Jason Jorgenson
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Jason Jorgenson is an at-large member of the Colorado Springs School District 11 school board. He assumed office on December 4, 2019. His current term ends in 2027.
Jorgenson ran for re-election for an at-large seat of the Colorado Springs School District 11 school board. He won in the general election on November 7, 2023.
Jorgenson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jason Jorgenson was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received his bachelor's degress in biology and chemistry from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2007 and a graduate degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2010. Jorgenson's professional experience includes working as a financial advisor and teaching 6th and 7th grade science.[1]
Elections
2023
See also: Colorado Springs School District 11, Colorado, elections (2023)
General election
General election for Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education At-large (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education At-large on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jill Haffley (Nonpartisan)  | 12.9 | 27,055 | |
| ✔ |  | Thomas Carey (Nonpartisan) | 12.9 | 27,016 |
| ✔ |  | Parth Melpakam (Nonpartisan) | 12.5 | 26,106 |
| ✔ |  | Jason Jorgenson (Nonpartisan) | 12.1 | 25,366 |
 | Rachel Paul (Nonpartisan) | 11.5 | 24,000 | |
 | Darleen Daniels (Nonpartisan) | 11.0 | 23,008 | |
| Kathryn Singh (Nonpartisan) | 10.5 | 21,899 | ||
 | Shay Dabney (Nonpartisan) | 9.8 | 20,574 | |
 | Mary Coleman (Nonpartisan) | 4.0 | 8,357 | |
 | Jeremiah Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 2.8 | 5,828 | |
| Total votes: 209,209 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Jorgenson received the following endorsements.
- State Rep. Rose Pugliese (R)
- Frmr. Colorado Springs Dist. Attorney Dan May (R)
- El Paso Cnty. Commissioner Cami Bremer (R)
- Colorado Springs City Cncl. Memb. Lynette Crow-Iverson (Nonpartisan)
- Colorado Springs City Cncl. Memb. Dave Donelson (Nonpartisan)
- El Paso Cnty. Commissioner Carrie Geitner (R)
- El Paso Cnty. Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez Jr.
- Colo. State Board of Education Memb. Steve Durham (R)
- Frmr. state Sen. Bill Cadman (R)
- Frmr. state Rep. Tim Geitner (R)
- Frmr. state Rep. Lois Landgraf (R)
- Colorado Conservative Patriot Alliance
- Smart Choice Colorado
- Jeff Crank (R) - Americans for Prosperity Regional Dir.
- Darcy Schoening - Frmr. El Paso Cnty. Moms for Liberty Chair
Pledges
Jorgenson signed the following pledges.
2019
See also: Colorado Springs School District 11, Colorado, elections (2019)
General election
General election for Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education At-large (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education At-large on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mary Coleman (Nonpartisan) | 19.3 | 24,977 |
| ✔ | | Darleen Daniels (Nonpartisan) | 16.3 | 21,045 |
| ✔ | | Parth Melpakam (Nonpartisan) | 13.8 | 17,814 |
| ✔ | | Jason Jorgenson (Nonpartisan) | 12.9 | 16,727 |
 | Chris Wallis (Nonpartisan) | 12.5 | 16,169 | |
| Vincent Puzick (Nonpartisan) | 10.0 | 12,944 | ||
 | Joseph Shelton (Nonpartisan) | 7.9 | 10,237 | |
| Conner Sargent (Nonpartisan) | 7.2 | 9,373 | ||
| Total votes: 129,286 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Jorgenson was endorsed by Pike's Peak Association of Realtors and the Home Builder's Association.[1]
Campaign themes
2023
Jason Jorgenson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Jorgenson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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As a D11 graduate, Colorado Springs native, father of four, and former science teacher, I value quality education for every student. My wife and I are raising our children in this community we love, enjoying the beauty of Colorado by camping and mountain biking. Between my family, business, and cherished friendships within D11, I have a personal stake in the district’s success, and I have decided to run for re-election for the school board in District 11 for another 4-year term.
Over the past four years (the last two as board Vice President), I prioritized a renewed focus on academic achievement, improving instructional strategies, and provided record high raises (20% to our starting salary) and new health benefits for our teachers and staff. With all the great progress we’ve made in just the past two years, there is still much work to accomplish! Once re-elected, I will ensure that we continue to drive high academic expectations, prioritize student safety, and increase parental involvement – keeping no secrets from our parents/guardians.
- 1. Academic Achievement. After a year of great progress (D11 moved from 158th of 178 school districts to 79th in one year), we must continue to improve D11’s historically low English and Math proficiency levels and improve academics across the boards. That begins with ensuring that we are prioritizing fact-based and politically neutral curriculum, hiring and retaining the best teachers, and giving every student the opportunity to succeed. In D11 we’ve begun implementing pathway schools, giving students the ability to explore dynamic education paths in fields like STEM or Career and Technical Education. Programs like these are improving D11’s academics today, and we must stay vigilant to give every student the best possible education.
- 2. Parental Involvement. I was proud to champion the Parent Partnership policy in D11 which commits the district to giving parents a voice and a choice in their children’s education and asks in return for their commitment to helping their child learn. In an ever-changing world of technology and concerns, I will increase transparency for parents regarding classroom content & their students’ mental health and behavior. Our teachers and staff have dealt with many new challenges regarding student behavior and safety. Thus, I will evaluate student discipline practices to increase student engagement and safety.
- 3. School Safety. Students, teachers, and staff must be safe to teach and learn. Parents and families must be able to trust that their child is safe in our schools. This year, because of a school safety audit, D11 set aside $11,000,000 to improve our safety infrastructure. I am committed to expanding those efforts to include anything that would improve our community’s safety.
Policy that focuses on academic excellence as well as safe and engaged learning environments. Public education has been asked to be a lot of things for many diverse needs and I believe that if we could focus on the basics through sound policy, we can help all students achieve their best and situate them for success upon graduation.
I’m reading the book “Great on Their Behalf; Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Become Effective” by Airick Journey Crabill. This book focuses on what unfortunately gets pushed to the back burner for many school boards: student outcomes. No matter your political affiliation of views, this is a must read on how to serve well on a school board.
I am the same man, no matter where I am or the company I am with. I am as genuine as they come, faults and imperfections, humor and integrity, it's all there all the time.
Students thriving and parents trusting and believing in public education.
The OJ Simpson trial and coverage was probably the first. I was only 9, but remember my Aunt Margaret being enamored with the trial and coverage each day of our visit to my grandma's lake house in Ohio.
Taco Bell, age 15, I enjoyed working there for roughly 2 years.
Be Obsessed or be Average by Grant Cardone. It's all about seizing your opportunity, going after your goals and making the change to get there.
Zombie by Lecrae
Raising 4 kids while growing a business and serving on the school board. It's about balance and I couldn't do it without my amazing wife, who holds it all together for us!
Governance, we govern and manage our one employee, the superintendent. We create, correct, and direct policy aligned with community values and beliefs for the benefit of all our students. We also maintain fiscal governance of the district budget, aligning the values of our constituents to dollars spent for the benefit of our students.
Community members are tired of hearing about failing public education in our area. Voters who can see the challenges our young people are facing in the absence of strong academic standards from the adults they depend on and trust. I am committed to bringing back high academic expectations, eliminating excuses, and be the voice of reason and support for the challenges our minors face growing up in these challenging times.
District 11 has seen rapid changes in demographics and socioeconomic diversity. We also serve a growing number of individuals whose first language is not English. We must adapt, focus on core instructional strategies and support these changes by offering the best educational experience and nothing else.
The current school board and superintendent has been blessed in recent years by our community’s willingness to come alongside the district as we turn it onto the path of success. For example, through partnerships with the Dakota foundation, The Bruni Foundation, and Pikes Peak State College, we are able to offer full ride scholarships to all D11 students that have a 90% attendance rate and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA. That feat was only made possible through our community partnerships. We must continue to grow those relationships to provide more opportunities for our students.
Good teaching can look vastly different based on the style and environment. In part, it should be measured on outcomes and the impact a teacher has on the classroom and school. With the recent changes to Colorado Law on how we evaluate teachers, only 30% of their evaluation is based on student achievement, down from a 50% weighting before this recent law. As a result, our district is creating and refining those metrics for measuring and evaluating our staff under the new evaluation metrics.
We have great people on our team here that see those needs and are bringing them to our attention. Our growing Career and Technical Education (CTE) program (currently offering over 60 different programs) is celebrated across the state for its success. We are growing these opportunities and programs as well as emboldening our students to find their strengths through our specific pathway schools. Our superintendent and board have a vision for expanding from a traditional K-12 ecosystem to a Pre-K-14 system that blurs the lines from graduation to college to career ready based on what our students need. Add to this the recent D11 Promise scholarship program that offers any graduate a 2-year scholarship to earn their associate degree or more, and exciting things are ahead for D11.
Our funding comes from the state and property taxes, as well as our Mill Levy Overrides. With these funding revenues and through the process of “right-sizing” the district, the board has demonstrated that we can be effective with the funding we have now. I’d like our board, superintendent, and district to show further improvements in education excellence, safety, and parental involvement before further assessing other funding means for revamping and updating our District 11 facilities.
Every student has a right to attend a school free of fear and concern for their safety. I would ensure that we continue our current path of security infrastructure improvements, and advocate for School Resource Officers in all our schools.
COVID did a number on our students, faculty, and staff as it isolated us from meaningful relationships and work environments for far too long. Post pandemic, as a current board member, we allocated funding to place at least one counselor in each of our schools and have partnered with external counseling practices to serve our community with their mental health needs.
I would like to review and change our district’s equity policy. The board has demonstrated that we can do more for equity by prioritizing outcomes than we can by paying lip service to equity through a policy. I’d also like to implement a policy that would build on our parent partnership by addressing how we notify parents and/or guardians of the mental health or personal struggles they share with our staff while at school.
• Steve Durham, State Board of Education, District 5
• Bill Cadman, former Colorado Senate President
• Tim Geitner, former Colorado House Assistant Minority Leader
• Carrie Geitner, County Commissioner, District 2
• Longinos Gonzalez Jr., County Commission, District 4
• Lois Landgraf, former Colorado House Representative
• Cami Bremer, County Commissioner, District 5
• Dave Donnelson, City Councilmember, District 1
• Lynette Crow-Iverson, City Councilmember, At Large
• Rose Pugliese, Colorado House Assistant Minority Leader, District 14
Students will learn and work to the level they’re challenged, supported, and respected. If our classrooms are not safe and engaging with effective lesson plans, or free of distractions such as personal devices, they won’t be in an environment to help them achieve their personal best. Student outcomes won’t change until adult behaviors do, and we may need to assess how we as adults are providing the best learning experience for our students.
As a sitting board member and minority voice on the board through the pandemic, I spoke up against overly restrictive regulations. There are many things I would have done differently. I would not have enforced a mask mandate, keeping personal choice respected and a priority. Moreover, after seeing some schools and districts be successful in maintaining in-person learning, especially in the 2020-2021 school year, I would have been more adamant on creative and ethical solutions to keep our students in person and in relationship with each other as much as possible.
In my first term we took a huge step towards this already, by passing a new policy called the Parent Partnership. This policy brings parents to the table in their students’ education and also asks them to help their students be prepared for success in the classrooms. We will build further relationships with parents by using data and technology to make sure parents know how their children are doing, what they’re working on, struggling with, etc. to keep them involved and engaged with the district’s efforts in educating their child.
Crucially, the school board passed a 20% increase for beginning teachers this year, we went from the worst pay in the area to the best pay in our area. Moreover, our new superintendent Michael Gaal, continues to bring a variety of new strategies for recruitment.
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.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Jorgenson completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
2019
Jason Jorgenson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Jorgenson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Your conservative choice and a parent's voice, Jason was born and raised in Colorado Springs. Attending Carver Elementary School, Sabin Middle School, and graduating from Doherty High School in 2003. He obtained a Bachelors degree in Biology and Chemistry from UCCS in 2007, and a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction in December of 2010. He was a middle school science teacher in Harrison School District Two for 10 years and served in many leadership capacities at the school and district levels, including the District Advisory Committee (DAC). He will be a listening ear to our community and will serve the community.
- Current teaching experience, I know what our teachers and support staff need in their schools and will advocate for them in board decision making!
- Parent Advocate, parents are a student's first and forever teacher, they need to be able to make informed decisions!
- Finance and curriculum expert, Jason has the knowledge to help oversee our Mill Levy resources, and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction to help make proper policy decisions on what is being taught in our schools!
As a financial advisor and personal finance coach, I am passionate about teaching our young people how to run a household and how to be a responsible adult. We should be doing a few things better for our young people: equiping them with personal finance skills, how to maintain a household on their own, and what careers might be a better fit for them instead of just promoting college to our young students. We have a huge shortfall in skilled trade professions and it will only be getting worse, i'd like to help promote those trade jobs and get students on a path that is successful for them, even if it isn't college. We also need to address mental health in our schools. We need counselors and social workers that are available to work with our students, keep their parents involved along the way, and grow our kids socially as well as academically.
I look up to God, Dave Ramsey, and my wife. I'd like to follow all of their examples for various reasons, feel free to email me at jason@electjasonjorgenson.org to know more for this question.
Not the best, but I was old enough to be following the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. More historic was 9/11. I was in high school and the exact moment that I heard about the first plane's impact was on the radio as we turned off 30th street onto Garden of the Gods road on the way to Doherty High School from my dad's house.
Taco Bell at the age of 14, I saved for my first mountain bike and car. I had it through my senior year of high school.
The Richest Man in Babylon, it teaches character, finance and generosity.
Harry Potter, he had a great heart, fought for what he believed in until the end and had a great community that supported him.
A school board member should take informed input, make policy decisions for the good of the district, review curriculum and help teachers to teach it as effective as possible, and if needed, find/interview/hire a new superintendent.
Parents, community members, local business owners, and our students who are the future of this city and society.
Every school is different, and every classroom is different. We need to go to a school by school basis and determine what that school needs specifically to serve their community. It may not mean equality, but it will mean equity in education.
I am endorsed by Larry Liston, Andy Pico, Shane Sandbridge, The Pike Peak Association of Realtors , and the Home Builder's Association. These elected officials and organizations will be happy to partner with our district in teaching trades, building skills, and bringing students back to our district!
Parents are a students first and forever teacher! They should be involved and be able to make informed decisions for their children. We must increase and promote parent involvement in our community and schools. This starts with offering each school events and resources that will be effective for that neighborhood. Whether it be a parenting class, personal finance class, or a cooking class, we should meet parents where they are and bring them alongside the teachers to educate our children.
Yes, we should be looking for talent across our county and country. There are teachers who want to make a difference and who have the skills to not only teach their students, but to mentor and teach other staff. We want to keep the teachers like this that we have and go find more of them. We should promote job fairs and allow a small budget for recruiting teachers to come into District 11.
Students are pulled in so many different directions nowadays. We must make out time with them at school the most effective time, as many of them do not have the means to complete homework. Engaging and effective instruction will make the most impact, I'd start with that.
I think we need to take a look at our budgets at the administrative level. We may have some personnel at the district level that would be more effective in the schools or it may make more sense to eliminate that position and give it to the schools that need the money for their budget.
Students must feel safe at school. We should not be putting fear into them, but we should be equipping them with knowledge. We should have trained and potentially armed security guards and we should have a school resource officer at every middle school and high school.
We need to allow counselors and social workers the time to do their jobs. Often these positions are cut by budgets or stretched into other roles due to budget and time constraints. Allowing counselors and social workers to be more available for kids and to keep parents involved will be a helpful start.
I'd like it to play less of a role at school. For the past decade, education has pushed for more and more technology while technology has also increased at home and at a younger age. I'd like to see limited and effective technology use while bringing back more interpersonal skills and character building skills to raise up young people into well rounded adults ready for the real world.
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
2023 Elections
External links
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Candidate Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education At-large |
Personal |
Footnotes
