Meet Russell Askren
Public schools are the greatest tool we have for achieving social mobility and equity. They can only do that if we support them and provide the resources they need. They can only do that if we work together.
I’m public school educated from kindergarten through Ph.D. I’m trained in history and as a professional librarian. But, I spent nearly 25 years in the software industry as a programmer and in technical management. In my 40’s I returned to school for my doctorate in philosophy with a specialization in applied ethics. This unusual background enables me to see problems from many perspectives. I’ve taught at the college level for nearly 20 years. I currently teach communication, ethics and teamwork to engineering students.
My wife, Lynn Conger, is a public-school teacher with over 30 years experience teaching middle school, high school and adults. She teaches languages – German, core English Language Arts and English as a second language. Currently, Lynn teaches ELL, mostly to refugee and immigrant children, in a middle school in the Granite School District.
We’ve been district parents since 2007. We have two children still in district schools: a son at East High and a daughter at Clayton Middle School. We still have five years to go. We have an older son who is a senior in college.
We’ve used a wide variety of school services for our children: out of boundary schools, magnet ELP, local resource, self-contained SPED, and credit recovery, to name some. Some of these have been good experiences; some have left a lot to be desired. Some times it was easy to get the support we need; other times, it was nearly impossible.
Salt Lake City schools have been under performing for many years. If we want change, we must change the board membership. I know we can do better.
We can improve our academics to teach all students.
We can support struggling students to keep them on track.
We can make more services available for our special education students.
We can expand our CTE offerings to better prepare students for workforce readiness at graduation.
We can foster expanded community involvement with decision-making transparency and school-based town hall meetings.
We can provide informative and timely communication.
We can create accountability for district administration.
We can build better schools together. Please vote for Russell Askren.
