My name is Spencer Siino. I live in Highland Park with my wife, Laura, and our four children - Andrew (15), Mary (13), George (12) and Spencer (12). I am the CEO of Jet Financial Corp., a national insurance holding company that provides surety bonds to thousands of businesses and individuals across the country.
My name is Spencer Siino. I live in Highland Park with my wife, Laura, and our four children - Andrew (15), Mary (13), George (12) and Spencer (12). I am the CEO of Jet Financial Corp., a national insurance holding company that provides surety bonds to thousands of businesses and individuals across the country.
We moved to the Park Cities from California eight years ago in search of a culture of freedom and decency. In recent years, I've witnessed the unnecessary and unacceptable decline of academic standing and traditions.
I have a clear, well-reasoned plan to work with parents and trustees to restore educational excellence and local control at Highland Park schools. Since I'm asking our wonderful community to place me in a position of public trust, it is incumbent upon me to clearly articulate my plan to all of the residents of our district.
Replace our Superintendent with a Classical Educator, who will implement proven curriculum and prioritize resources on teachers rather than administrators.
Restore parental rights and local control by severing ties with administrator lobbying groups, such as the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).
Never again allow political theater to interfere with our mission of academic excellence. Our Board acknowledges the pressure from the Administration led us astray in our response to Covid.
I'm running to bring back a student-first mentality at HPISD. In the Park Cities, we demand the best and intend to make Highland Park the #1 ranked school in the state of Texas. I believe the day one agenda items listed above and described throughout this website are absolutely necessary to put us back on top.
My kids have had the greatest childhood growing up in the Park Cities. Whether at a Mavericks game or Mi Cocina, I love how many boys in this town shout "hey Coach Siino". After almost a year of rigorous study at a Classical school, my children appreciate more than ever the unique sense of belonging in our district. Let's come together as a community to return to uncompromising academic standards so my kids and all of the beautiful young souls of our community can graduate from HP with unlimited potential.
As a businessman one of my primary skills is to identify a problem, analyze how the problem can be solved, design a solution and execute on the plan. I have spent the past two years agonizing over the lowering of standards in our schools. I have identified the source of the problem - the Administrators running our schools are "doctors" in Educational Leadership, just like the public schools in every other district in the country. Educational Leadership programs teach these educational bureaucrats ("Educrats") to (1) grow their Administrator ranks at the expense of teacher compensation, (2) implement experimental, "woke" curriculum and methods with a growing emphasis on technology as the teacher becomes marginalized and (3) pacify school boards through Administrator-stacked committees and TASB training to enable this special interest agenda.
As a generational insider, my opponent represents the status quo shift away from the principles that made HPISD excellent to an Educrat-led, technology-driven and Lucy Calkins-approved curriculum. While on the Literature Review Committee from 2016-2020, my opponent failed to alert the community as our curriculum deteriorated from challenging classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and A Tale of Two Cities to picture books teaching transgenderism and white guilt.
We've been electing the same people from the same committees to our Board for a number of years. Current and past board members, including CRT and mask promoter Jae Ellis, are supporting my opponent. Some say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. A vote for my opponent is a vote for more of the same - the erosion of local control and academic standards. There is another way.
My success in the private sector requires not only decisive action but the blessing of government regulators. I am the CEO and majority shareholder of an insurance company whose business plan and practices must be approved by regulatory bodies in all 50 states, the Small Business Administration and the United States Treasury Department. I appreciate the upfront work necessary to obtain buy-in from all of the stakeholders that must endorse a vision. Therefore, in keeping with my dedication to parental rights and transparency, I am publicly seeking the approval of my plan to (1) replace our Superintendent with a Classical educator, (2) restore parental rights and local control and (3) never again allow political theater to harm our children.