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This information is provided by the candidate
Michael (Mike) Gillespie grew up in Scranton Pennsylvania with his parents, Jim and Anne, two sisters, and one brother. After attending public elementary school he attended and graduated from Scranton Prep High School and spent his first two years of college at Fairfield University in Connecticut. After taking a year off from school where he volunteered as a teacher's assistant on the Navajo Reservation, he transferred to Pacific in Stockton where he received his bachelor's degree and teaching credential.
Mike has spent the last twenty-one years working in the field of education in a variety of teaching and administrative positions. He began his teaching career in Greenfield CA; teaching fifth grade. After two years he returned to the Stockton area to work as a teacher in the Migrant Education program in Lodi Unified School District. He then started the first Learning Opportunity Class in Lodi, which served students in third through fifth grade at risk for expulsion due to poor behavior and high suspension rates. During the same period, he also earned his preliminary administrative credential from CSU Sacramento in the Bilingual Leadership Training Program. Mike is fluent in Spanish and used his bilingual skills to create and nurture many programs from this point in his career to the present. After growing this successful opportunity program, Mike became a vice-principal at Heritage Elementary, a K-6 school serving predominantly English Learner and immigrant students.
After nearly three years as a vice-principal, Mike became the founding principal of the first charter school sponsored by Lodi Unified, Joe Serna Jr. Charter School, a dual language program. After leading the school for twelve years, Mike became the Assistant Superintendent for Gateway Community Charters in Sacramento CA. He continues to work for Gateway; supervising principals, monitoring and supporting the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, and overseeing State and Federal programs. Gateway Community Charters has over four thousand students serving predominantly English Learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students in a variety of K-12 learning environments.
Mike has served and continues to serve on a wide variety of community boards and professional committees. He was the president of the Lodi Unified Administrator's Association (LUSDAA) and one of the founding members of the Central Valley Dual Language Consortium. He served on committees that developed new report cards and progress reports, the Learning Opportunity Class, LUSDAA, world language committee, and Math Matters committee. For eight consecutive years he served on the Celebration on Central Committee which put on an annual health and welfare street fair in Lodi. Mike currently sits on the board of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League, the national governing board for college lacrosse, on the board of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League, and on the board of the Stockton Spartans Lacrosse program where he also coaches the varsity boy's lacrosse team. He is also a current member of the Association of California School Administrators.
Mike has been married to his wife Kimberly for over seventeen years. Kim is an English teacher with over twenty years of experience and currently teaches at St. Mary's High School. They have two sons, Sam and Jack, who attend Lodi High School and are active in athletics and extra-curricular activities. Mike also enjoys skiing and camping with his family and spending time planting and gardening in his yard.
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