Oh, the timeless question. I have been asked it roughly 5000 times now in the past month. At Board meetings, in the school hallways, in the grocery stores...inquiring minds want to know. The "campaign trail", as it were, has been quite a trip for me. I have gotten to talk with people that I may not have had the opportunity to talk with...amazing! I have also gotten to hear about myself from other people...not so amazing. I walked into Glacial Drumlin School the other day and one of the the students cried out, "Aren't you Jennifer Pickel?" I smiled and said, "Yes, why do you ask?" He said, "Well, I have just seen you signs EVERYWHERE!!" I had to laugh. Some of my kids' younger friends ask me if I am running for president...hardly. "Going public" has been quite the experience!
So, to answer the question, yes. I still want to do this. There is just too much at stake not to.
Enjoy your day!
Jennifer
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I think I have a better understanding of where you are coming from. If I were running for office, and I saw someone write what I did, I guess I would probably be frustrated too. I hope that you don't have any hard feelings towards me, because who knows, we might end up working together if some of the ideas I have been discussing with Monona parents get off the ground.
ReplyDeleteAs I said before, we should all be grateful that we have three very good candidates running for two seats on the school board. I have two uncles, an aunt, and a cousin that teach in other districts, and one of them in particular has noted that he wishes his district had a school board that was as serious and as supportive of its staff as Monona Grove's is.
The problem is that when we have so many good candidates, sometimes I end up having to make a choice based on things that I admit seem rather superficial and unimportant.
First of all, my top choice for school board is Peter Sobol. I have been reading his blog for a while and he seems like a very level-headed person with a lot of good ideas. That means the main choice is between you and Susan Manning, because I can't vote for both of you if I vote for Peter.
Right now, it seems to me that the hard feelings are much more intense in Monona than they are in Cottage Grove. I just don't see how adding another school board member from Cottage Grove--whether it was you or just about anyone this side of Arne Duncan-- helps that. No, it's not fair, but I think it might be the truth.
I think it would have been a lot more helpful (and it's still not too late) if you had defined more clearly not just why you are running, but what exactly you would do differently than the current board members and Sobol and Manning in particular. Do it on here, do it at the forum tomorrow (which I probably won't be able to make), do it everywhere you can.
I don't think this should be something that voters have to ask you, it should be something that you put out there for everyone to see. That doesn't mean that you have to attack them, just be more specific about how your priorities are different than theirs are, or what new ideas you have. Otherwise, if I am happy with Sobol and Manning (and I am), why should I look anywhere else?
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ReplyDeleteI thought I should maybe be a bit clearer about what led me to post the original comment on Jessica's blog in the first place. So this could be the summary of my mindset in two sentences: "Right now, the biggest difference that I can see between you and the other candidates is that you are from Cottage Grove and they are not. What else is there?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should asked you that before I made the comment, but it's really something everyone should know, not just me.