Two Richland Residents Announce Write-In Candidacies for School Board

Two businesswomen have declared their write-in candidacies for the two seats on the Pine-Richland School District that represent Richland Township.

Laura Ohlund and Ginny Goebel notified Pine-Richland Patch that they have prepared a campaign letter in which they ask Richland residents for their votes and explain how to write in for the Region 3 seats, which represent Richland Township's voting districts 3, 4, 5 and 6.

No names are on the ballot for Region 3.

A candidate must receive at least 10 write-in votes to secure a party's nomination and be placed on the general election ballot in November,  according to the Pine-Richland School District's website.

"This would mean a candidate would need at least 10 Democrat write-ins on the Democrat ballot to get the Democratic nomination, and at least 10 Republican write-ins on the Republican ballot to get the Republican nomination," the website stated. 

Laura Ohlund

Ohlund, a management consultant and mother of five children enrolled in Pine-Richland schools, said she believes  the "Pine-Richland school system should be addressed as a large business with the taxpayers as the shareholders, the parents and students as the customers, and the administrators and teachers as employees. 

"As with any successful business, the needs of all the stakeholders need to be in balance and communications of critical program changes and large expenditures need to be communicated in advance," she wrote in her letter to voters.   

 As a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies across North America and Europe, Ohlund said she "was responsible for working with senior executives to develop innovative and new business strategies so their organizations would remain leaders in their industries."

She said she helped organizations define and link their long-term vision and short-term goals, led customer focus groups, analyzed market research, and led teams of employees  that included union representatives to develop better business processes and reduce costs. 

Ohlund's clients included DuPont, Texaco, PraxAir, New York Life, Arizona Republic, Bank of Scotland and Prudential, she said.

She earned three degrees from Carnegie Mellon University -- a B.S in industrial engineering, a B.S. in applied mathematics and computer science, and an M.S. in business administration, for which she graduated summa cum laude. 

"As a parent, I strongly believe that many of the concerns we have regarding the overall school experience of our children, from academic, to social and extracurricular, can be addressed by bringing together representative stakeholders including administrators, parents, teachers and students, to generate and implement the most creative, forward-thinking and cost-effective solutions," Ohlund wrote. 

She and her husband, Mark, have five children, ages 7 through 16, currently at Richland Elementary, Eden Hall Upper Elementary, Pine-Richland Middle School and Pine-Richland High School. 

"They have been enrolled in the PR School District for the last 11  years and their diverse experiences have allowed me to become intimately acquainted with the many excellent teachers and programs in place, as well as the issues facing students and parents in the schools today," Ohlund said in her letter.

"Additionally, my education and work experience are ideal for managing a large organization and leading it through change," she said in her letter. 

Ginny Goebel

As a 27-year resident of the Pine-Richland School District, Goebel said she is "well acquainted with the issues that face our school district and education in general today."

"I am personally invested in ensuring that our school district is successful in educating the future leaders of our community while maintaining fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers in our district," said Goebel, who is married with three children, one of whom currently attends a Pine-Richland school.

Goebel said in her letter to voters that she brings more than 25 years of experience in strategic planning and business management to her current role as chief operating officer at Inecom LLC.

"After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, my career began at Algor Inc., a leading provider of analysis and simulation software, where I served as vice president and COO and a key member of the executive team that sold Algor Inc. to Autodesk Inc., a world leader in 2D and 3D design software, in early 2009," said Goebel.

Later that year, she was charged with building a team of entertainment professionals to operate Inecom LLC’s Classic Game Room video game review show and website and implement a strategy for growth, she wrote.

During her tenure, Inecom LLC has launched a new website, expanded to include five additional channels and more than doubled its revenue, she said.

"If elected to the Pine-Richland School Board, I intend to use my strong negotiating skills, P&L (profit and loss) experience and business acumen to facilitate communications in the Pine-Richland community, improve our schools and educate our children to be successful in today’s global economy," Goebel said.