Dear Families of Memorial Drive Elementary,

I am delighted to serve as your PTA President for the 2025-2026 school year. The PTA
Executive Board and I are looking forward to a year of hard work and collaboration with our
exceptional community of staff and families to make MDE even more wonderful for our children.

A little about me: our son, Carson, is in 2nd Grade at MDE and has been here since Pre-K. We
also have Sophia in 8th grade at SBMS and Ben in 10th grade at MHS (both MDE alumni).
Richard and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in April. I practiced law for about five
years before our first child was born, and I have been a full-time stay-at-home mom ever since,
although Richard says that I never stopped practicing law, I just started practicing on him… (ha
ha). We have three children, three dogs, and I think it’s fair to say that I thrive on a little bit of
chaos.

I look forward to applying my efforts to improving our already exceptional school. I invite each of
you to join me in this goal. What makes our community special is not the gorgeous new building,
but rather the families and staff that it serves. Our community has so much talent, heart,
creativity, innovation and diligence. Together we can tap this resource for the betterment of
MDE. I hope that you will join me in this effort and bring me not only your problems, but your
solutions.

Join the PTA, read our newsletters, sign up to volunteer every chance that you get, buy a ticket
to our auction and come ready for a fabulous night of fundraising fun. This is our formula for
success. Join us. There is always room for one more.

Respectfully yours,
Lauren Barker
MDE PTA President 2025-2026