Jennifer ArguelloI have been a Realtor in Osceola County for 13 years and through this career I have learned to love and appreciate the people of Osceola and our community. I am a mother of 3 wonderful boys, my oldest is a senior at Celebration High School, my middle son is a sophomore there, and my youngest attends Kissimmee Christian Academy. It has always been my most important role to raise my children in the faith and dedicate as much time as possible to being there for them mentally, spiritually, and physically.

Today I can say that while I have not looked for greater opportunities in my career or more public opportunities in the community, I am very proud to have had my attention purposefully on my family first and then my work, helping people achieve their dream of homeownership and establishing their own path to wealth. That is why, now I can say I am ready to venture into public service, where I believe I can contribute more valuable than just time, but my heart, my attention, my knowledge, life experience, and much needed fresh views in our district as we all hope for a new and improved education system.

As a child, my mother worked very hard in corporate America to establish herself and provide for her family the best way she could so that that her children, would have what she did not have herself as a child. This was always so important for her, and it came with much hard work and sacrifice.

It paid off in many ways. She climbed her way up the ladder through her dedication and excellence to better and better positions, she was able to afford all the things she could ever wish for, she helped her brothers and sisters achieve success, and she ultimately inculcated in her three children great admiration, respect, and love—things all children need and should have—not just for family, but for our country.

My background in service has been focused on those less fortunate. As valedictorian of my high school, I dedicated many hours of community service to poor families by tutoring children who went to school in dirt floor classrooms, without air condition in blistering heat and with few supplies, but desperately eager to learn and invest in their futures. That is when the dream of opening a school in Nicaragua emerged, a dream I still have today, and will someday make happen.

I have become passionate about education and pursuing a position on the School Board, to offer the best opportunities for our kids; to ensure hands on experiences with the community that foster love, compassion, purpose; to offer opportunities that will help our kids dream and discover their desires and purpose. I am running for School Board because our school district is so far from this concept that our children are emotionally lost, our parents are left out, our administrators are uninspired, and our community at large is underserved and suffering the consequences of bad leadership.

I do not agree with any type of division, racial, ethnic, cultural or otherwise being promoted in our schools. In fact, I believe that the best outcomes and ideas come from bringing these differences together and building extraordinary things as a community. None of these factors are reasons to fight, but instead they are opportunities to learn to love each other better and together strive for better things for all our community. Politics do not belong in the classroom, neither does sexualization, or the encouragement of gender confusion. These are within the realm of issues driven by families, not politicians or bureaucrats, nor should we burden our already overworked teachers with this.

Our educators should have a high-quality curriculum to work from, one that gives them freedom and inspiration to teach our students history based on truth and facts and that motivate and prepare them for the future. I do not agree with victimizing our kids and I think we should always be teaching our students that they can achieve anything they put their minds to and are willing for work hard for.

I am proud of all our teachers and staff and families that made it through Covid-19, and that knew the importance of continuing to live our lives and be open to continue to serve our children and our families’ needs in such a difficult time. I know that despite all the bad and the hardship, good came from this pandemic and that we will reap the benefits of the changes to come, especially with a change in leadership with the board. A change that will prioritize employees and their salaries.

My stances on the following issues:

Teacher and professional support staff pay

Teacher pay should be prioritized and paid according to the maximum allowed under statute and according to responsible financial management of the public’s tax money. Currently the district has been too ineffectively efficient, leading to a teachers and employee exodus which has strained the capacity of the district.

* CRT

CRT or CRT similar should not be taught in our schools. It divides our students according to principles which are no longer meaningful. At some point near in the future we can all imagine a world without racism, but programs or philosophies like this is prolong painful societal defects.

* COVID-19 management

* Addressing school growth – facilities
Our school growth is nearly impossible to correct, unlike the county commission which makes political decisions to grow and other parties actually build the increase, the district continues to struggle to build student stations. We need to work in unison with the county to resolve this problem.

* Attracting more teachers

Building an inspiring and healthy environment is what we need to do to attract teachers. Salary comes next.

* Technology needs in schools – will we be prepared if another “pandemic-level” event takes place again – God forbid

* Increasing performance in schools – increasing graduation rate, post-high school education participation – trade schools – education pipelines – etc.

* SRO’s in schools