One of my greatest passions is educating my children. From an early age, I learned the importance of a strong education from my father, an immigrant from Ireland. My father understood that education was essential to create opportunities in life. Effective learning raises children to their highest potential, teaches them how to think both critically and independently and ultimately unleashes their full potential. Littleton Public Schools perform well relative to other districts in Colorado. However, with 2022 Littleton district-wide proficiency scores in math at only 48% and literacy at 62%, I worry about what these scores mean for the future of our children. The performance in our schools disproportionately affects the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our communities, who have limited opportunities to remedy their situation. If elected as a Littleton School Board member, I pledge to make every effort to ensure that all students have the resources they need to become educated to the highest degree possible in order to prepare them for success in life.
My wife Ann and I have been blessed with five children. My children are in different schools, each school being chosen as the best fit for each child based upon their needs. Our oldest is a senior at Heritage High School. Like all parents, we love our children deeply, have the best understanding of what makes them flourish, and are the best suited to make decisions about their wellbeing. As parents it is our role to teach our children to become virtuous, honest and respectful citizens. If elected as a School Board member, I pledge to honor and respect all parents, and to ensure that they control decisions regarding their children’s beliefs, values and the formation of their character.
My chosen profession is a medical doctor, and I practice Emergency Medicine. Over the last 3 years I have had the great privilege of serving our Veterans in the Emergency Department at Rocky Mountain Regional VA in Aurora, Colorado. In the clinical practice of medicine one of the central tenets that all medical students learn is to “do no harm” to our patients. We learn that in our efforts to heal patients, we must always be aware that we may actually unintentionally harm them. This foundational premise in medicine is one that I plan to bring to the School Board if elected. In some of our country's public schools, I worry that we are doing harm to our students by introducing controversial topics that are best suited for mature adults, and these confuse our children and distract from the central mission of education. I pledge that if elected as a Board member, I will “do no harm” to our students, and work with the Board to focus its attention on the core mission of education.
A time in my career that was particularly instructive was the nearly 10 years I spent at Sound Physicians, a private healthcare services company. Here I combined business and medicine and served in both regional and national leadership roles. As in many successful businesses, communications were effective within this organization, goals were made largely by consensus, actions were transparent, and results regularly measured. Colleagues throughout the organization were held accountable to each other in achieving the agreed upon goals. If elected as a School Board member, I pledge to promote a collaborative culture of transparency and accountability so that parents, teachers and administrators can most effectively work together.
I hope that you will join me in my effort to raise each of our children to their highest levels of educational achievement within our schools.
Please elect me to the Littleton School Board on November 7, 2023.
Sincerely,
Brian Macaulay M.D.
