OCCUPATIONAL BACKGROUND: Technical Support

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: BA Marquette University

PRIOR GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIENCE: None

Nearman for School Board

• Let’s support choice in education by supporting charter schools.

• Let’s support a fundamental curriculum. The latest social, cultural or political fad doesn’t teach kids to spell or multiply.

• Let’s not elect someone who’s been a member of a teachers’ union for over 30 years to the school board and expect them to negotiate objectively with the same union.

It’s easy to talk about personal qualities like being a good listener, a consensus builder, or a hard worker. It’s also easy to talk about reducing class size, consequences for disruptive classroom behavior, or ensuring all students meet high standards. Real leadership takes more than just buzzwords.

“The Salem-Keizer School Board awarded Superintendent Kay Baker a $10,000 bonus – more than double the amount indicated by the score on her performance review.”

— Salem Statesman Journal, Oct. 9, 2002.

Board Chair, Steve Chambers, led the fight to defend the bonus:

“(T)he school board developed a new salary structure for the incoming superintendent…to incorporate a business model into our public school system…”

— Board Chairman, Steve Chambers, Oct. 15, 2002 Statesman Journal Op-Ed

Read the statement submitted to the voters’ pamphlet by Steve Chambers. It doesn’t look to me like he has any business experience. How dare he give away $10,000.00 and then lecture us on a “business model.”

Superintendent Baker donated the $10,000.00 bonus to a reading program. Despite that, Steve Chambers continued to defend the giveaway:

“People have misunderstood what the performance-based process was. It’s time to move on to what other people are doing.”

— Steve Chambers, as quoted by the Statesman Journal, November 12, 2002.

What I am doing is running for school board. And I intend to spend the taxpayers’ money right.

Vote Michael J. Nearman for School Board

For more information, go to www.angelfire.com/bug/gadfly/index.html