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Jay Shelley (South East (Timpanogos) School District, Utah, candidate 2025)
Jay Shelley (Nonpartisan) ran for election to South East (Timpanogos) School District in Utah on August 12, 2025.[1]
Elections
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jay Shelley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shelley'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 father of 5 with kids in both public and private schools, so I’ve seen the best of both worlds and seen what we can improve. I have a Masters of Accounting from BYU and studied entrepreneurship. I’ve spent my career in public accounting, four technology startups, and investing in public and private companies, so I care not only about being fiscally responsible, but also about the value we receive for money spent. As PTA Treasurer at Cascade Elementary I implemented changes that have been organically adopted throughout our PTA council and even into Utah State PTA.
I want to help negotiate the split of Alpine’s assets, set up our district with more transparency and accountability, and encourage increased parent-teacher involvement. I will work to implement creative solutions that will incentivize administrators to be in touch with what’s happening in the classrooms and reduce school closures, while saving financially in a significant way. Sound impossible? Let’s talk.
Most importantly, our children need to like school and thrive academically. We have a huge opportunity to improve the educational lives of our children, let’s not squander it! I'd love to talk with you!
- CREATIVE SOLUTIONS: We can keep more schools open, while reducing costs, and incentivize administrators to understand first-hand the issues in our schools. Because we won’t have an administrative office after the split, we could put ⅓ of the administrative offices in some unused rooms in a school that has had a declining student population, and do that at three different schools. This would: 1. Utilize the buildings we already have. 2. Help keep those in administration directly in touch with what’s going on in the schools. 3. Saves substantial costs. I've got lots of creative ideas, but so do all of you. I'll champion all the ideas we can to make our new district as amazing as possible!
- EXCITEMENT FOR LEARNING: Our children are our future - they will be our doctors and lawyers, our electricians and plumbers. Their education and excitement for learning is critical to our collective future. Unfortunately, when I ask children what their favorite subjects are in school it’s uncommon that I find anyone who mentions a core academic subject. All too frequently I hear jokes or comments like: “Schools are made of bricks, and prisons are made of bricks” (followed by a look that says, don’t you see they’re the same) - what a shame! We can, and must, do better for our children!
- PARENT INVOLVEMENT: Teachers, students and parents all benefit when we work together. Unfortunately, there’s been a trend in schools of parents becoming critical and scrutinizing teachers, and teachers requesting to have less parental involvement in classrooms. This results in parents not understanding how to best help their children at home, and not having firsthand experience seeing the incredibly difficult job teachers do. It further results in lower test scores and increased costs, which leads to increased class sizes and hiring more teacher aides. Students benefit when they have the support of both teachers and parents!
1. Honest 2. Love for children and their education 3. Deep understanding of education and trends 4. Communicates transparently 5. Balances long-term and short-term needs effectively 6. Works well with teachers, parents, the board, and the community 7. Creative problem solver 8. Great listener and champions the best ideas
1. Transparency and Accountability 2. Collaboration and Inclussiveness 3. Fiscal Responsibility 4. Improving Learning Outcomes 5. Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders
Open-sourced ideas and building has changed the world for the better, and we ought to do the same with government. The more collaboration and eyes we have on finances, test results, ideas, building costs, etc the more we'll be able to help everyone in our community to achieve the best possible district. Together.
Dairy Queen for 6 week, but I really loved it. I lined up an amazing job but when I was ready to start they said they found someone else who could start sooner, so I took the first job I could get. I worked hard and got multiple raises with the short time I was there.
All the taxpayers. All the students. All the teachers. All the Administrators. All the residents.
Technology should be used to enhance the learning experience for students. I've worked to help improve the technology policy at Alpine School District, and I think it's very important. Our children aren't going to school to binge electronics. Technology should be used for good in schools (I'm a technologist, but have also seen many downsides in our children's education with too much technology use, and in ways that don't benefit the students.
Due Dates need to come back! They've been M.I.A. since Covid, and it's not doing anyone any favors!
The Schools and District have a responsibility to return and report to the Parents and Students the results of the annual surveys, and the planned improvements based on the feedback received. I also believe we have a responsibility to not only be transparent about finances, but also about learning outcomes. After all, schools are in the business of educating, but very few people even know how well we are performing at our core job!
We need to reward and celebrate the best teachers so we can retain them. We have some of the best teachers! Unfortunately the incentives accidentally put in place result in encouraging teachers to be average. Most of our teachers really care and do their best, but we're not incentivizing and encouraging excellence.
None. I'm remaining independent.
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 2025.
