Neil Fishman (Boulder Valley School District Board of Education District A, Colorado, candidate 2023)
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Neil Fishman ran for election to the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education District A in Colorado. He lost in the general election on November 7, 2023.
Fishman completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Elections
General election
General election for Boulder Valley School District Board of Education District A
Jason Unger defeated Neil Fishman in the general election for Boulder Valley School District Board of Education District A on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | ||
Neil Fishman (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| ✔ | Jason Unger (Nonpartisan) | |
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| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Fishman received the following endorsements.
- State Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D)
- State Rep. Judy Amabile (D)
- State Rep. Kyle Brown (D)
- State Rep. Junie Joseph (D)
- State Rep. Karen McCormick (D)
- Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty (D)
- Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett
- Broomfield Cnty. Mayor Guyleen Castriotta
- Lafayette Mayor J.D. Mangat
- Boulder Valley Sch. Brd. Memb. Richard Garcia
- Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson
- Boulder Cnty. Commissioner Claire Levy (D)
- Boulder Cnty. Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann
- Broomfield Cnty. Cncl. Memb. Austin Ward
- State Board of Ed. Memb. Kathy Plomer (D)
- State Board of Ed. Memb. Rhonda Solis (D)
- Frmr. Lafayette Mayor Christine Berg
- Frmr. Boulder City Cncl. Memb. Robin Bohannon
- Frmr. Boulder Mayor Leslie Durgin
- Frmr. Boulder City Cncl. Memb. Jill Grano
- Frmr. Boulder Cnty. Clerk Hillary Hall
- Frmr. Boulder Cnty. Comm. Josie Heath
- Frmr. State Sen. Rollie Heath (D)
- Frmr. State Rep. Edie Hooton (D)
- Frmr. Boulder Valley Sch. Brd. Memb. Susan Marine
- Frmr. State Sen. Dorothy Rupert
- Broomfield County, Colo., Democratic Party
- Boulder Area AFL-CIO
- Boulder Valley Paraeducator Association
- Colorado Education Association
- Boulder Progressives
- Everytown for Gun Safety
- LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
Pledges
Fishman signed the following pledges.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Neil Fishman completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Fishman's responses.
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I am the product of the public schools--K-12 and undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology from CU. My husband and I ushered our kid (K-12) through the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). I owe many of my personal and professional successes to my public-school education. I am an ardent supporter of public schools and have a sincere passion to ensure that all kids have access to an excellent public-school education, well into the future. I have also worked for decades in the social justice arena at the local level--from the municipality to the county to the state--and have considerable experience as a parent and citizen in being involved in the BVSD. I have spoken to the school district about the climate in schools, focusing on safety and inclusion. And in 2022, I was very active in working with the BVSD and State Board of Education to ensure that revisions to the CO public schools social studies standards were in line with the intent and spirit of the guiding legislation passed in 2019. So, my passion for public education along with my devotion to local involvement motivates me to seek a seat on the BVSD school board.
- Advocating for ALL kids includes 1) ensuring consistent district-wide implementation of bullying and harassment policies, 2) expanding the district’s Wellness Center model into middle schools, and 3) lowering the achievement gap in literacy and math.
- Prevent book banning and anti-inclusion policies from eroding the progressive nature of the Boulder Valley School District
- Expedite the BVSD Green Solutions plan by having 50 electric buses in the fleet by 2025, and reduce district-wide water consumption by another 10% using water-wise landscaping technologies.
Equity and inclusion. I played a pivotal role in expanding the BVSD’s nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity/expression. As a community member, I worked collaboratively and strategically throughout 2022 to get progressive social studies standards passed by the CO Board of Education. I state these successes not to brag but instead to demonstrate that I am a result-oriented person who is ready for the upcoming challenges that school board members will face. Being able to make difficult decisions will be important as the board deals with declining enrollment and associated declining budgets.
I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to the tough work ahead, especially dealing effectively with declining enrollment and declining budgets, the top priority of the BVSD board. Characteristics I believe are important for an elected official includes, 1) listening effectively, 2) getting to root causes of thorny issues, 3) addressing difficult and complex problems, 4) building consensus, and 5) working collaboratively.
I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to the tough work ahead, especially dealing effectively with declining enrollment and declining budgets, the top priority of the BVSD board. My honed skills, including 1) listening effectively, 2) getting to root causes of thorny issues, 3) addressing difficult and complex problems, 4) building consensus, and 5) working collaboratively, along with my life experiences, have prepared me to be an effective and productive board member.
Safe and welcoming schools so that ALL kids can learn and live up to their full potential.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was 8 years old
Mowing lawns. 4 years
Being a successful parent.
Coming out as a gay male.
Coming out as a gay male.
1) Hire and fire the superintendent
2) Set, revise, and sunset policies
Everyone who lives in the Boulder Valley School District
Building relationships results from dialogue and trust. I have many existing relationships that I have built in the community from the many social justice projects on which I have been engaged over the past several decades. But I am constantly reaching out to learn more, including to find out more about underrepresented community members and their challenges. But at this point, the students in our schools are a most important stakeholder, and I want to reach out to them even more than I have already. Specifically, the students are strongly seeking more curriculum in the area of climate change, and I think we must listen to them and act in their interests.
1) climate change, and how to recognize it, its complexity, the impacts on life, and successful ways for mitigation.
2) more technical skills development so that kids recognize there are many successful pathways to explore in life.
Do away with TABOR in Colorado
Expand the BVSD Wellness Center concept into all middle and high schools.
A better question is what is the best way to ensure all policies are being implemented fully in all schools across the district.
Boulder Valley Education Association
Boulder Valley Paraeducators Association
Colorado Education Association
Boulder Area Labor Council
Boulder Progressives
A place where all kids, regardless of who they are, how they self-identify, or the circumstances of their lives feel safe and welcome in their schools.
The appropriate way. To follow public health and county health guidelines.
As a board member, I believe it is imperative to keep a finger on the pulse of the community. My many years of community involvement has helped me to learn how to successfully engage with community members so that I come away with a clear understanding of their issues and concerns. As a board member, people in the community may reach out to me to discuss matters of importance to them; but my life experiences helped me to realize that proactively soliciting their input is a better way to find out what’s on their minds. My effective listening skills will undoubtedly prove useful as the BVSD board deals with declining enrollment, which is the highest priority issue on its plate. Because declining enrollment is such a large community issue, I believe it is imperative that the board be exceedingly transparent and candid with the community as it deals with this overarching priority. Thus, I recommend that regular board meetings be held in schools around the district to make it easy and accessible for constituents to share their thoughts and concerns. Decisions will be difficult to make, but the community deserves to be fully engaged with the board.
To ultimately have faculty, staff and administrators that more thoroughly look like the diversity of the student population. This means more recruitment of persons of color, LGBTQ+ persons, and other people from underrepresented communities.
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 Fishman completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
Footnotes
