Bolingbrook Election 2013 Candidate: Jaime Olson

Campaign information 

• Website: www.ElectOlson.com
• E-mail address: info@ElectOlson.com
• Phone:  773-960-9011
• Address: 340 Quadrangle Drive - Suite A, Bolingbrook, Illinois 60440

Personal information 

• Age: 35 
• Family (name, relationship and age): Joseph Giamanco (husband, 35) and Natalia Giamanco (daughter, 4) 
• Education (degree and school): St. Charles High School, St. Charles, ILHigh School Diploma University of IowaBachelor of Arts DePaul College of LawJuris Doctor 
• Occupation: Labor and Employment Law Attorney and Human Resources Manager 
• Political party affiliation, If any: I am a registered Democrat, however, I am running as a non-partisan for this election. 

Applicable experience qualifying you for the position: I currently manage the budget for a facility of 500+ employees and am well versed in appropriations law, budget development, staffing analysis, funds certification, and inventory and tracking systems. As a Labor and Employment law attorney and I have experience working as a labor neutral and as an advocate for both union and management. I have participated on contract negotiating teams and have successfully negotiated numerous memorandums of understanding and agreement, and settlement agreements. I am a Human Resources Manager and excel at personnel management, legal and statutory interpretations, and analysis.

Candidate questions 

Why are you running for this office? 

As a mother and a concerned taxpayer, I am dismayed by the lack of transparency, fiscal impropriety and mismanagement, and failing test scores of the Valley View School District.  I am running in order to be proactive and to change things for the betterment of Valley View students, parents, and taxpayers.

What will be your most important priority if you get elected? 

Restoring fiscal integrity and transparency to the Valley View School District. The questionable contract awards to friends and family members of the Superintendent and Board members and the $66,000 pay out to Superintendent Mitchem for an alleged oral agreement should have everyone outraged.

What sets you apart from the other candidates?

My education, finance knowledge and work experience set me apart. I am well versed in appropriations law, budget development, staffing analysis, funds certification, and inventory and tracking systems. As a Labor and Employment Law Attorney and a Human Resources Manager, I have: participated on contract negotiating teams and have successfully negotiated numerous memorandums of understanding and agreement and settlement agreements; extensively engaged in personnel management; and managed the budget for a facility of 500+ employees.

How long have you lived in your community and/or been active in local issues? 

My family has lived in Bolingbrook and owned a Bolingbrook business (www.GOLawOffice.com) for 7 years. Over the past year I became active in local issues and helped campaign for Congressman Bill Foster. This activism led me to meet many wonderful people, opened my eyes to important issues facing our community, and influenced me to take action to improve my community by becoming a member of the School Board. 

What's your favorite thing about Valley View School District 365U? 

My favorite thing about the District is its diversity. When I went to high school, I could count the number of students who were of a different race or ethnicity than me on one hand (my graduating class was 600+!).  I wanted something different for my children. I believe there is a benefit derived from students working side-by-side with others who are not of the same cookie-cutter mold and who have had different experiences.

What’s your opinion of the “New View” and the general direction the school district is headed? What do you agree with? What would you change?  

I do not support the “New View” or the direction the School District is headed. Since his employment, Superintendent Mitchem and his staff have not developed or delivered improved teaching and learning plans.  Instead, they have subjected students to theonline-based learning supplement Odyssey. Odyssey is not cost effective and it has not been shown to successfully help our students. Rather than sitting students in front of a computer for their education, the District should utilize our teachers to create interventions and programs to that will help our students meet the District and State’s standards. I am also opposed to the School District’s elimination of "career" courses for those students who do not meet the District’s standards. “Career” courses, such as art, music and family sciences have a profound and positive impact on the development and growth of many of our students and should not be withheld from any student.  Furthermore, I object to the 90/10 grading policy implemented by Superintendent Mitchem. The retest/retake/redo mentality sets children up for future failure as they are unable to have such opportunities in the real world or if they go to institutions of higher learning. Moreover, by de-emphasizing homework and a student’s classroom initiative and allowing "redos" on the tests, the District is merely teaching the test and not helping provide students with a comprehensive knowledge of a subject or concept.I agree with and support the actions that the Valley View School District has taken with regard to character education and bullying prevention in the schools. The District needs to continue programs such as “Pay It Forward 365”, “Project Wisdom”, “Celebrations of Success”,  “No Name Calling Week”, and the use of “Sprigeo”. 

What is the biggest challenge facing Valley View?

The biggest challenge is the improvement of student academic achievement. With the District’s substandard test scores, it has been an ongoing challenge to raise overall performance levels. While a number of District students do excel, there remains an achievement gap that must be addressed. In recent years the Board has taken a test-based learning approach rather than focusing on improved teaching and learning programs. A focus on such things along with a lengthened school day for elementary, middle and high school students, new textbooks, and increased professional development programs for the staff would help with this hurdle. In addition, the financial pressures facing the District compound the pressure to improve academic performance. These pressures include the delinquency or non-payment of state funding commitments, penalties applied to our general state aid, the decline in assessed property values, and the cancellation of major state grants. Unless addressed, these pressures threaten to seriously affect student learning.  It is critical that we audit expenditures, cut excess or wasteful spending, exercise prudent fiscal management, and prioritize District initiatives in order to alleviate some of the pressure on our District’s finances.

As a board member, how do you plan to promote academic achievement while remaining fiscally responsible? 

In addition to the measures indicated in my previous responses, I believe that the School District needs to ensure proper implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI), the academic referral system that students go through to determine if they need additional help in order to achieve as a typical student. The School District should give classroom-based measurement to all students and then individualize instruction for students based upon where they fall in their testing. By being able to group students and teach individualized coursework, we can catch students up to the rest of their class and prevent additional deficits before they become big academic problems/challenges.  Right now, we must use RTI for reading and math, but there is nothing that prevents our schools from using it for every subject and for character education. Also, teachers must appropriately use, know and uniformly employ Common Core Standards (CCS). In the past, these standards have been sprung on teachers just prior to the start of the school year. As a result, the teachers have little time to prepare and adjust their lesson plans to meet those standards.  We need to be better organized and be able to apprise our teachers of the CCS well in advance of the new school year and ensure uniformity of the CCS’s application by the teachers throughout the school year.