I’ve been a Democrat all my voting life and an Idaho Democrat for more than a quarter century. Here is my background:

Born in Ohio , I lived in Minnesota and upstate New York before my family moved to Brazil . My father was a professor of Industrial Arts who spent five years with US Aid for International Development, helping Brazil design and build and staff and open Technical Schools. So I went to high school in Rio . I returned to the states for college on the east coast, and drove myself across the country in 1965.

Moving around so much, I learned an open-minded open-hearted respect for others. Being new girl so much, I learned the skills for entering new groups again and again. Working full time for a law firm in the Bay Area, I earned a master’s degree in Education of the Exceptional Child. My career has been about helping The System to work better for individuals.

My first teaching job was in East Palo Alto, an all-black school district across the freeway from Stanford with many special-needs kids. Then I was recruited by the Australian government for an airlift of American teachers to help their school system with a deluge of Southern European migrant families. We made inroads in helping the immigrants to be perceived as enrichments of the system, instead of a problem.

I was glad to return to America and a job with the Rand Corporation, to research school districts in the south, to see how well the Emergency School Aid Act was integrating kids on playgrounds, in cafeterias, and in classrooms as a result of federal funding.

Then I was hired by the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, as Program Specialist, to work with incarcerated youth, to help them learn to see themselves as contributing citizens, and to help their communities to value their contributions.

So this was my background when I passed through North Idaho on vacation and knew where I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

In North Idaho schools I’ve been both Resource Teacher and Consulting Teacher, working with parents and staff to help our growing population of kids with special needs get more individualized support in the system.

My most recent role was with the Robert Wood Johnson planning grant called North Idaho Linkages Caring for Older Adults, where I convened town hall meetings in Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Shoshone and Benewah counties, to bring seniors, agencies, and providers together to come up with solutions to improve quality and accessibility to health care and support services, and this remains one of my passions. I know the contribution of older adults is more and more valued, both in the workforce and in the volunteer community. That growing dignity and autonomy for elders is part of the reason I’m stepping up to take my turn to represent the 41 precincts of District Two.

I want to improve the balance in our legislature so that we build a commonwealth that reflects our diversity. I want to help us take the long view, investing in the well-being of people who don’t have enough groceries, enough opportunities, for the pursuit of happiness our government intends. I want to nurture our place on the planet - to make it vibrant, healthy, sustainable. I want to contribute to a compelling vision of the kind of state we want to live in. Let me know what you want.

contact info: C.J. Rose

Rose for Representative
District Two Seat B
POB 550 / Spirit Lake 83869
rosehips@imbris.net
208-263-2093