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Jennifer Gibbons

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Jennifer Gibbons
Image of Jennifer Gibbons

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 2, 2021

Education

Bachelor's

BYU, 1996

Graduate

BYU, 1998

Other

A.T. Still University, 2017

Personal
Birthplace
Lancaster, Calif.
Religion
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Profession
Audiologist
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Jennifer Gibbons (also known as Jen) ran for election to the Cherry Creek Board of Education to represent District D in Colorado. She lost in the general election on November 2, 2021.

Gibbons completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jennifer Gibbons was born in Lancaster, California. She earned a bachelor's degree from BYU in 1996 and a graduate degree from BYU in 1998. She also graduated from A.T. Still University in 2017. Gibbons' professional experience includes working as an audiologist.[1]

Elections

2021

See also: Cherry Creek School District, Colorado, elections (2021)

General election

General election for Cherry Creek School District Board of Education District D

Incumbent Kelly Bates defeated Jennifer Gibbons and Schumé Navarro in the general election for Cherry Creek School District Board of Education District D on November 2, 2021.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Kelly Bates
Kelly Bates (Nonpartisan)
 
51.9
 
37,227
Image of Jennifer Gibbons
Jennifer Gibbons (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
33.6
 
24,112
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Schumé Navarro (Nonpartisan)
 
14.5
 
10,370

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 71,709
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign themes

2021

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Jennifer Gibbons completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gibbons' 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 mother of 4 kids. I have a son that is a senior at Utah State University, a daughter who is a sophomore at Ohio State University, and 2 children who currently attend Cherokee Trail High School. My college kids both graduated from Cherokee Trail.

I am a doctor of audiology, and currently practice as the audiologist at the Sams club in our neighborhood. I owned an operated a children's performing group for 3 years, and I have organized, operated and taught co-op preschools for all of my children. I have been working with children most of my adult life. I have served in many volunteer capacities with the children's group within my church including president of the children's organization with 250 kids for 3 years.

I have served in many capacities within CCSD including PTCO co-president for 3 years. I am a founder and current board president of Heritage Heights Academy (HHA) in CCSD. I have attended 6 years of half day, bi-annual trainings, read books and completed the CDE's board modules course on how to be an effective educational board member. During my time on the HHA board of directors, I have served as president for 5 years, and treasurer for one. I have also been on the finance, fundraising and facilities committees.

I completed my 31st marathon Oct 2nd, and I love spending time with family and new dog.

My family and I love our school district! We have made forever friends being involved members of the community of CCSD.
  • I will be dedicated to excellence. My vision is the same as the vision of CCSD, which is a dedication to excellence. I know to be an effective board member, one must be aligned with the vision and mission of the district. I will weigh all my decisions according to what will bring excellence to our children's education, and what will help ALL children to think, to learn, to achieve and to care. I will adhere to these values in every question I ask and every vote I cast.
  • Communication and transparency. We are living in unprecedented times. We have come out of a quarantine, and there are changes happening in schools all over the country which have caused worries for parents, and parents don't feel heard. There is drama and division with the mask debate and other devisive issues, and the district is not making efforts to unite the community. I believe in finding common ground and working to find a solution from that starting point. If I am elected, I will open up communication between parents and the board and ensure families feel heard, because every voice deserves to be heard. I will also push for dynamic decisions, and a data rubric regarding mask wearing based on data which changes every day.
  • Safety. We have experienced unspeakable horrors in CO that we cannot risk happening again. SRO's in schools are critical. There needs to be a constant safety presence in our schools. If I am elected, I will always support having well trained SROs. We also need to address the mental health issues our kids are struggling with. There are more kids suffering with Mental illness, and we have less available resources. CCSD is starting construction on their own mental health facility to address the shortage of care, and it will incorporate instruction for students in treatment. If I am elected, I will ensure that parents remain the primary decision makers and partners in care.
I am passionate about school of choice. I am a founder of a charter school, but I do not think all schools should be charters. Ideally, our neighborhood schools will serve the community, but I know as a mother of 4, that not all children are the same, and they do not all fit into the same model. While CCSD boasts professional, well trained and caring teachers, there are children who will not get what they need in a typical classroom.

CCSD has many choices. We have 3 charter schools, and the new Innovations campus that offers exciting courses for high school students which give them a step ahead in the work force.

While I would like to focus on the excellence of all of our neighborhood schools, it is also important to make sure parents know of their choices so that every child can achieve their unique potentials.

CCSD's special education, GT and twice exceptional students need more funding. CCSD is beginning changes in their budget which allows more money be directed to children who need more attention. I hope this new funding model will allow for our underserved special needs students to get more of what they need.

I look up to many people. I have amazing parents and siblings who are stellar examples to me. I also have many people in my church and my community that I look to for examples in parenting, and general behavior. I can't think of one person whose example I would follow. I try to be selfless like my husband, kind like my sister Julie, funny like my sister Sarah, and faithful like my sister Jilene. I try to be jovial like my brother Jim and hold my tongue like my brother Dan. I try to make a 100% effort in all I do like my mom and be a go getter like my dad.
I am a huge fan of Jordan Peterson. While I do not agree with every thing he says, I find his ideas to be enlightening, and I use his quotes often to parent my children and to sometimes convey my own truth.
Honesty, integrity, responsiveness, humility.
I have integrity, I speak honestly, I have energy and perseverance, I also have the humility to ask for help and clarity when needed, and I care deeply for this school district and its constituents.
I will have my responsibilities as a board member to fulfill that are outlined in the board policies. But, my core responsibility is to represent my constituents.

When I serve on the board, I will be a voice for the parents, teachers, and community members. There are many parents who do not feel like the board hears them or addressed their concerns. I hope to bring a new dynamic to the board where there is open communication and voices are heard.
When I have completed my 4 year term on the school board, I would like my legacy to be one of healing, and unification. I hope that I can not only model behavior that is unifying, but to encourage it at every meeting and school visit. Our district is too divided. It's time to come together.
The most important historical event that I remembered was watching the space shuttle, Challenger break apart on live TV. I was in 3rd grade and we watched the launch live during class. There was such a feeling of combined loss, and extreme sadness, especially since we had a beloved teacher on board. It was an impactful moment in my life.
My very first job was when I was 10. I created a flyer for babysitting and rode my bike to an apartment complex about 5 miles from my home. I put the flyer up in the laundromats around the complex. I did this every summer until I was 14. One summer I made $350 working for a dollar or two an hour. I have always held some kind of a job from the time I was 10.
I read many informative, non-fiction books, but the books I enjoyed reading the most were the ones in the Harry Potter series. I read them each aloud to my son and we enjoyed that time together.
I'd be any super hero that moves fast and doesn't need sleep.
Just as I was reading that question I was humming "Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof. I often get show tunes on repeat in my head.
I am blessed with a healthy body and brain, an extremely supportive husband, and 4 wonderful kids, so I don't really think about my struggles because I have been so blessed.

Growing up we didn't have a lot of money, and very little parental supervision, so one might think that was a struggle, but I look back on my child hood fondly although I worked as much if not more than I played.

I tend to be a compulsive person, and I struggle with feeling anxious about not checking the boxes I have made for myself every day.

My struggles are small and insignificant to the real struggles people have around me, so to list them makes me feel ungrateful. I am very fortunate to have a lovely family and healthy body.
The primary job of a school board member is to hire the superintendent, approve the budget and oversee achievement. I also think an important role is to be a conduit for parent's voices. Too many parents don't feel heard when they contact the board with concerns. I would like to be a more effective representative for parents and community members.
My constituents are the students, teachers, parents, families and community members of CCSD. I also need to have a vested interest in the success of local and small businesses.
CCSD has 55,000 children across 108 square miles. We serve families that speak over 150 languages, and we boast almost half of our children are people of color. CCSD has over 5,000 children with special needs or who are neuro-diverse. We have many children who have historically have been underserved. The special needs population is especially in need, particularly after coming out of quarantine. I hope with the new needs based vs student based budgeting will help fill some of those deficits. CCSD has been tracking the achievement gap for decades. I would love to bring in community members to help where help is needed and assemble data from other districts or schools that do not have the achievement gap and together create innovate and effective ways to help close the achievement gap.

It's important to recognize that all students, families and faculty have different backgrounds and needs. I would like to focus on those individuals that have needs and provide accordingly, but carefully allocate resources to those in need and not provide blanket resources where they are not needed.
In my work, I speak with people from many different backgrounds and generations. I have encountered many people who love to volunteer, especially in schools. I feel this is an untapped resource. I would love to see a program for people with education back grounds, or just a passion to serve, or a passion for education, where a community member could be matched with a child who needs some help to succeed.
We know that kids do better when they can relate to their teachers. Since some of our diverse students do not perform as well as our typical students, I can see the value of hiring diverse teachers and staff. I do not think they should be chosen over more qualified counterparts, but if we have the chance to hire a qualified diverse teacher or staff member, we should take the opportunity.

I would like us to take a bottom up approach and encourage our diverse student body to pursue careers in education and hope they come back to CCSD to work!
I think many kids get a quality education at CCSD. We have thousands of kids graduate with enough credits to have a semester or more of college completed. We have kids who are amazing achievers, and I love to hear their stories. We were able to hear from one ambassador from each high school in which we had a candidate forum. I was so impressed and proud!

Parent involvement is a key feature in a child's success. Many times parents do not have the tools to navigate the school system and need help. We need to find an effective way to seek these families and offer support.

Funding is a problem, especially for our special needs, twice exceptional and GT kids. We do not have the funding to hire the para professionals and extra staff to fill their needs. I hope to see some improvement with the needs based funding model, if improvements are not had, I would like to explore other options like cutting costs from other areas in the district.
A good teacher is one who effectively presents the curriculum. One who conveys acceptance and makes kids feel safe enough to try hard things even though they may fail. A good teacher is one who can teach without pushing their own beliefs or biases. An effective teacher uses data analysis to fill holes in learning and knows when to push a student to try harder.

Luckily, as a board member at CCSD I will be surrounded by amazing professionals. Beginning with our teachers, and up to our principals, specialists, and superintendent administration, we can rely on them to report regular data analysis that shows teacher performance. Effective teaching will also be evident in student performance and overall school climate.

I will support innovative teachers. I hope to convey the trust I have in them to bring forward ideas and work together with community members to create a world class learning environment.
I love to talk about the CCIC campus in CCSD. It is a crown jewel of the district. I fully support this type of programming.

I would love to see more community involvement in our schools where entrepreneurs partner with schools and create programs for high schoolers to learn from innovators and business owners.

I would also like to see more attention given to the arts. We have some amazing creators in our schools, and I think if they had a way to meet together and collaborate, that their talents could be amplified.

We need more innovative programming for our kids with special needs. We need more funding, but I believe higher expectations can also bring results. These kids are not being served. Again, I would like to see a partnership between parents and community members to collaborate on innovative ways to get these kids what they need.
I support the periodic increase of taxes to help fund schools. More importantly, I believe in being a responsible steward of tax payer dollars. I don't always think the answer to problems is to add more funds.

The strategy I would implement to make sure our schools are properly funded, would be a constant scrutiny of spending on programs and resources that are not proving to effectively serve our kids.
Safety for me as a parent, preschool teacher, children's program leader, etc. is always first. Safety is number one. In Colorado we have too many examples of when our kids were not safe in our schools.

Safety comes before feelings. There has been some mention where some kids are intimidated or do not feel comfortable with an SRO in their school. I have been to dozens of schools the last few months and spoken with many SROs. They know everyone, they are friendly, they are organized and kind. For a child that is not comfortable with law enforcement, having SROs like ours in their schools, could be the perfect opportunity to have a healthy relationship with law enforcement officer, which could possibly change their feelings toward law enforcement.

I would like to partner with the Arapahoe police department and collaborate on how we can keep our kids safe. There are school districts around the country doing innovative things in their schools using technology. I would like to see us explore new options as well.
We are in a mental heath crisis. I don't know of one family that is not affected by mental health including my own.

CCSD has started work on a mental health facility. This is in response to the increase need of mental health care in our district coinciding with the reduction of mental health professionals and facilities. CCSD has been partnering with mental health professionals for years, and has had to sometimes send children from our district to Utah to be treated on our dime.

Having a mental health facility will potentially save us money and keep our children close. This facility will employ mental health care professionals and teachers, so the child receives mental heath care and instruction.

I fully support this addition to CCSD as long as parents remain the key decision makers and partners in care.

The faculty and staff along with the kids just came out of a pandemic and I have noticed an increase of anxiety and stress in talking with them compared to years in the past. I would like to see, along with wellness programming the CCSD is currently implementing, a resource where teachers and staff could come together and express concerns and receive support from other teachers, community members or parents. I know that sometimes you just need to ask for what you need and I know that parents and community members are always happy to come forward for help.
Technology already plays a large part inside and outside of the classroom. I would like us to use technology more in safety. I have heard of other districts around the county implementing shut downs with the push of the button, or making the school dark or difficult to navigate in the case of an active shooter in the halls. I would love us to receive a grant to help make our schools more safe using technology.

We have high schools with thousands of kids under one roof, it would help me sleep better at night knowing they are more safe.

The district needs to be aware of new technology innovations to serve our kids growing up in a technology driven world. I would like to encourage community members to talk to us about innovations they see in the workforce that would benefit our students.

The district would also need to remain fiscally sound in order to implement these technological advances as they occur.
A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says "why the long face?"
We are at the point in the pandemic where we need to come together to heal. We need to work with teachers and figure out how to close the academic gaps created from at home learning. We need to work with students, teachers and the community on how we can heal the division this pandemic has created.

The mask debate has been heated. The thing I worry about most is the division it creates. We need to make sure parents model kind behavior toward those that feel differently about wearing the mask and getting the vaccine.

I can see the vaccine is working, and we need to work with tri county to dynamically analyze data and come up with an endgame. I know most kids are fine wearing the mask, but parents would like to know at what point the masks will become optional.

Douglas county has all but lifted their mask mandate, we should watch them closely to see their results, and push that information our to our families.
Since I have been a parent in the district, I have been a representative for parents who have not wanted to speak up. I started a math program when parents were worried there was no math program in Kindergarten because the class was too large. I started a preschool with friends when a suitable option was not available. I started a charter school when community members have not been satisfied with their options.

I already have this model in place and I will continue to be a conduit for parent voices.

I also know how effective a personal invitation for involvement is. I will continue to personally invite and encourage others to personally invite parents to be involved when they have historically not been. Sometimes parents need to know someone believes they can be a valuable contributor before they will participate.

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External links

Candidate

Cherry Creek School District Board of Education District D
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 16, 2021
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