Candidate for
Community High School District 94 School Board

Daily Herald Candidate Questionnaire 

Incumbent?   No

How long have you lived in this village/district?  22 years

Occupation(s): Electrical Engineer/Manager  For how many years: 24 years

Employer and work address: Lucent Technologies

Education

• High School: Storm Lake Iowa

• College: DeVry BSEE, IIT MSEE Major: Electrical Engineering

Spouse's name: Janice J. Jensen

Children (names and ages):

• Jeremy (18)

• Derek (16)

• Stacey (13)

Prior political experience: (Include offices held; previous campaigns, even if unsuccessful; appointments to  municipal, library, park or school board committees; other political activities.)    None

Civic, church and community activities of recent years:

• 1993 to present: Volunteer teach Junior Achievement Classes within District 33.

• 1991 to 2002 : Coach AYSO youth soccer teams every year.

• 1993 to 1996: Regional Head Coach of West Chicago AYSO youth soccer organization.

• 1997, 1998: Initiated and Organized Youth 3 on 3 soccer tournaments for the West Chicago Railroad Days Celebration. Coordinated with WCPKD.

• 2000 to 2002: Chaperoned the High School after prom Up All Night activity.

Military service and honors: No military service

Non incumbents:  How many meetings of this board have you attended in the past year? None

Please answer the following questions in 150 or fewer words per question. Some answers may be published in an effort to inform readers of candidate's backgrounds and experience. All answers are subject to editing for length and clarity.

1. Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election the first time? Is there a particular  issue that motivates you, and if so, what? What will be your main priority?

In the current  economic times, difficult decisions must be made to prevent  significant school budget deficits. My main priority as a board member would be to help maintain the absolute needs within the school to ensure that valuable educational resources and activities are supported while decisions to achieve a balanced budget are made. I am committed, as a community member, to working with the school administration to provide a strong plan. Given my High Technology background, I would like to encourage the school to increase High Tech opportunities to help reduce the budget as well as better equip students for the future. While running for election, I will encourage as many legal voting age students to become a registered voter and a deciding member of our community.

2. If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led. If you are not an incumbent, tell us what contributions you would make. Describe any shortcomings in the current board/office/assembly that you would help remedy and explain how.

Given my Technology based employment, I believe that I can contribute to the decisions concerning the networking and computer systems of the school, fully utilizing the equipment and talents we already have. The unfortunate economic times have included the company I work for, giving me an education in critical budget decisions. I can reuse this experience to District 94’s benefit. Considering my years of organizational efforts relating to youth sports activities in our community,  I can bring, to the board, pre-high school experiences of organized athletics. This insight will be beneficial to the existing feeder programs within our school district as well as to the overall strength of the High School Athletic programs.

 

Important Issues: (not included in Daily Herald response.)

1. Help prevent the deficit from growing as it is already approaching a million
   dollars. In the current direction, this will continue to double each succeeding
   year unless proper preventative cuts/efforts are made.

2. I want to improve the High tech knowledge and utilization within the school.
   This can benefit both better education and cost savings.

3. Understand why students have a parking problem and investigate possible
   resolutions.

4. I believe Dist 33 and Dist 94 need more synergy between them.