparency
Every elected official in any public office has a responsibility to be accountable and transparent to the people who put them in office. More and more many public officials, even at the school board level, have lost sight of this basic truth. As a school board member, I will be accountable to the voters of Plattsmouth, I will be diligent to uphold best practices for the students of our district, and never forget that my role is one of service.
Conservative Firewall
One of the most troubling developements within the entire education system, has been to abandon academics for social engineering. Programs such as Social Emotional Learning, Critical Race Theory, Gender Ideology and Comprehensive Sex Education are being pushed by the State Department of Education, I believe, to the detriment of the children of Nebraska. Someone needs to stand in the gap and protect our students from these radical indoctrinations that are sweeping like a wildfire across our state. I will be that firewall.