Aaron Silva
Nov 267 min read
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat: A BOLD 10 Year Vision for Eanes ISD
Closing Valley View elementary, raising taxes through copper pennies and killing Spanish Immersion may help in the near term, but is not...
Aaron Silva is passionate and dedicated advocate for our community, with the business acumen and ability to bring people together to be a great member of the Board of Trustees. By building greater trust in the community, rewarding excellent teachers, partnering with parents, achievement in the classroom, and improving Eanes' fiscal management, Aaron is prepared to take Eanes ISD to the Next Level of Excellence.
A LETTER TO EANES FROM AARON
Eanes is at an inflection point. Do we ascend to the Next Level of Excellence, or do we ignore the challenges facing our great school district? Our legacy and childrens’ futures are at stake.
I am running to be your next EISD Trustee to define what I refer to as the ‘Next Level of Excellence’. I have a well-established public record of demonstrating the courage to take on the most complex and challenging topics facing our students, teachers, parents, and administrators. I was raised with a fundamental value that there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. As your next Trustee this value will continue to guide and inform the decisions I make for our district.
Our current Board of Trustees is very capable and has an impressive collective resume. However, a leader with a strong, proven business and entrepreneurial background has been missing for years. To be a successful CEO and leader I’ve procured a unique ability of listening intently and with great curiosity to perspectives from all sides of every issue. As a parent of two Eanes students, an entrepreneur and taxpayer in our district I have the standing, the skills and shared financial stake to be a great asset at your service. Building trust with the community, strengthening our partnerships with parents, rewarding our excellent teachers, and proper fiscal management will be my commitment to you and your family on our journey to take Eanes to the Next Level of Excellence.
I look forward to meeting and listening to every person I can along this campaign and incorporating their thoughts and feedback into how I serve our community. I hope to earn your vote this May.
For too long, the Eanes Board has been inaccessible and has not prioritized open communication with the public. This absence of communication breeds mistrust. I believe in Dr. Arnett's philosophy of openness and maximizing accessibility. This is an attitude that engenders trust, and that is what I promise to deliver to any parent, student, teacher, administrator, or taxpayer who wants to talk through open lines of communication.
Eanes is optimized to send kids to the 4-year universities of their choice, and that must not change. There are some areas for improvement too. We need to maximize Spanish Immersion and Special Ed while recognizing opportunities in a changing economy. We should offer training programs for America's highest paid vocational careers. Eanes should restate the mission to: "Guarantee parents an excellent and market-ready education for their young adult students."
In order to take Eanes to the next level, we must have the best teachers in America. Attrition, inadequate pay, and non-educational distractions impair our ability to create an environment where teachers can focus on their love of education. When elected, I will scrutinize our talent acquisition and retention policies and explore private-sector merit-based compensation structures that makes Eanes not only the envy of Texas parents and students, but for teachers, as well.
Through my lens as a successful entrepreneur and CEO, I see our school district as a business: parents and taxpayers are customers who pay tax revenue to the district in exchange for the highest quality of education for our children. That relationship should be treated with great reverence at all times, which means the needs, wants, and standards established at home by parents should be the highest priority.
I've been signing the front of paychecks since my early twenties, so I know how to successfully operate and grow multi-million dollar enterprises into the future. When elected, I will bring a CEO's mindset to the Board, working to end unhealthy and unsustainable fiscal practices and policies. State recapture, deficit spending, use of debt for M&O, and dependency on EEF are all issues I will work creatively and courageously to solve. That's how CEO's are wired.
Our children's futures depend on the decisions we make today.
Aaron Silva