Home | Marianne B Allen for Wasatch County School Board

New Voice

Unique Perspective

Inclusive Approach

Welcome! My name is Marianne B Allen and I am running for Wasatch County School Board County South seat.

Balancing the needs of our students, teachers, and community are my priorities as I run for school board.

I was a junior high and high school teacher and coach for six years in Weber County, and now as a mother with my own children in Wasatch County schools, I will bring my own unique perspective to the school board.

I believe that by bringing different perspectives to the table, the best solutions can be found for the issues facing Wasatch County schools and our community.

I will work towards increasing opportunities for communication, transparency, and community input. As we move forward with a focus on our future, I will strive to balance the needs of our community and the need for the best education possible for the children of our valley.

Meet Marianne

I was born in Kentucky, lived in Illinois, and grew up mainly in Fort Collins, Colorado. I grew up in a family of educators. My dad was a professor at Colorado State University and my mom worked with the students at CSU. I grew up knowing that education was extremely important and could be a great equalizer in life. I was also taught from a young age that being civically involved was vitally important for our community and nation.

I went to Utah State University in Logan, Utah and graduated with my Bachelor's of Arts degree in History, Secondary Education, and a Political Science minor.

I met my husband, Dennis Allen, at Utah State University. We have been married for over 14 years and have three wonderful kids. After being visitors to family up here in Heber throughout the years, we were lucky enough to move to the Heber Valley in 2014. We absolutely love living in Heber Valley and calling this beautiful valley home! I love to be active in our community, in sports, coaching my kids, being outside, hiking, camping, paddle boarding, and reading books.

Marianne's Experience

I had the opportunity of teaching and coaching for six years. I was a junior high History and P.E teacher and coach in Eden, Utah. I was high school US Government and Advanced Placement Government teacher, Youth Court advisor, Head coach and assistant coach, cooperating teacher for multiple student teachers, and night school instructor in Pleasant View, Utah. I was the First-Class Teacher of the Year for Weber County School District 2006-2007. I also received multiple "Apple for the Teacher" awards in my following teaching years.

Being in all of those postitions gives me the unique perspective of having taught in the classroom and knowing the daily challenges that exist and are seen in the classroom. I've been the person in the room doing my best to educate the kids in my classes and do my part in giving them the tools they need to move forward in life. It was some of the best years of my life, and I truly value those years of experience and the knowledge I gained.

I have been privileged to be involved with our Heber Valley community for the last six and a half years on many development issues. I gained experience in working with Wasatch School District, Heber City, and Wasatch County. I served on the Wasatch County School District Safety committee, the Heber City General Plan update committee, and the Wasatch County Transit study committee. I met and worked with many local officials as we worked toward improving and protecting our community and way of life in Heber Valley.

I have served on PTA committees in my children's school and am a substitute crossing guard with our Heber City police department at Heber Valley Elementary and now at Daniels Canyon Elementary. I have been a volunteer coach for youth soccer and basketball, and have met so many members of our community through these experiences and working with the great people of our valley.

These opportunities have given me the experience, excitement, and drive, to help find the best solutions possible for the children in our valley, while balancing the needs of our community and residents.

Thoughts on Education

My philosophy on education is that education is all about gaining knowledge. Asking questions to gain knowledge is what education is all about!

I always told my students, "Knowledge is power.(Francis Bacon) 'What you do with that power is up to you'." Gaining education means asking questions, being involved, and seeking understanding. You can ask questions with dignity and respect, as it is our responsibility as students to learn, and later as citizens, to ask questions of our elected officials.

I firmly believe that asking questions leads to better outcomes and solutions for all involved. Whether in the classroom, or within a government entity, asking questions is a duty, right, and privilege of everyone in order to gain knowledge. Mr. Kofi Annan expanded on this quote by saying, "Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family." I agree!

High School Bond

Wasatch County has always had one high school. Even just the concept of building a second high school in the valley was bound to be a controversial issue and bring a lot of emotions to the table. With the bond election failing last year and crowding issues that still exist at the high school, it remains an issue that needs to be dealt with in our community.

I believe a new high school is in our future as we have major crowding issues at the high school already and massive growth projections in our future for the valley. We also need short term solutions because the soonest a new school could possibly be open in, is four years from now (and that's a very optimistic timeline). We need to be working on solutions now. I will collaborate and foster relationships with our local government entities, officials, and community as we look for these solutions.

If elected as a school board member, I firmly believe it would be my responsibility to listen to my community and act on their input, regardless of my personal preferences. The community spoke on this in last year's bond election that the bond option that was presented was not what they wanted. I believe that means we need to get clarifying input from the community because this issue still exists even though the bond failed. Specifically what size schools do we really want our children learning in and at what cost? I feel bringing different perspectives to the table to find a better option, or options, to present to our community will lead to a better outcome for the district, the students and teachers, and our community.

During the bond election last year I did a lot of research and reading to educate myself, and I asked a lot of questions! My thoughts on education apply here. Gaining education means asking questions, being involved, and seeking understanding. You can ask questions with dignity and respect (which is key and what I always strived to do), as it is our responsibility as students to learn, and later as adults and voting citizens, to ask questions of our elected officials. I met personally with the board president last fall, Blake Baird, to discuss the bond and ask more questions. It was a great conversation. I want to be very clear that I do not think it is ever bad to ask questions, at all. Asking questions does not mean someone is against education. It means they have a question and desire to be a more informed voter. I want to foster an environment on the school board that is conducive to asking questions and having respectful conversations even if it is to agree to disagree.

In that meeting I told Mr. Baird that if the bond didn't pass I would be raising my hand to volunteer to step up and be part of the solution. This bond election experience was part of the catalyst that prompted me to run for school board.