Brad Noel for Jackson R2 School Board
I was born and raised in Springfield, Mo., where I graduated from Central High School in 1990. I attended Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis from 1991-1996 and graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration. While in college I met my wife, Jill Gentry-Noel, which brought me here to Jackson. We were married in 1999 and have been blessed with two wonderful children, Lindsey, age 11, and Jason, age 7. Both attend Jackson R2 schools. I have been employed with the City of Jackson for 14 years and am currently the Water Plant Lab Technician.
Over the past few years I have been greatly disappointed in the direction that the Jackson R2 School District has been heading in regards to the education of our children, so I began researching and learning and then began addressing our current board on various issues. They soon grew tired of hearing that we the public were not happy with what was taking place. To avoid having to do their job and address the issues they began refusing to allow us to speak at their monthly meetings for one self-imposed reason or another culminating in the board's statement that all requests to address them must go through the superintendent. A publicly elected body has an inherent duty to allow the public to speak freely and to listen to them intently at their open public board meetings. I believe that transparency, openness, and honesty are of the utmost importance when it comes to overseeing a school district and it is time for the tail to stop wagging the dog at Jackson R2.
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Issues
Posted Sunday, March 24, 2013, at 2:42 PMWith the April 2nd school board elections right around the corner I wanted to take the time to talk about some issues currently in the forefront of discussions right now. While I have previously written about some of them I hope this serves as a refresher of sorts for those who have been keeping up and helpful for those now trying to become informed on the candidates. We are at a time now that some new leadership is needed in Jackson R-2 and I am ready, willing, and able to do just that... -
A Good School Board Member
Posted Sunday, March 17, 2013, at 5:25 PM2I have written about various topics over the past several weeks so this week's topic will be on what I believe it takes to be a good school board member. I believe that a board member must be open and honest, as a board member you are responsible for everything that occurs within the district and more often than not it means that you have to make the hard decisions. ... -
Spelling in Jackson R-2
Posted Sunday, March 3, 2013, at 11:23 AM3This week's topic will be devoted to spelling in Jackson R-2. As most of you are aware when the 2009-2010 school year began 3 years ago you were told that the district would no longer be teaching spelling via weekly spelling tests because they didn't want your kids to memorize a list of words, they wanted them to learn how to spell them using the rule method or other various methods. ... -
Standards Based Grading
Posted Sunday, February 17, 2013, at 12:16 PMI would like to talk about Standard Based Grading, the current grading system being used in the Jackson R-2 Elementary (K-5) schools. This style of grading is a relatively new concept in which the students are graded on their performance in separate areas of each core subject in the curriculum rather than getting an overall grade for the subject itself. ... -
Consistency K-12
Posted Saturday, February 16, 2013, at 2:47 PM1Let's talk about consistency. Consistency is an essential part in the education process because it lets the students know what is expected of them from year to year, however in the Jackson R-2 School District that has somehow fallen through the cracks. They have chosen instead to replace it with a hodgepodge of theories and grading styles that leave not only the children wondering what will come next but the parents at home scratching their heads in confusion... -
Open public speaking at school board meetings
Posted Sunday, February 10, 2013, at 8:17 AMAs many of you know for the past few years I along with many other parents in the Jackson R2 School District have been disappointed with some of the policies and procedures being put in place. Most attempts to address the Board Of Education, the publicly elected ultimate authority, have fallen on blind eyes and deaf ears and as of late have even been denied the opportunity to speak at all at their monthly, open public meetings. ...