Aragon Gould
Candidate, Cloverdale Community Schools school board Cloverdale Township
Elections and appointments
Military
Personal
Aragon Gould ran for election to the Cloverdale Community Schools school board Cloverdale Township in Indiana. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Gould completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
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Biography
Aragon Gould provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 30, 2024:
- Birth date: December 31, 1975
- Birth place: Cloverdale, Indiana
- High school: Cloverdale Highschool
- Military service: United States Army, 2007-2015
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Baptist
- Profession: Financial Executive
- Incumbent officeholder: No
Elections
General election
Election results
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gould in this election.
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Aragon Gould completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gould's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Hello my name is Aragon Gould, 46, and I am excited and honored to be running for the Cloverdale School Board position. The son of lifelong Cloverdale residents Leo and Marcia Gould, I’m looking forward to serving the Cloverdale School system in helping to create the educational, social, and athletic opportunities that propelled me throughout my life.
Having grown up in Cloverdale on Lafayette Street, I was heavily involved with our community throughout my time in school. I was a varsity member of the football, basketball, and golf teams; I was also involved with the Putnam County 4H club, FFA, Boy Scouts, and the youth ministry at New Providence Baptist Church.
After graduating in 1994, I worked in a variety of industries including executive manager for a large restaurant chain, Regional Manager for US Bank, before then transitioning to active services with the US Army. I served in the Army overseas in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and then completed my service with the US Army Reserves where I was a Squad Leader and graduate of the US Army’s NCO Leadership program. Upon returning to the States, I settled back into the banking world once again and I currently work as the Senior Vice President and National Executive for Commercial Merchant Services with PNC Bank.
Along with my wife Jenny, I have three biological children and one stepson, ages 24, 24, 22 and 9. My youngest, Tristan, currently attends Cloverdale. - Transparency - I believe there is greater opportunity for the community and the school board to communicate so that critical decisions are fully understood. There have been a lot of instances where decisions are made, and a lot of conjecture exists on why. Accountability is needed as the school board are the elected representatives of the town and need to do a better job proactively keeping them informed and receiving feedback on that performance.
- Consistency - this is the key to credibility and we have lost some of that over the years, and as a result have lost students as well. There are a number of instances where similar circumstances resulted in different outcomes. This creates distrust, and ultimately we have lost students to other schools due to this. I want to do my part to ensure we are creating fair policy and that it is administered consistently for each student.
- Education must be life skills based. Nationwide ee have too many children that are not getting those skills at the K-12 grade levels and then we have a population of students that are neither well prepared for additional education nor prepared to face trade schools, or in some cases life in general. I want to see more life skills brought into the curriculum so that students, regardless of what pathway they are on, can graduate and have a great foundation for whatever their next step is.
Being in a financial field, monetary policy is something that I am passionate about. It affects all of us and paves the way for quality of life for generations to come as well. I believe our current trajectory is unsustainable and that this current population needs to act swiftly to ensure that we do not destroy the futures of our families yet to come.
First of all my father. He was a principled man, a hard worker, and always (and I do mean always) had a joke for someone he just met because he believes laughter is the best medicine. He set the tone for me, and while I have adapted some other strengths into my life, he still is one of the greatest people I've ever met.
As mentioned I have adapted a number of other influences including my highschool football Coach Parks who taught me how to be tough, smart, and caring for my team. My Territory leader when i was in restaurants - Stan Warr, who showed me incredible ways to run a business and have fun while doing it, and also showed me that you believe in the person, not the age/pedigree.
Lastly, but certainly not least, I would say my wife. She inspires me through her resiliency, and her sheer determination. Her path through life has been dramatically different than mine and yet she shows me daily what true resolve means. I appreciate how she approaches life different than I do and she teaches me that there are other paths than what mine own eyes may see. Such a great question and I would have to say that there is not a single piece of artistic medium that captures me wholly, but I can share several influences and why.
From written word I would say at my core I am a Louis L'Amour man - tough exterior, rugged individualism and personally accountable to the notions of right/wrong and willing to go the distance for those principles. This is one of my favorite quotes from his writing - "A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat. There's no stopping a man who knows he's in the right and keeps a-coming." - Louis L'Amour
From film I would say Coach Boone from Remember the Titans resonates with me, and his portrayal exemplifies how I view and approach philosophy both as a person and as a leader. I think politically its about creating a united identity and doing something great with it. My favorite quote or his - "you got anger, that's good you're gonna need it, you got aggression that's even better you're gonna need that, too. But any little two year old child can throw a fit! Football is about controlling that anger, harnessing that aggression into a team effort to achieve perfection!" - Coach Boone
From song I unequivocally believe Amazing Grace captures who my philosophy. When I look around and view my fellow earthly inhabitants, I fully understand that but for the grace of God, go I. I make mistakes, I cause pain to others at times, and I cannot attain perfection - grace is the only thing I can ask for and therefore I must give it as well. "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved" resonates within my completely. Critical thinking - I work with a lot of national companies who are faced with a myriad of issues, not unlike what a school board would face. The difference I have noted in success vs failure are those companies that have leaders who can think through an issue, understand both sides of them, work through downstream consequences (both intended and unintended) and then act decisively are the ones that have long term success. This was also made clear to me in my time within the Army. Understanding risk(s) and working to maximize your objective while mitigating that risk is key. I believe today we have a lot of decisions made on emotions like fear and frustration, and we don't have clear well thought out reasons for why those decisions are made. That is why I want to add my perspective to the mix. My perspective may not always be the most trendy, but it will be pragmatic and at least well thought out.
Not afraid of conflict, hard worker, passionate about these kids, a very diverse life experience across the globe, and ultimately caring about the success of others.
To take the state level guidelines and hone them to the local community so that we can ensure that each child gets a quality education, has immersive social experiences, and comes out of the K-12 schooling system with a great foundation to build their life upon. That process includes making tough financial decision, communicating what decisions are being faced and why they are made, and ultimately being a watchdog and a voice for the community that elected us in the first place.
That I have positively touched everyone I encounter in some small way, that I brought a smile or a laugh to them, and that my kids futures are secure enough for them to dream big and reach for those dreams.
As a history buff, I know a lot happened, but the first I can still vividly recall when the space shuttle Challenger blew up. I believe I was 10 at the time and can still see those images in my mind today.
I grew up in town but did a lot of work on my extended family's farm and vividly recall baling hay and mowing the grass were my first paid endeavors. To this day I do both of those things 38 years later, although I wish I still got paid for mowing the grass.
I used to be a voracious reader, life and sports have taken that time down quite a bit, but there will always be a favorite and that is J.R.R. Tolkien's works. I love all of them dearly and equally, which is a good thing given my name came from them.
Glorfindel from The Silmarillion. Led his people to safety after the fall of the greatest city of their time, defending them to the death and then being worthy of being sp
Well its been 8 years since I got out, but Army cadences still live rent free in my memory and come out all the time unbidden. Once there, its half a day before I can purge them again. Gotta love a good round of down by the river . . . . .
My physical size - automatically when I enter the room people perceive me a specific way, add to that my voice and you get some folks that feel intimidated without me saying a threatening word. I always try to guard my words and tone so as not to be additive to that.
Cloverdale students, their parents, and the taxpayers that fund us. Additionally all the administrators, staff, and support personnel that depend on the school corporation for their livelihood.
First we have to have a forum for identifying what those are so we need a communication mechanism that allows the community, parents, and students to share and then we need a dedicated team reviewing those to ensure we are hitting the mark.
Secondly, I think we can look around and take best practices from other school corporations. CCSC does not rank #1 in the state in any category. We have others leading the way, and we need to tap into how they are doing so to understand what we may do better and how we might adopt/adapt that to our specific needs.
As someone not currently on the board, I am unaware of any efforts that do exist today. That could be due to a lack of them, or it could be due to communication gap, it also could be that no one is using the existing framework. My first priority is to create that transparency. Whether it be social media outlet, website, written communication, my goal would be to draw the board and the community to an improved communication modality where all members can clearly see what is occurring.
First we must understand the current budget and its strengths and weaknesses. That would put us into a position to know whether we are getting a true ROI on each dollar spent. That also has hard implications as tough choices must be made to determine what is prioritized and what is cut. Once we have a good understanding of the current cash flows, then we have to look at both revenue streams, and project enhancements. If we want to modernize we either self fund or raise funds, so we need to be clear on why we are raising funds and what the source of those funds would be. Educational improvements will cost, and most people feel today that they are stretched super thin as it is. I believe we have to be very conservative on how we approach spending, and also super transparent with those impacted.
Its an inside joke but when my dad says to someone new - Have I told you the three legged chicken joke, me immediately telling them "yes he has, while vigorously shaking my head, all in an effort to save them. The look on my dad's face is always priceless. They have no idea what I just saved them from . . . 15 minutes of their life they would not be able to get back ;-)
A diverse one - they need classroom instruction, social instruction, experiential instruction, and extra-curricular instruction. No one student gets everything they need from a book, or a Chromebook. They require reading about it, applying it, getting their hands on it (where possible) and then talking about it. In my opinion we also have to incorporate the basics into life skills. Math class is great, but if you pass Math but don't learn how to balance a checkbook or keep a ledger, or read a tape measure, then that Math knowledge was wasted. We have to teach them how to apply it, not just that it exists.
I refer back to where we are ranked within the State of Indiana. There are a lot of schools, of similar size, that do better than we do. We have to create a place where teachers want to come to work, feel supported and empowered, and ultimately listen to what they are sharing. They are the ones that deal with the real issues. My strategy would be to reach out to other corporations to see how they accomplish more with the same constraints to see what we can do to improve our processes. The board has to know if its a personnel issue, a policy issue, a supply issue, but ultimately we have to think through each of those and how they ultimately create the experience that our students live through.
Government works for the people, people must be informed, and if they cannot easily see where the funds are going they will forever be kept divided on who should be spending them. My overarching believe is that we need a smaller government, who is focused on the needs of this country and its citizens. We need to prudently spend tax payer money on things that can enhance and enrich their lives as the first priority. From a school board perspective that also means facilities that are up to date, adequate numbers of teachers and supplies for them to bring their work to light, and long term planning so that we continue to be solvent and able to do our mission for generations to come.
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