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Sean Olsen (Eastern Carver County School Board At-large, Minnesota, candidate 2024)
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Sean Olsen ran for election to the Eastern Carver County School Board At-large in Minnesota. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Olsen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Sean Olsen provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 7, 2024:
- Bachelor's: University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Graduate: University of Minnesota
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Lutheran
- Profession: Business Analyst
- Incumbent officeholder: Yes
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Eastern Carver County School Board At-large (3 seats)
Sam Aldoubal, Robin Bielefeldt, Angela Erickson, Sean Olsen, and Rachel Berg Scherer ran in the general election for Eastern Carver County School Board At-large on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Sam Aldoubal (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Robin Bielefeldt (Nonpartisan) | ||
Angela Erickson (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Sean Olsen (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Rachel Berg Scherer (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Olsen's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Olsen in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sean Olsen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Olsen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My professional background has been in technical, finance, and marketing roles across multiple industries. I currently work at Thomson Reuters in its data and analytics organization, where I am an analyst on projects where we work with large data sets to develop and distribute insights to our key decision-makers.
My wife, Angie, and I have three kids who have all attended Eastern Carver County Schools. Our oldest graduated from Chaska High School in June, and we also have a 6th grader at Chaska Middle School East and a 9th grader at Chaska High School.
I've been involved in the community since coming here to Chaska. I served on Chaska's Parks & Recreation Board for nine years, was the president of my homeowner's association for six years, and have served on several ECCS committees including the facilities task force that led to the recommendation to build Carver Elementary School.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading, golfing, and movies and you'll often find me out at the ball fields or in the gym watching my kids play sports.- Accelerating Learning: ECCS came through the pandemic in better shape than many of our peer districts. MCA results show we lost less ground than most of our peer districts, and have bounced back more quickly than those same districts. We are the only one in our 15-district peer group that has seen math scores return to pre-pandemic levels. This has been accomplished by increasing rigor, curriculum changes at all levels (including moving to Science of Reading before the state mandate and using teacher-driven "thinking classrooms" reforms at the middle school level). We are poised to step on the gas and accelerate those gains through our data-driven approach and sound teaching methodologies.
- Build Our Future: ECCS distinguishes itself on providing excellent programs in academics, arts, athletics, and activities. We have worked to prioritize a well-rounded set of opportunities for our students. In a challenging budget environment, it is key for us to identify those programs and areas that differentiate our district and continue to invest in those areas. This requires consistent communication with all of our stakeholders, and collaboration to build out and execute those plans. It also require the discipline to know what areas and programs need to be ended or reduced so we can provide the focus on those programs that truly make a difference.
- Culture is Critical: When I was elected in 2020, our district was in a turbulent and challenging time.
As part of the district's strategic plan which we rolled out over the last two years, the desired daily experience of our students, staff, and families was centered -- and a key thing that all three groups wanted was to be seen, heard, respected, and values for who they are.
ECCS has done amazing work to build a welcoming and inclusive culture. We passed an operating levy in 2021, which allowed partial restoration of budget cuts made in 2019. Our racial harm procedures are seen as national models.
The work continues, both internally in our buildings and externally with our communities to make sure all feel welcome and respected.
I care about people and making government work for people. From the Park Board to the School Board, I have worked in our community on things directly impact our community in a positive way. Schools that work -- not just providing an excellent education but building good citizens and working with our community openly and transparently -- are vital.
I would argue that in addition to the official responsibilities, board members also have two other critical roles.
First, we're the "voice of the public". We are a conduit of feedback from community members, and we are critical to explaining that what, why, and how of the work happening in our schools -- this is very important in a fragmented media environment.
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
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
