Candidate Statement:
Hello Aspen,
My name is Jonathan Nickell and I am running for the Aspen Board of Education and would like to ask for your support and your vote.
I grew-up in Colorado, graduated from Nederland High School and attended the Colorado School of Mines. I have lived in Aspen since 2013 with my wife Paula and our three children, Matilda, Thomas and Juliana, all of whom have attended or are currently enrolled in Aspen High School. One of the reasons we chose to come to Aspen was because of the excellent schools. We have been fortunate, and our children have had incredible teachers like Mark Whitley, Sara Strassburger, Chris Bonadies and Megan Noonan, just to name a few, as well as incredible support from Kathy Klug and her team. There is not enough space to mention everyone here, but thank you all for the great job you do with our children.
To explain why I am asking for your support for school board, I want to share two comments that came from staff members in the 2017 community survey:
“We can be amazing. We could be in the cutting edge of education. We need to be bold. We need to take risks. We need to help our young citizens lead healthy, balanced lives where they feel inspired to pursue their passions and chase their dreams.”
“When we first moved to the Aspen School District, I had these preconceived notions that this was one of the top schools in the state. Having been here for several years now, it is making our family reconsider whether we want to keep our children in this school district.”
Simply put, I am running to make the first statement a reality and fix the second. I am concerned about the recent trends in declining results and believe that if we do not work to make improvements to our current system, future generations of Aspen students will not receive the same great education that my family has enjoyed. I feel that I have the experience and qualifications to help reverse these trends and create a world-class education for our world-class community.
To accomplish this, I will focus on three things:
1. Supporting, developing and retaining the best possible teachers for our children.
2. Developing a strategic plan with the vision of creating a world class education and organization.
3. Improving our governance process and the Board of Education leadership style to be more transparent, accountable and focused on student outcomes, not just policy. I am asking for your support and your vote. For detailed information on my thoughts on what needs to be done, detailed facts on why we need to improve and what I will do to implement change, please go to my website www.jonathannickellforschoolboard.com.
Thank you for your time and support.
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