Jackson: Why I'm Endorsing Guglielmo For Zone A School Board Seat

Kristen Jackson, a Concord NH Patch reader, shared this opinion piece.

I was inspired to run for school board this year for a handful of reasons.

I want to perform my civic duty and give back to the community and after leaving my job of being a school bus driver in Concord for the past seven years, I missed the school community and wanted to make my way back into it.

I have attended numerous school board meetings over the past few years.

One from this year was especially memorable and was the catalyst for me to want to get more involved. In this meeting, my fellow Zone A school board candidate, Michael Guglielmo, stood up and gave an inspiring talk about how important it was for parents to speak out when they feel something isn’t right. He was there speaking on behalf of his child and was met with a lot of personal attacks.

Attacks went on, not only that night at the meeting, but online, too. No one should be silenced or bullied, yet here were adults doing it, with their focus aimed, not only at Michael but also at the other concerned parents and citizens who showed up to speak up on behalf of innocent children.

This was something I would like to help stop in the future.

Michael left quite an impression that night. I agreed wholeheartedly that we should speak up and let kids be kids. I heard that he was running for school board and I thought it was a fantastic idea. It was something I was interested in also and imagined with our similar takes on some of the latest hot topics, if we both got elected, we could work together and really help the school board get some things done.

Shortly after signing up to be on the ballot, I sadly saw that instead of being able to work together, we were actually running for the same seat on the school board.

I have had a few conversations over the last month with Mr. Guglielmo, and more than ever, I think he would be a great addition to our school board. He is a dedicated father, a successful business owner, very educated (much of that impressively self-taught), and most importantly, he actually takes the time to hear what someone is saying when they talk to him. Just from a short chat with him, you realize he brings a huge wealth of world experience and would be a real asset to our Concord School Board team.

I would like to officially request that anyone who is voting for me in this election will instead consider joining me in voting for Michael Guglielmo for the Zone A school board seat.

Good Luck, Michael! Thank you all for your time,

Kristen Jackson lives in Concord.