Marquette Area Public School Board Members
Pictured L to R: Cherryl Maddox-Smith, Jennifer Klipp, James Hewitt, Kristen Cambensy, Glenn Sarka, Jennifer Ray and Jason Zdunek
MARQUETTE AREA PUBLIC SCOOLS
THANKS SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS FOR THEIR SERVICE
JANUARY IS ANNUAL RECOGNITION MONTH
Marquette Area Public Schools is joining 537 local and 56 intermediate school districts across Michigan
to celebrate January as School Board Recognition Month.
In another year full of challenges for public education, our school board members persevered through
adversity to provide the best possible education for our students. Celebrating School Board
Recognition Month is one of the very small ways to express appreciation for all they do.
The individuals serving MAPS and their years of service are:
Kristen Cambensy, President, serving since 2015
Glenn Sarka, Vice-President, serving since 2019
James Hewitt, Secretary/Treasurer, serving since 2015
Jennifer Klipp, Trustee, serving since 2021
Jennifer Ray, Trustee, serving since 2021
Cherryl Maddox, Smith, Trustee, serving since 2023
Jason Zdunek, Trustee, serving since 2023
Marquette Area Public Schools would also like to thank former President James Randall for serving from 2017-2022, and former Vice-President Dr. Brian Cherry for serving 2011 to 2014 and again from 2017-2022.
School board members represent the views and priorities of their community in the complex system of maintaining and running a district’s public schools. They also reinforce the principle of local control over
public education, which is an important, highly valued aspect of education in Michigan. Too often, the
efforts of school board members go unrecognized.
The school board’s main goal is to support student achievement. To achieve that goal, the board
focuses on the following needs:
Creating a vision for what parents and citizens want their school district to become and how to
make student achievement the top priority.
Setting standards for what students must learn and be able to do.
Assessing whether schools achieve their goals and whether students are learning.
Accounting for the outcomes of decisions and by tracking progress and reporting results.
Aligning the use of the district’s human and financial resources.
Creating a safe and orderly climate where students can learn and teachers can teach.
Collaborating to solve common problems and to support common successes.
Focusing on continuous improvement by questioning, examining, revising, refining and revisiting
issues related to student achievement.
No matter what challenges lie ahead for our district in 2023, our school board members will continue to
govern to improve student achievement and provide exceptional education for all our community’s
children.