Questions and answers with new school board member Jeff Jaronek

A month has passed since Cordell elected its newest school board member Jeff Jaronek.

Only just getting started as a member of the board, Jaronek has attended two board meetings with his latest one having taken place Tuesday night.

Jaronek’s motivation for joining the board is still caring for Cordell School, and he has been easing into the role.

The Cordell Beacon had the chance to talk with Jaronek to better discuss his time as a member of the board so far.

How does it feel to have been elected? Are you ready to start working for the people of Cordell?

Oh, it’s great! I’m glad that I get the opportunity to serve the school and the district. I’m excited about it.

You know, my daughter’s in pre-K, so this is her first year of school, and I graduated from Cordell.

But I’m glad to kind of be back involved and to hopefully make good decisions and to make it better.

What are some of your immediate plans now that you have been elected to the board?

I wouldn’t say that I necessarily have any immediate plans.

I’ve got one meeting under my belt, and it’s always an issue just dealing with funding and making sure that our students and that our staff are being taken care of.

Probably kind of my main goal is, as you know, we always have teachers that retire or maybe they move, or whatever.

And just to make sure that when we are hiring somebody new, that we’re getting the best that we possibly can.

Just to make sure that we’re giving these kids every advantage possible, and to take care of the good teachers that we have.

To make sure that they don’t want to leave because they want to stay here.

You mentioned this in a previous interview, but remind us again of what motivated you to run?

A lot of it was, my dad was on the school board for 12 years, and just being here and being involved.

I’ve always felt that to be on the school board, you really need to have kids in school.

That way you’re connected, you know more of what’s going on, and kind of have some skin in the game if you will.

So now that my daughter is in school, and we’re gonna be here forever, we have no desire to ever leave, just to be able to work to better the school, I think it’s great.

It’s a great school. That’s why my daughter’s going to school there, but we can always be better.

It doesn’t matter how good you are. We can always be better, and just to be able to have that opportunity to serve and do the best that we can for the kids.

Is being a board member a position that you hope to fill for the years to come, or what’s that future kind of look like for you?

Yeah! As long as everybody keeps reelecting me, then I’m happy to serve.

And as long as they feel like I’m doing a good job, I’ll be willing to do it.

Like I said, I grew up here and have no intentions of leaving, but at the same time, if people feel like I’m not doing a good job then get somebody else in there.

But hopefully, that won’t be the case.

It’s been a month now since your win was announced, what has your first month as a board member looked like? Has there been anything of note?

It was an interesting first meeting, just from the standpoint of trying to navigate everything and understand all the workings.

I’ve been to a couple of meetings just to observe, but to sit on the other side of the table, if you will, and be a part of the decision-making process well, it was very interesting.

Here in May, I’ve got an educational meeting to go to in [Oklahoma City] for new school board members. So I’m looking forward to that.

But, it’s been good so far, and I’ve enjoyed it.

Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to now that you’ve been elected?

Just getting more involved with the school, and looking forward to making those decisions as they arise.

Some of them aren’t always fun and you get different opinions from different people in the community.

I know that you can’t make everybody happy, but always trying to make the best decision for the kids and the staff is what I’m looking forward to.

The community and the district elected me and they’ve got faith in me making those decisions. So I look forward to that.

Looking ahead, what do you think the future holds for the students of Cordell? Whether that’s from a general, educational, or COVID side of things.

I think getting back to that normal routine, like you say, being in person, there’s no match for that. Our teachers are phenomenal; they do an excellent job in the classroom.

We have the ability to do some virtual learning, which has its place and it’s great.

As I’ve said, it’s just one more tool in the toolbox, and the more tools that we can give our teachers to work with kids, to educate them, because that every kid learns differently, and so the more they have at their disposal to reach all the kids is great and that’s definitely needed.

I’m looking forward to everything kind of being back to in-person. Not having to limit attendance at ball games, or different things like that.

The opportunity to not have to cancel ball games, and just get back to the way it was.

I think there’s some changes that have come about that are good that we can continue to implement, and there’s some that we hope we don’t have to do again.

So it was an interesting opportunity, both the good and the bad.

I think we’re better off having gone through it, and we can learn from that and move forward.

Is there anything else I might have missed that you’d like the people of Cordell to know?

Just that I look forward to the opportunity, and I hope that people, if they have concerns or if there’s something that they think we’re doing right, they’ll reach out and let us know.

And just know that maybe sometimes the decision may not go the way that you want it, but it’s what the board felt like was in the best interest of the kids and the school, and the next decision you may agree with.

So just keep in mind that we can’t always make everybody happy, but we’re always going to do what’s best for the school and the kids.