Jonathan Kirby (Place 2)
Question 1- As a chamber of commerce, we are interested in hearing what you think is your desired relationship for the business community and the Independent School District to work together and how might you help us achieve that relationship?
“For a little over 15 years now, I’ve been helping facilitate a marriage between businesses and school districts all over the metroplex. Not only from the financial services background where my business exists, but all over the place. I think that it’s important that we have that type of involvement. Coppell is a very unique down. We are blessed to have a good relationship with different areas of town. City Council works great with the school district and vise-versa, businesses work great with the community, so I think we need to continue that. There is a mutually beneficial thing there for both businesses and education. I think that the students can learn from local businesses. When I went to high school, we didn’t really have any practical applications towards business, we had to go ostensibly learn it in college. College is college. There is a really good opportunity with the programs that we have in place at the high school level for our students to be able to take business classes, having that hands on experience. It bleeds over, it’s beneficial for the businesses as well. They get to interact with students that could be future employees at some point. They get to get points of view that they may not get anywhere else. On the business end, it makes sense to continue that. What you got to have is a leader that can facilitate that business relationship. You have to have someone with experience, that’s done it, because it’s not going to do itself. Let’s face it, if you are in the school district business, if you are a teacher, an educator, an administrator, you get wrapped up in your everyday stuff and it’s hard sometimes to break out of that bubble. It’s the same way in business. It’s going to take somebody to help facilitate that, and I think having that in this community is important and it’s going to serve everybody well.”
Question 2- What makes you the best candidate to serve on the board of trustees?
“I think everybody here is passionate, I think that goes without saying. I’m passionate about this school district, I’m passionate about the kids, that’s why we moved here. One of the things that I want to see happen is for us to mitigate this growth the right way. I’m a big supporter of the bond. I have taken a lot of time and a lot effort and met with tons and tons of people on the inside to figure out how the bond works, what’s in the bond, and where are we going to apply that, because we are going to have to have people who know what’s going on and know how to facilitate that bond because we have a lot of changes coming to our school district. Being an entrepreneur, I’ve run a P&L statement for 15 ½ years and that’s a very taxing thing to do, because you have to know where every single penny goes, you have to know what’s a good capital expenditure and what’s not. From a business standpoint, I think that sets me apart. Being an entrepreneur is something very special, it’s something very risky sometimes, but having that spirit is a natural spirit of leadership and a natural spirit of a can-do attitude and I think having that on the board is going to really complement where we are going. I love the school district and I just want to see us continue to succeed.”
Question 3- Demographers project that we will have 29,000 additional students in the district in the next 5-10 years. What is your solution to address the increase in population and potential overcrowding in our schools as well as addressing aging facilities and infrastructure?
“I was at the board meeting as well, and it was fascinating to hear from the demographers and I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the study, and it’s really interesting to see what is transpiring in this community. If the question is ‘what can I do, to help mitigate the growth that’s coming?’ I think we have a pretty good plan. What’s important is you’ve got to recognize that this bond is not just someone’s agenda. It wasn’t the board’s agenda, it wasn’t the administration’s agenda. This bond was put together by the community, a cross section of that community, and I think that gives us a good idea of what the community really wants. Through assembling this bond package, it really has given us a roadmap to what we’re going to do. We are going to have to build more schools, that’s how school districts build schools- if you buy a new home, you have to get a mortgage. As a businessperson, $249 million scares the pants off me, but it’s a calculated cost that we have to address. School districts have been doing this from the beginning of time. We have a very prudent administration and the people that work on the bond, they know what they’re doing. I’m going to help support that. I’m voting for the bond, I think it’s a good decision, I think it’s the right thing for our community.”
Question 4- We are a very diverse community now, how will you unique the community behind our schools?
“I think if you’re trying to get at what what would codify enthusiasm and and having the whole community that is diverse gel around our school district I think step one is to rally around the school district. We have an excellent school district. We have a pattern of excellence so I think maintaining that is going to naturally start that process. The other thing I think’s important about that is leading from the front. So you lead by example, and we have a lot of things to engage the community in when as it relates to the school district whether it’s football games, band, different types of events, all different kinds of things. When we as board members and community leaders like yourselves, when we are leading that, that’s gonna help pull everybody into that fray. It’s gonna take outreach we have to not only be out there doing what we’re trying to get other people to do, but we have to go talk to them we have to tell them why and we do have to understand the differences in cultures and the differences in people and their political views because 2,900 kids is going come with an awful lot of adults and I think those adults are going to come from all kinds of mindsets, background etc. So I think that understanding that’s critical but I think again rallying around our school district it’s the cornerstone of this community, continuing that pattern of excellence and as leaders in the community and as school board members leading that charge from the front, dedicating yourself, being committed, putting in the time.”