Submitted
On July 27, longtime resident and community leader, Dawn Lang, filed for Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board District 3 to strengthen the Fishers community through education by focusing on education excellence, parents’ rights in education, curriculum transparency, and fiscal responsibility.
“Our schools are one of the most important institutions that help advance economic prosperity for our citizens and communities,” Lang said. “If they fail to prepare our students with the necessary life skills to be successful, independent citizens – we all lose.”
Lang never thought she would run for school board.
“I trusted our schools and administrators to provide ‘best in the state’ education with rigorous curriculum, not political activism, and ideology. I trusted our schools to challenge my kids to be critical thinkers and excel in math, reading, science, arts, and civics. Somewhere along the way our schools lost their focus,” Lang said. “HSE rankings prove there is a direct correlation of our once top 5 school system that has fallen drastically, with the loss of focus from our current administration and board. It’s time to get back on track with the core education principles.”
Lang says she believes students must successfully graduate from HSE Schools with skills and competencies necessary to be prepared for job opportunities or post-secondary education, and ultimately be ready for employment.
“It’s time to set political ideology aside and focus on the state of education in Indiana and our school district and direct energy, time, and financial resources toward those efforts that improve the outcome of our students,” Lang said. “Educational attainment is paramount to the well-being of our students and community. We can, and must, do better for our children, our students, and our community.”
Lang has lived in Fishers with her husband and three children for over 28 years. Her family has seen Fishers grow from 30,000 to over 95,000 residents during that time, while HSE Schools has taken on similar growth accommodating increases in students, teachers, administrators, and budget.
All three of Lang’s children have attended HSE Schools. Her two oldest graduated in 2017 (Jack) and 2019 (Nicole) and continued their post-secondary education at Purdue Fort Wayne and Rose-Hulman. Lang’s youngest child, Christian, attended the same HSE elementary school as his older siblings … then COVID hit.
“Like many parents and teachers, we endured remote learning the best we could,” Land said, “however, the 10-plus year age span between our older kids gave me a unique lens to see how the administrative policies of our school district have negatively impacted our children and teachers.”
For over 25 years, Lang has worked with a variety of companies, from startups to Fortune 500s, in various sectors of education, workforce development, government, life science, healthcare, and IT/technology. As a public servant and community leader, Lang is actively involved with organizations such as Rotary (member of Fishers Club), Commissioner with the City of Fishers Advisory Plan Commission, Fishers Housing Task Force, Precinct Vice Committeeman, elected Republican State Convention Delegate (2022), and Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap Program with The Policy Circle. Lang is a member and serves many leadership groups, including the Richard Lugar Excellence in Public Service Leadership Series (2021-2022 class alumni), Hamilton County Federation of Republican Women and Indiana Federation of Republican Women, Women & Hi Tech, and Executive Advisory Board member for the Indiana Chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.
Connect with Dawn Lang at dawnlang.com.