Ben Watts

Candidate for Greater Albany Public Schools Board, At-Large Position

• Occupation: Stay-at-home dad.
• Experience: Served in Army, 2001-06, including deployments to Germany and Tikrit, Iraq; Samaritan Health Service IT Operations Manager 2006-2017.
• Education: Diploma, South Albany High School; associate’s degree, Linn-Benton Community College; attended Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif.; bachelor’s degree in English. Oregon State University.
• Family:  Wife Pamela, teacher at South Albany High School,  and children William and Penelope, both students in Albany public schools.
• Hobbies/Interests: Cooking, camping, fishing, hiking and bike riding with my family; board games.
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• Why I'm running:

  I have two children who attend public schools here in Albany. Looking at the many challenges that are mounting in Oregon, the United States and in the world, I am worried about the standards of equity we are leaving behind for our children. The future of our state, our country and our world will be developed by our children, and we need schools that will prepare them for that future. 
  As we engage with our community and understand the standards that are in development as well as those already place for our education system, we need to ensure that our students stand on even footing as they pursue their education.  This meansengaging with students, parents and community partners to ensure that we are meeting our students at the point of their needand giving them the opportunity to thrive and excel. 
  I will work to address the learning loss that our students have experienced in recent years due to world events. We can make progress here by using some of the tools we built during the pandemic, such as digitization and online availability for materials. As not every student learns the same, we will also employ many modes of instruction. This has all created a burden of additional work for our educators and their support staff, so I intend to add focus on moving non-student facing work offteachers’ plates so that they can have more time directly interacting with their students. This will help with teacher burnout that we have seen, and increase the opportunities for education for students.
  And as behavioral concerns have been on the rise, we must work to bolster and support our behavioral health resources, increasing access for students so that we can begin to address these growing behavioral challenges.
  Website: www.benforgaps.com 
  Contact: ben-watts@hotmail.com