Michele Helgen (incumbent)
2865 Timberview Trail
Chaska, MN 55318
952-448-4833
1) Occupation.  I am a partner in a government relations/public affairs firm.
2) District 112.  I have been a resident of District 112 for 33 years.  I graduated from Chaska High School.
3) Family.  I am married to Henry Helgen, who is an attorney.  I have 3 children:  Thomas is a senior in college, Erika and Brigit are twins and will be sophomores in college.
4) Interests.  I am a member of Rotary and the League of Women Voters.  My volunteer work has been focused around school activities.  I have been an active school volunteer in District 112 for 16 years doing classroom work, co-chair-ing our bond referendum in 1999, chairing two facilities task forces, a member and chair of the Legislative Action Committee for the District since 1995.  I have been a member of the school board for over 4 years and chair of the board for the past 2 years.
5) Candidacy.  I was elected to the school board four years ago on a platform of openness and accountability to the tax-payers of the District.  I was successful in opening our committee meetings to the press and the public.  Our board became noteworthy for making our board deci-sions and discussions more transparent and open to the public.
Since I became chair two years ago, I have been committed to continuing this openness and involvement of the commu-nity in our decisions.  I look forward to working with our new superintendent, David Jennings, who is committed to making our District's students the best they can be.
We are a good School District but we are committed to becoming even greater.  I want to finish what we've started!
6) Books recently read:  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Books to read:  The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
7) Luxury vs. Basics.  With the budget cuts the past five years, there are definitely no luxuries in education.  The increase in funding this year will just bring us back to basic standards.
8) School libraries for the general public?  Yes, I think opening school libraries to the public is a great idea.  Taxpayers have paid for these and we should have public hours available.
It will take some extra staffing, but we should try and find the money for this.  We may not need to have all the schools open, but one in each community would be a great service.
9) Both evolution & creation?  As a school board member, I would not pro-pose specific changes to our curriculum in science or any other subject.  I believe it is up to our curriculum committee and our teaching staff at our schools to determine specific curriculum that is to be taught.  I don't believe that we, as school board members, have any expertise in this area.
10) National Anthem.  I think it would be great to teach our children the National Anthem in our music classes.  It is a great patriotic song about our country that would be good for our children to learn.