My name is Jon Sjoberg, and I’m running for the open Groton seat on the GDRSD School Committee. I would like to provide the community with information about my background and why I am running for School Committee.
I am, by trade and education, a computer engineer, having received my bachelor’s at Lehigh University, and my master’s at RIT. I am currently running my own business, here in Groton, as a consultant.
My wife, Karen, and I moved to Groton in 1999 with a newborn and a 1-year-old. We now have three elementary-aged children: one at Florence Roche and two at Prescott. Our oldest will be attending the middle school next ear.
Since being in Groton I have been active in the community through schools sports, and church. I have spent time in both Florence Roche and Prescott, helping out in classrooms and as a room parent, watching our children learn concepts from patterns to multiplication. As a soccer coach, I’ve enjoyed watching our children learn how to work together. While acting as youth group leader in our church, I had the opportunity of watching young adults realize the positive impact they can have on their community.
Since being in Groton I have been active in the community through schools sports, and church. I have spent time in both Florence Roche and Prescott, helping out in classrooms and as a room parent, watching our children learn concepts from patterns to multiplication. As a soccer coach, I’ve enjoyed watching our children learn how to work together. While acting as youth group leader in our church, I had the opportunity of watching young adults realize the positive impact they can have on their community.
I would now like to serve the community on the School Committee. I believe that in order to weather these difficult times, we need a strong, functional and representative School Committee working with the community and the school administration to navigate the way. Our community offers many divergent views that can provide valuable perspective and these views should be sought while maintaining focus on our shared vision for the school district. This focus must be balanced between tactical issues and strategic planning but must always recognize that the primary objective of our schools is education.
Through leadership in telecommunication international standards committees, I have experience with finding common-ground solutions from extremely diverse viewpoints. As a manager and consultant, I am a strong advocate of using planning and processes to ensure timely and reasonable results.
My experiences in our schools and in business lead me to believe that I can participate in a crucial and positive way; helping this School Committee solve the challenges we currently face and plan for the problems that lie ahead of us.
I would like to end my letter by setting expectations everyone can have of me as a person, as a candidate and as a member of the School Committee:
* Expect me to be honest, forthright and fair.
* Expect me to listen more than talk.
* Expect me to look for ways to solve problems, not attribute blame.
* Expect me to favor deliberative due process over ad-hoc responses.
JON SJOBERG
