Owen Michaelson, candidate for Edina School Board, provided the following brief introduction and summary key issues. 

His campaign website is www.owen4edina.com

I have four children who have been through or are in the Edina Schools. I have deep community connections through eight years as Cubmaster of Highlands Pack 123, five years as an Assistant Scoutmaster of CPC Troop 62, eighteen years as a Sunday School teacher at Wooddale Church, six-year participation in the Edina ECFE Dad’s class, seventeen-year member of the SD-49 Republicans—serving as Caucus Convener (Edina Precinct 8) three times in recent elections. Education (Univ. of Minnesota): Political Science (BA); Human Resources (MA). I founded and ran GopherData, a database consultancy for eighteen years. I’m an Eagle Scout.

Key Issues and Themes

EDUCATION FIRST!

Equip our students with skills and knowledge to be college ready, workplace capable, and engaged citizens.  Teach students how to think, not what to think!

Curriculum Focus:

Support personalized learning by interest and ability level, by incorporating expanded curriculum choices, and full-spectrum instruction which includes all relevant perspectives. Encourage an environment that fosters learning and focuses teachers efforts on subject-matter instruction.

Voice and Choice:

Support parents and students in their academic pursuits.  Promote more transparency and accountability from the administration, teaching staff, and School Board to the parents and students in Edina Public Schools.  Seek more collaboration between parents, students and teachers aligned with the personalized learning mission of Edina Schools.

Academic Responsibility:

Support efforts to ensure that all future decisions regarding academic initiatives, policies, and changes made are supported by research, are measurable and results-based.

Fiscal Responsibility:

Support efforts to ensure transparency and accountability of all our financial resources. Full analysis and disclosure is imperative.