Eric Lea (Redmond School District 2J, Position 1, Oregon, candidate 2023)
Eric Lea (Republican Party) ran for election to Redmond School District 2J, Position 1 in Oregon.[1]
Elections
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Eric Lea completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lea's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a born and raised, rural public school educated Oregonian. My wife and I raised two children, both of whom attended Oregon Public Schools. I am the co-founder of a successful Portland area charter school, built from the ground up. I am a Clinical Research professional by trade, and am currently the Director of Clinical Operations at Everest Clinical Research.
Why I am qualified to serve?
I am the Position #1 Incumbent. I was Selected Through a Competitive Process to Fill a Board Vacancy
Professional Career
• I am a Leader (Department Director)
• I Have Extensive Conflict Resolution Experience
• I Manage Large Budgets
• I Interview, Hire, Manage and when Necessary, Fire Employees
• I Create Proposals and New Business Bids
• I am a Builder of Partnerships
I Co-Founded a Successful Charter School • Negotiated charter with the State Board of Education • Developed a Unique Curriculum • Managed Facility Siting and Permitting • Supervised the Final Build-Out • Oversaw School Budget/Finance Management • Facilitated Successful Accountability Audits • Interacted with Parents, Teachers and Administration • Staffed a New School • Led a Very Successful "Place-Based" Education Model • I was Integral to the Leadership of the School for 9 years, having served on the Board as Director, and as
Chair
- I seek to refocus our efforts on the basics of education, bringing renewed attention to reading, writing, arithmetic, basic sciences, and history without bias or agenda. We should equip our children to be informed and engaged in the social commentary, without that commentary driving the content of our curriculum.
- We must instill in our students the skill of critical thinking. We need an urgent focus on educational skills first and foremost. I will do this by encouraging diversity of thought in seeking solutions to the problems distracting us from success. I will also seek to promote an environment of productive discourse (return to lively, polite debate).
- I will seek (through policies and messaging) to reduce screen-time and promote authentic, interpersonal interactions with peers and families. There is no substitute for real life to learn appropriate behavior in real life.
I am passionate about providing access to quality public schooling for all children of our community. I find most social issues today are simply a distraction from the core mission; the mission of preparing our children for higher education, or otherwise providing the skills necessary to be productive, gainfully employed partners in our community.
Success hinges on 3 important objectives; A laser-focus on the foundational elements of education, a return to civility in debate, and a severe curtailment in 'screen-time' from all sources.
Application of these objectives will set us on a course for academic improvement in our community.
I am not seeking voter pamphlet endorsements
I managed loading, unloading and organization of freight in a warehouse at about 10 years of age (family business). I obtained a work permit and worked at "Arctic Circle" throughout high school.
Jimmy Carter's presidency began when I was about 10 years of age. I remember the Iran hostage situation when I was 11 or 12.
Jesus Christ MLK Jr. Various presidents
Set policy Ensure compliance with policy Review and revise policy to ensure academic focus and success
My community. The parents and students of Redmond School District.
I will seek to provide equal opportunity of access to all services.
Though I think EVERYONE should be a stakeholder in children's education, I will specifically seek to reach students and parents of current students, as well as teachers and staff of the schools in our community. I will build relationships by demonstrating a spirit of cooperation and a culture of listening.
I will demonstrate my commitment to quality education for their children. I will seek methods and policies with historical evidence for success in preparing students to perform at or above grade-level.
Transparency in goals, and plans for success will ensure we recruit staff that wish to be part of our community and share in our achievements.
One that is both engaged and focused. Engaging students in their learning make them willing and active participants. Focusing on the topics at hand without unnecessary social distraction will impart skills for success not just in school, but in life after school.
Competency is obviously a necessary attribute, but passion for their subject and their students' success is paramount. Novel approaches that demonstrate their passion and actively engage students will be encouraged. There is no substitute for objective data in measuring success. This includes traditional testing, as well as metrics on participation, absenteeism and diversity of students engaged.
I will support CTE/Vocational training at the higher grade levels. Teaching the skills necessary in the 21st century is important, but I don't necessarily think curriculum needs "expanded" to do so. We need greater focus on the basics and a shift of resources into methods and topics that engage students in their own learning.
I would like to further community partnerships that allow for learning and apprenticeship opportunities.
Our district is pretty good at seeking regional, state and federal grant sources. The local community provides the top-up necessary to enrich education. Convincing people to pay more in taxes requires confidence in the leadership and proven methods of instruction they can see in students of the community. I hope that people are willing to invest in my ideas and methods and are rewarded with measurable outcomes that motivate them to fund education.
I will continue to support ongoing efforts to provide physical access control for all of our schools. I will also support the many activities we have which are attempting to address behavioral issues and broadly speaking "respect" issues between students, staff and community.
We have many sources of mental health support at all different tiers of need. I will seek to monitor these resources for success, and do my best to ensure they are properly funded.
This is redundant, but I would like to see policies that refocus our efforts on the basics of education. Demonstrating success (for both teachers and students) will require thoughtful testing. I don't feel all testing is good and necessary, but neither do I think thoughtful testing is without value. We have been moving away from testing, taking away a necessary tool to assess success or failure.
Honesty, integrity and transparency. An elected official should be honest, attempt to pursue the promises made during their campaign, or be completely transparent about why they may have changed their mind. Modeling these attributes in front of students and the greater community is essential to credibility and success.
By definition, school boards are tasked with creation, maintenance and improvement of district policy. Compliance should be assessed and if the policies are deemed appropriate by the board, efforts should be put forth to obtain and sustain compliance.
As a Director on the Board, my responsibility is to be informed (policy, law and stakeholder input) and thoughtfully participate in the creation and enforcement of policy that benefits our students.
Honesty, integrity and transparency. I am a hard-worker and demonstrate a willingness to work with almost anyone that is earnest in their pursuit of school improvement.
I would like to see a reversal in contemporary trends of poor performance and academic success. I would like to look back and see a significant inflection in a graph showing grade-level competency and readiness for life or additional learning. I will be successful when Redmond is a clear outlier in the declining trend of educational readiness.
I'm not much of a non-fiction reader, but I loved "Wicked" for it novel perspective and creative writing. I also like almost anything from Joel Rosenberg.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
External links
[1] ↑ Submitted to Ballotpedia's candidate survey in 2023.
