READY TO LISTEN

READY TO LEAD

READY FOR CHANGE

About Gary Wheaton

Gary Wheaton is a Spring-Ford parent, business leader, and passionate advocate for education who’s ready to restore focus and transparency to our school board.

His extensive professional experience, in leadership roles, combined with his ability to challenge norms with a data-driven approach, positions him as someone who would bring fresh perspectives and solutions to the school board.

He holds an MBA from Pennsylvania State University and Graduated in 2006 as a working adult. He have over 30 years of successful experience in Technology Sales and Sales Leadership. Sales is a very demanding profession with constant pressure to meet and exceed goals. It is also a profession where you have to work with people of various backgrounds and opinions and collaborate with them to come to a consensus that your solution is solving a specific problem with a specific outcome.

It requires one to be effective in the following skills to be successful:

· Problem solving

· Creativity

· Critical thinking

· Interpersonal skills

· Effective negotiating

· Effective listening

· Handling Objections

· Strong presentation skills

· Empathy

· Ability to handle high pressure situations

· Outcomes and goal orientation

He possess these skills and feel that they would be a value add to a member of a School Board, especially when it comes to solving complex problems. He won’t shy away from conflict and will be willing to challenge the board for the great good of the community. There are current members of the board that have challenged other members and are afraid to speak their mind. That will NOT be Gary, and that’s exactly what is needed on the board.

He also has also been responsible for bringing in multi-million dollar deals and understand customer’s budgeting process. That perspective will be very valuable when working with a budget that currently exceeds $200M annually.

Gary’s connection to the district, as both a long-time resident and a parent, underscores his commitment to improving the educational experience for students, parents, faculty, and the entire community.

Student-Centered Leadership

Committed to Students, Financial Responsibility, no Politics on the School Board, and Transparency.

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The board has stated that their goal is to increase taxes at the maximum rate per year that is allowable by the Act 1 Index. Raising taxes, for the sake of doing so, is not fiscally responsible and I plan to ensure that we maximize the investments of our taxpayers while improving the quality of education in the district.

NO POLITICS ON THE SCHOOL BOARD

Partisan agendas have taken focus away from student needs on the current school board and is not always reflective of what the community wants.

STUDENTS COME FIRST

Accountability to student outcomes, educational proficiency, and a positive student experience. Increase efficiency for special needs students and avoid ongoing Special Education legal settlements (almost $1.2M over the past five year alone). Parents must be supported by policies that provide greater insight and control over their children's education.

PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY

Policy 903 limits dialogue by restricting public input to comments only, eliminating Q&A opportunities. The Board can and does respond at times, but only when it's a topic of their choice. That has to change and I would propose amending that policy to allow for Q&A. Elected officials have a duty to hear directly from their constituents and have a dialogue with them as well.