Ellington Candidate Profile: Michael Young, Board Of Education

ELLINGTON, CT — The 2023 municipal election season is heating up in Ellington, and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Ellington-Somers Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as Election Day draws near.

Name: Michael Young

How old will you be as of Election Day? 67

What city or town do you live in? Ellington

What office are you seeking? Board of Education

Party affiliation: Republican

Education: PhD Vanderbilt University, MA Catholic University, BS Penn State University

What is your occupation? Professor 32 years

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

Spouse Linda and new Mi-ki puppy Cinnamon

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? No

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

Ellington Board of Education since 2010

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

My career has been teaching teachers about how people think and learn. This plus having been a K-12 math teacher combined with my work with undergraduate and graduate students provides me a perspective on how to improve public school teaching, curriculum and learning environments. As Ellington plans to build facilities, improve transparency for parents, and create a balance between digital skills and unplugged activities, I hope to guide the Board of Education with scholarly research and practical common sense.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is \_\_\_, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing Ellington public schools should always be school security. After that, continuous advancement of our instructional approach for both our high flyers (enrichment) and our struggling reluctant learners is key. I will support integration of the Science of Reading into our early reading program and efforts to advance our outreach to community businesses to ensure our students detect the value of their education to prepare them for careers that may not even yet exist. I will also support efforts to enable teacher creativity and reward continuous professional development. Together with an active forward-thinking Board of Education, we can become a fiscally efficient and high performing district.

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

Other candidates are often either experienced teacher or local parents. I am not a parent, but an interested local taxpayer and my experience is not only as a K-12 teacher but as a teacher of teachers and research of the psychology of education. These perspectives allow me to address issues from a broad perspective that is often unique among the other candidates.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

Some candidates may be interested in using service on the Board of Education as a stepping stone to other elected offices. Others may have the primary perspective of parents with children current in our schools. While others may be primarily interested in a single constituency, such as the teacher's union, athletics, or the arts.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

One other issue for any Board of Education is the board's relationship with school and town administration. Topics such as shared services and quality hiring, as well as the smooth functioning of district central office are often not the most compelling issues to address in a campaign, but they have potentially high payoff for the academic success of our students.

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

13 years service on Ellington's Board of Education and a career in teacher education make me uniquely qualified to help our community navigate the critical issues that will enable or thwart efforts to improve our public schools.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

The best advice I've ever gotten is to attack issues and respect people. Civil discourse remains a challenge in today's politically-charged climate. The work of the Board of Education must avoid petty positioning for political show and ad hominem personal attacks and listen to the best ideas of all involved. We can have a marketplace of ideas and still acknowledge the good intentions of all involved.