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A Final Message

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Please Vote to Re-elect Mike Ostaffe

Hello,  my name is Mike Ostaffe and I am currently Chairman of the Osseo School Board. The role of the school board is to hire and manage the superintendent, set the mission and vision for the district, and provide the guidance, strategic direction, and funding resources the administration needs to achieve district goals.  If re-elected, I will continue to do this to the best of my abilities.

I attend dozens of school events every year  and meet and speak with and listen to hundreds, if not thousands of parents, students, and teachers to hear their concerns and ideas, and use that to guide my leadership decisions on the board and the direction we provide our Superintendent.  

I will work to bring out students back to school safely, and to provide them with the education they need and deserve.

I will continue to work in our communities to bring additional resources and recognition to our programs and our students, creating increased opportunities for jobs, extracurricular success, and increased resources for all our educational programs.

I will continue to ask hard questions about our budget priorities, and ensure that they are supporting the goals of the district.  I will focus on providing funds for education, not indoctrination.  

I will continue to push for accountability of our Administration and staff in the selection and execution of new and existing programs and ensure benchmark and success measurements are in place for every task that we undertake.  

I will ensure that programs designed to improve the achievement of our under-performing and at risk students are given thorough scrutiny so that they can actually achieve what they are designed to accomplish.  Our students deserve nothing less.

I will continue to keep in mind that I am representing all of the residents of this large, diverse, growing, and remarkable school district. And I will continue to reach out to our cities, communities, PTO’s, and other civic and cultural organizations that can provide assistance and support to our students.  

And I will work hard every day to ensure that Osseo Area Schools provides an excellent education to every student, in every classroom, in every school, in every community in our district.

Thank you!

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I wanted to send a big thank you to everyone who voted for me, and a big thanks to all the candidates, and all the voters, for participating in this School Board election.  There are many schools, groups, communities, and residents in our district, and I was elected to represent every one of you.

There are many people to thank for helping me in my effort.  First, my wife who put up with me being gone so much over the past two and a half  months, and my children who were roped into literature distribution and who had to deal with all of their friends asking questions about me.

I would like to thank my friend Patrick Stuart for his strategy insights and his video skills, tech skills, and steady hand, without whom I would have made many more mistakes than I did.

I would like to thank my friends who knocked on doors, distributed literature, emailed and told their friends about me, put up signs, and who were so instrumental in getting my name out there.

I would like to thank the organizations and elected officials who publicly supported me.  And I would like to thank those who donated to my campaign, because signs, literature and facebook ads do not grow on trees.

The election was the easy part.  Now we have plenty of work to do.  I look forward to working with the current board members, my newly elected colleagues, and with the Administration and Teachers.  Most importantly, I look forward to working with and hearing from you, the residents of our District.  As I have said many times, I will listen.

Again, thank you for your support.