My responses to the RAPS board candidate questionnaire sent via mail from the Houghton Lake Resorter. Name: John E. BowenAge: 37 yearsTelephone Number: withheld from online articleLength of Residence in District: 11 years Length of time served on this or other boards:
At the Request of the Roscommon Education Association, I've provided the following answers (the questions were sent to me via regular mail by the REA).1. As you view Roscommon Area Public Schools, what do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the K-12 program? What would you do to maintain and improve the strengths? How would you address the weaknesses? I’ll start this response with a disclaimer. While I do have a handful of questions for which I would like answers, I’m also aware that some of my questions stem directly from a lack of understanding on my part.
We spent all last week on the gulf shore of Florida; it gets harder to come back every time we go. Some highlights and fun times from the week:
Tonight, the Roscommon Area Public Schools hosted a community forum at the high school, where they collected input for areas to cut in the upcoming budget year. We heard a pretty good (if brief) presentation about the funding sources (federal and state) that are being reduced, and how the combination of those reductions has surprised the district. We then met in small groups to discuss/group-think ideas that hadn't been mentioned yet.
This blog (the one where you're reading this text) was originally published with Drupal 5. I've been exploring ways to upgrade all the way to Drupal 7, now that it's out and available, but had been struggling with an easy way to get my old 'blog' entries moved over... there wasn't a lot there (something like 66 entries), but some of them still get click-throughs once in a while, and I hate to just 'give up' on a challenge like that.
Since I announced that I am running for school board, I've had several people ask me about my 'platform'. It seems fair that I should at least talk about my points of view on things, my history and experience, and my interests, so you get an idea if I'm the right kind of candidate for you. About MeFirst, a little about my history and background. My wife and I both grew up in the Harrison Community School District, just down the road from Roscommon.