My name is Jason Kichline and I'd like to introduce myself as a moderate Democrat running for Mechanicsburg school board director in your region. Simply put, I've wanted to get more involved with my community to shape our collective future. I have two young children in the district and also own a business right here in Upper Allen township. I believe deeply in investing in our kids and into our community. Running for school director is just a natural next step for me.

 

I'm not one to go on and on about myself, but I know you might want to learn a little more about me. You know, for voting purposes. First and foremost, I'm a family man and have been married for almost 23 years to my wife, Jaime. We both met at Messiah College in our sophomore year and got married about a year after we graduated in 1999. I grew up in the Lehigh Valley, and she was from the Williamsport area, so it wasn't long until we came back to Central PA and began our lives right here in Mechanicsburg in 2001.

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Now that our kids are in the district, we wanted to find new ways to invest our time and energies into where our kids are involved. Thanks to our vibrant parks and recreation department, our kids learned to swim at an early age and both Eli and Ella have both been competitive swimmers on the Mechanicsburg Swim Club for almost 10 seasons! I've taken to volunteering as the announcer and my wife has found a new passion for athletics becoming a PIAA and USA certified swim official. Our family is also involved in Cub Pack 190 and Troop 190. I serve as a den leader and Lion den coordinator. I plan to continue volunteering in my community to teach our children the value of good citizenship and service.

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I'm also a man of faith which has led me to volunteer my time at area churches. I've served as a worship musician since moving to the area as well as a youth director in Middletown for 12+ years. I've played and encouraged worship teams, and enjoy running live sound to help those musicians be heard. I've also traveled with missions teams to South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, and the Yucatan. I've taken my youth group to serve in South Dakota and Pittsburgh. In light of all of this, I've felt a stronger call to serve my local community. I was able to help First United Methodist Church of Mechanicsburg livestream church through the pandemic and continue to volunteer there with various improvement and construction projects. 

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For me, faith and entrepreneurship are tightly integrated. I started a business in a dorm room at Messiah College and continued in that business upon graduation which would become AndCulture of Harrisburg. In 2010 I felt a call to build an app for musicians and accidentally founded another company in 2012, OnSong. Today OnSong continues to grow by serving worship teams, music therapists, and even big name performers around the world, all from our little office here in Upper Allen.

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Enough about me. Let me cut to the chase. Our nation's school boards are under attack by partisan political groups looking to strong-arm their agendas into local politics and into our schools. I use the word "attack" because that comes straight from their handbook. They want to take control of our schools away from you and give it to the whims of radical politicians with the goal to privatize public education in this country. We can't let their bad apples spoil the bunch. When I said "yes" to serve my community, I wasn't looking for a fight, but the fight may have found me. It may have found all of us.

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So I'm asking for your support on November 7, 2023 to stop extremist agendas from getting into our schools. That's it. I don't want to sound like other politicians because, well I'm not one. I have no agenda but to listen and to serve ALL families in Upper Allen Region 2.