Jason Dobrolecki
Jason Dobrolecki ran in a special election to the Fort Bend Independent School District to represent Position 5 in Texas. He lost in the special general election on May 4, 2019.
Dobrolecki completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2019
See also: Fort Bend Independent School District, Texas, elections (2019)
General election
Special general election for Fort Bend Independent School District, Position 5
Allison Drew defeated Lily Lam, Jason Dobrolecki, Christian Sommer, and Pam Sutherland in the special general election for Fort Bend Independent School District, Position 5 on May 4, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Allison Drew (Nonpartisan) | 26.5 | 3,679 |
 | Lily Lam (Nonpartisan) | 24.7 | 3,424 | |
 | Jason Dobrolecki (Nonpartisan)  | 19.3 | 2,674 | |
 | Christian Sommer (Nonpartisan) | 17.2 | 2,384 | |
| Pam Sutherland (Nonpartisan) | 12.3 | 1,701 | ||
| Total votes: 13,862 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Cynthia Lenton-Gary (Nonpartisan)
Campaign themes
2019
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jason Dobrolecki completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dobrolecki's responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
1. Long term capacity planning for high growth areas of the district, and high demand programming and academies for under utilized schools. 2. Transparency in community focus groups and committees through clear delineation of deliverables and recommendations in board presentations by identifying and denoting recommendations from committees versus recommendations from admin. 3. Update district BOT representation and voting in the district to bring accountability of Trustees to the districts they represent. Only voters in the district of the representative should be able to vote for that board position. We should also update the structure to a hybrid single member district structure with 4 single member districts and 3 at large seats.
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
Updating public education to keep pace with an ever adapting and evolving world. Culture and technology are enabling change at an ever increasing rate and we currently see other nations advancing their public education systems beyond our own. This is our greatest challenge. We must keep up. And this does not necessarily mean more money must be thrown at the problem. Simply spending more money does not necessarily improve outcomes. We must spend more wisely and direct more money into the classroom, reduce overhead, and focus on metrics that drive outcomes.
Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?
An individual whom I look up to and has helped to form some of my public policy and economic viewpoints would be Milton Friedman.
What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?
A belief and trust in the community and their input into the public school system, along with a high level of empathy and understanding of motives. You don't have to agree with someone to understand their perspective and appreciate their point a view. I think this is a tool that many of our current school board leaders lack. We are too quick to get defensive, shut down vocal opposition and believe the worst of intentions in others. We need to slow down, listen more and then act more decisively with positions that are built on solid foundation and long term planning.
What legacy would you like to leave?
Return a level of trust in the board by the community, and in turn, improving the educational environment for our children through decisions that are less fraught in turmoil and anxiety.
What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?
The first major historical and geopolitical event that i have a clear memory of is President Raegan's "Tear Down that Wall" speech and the subsequent media coverage of the cheering crowds and the toppling of the Berlin Wall.
What is your favorite book? Why?
My favorite book, which has now turned into one of my favorite podcasts, is Freakonomics. I am fascinated by the field of behavioral economics. The measurement and observation of human behavior and how we respond to incentives and utility is a key factor in understanding human behavior, purchasing patterns and cultural and societal norms.
What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?
To be an sounding board for the community. To take in the community thoughts and concerns, digest those perspectives and opinions and make hard decisions for the betterment of the education of the children in the district and ensuring the health and longevity of the school system for the long term interests of the the residents of the district.
Who are your constituents?
My constituents would be those in the eastern portion of the district, though I would keep the impact of decisions on the district as a whole at the forefront as well. I believe that the current structure of the Board of Trustees representation is flawed. I am a resident of the eastern portion of the school district and I believe that residents of the eastern portion of the district should have the only say in who their representative is. Our current structure is flawed in that residents of the western portion of the county are able to vote on the representation of trustees for the eastern portion of the district and vice versa. While there are 6 seats who are representatives of their district through the fact that they live in that side of the district, but the fact that the entire Fort Bend ISD votes for that role in effect makes all six district seats at-large position in addition to the one actual at large seat.
Do you believe it is important to intentionally recruit with the aim of diversifying the district’s faculty, staff, and administration? If so, what would be your policy to achieve this?
The reason my wife and I moved into Sienna Plantation and wanted our children to go to Fort Bend ISD schools was for the diversity of the district. We absolutely love that we live in the most diverse county in the country and that a walk down our own street allows us to meet families from so many different ethnicities and nationalities. That diversity is a key factor in the quality of education and development of our children's world views as they grow and develop into adults.
What type of skills should students be learning for success in the 21st century?
Our students must learn skills that ready them for the future and adapts to the many varied learning styles. I believe the school to college pipeline of the past couple decades has done a disservice to many of our kids who could have been better set up for success in life by not taking on immense college debt and instead going into a skill or trade industry. We must have education that teaches kids where they are a builds on their unique skills and abilities, whether thats preparing them for university, community college, apprenticeships or trade schools.
In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?
We need to see expanded courses in technology in our schools including computer sciences and coding languages.
What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?
This is such an important topic in today's society. We must commit to practices that will improve the actual safety and security of our children in school, and ensure that we're not lured into security theatre where we implement policies that make us "feel" safer, but that don't actually provide substantive improvements in safety and security.
What role do you imagine technology playing in (and outside) the classroom in the future? How would you prepare the district for this?
Technology is key to the future of our children's education, and that includes education of technology's role in society so we can raise children that can leverage technology for the betterment of their future and for society and not become a slave to the technology itself.
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.
See also
2019 Elections
External links
Footnotes
