Meet The Gloucester Twp. School Board Candidate: Keith Gibbons

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Keith Gibbons is one of nine candidates pursuing three open seats on the Gloucester Township K-8 Public School District's school board.

Patch sent questions to all candidates in the race, and is running profiles for each candidate that returned a response. Responses run exactly as they were submitted, with minor edits for grammatical errors.

Read below to learn more about Keith Gibbons and his platform for the upcoming election, which takes place Nov. 2:

Name: Keith Gibbons

Age (as of Election Day): 44

Town of residence: Blackwood

Position sought: Board of Education

Party Affiliation: According to the NJSBA, the School Board is a non-partisan position. Therefore, party affiliation is irrelevant. However, I do not fully align with either major party.

Family: 1 Daughter. Age 12

Does anyone in your family work or attend school in the district?: My daughter attends school in the District

Education: Associates Degree

Occupation: Self-Employed

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office: None

Why are you seeking elective office?

To give back to my community by representing the children, parents, teachers and support staff. I have attended many school board meetings and have seen the reluctance to listen to all the public concerns. I believe that in order to truly represent, you need to listen, discuss and respond to comments and concerns. I want to be an ear and voice for the people.

The single most pressing issue facing our board is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Failing the NJQSAC in the Governance category is a pretty telling sign of their current priorities as a body. I would push to focus less on awarding contracts to pay-to-play donors and more on doing the job of the board.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I do not know enough about new candidates to be able to differentiate myself from them. From incumbents running, all I know is the actions or inactions we all see at public meetings. I am me, and they are them. I know I am not beholden to any political party or donor to my campaign, so I am able to truly be the independent thinker I am.

Experience: I have never run for office before. My big picture vision and foresight, combined with the ability to execute a plan, are what set me apart from others. I have several successful businesses and paved the way for others to follow, creating new sectors of business. Having created several best practices in multiple industries used around the world is one thing I am very proud of. Separately, I was one of 7 open-minded and visionary individuals chosen by a 12 Billion Dollar market cap publicly traded company, of which I was not an employee (at the time) to create an official employee culture program still used worldwide to this day. I was told I was chosen because of my ability to really listen to people and understand what they need to feel they belong and feel valued.

Equality in education: I believe fairness and inclusion are important to our schools and each child should all have the same access, should they choose.

School funding: I believe GT schools are currently well-funded. However, in my opinion the appropriation of those funds are not always in line with the best interest of the students, teachers and support staff.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have experience being solely accountable for budgets of publicly traded companies. For the past 20 years I have worked in the live music and food industry. Throughout those years, I have been in charge of multiple venues across multiple states simultaneously with hundreds of direct report managers, union and non-union employees at a time. In this role, there are many similarities to the BOE in keeping many people happy and making the best decision for the situation. Listening to everyone and understanding what they need allows me to make the right decisions. Keeping employees, fans, multiple local and state government agencies, unions, talent and artist management, upper management and stockholders all happy is no easy task. These skills translate very well into the role and skill requirement of the BOE decision-making process.

The best advice ever shared with me was: “In a chaotic situation, the very first thing you should do is nothing.” - Stop, assess the situation and make an informed decision instead of reacting from a place of emotion.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?
My daughter means the world to me. As a single father, I take her everywhere and teach her everything I know. I started teaching her basic civics, showing her how the local government works by bringing her to public meetings. She now loves to attend and learn more about what is going on in our town. After attending a lot of meetings such as council, planning board, zoning board, housing authority and of course Board of Education, it became clear that I needed to try to make a difference and bring change. I am not, and will not be, beholden to any political party or donor. I am a rational, free-thinking individual. This is a non-paid, non-political position. I am running in hopes to better my community, not to help reward political donors. I am paying for any monies spent on running out of my own pocket to ensure I can make a positive difference to the Gloucester Township School District.