So You Want to Run for School Board: Practical Advice and Insights from Board Members

Thinking about running for school board, or just curious what the role actually entails? In this bonus episode of Elevate Education, guest host and former Jeffco Board President Stephanie Schooley sits down with current Board members Paula Reed and Erin Kenworthy for a conversation about what it’s like to campaign, serve, and make decisions that impact students.

This episode offers valuable reflections and practical advice for anyone considering stepping up to serve their community. Whether you're ready to run or just exploring the idea, this is a must-listen conversation that pulls back the curtain on one of the most important civic responsibilities in public education.

Learn more about running for the Jeffco Public Schools Board here: https://www.jeffcopublicschools.org/about/board-of-education/board-elections

 

 

Episode Transcript

Speaker (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Elevate Education podcast. I am Stephanie Scully, former Board of Education president for Jeffco Public Schools. I'm a new voice to the podcast and happy to be a guest host for this special episode today. I am very honored to be joined by two current Jeffco board members, Paula Reid and Erin Kenworthy, for an episode on running for and serving on a school board, in particular for Jeffco Public Schools. So the three of us are here to share our personal reflections on what it's like to run for and be a director on the Jeffco Board of Education. We hope to encourage thoughtful, community driven participation in school board elections and maybe offer some practical insights and advice to anyone considering running for the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education. Paula and Aaron, first of all, is so lovely to see you all again. Thanks. Good to see you too. It's great to be here. Excited to be in conversation with you all today. As we all know, because we've done it, our schools depend upon people to stand up and serve. So that's why we're here to share some of our own personal reflections. I know for myself, um, my journey to serving on the Jeffco Board of Education only started through my own involvement at my child's school, which I think happens for some folks. That's one pathway for me through the PTA, then the District Accountability Committee, sort of the scaffolded chain of participation, and the 2018 Millon Bonds initiative. Um, but really, at the end of the day, it was because people that I trusted and respected asked me to serve. And I think that happens sometimes when people that you trust and admire say, hey, we think you can serve. Will you serve? I would love to hear from both of you what your journey, what your pathway was to run for the school board. Okay. Uh, so I was a teacher in Jeffco for 30 years, and both of my children graduated from Jeffco schools. And honestly, when I retired in 2018, I knew that I was going to run for school board at some point in time. After doing that, I just felt like it was really important to have the voice of a teacher on the school board, and preferably somebody who hadn't been out of the classroom terribly long. So I had some things that were really important to me. I really felt like we needed a more cohesive and more clear curriculum as a high school teacher. I had seen the huge variety of what students got in the same school, in the same level of class, much less across the district, and I felt like there needed to be some consistency there. And I really was also very interested in making sure that our curriculum was more culturally responsive, because I had taught a pretty traditional English canon. And while I love those works of literature, I knew that a lot of my students were not reflected in what they were reading. So those were some of the things that were really important to me. It was fun getting onto the school board and discovering that that work had already started. Yeah. And we'll talk a lot in a moment about that journey of campaigning. But, Aaron, let's hear from you. What was what was your why? Why did you decide to run? What was your path? Yeah, I have two students in Jeffco schools. Um, they're relatively young, and I started participating in a school accountability committee, um, when my oldest kid was in elementary school. And because I asked some questions and the principal was like, hmm, that's interesting. You should be on our school accountability committee. And I didn't know what that was. Um, from where I had taught before and lived before I had kids, we didn't have school accountability committees, so it made me curious. Um, so I joined that way, uh, and then moved to the District Accountability Committee, um, because I wanted to see kind of what was happening out beyond just my own kids school. Um, as an educator, you know, in the past and having that background, I just became very curious about how Jeffco Public Schools operated, and I wanted to know more. Uh, and, um, yeah. So through that, uh, I have friends who are teachers in the district, and they asked me to consider running. Um, and they finally asked me enough that I was willing to say, uh, yes, that I would consider it. And I felt excited to be able to serve my community, um, in this way, because of my background in education, because of my interest, and because I have kids in the schools. Um, so the more conversations I had with folks, the more willing I was to do it. And I'm so glad that I get to be in this position and serve my community this way. It's not easy, but it is meaningful. Um, and it is important for people to step up. And I was willing when I was asked to serve, I was willing to say yes. So you bring up a good point. Both of you have mentioned or alluded to this before. We we talk about some of the joys of running for office. I'd love to hear from you. What if there are specific and skill sets or qualities that you think have been particularly critical for you to be successful as a school board director? So the three of us come from different backgrounds. I was not a K-12 educator. You all were in different ways. You can be a parent in the district or not. I mean, we have all sorts of different backgrounds and experiences in previous people that have served on the school board. So I'm wondering if there are any skill sets or qualities that you think are particularly important, just in your own opinion? Not on paper, not on the resume that would help, that are helpful, that are that are really, um, important to serve all you want to lead us off. I think that it helps if you are good at and willing to try to see things through very different eyes than your own having been a teacher. Where you really have to try to figure out why kids aren't getting something that they're not getting, or how to get a kid excited about something. So you have to sort of get in their headspace and see how they're coming at something, because you're representing a really broad swath of people with very different views. And for the most part, I believe that most people really are trying to do their best. They're not trying to be horrible or hurtful or, you know, any of the things that sometimes we accuse people of doing. So looking at it and saying, you know, why? Why is this upsetting to this person? Or why is this person not understanding what we're doing or sometimes saying, you know what, I haven't thought about this and this person has a really legitimate point and something that I need to pursue. So I think that's a really critical thing to be able to do on the school board. Yeah. Expanding perception perspective. Yeah. What about you, Aaron? What do you think? So I'm going to lift up in this moment that I think there's two different skill sets. There's a skill set for running in a campaign. And those skills are pretty different than the skills that you need to serve. Um, so I would I'm just going to be real clear about that. I think skill set for running for a position is, um, having a thick skin and knowing yourself, um, also having a team of people who are going to support you and then for serving, um, on the school board, I, like Paula, said, I think you have to be willing to be objective in hearing different perspectives. I also think being a thoughtful communicator is something that's really important when serving. Um, and being clear on what the role is that you're sitting in, um, and also being able to validate and hear people's concerns without making promises that I'm not going to be able to follow up on unilaterally by myself. Um, so those are yeah, I think being a clear communicator, knowing the role, um, are some of the things that are important for serving as a school board member. I'm going to jump in and second, the need for a thick skin. And that's true when you're running and when you're serving that, um, you know, understanding that people don't know you personally and they will make very personal sounding attacks. And what's really going on is you represent something to them that they don't like or they feel threatened by or, you know, whatever, and they address you with the anger or the frustration or the fear that they feel for that idea. And you kind of have to, you know, understand that and not take what could feel very personal personally. Yeah. Yeah, it's an interesting distinction to make too. And we can can jump to this question in a second about, you know, the difference between running, getting elected and serving the narrative of being on a on the school board. My uncle was in politics a very long time ago, and I remember telling him when I had decided to run for the school board and his response was, why would you do that? But his point was, just because it's a very difficult role to to hold because it is unpaid and it's difficult to make people happy. And, and you're making decisions about something that is most precious to all of us, which is our kids and and people feel deeply and feel passionately about our kids. And so there are important decisions that we're making. And, um, and people care deeply about that. And and so early on, I had decided that I would set up this, the kitchen notion of a kitchen cabinet and politics of advisers and people that you trust. But but to extend that to individuals that do not agree with me on things, because that's really, really important to me to not have people that are just going to say, yes, of course, that's the right decision decision to make. Stephanie. Of course, you wise one, even though that's nice to hear. Um, so, um, all right. Well, so let's let's jump into this notion of, of running for office because for anyone that is interested at all in serving on a board of education, you got to get there first, which means you have to run for office. Um, which can feel kind of daunting, I think when you start really breaking down how large our district is, and that I'm like our neighbors in Denver Public Schools. We do not have voting by each of our individual districts. It is all all for one and one for all. Everyone votes for everyone. So that's a lot of campaigning and a lot of voters to reach. So I'm curious from both of you what strategies you felt were most helpful to maintain some sort of balance for yourselves and in your personal life and your campaign life during that time? How did you navigate it? Um, tips. Anything you want to share that would be helpful for folks that are listening, and maybe considering this as a next step for themselves? Um, I. I did have a lot of support, um, in getting my campaign up and running, filing, um, with the secretary of state and establishing a bank account and sort of the administrative steps that one has to take at the beginning and outset of a campaign. Um, I did have support in doing that. One of the things that was a little daunting for me was showing up at politically, um, engaged events, especially for municipalities where I didn't live, and talking to other electeds, um, who had no idea who I was. And, um, people all have a perspective or they have a story they want to tell you, or they have context that they want to give you. And so there's a lot of, um, receiving information from lots and lots of people as you move through the campaign. And for me, I needed times where I was not communicating with anyone. So I had to talk with my family, uh, about they're going to be times we needed to have a signal that my mom, um, needs some alone time in a room where she doesn't have to communicate with anybody. Um, just to hold space for my ability, my ability to process and recharge so that I could keep showing up, uh, in conversations. Um, I'm going to share this one quick story where I had my two worlds collide and we had to take photos for some of our promotional materials at a school. Michelle and I were there together. Um, and our kids were with us, and we were having to record and take photos looking, you know, trying to look like our best version of ourselves for mailers. And at the meantime, like, my two kids are off just outside of the camera, like fighting with each other. Right. So some of our mailers, I've got mom face like that. Mom face smile. Um, because I was having to mom and, um, do political photography and videography at the same time. Um, but I felt like that was good. Uh, kind of a good test for how it would be to serve in the role is that you're not just ever sitting in one role. You end up wearing a lot of different hats at the same time. And so, um, yeah, we navigated that. It's a fun memory that my kids and I will always have. Um, yeah. You can't you can't just take off a hat and say, now, I am not the parent. That's right. Because you are still all of those things. What about for you, Paula? Anything that was particularly helpful as you navigated campaigning. So I started off taking a class on how to run for office that was run by another elected official, and it met every Saturday for like six hours, I think from February through May. It was kind of crazy, but it did leave me feeling like I knew, like the basics and like just the nuts and bolts were easier that way. And it also gave me some contacts that, you know, helped me eventually find a campaign manager and that kind of thing. So that was all really helpful. But when it all starts, it's I keep using this analogy. It's like drinking from a fire hose. And then later when we talk about moving into serving, that is like drinking from a fire hose that like the one that you were drinking from when you campaigned shut off. And the next one turns on. Yeah, I was surprised by that. And just as a reminder, so the school board elections are every two years and it rotates two seats, three seats, two seats, so that there's some continuity. And the the full board's not not ever turning over at any given time thankfully. And this is is Oban. It's a it's a nonpartisan election so no one runs as Is anything. People just run as individuals and they are not selected I've said this before, but people tend to run for school board based on issues that are closest to them, most connected to them based on their experience either as a teacher in a school, as a parent, as a community member that has experienced something that that's close to their heart or that they would like to see changed, and then you shift that role to become a school board member, and it becomes very much 30,000ft all of a sudden, because you go from the perspective of one child, one classroom, one school, one neighborhood. It's still that perhaps. But then decision making really takes a a much broader view. And I think it can be a very jarring transition. So I'm going to start with the question of what surprised you the most about serving as a school board director? Well, I think what I'll say is, you know, you get elected and then there's about a month before you get sworn in. Um, and, and thankfully, thanks to school board members who served before me, like you, Stephanie, um, there's an onboarding process for our board members. We have now a handbook to help, um, orient people to the work that they're getting ready to do. There are rules. There's sunshine laws about how you can communicate with people that you've never had to operate under until you're an elected official. Um, and there's a lot there's just a lot of learning how to do the job. Um, not just the what, but also the how that has to happen. What about for you, Paula? What was the most surprising? the really the first thing that I remember very clearly was being told that we had 96,000 seats and 69,000 students, and what the financial repercussions of that were. And the chief Financial officer showing us a graph with this precipitous drop in funding based on the number of students that we have and the gap between what our funding was going to be and what our expenses were, what our budget was, and and just being like, oh my God, nobody told me this. Like people ask me, how do you feel about closing small schools? And I said, well, we're going to have to do that. I do know that we have some small schools and we're going to have to close them. And I think that it needs to be based on really clear metrics. And people need to have a a lot of notice ahead of time. That's going to happen. We need to not have any more situations where schools close at the last minute. But that was the first moment that I looked at it and went, we're not talking about 2 or 3 schools here. Holy smokes. And it was absolutely not what I ran for school board to do. And yet it was the most critical work for us to get done right out of the gate, or we were going to be in serious trouble. You know, I mean, as a teacher, I believe that our employees deserve more than Jeffco can afford to give them. And having to be the one that says, I'm so sorry, but those resources just aren't there is not fun and not what? Not what I wanted. All of that said, we're doing exciting work too. Like I'm loving doing high school reimagined. This is what I ran for the school board for, so I'm like 100% stoked on this. And so there are like, I don't want to make it all sound doom and gloom, but man, the realities of finances in schools. There's no way around it. Yeah. Yeah. The I think it's it's well said from both of you. It's one it's just the, um, the immediacy with which you, you get into the role and need to start making very challenging and very impactful decisions is real. And so and that has ramifications for what school boards are and are the decisions that that come before school boards. There are moments of true joy in terms of what we're able to see for student outcomes. And being able to celebrate that is amazing. That being said, it's the the hard work has to happen somewhere, and a lot of times that hard work isn't the the most joyful work, you know. We're a Jeffco is a policy governance district, which to most people won't make much sense. But in reality, what it what it means essentially is that the work of the district, the management of the district happens through the superintendent, and the board governs through policy. And, and and in large part, those policies are so that the board can say, superintendent, are you doing what we have asked you to do? I found I found that to be surprisingly challenging for, for myself. So figuring out as board members where you can be most useful and really work collaboratively as a team of five and with the superintendent and that model I think can be challenging to wrap your head around if you've never worked in in that kind of governance model before. To me, that was the most surprising. And I think even once you get the hang of it, it can be really hard. You are really tempted to want to step in and and tell the superintendent how to do the job, and it's not how to do it. It's here's what we want you to do. You figure out the how, and you work that out with with the team of people that work underneath you. Right? So if we were going to give someone that was interested in running one piece of advice, what would it be? would say, come to meetings, come sit in the meeting and see what we're doing during the meetings. I would also say connect with your local schools. Um, talk to the, you know, principals and educators in the community and maybe talk with some of your local electeds about what it would take to support somebody who's running for the school board. I think it opens your eyes up to to understand what the scope is before, you know, signing on to doing the campaign. And then for it is it's a four year commitment. This is a commitment, um, to serve our students and our community. Um, and I think walking into that with your eyes is open as possible is, um, the best way to prepare for myself, I served on the DAC, and it did help me. And you have said this, both of you reach out to people that have served on the Jeffco School board. I have never said no when people texted me and say, can I share your number with so and so? They're interested in serving, I always say yes. So here's the last question I will ask you. And this is more sort of around legacy when you think about your own impacts and the four or however many years you end up serving, what, what sort of impact or fingerprint do you hope that you leave on the district? Since I'm wrapping mine up, I'll just, um, yeah. I feel especially honored to have been able to support work that I felt needed to be done. I think that we are delivering more consistent education to students. I, I feel like we did a lot of good in rightsizing the district, as painful as that was, and making sure that our schools are as fully resourced as we could make them, that we were not leaving schools, just bleeding out slowly with not enough students and not enough resources to really educate them. And you know, as with so many things, when people serve in any capacity, they never really get to see beginning to end what it was they did. They just know that, hey, you know, like you're looking at this edifice and you're saying, I laid these bricks. I did not build this building. And so there's that sense, but I, I do feel like we've done some really important work in the time that that I've been on the board, and I would not trade this time for anything. It's been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Thanks, Paula. What about you, Erin? Yeah. I think, um, in a lot of ways, the reasons I was willing to say yes to doing this is that I know that school districts need somebody to hold them, um, through a time period. Um, I just want to hold our community. Well, I want to make sure that community voices are being heard. I want to, um, do what we can to establish relationships of trust, um, with our families and our students and our educators and the community, the wider community that doesn't even have a contact into Jeffco schools directly. Um, and that it's ready for somebody else to pick up, um, when I leave and that it's a manageable and sustainable position for not just myself, but for the next boards that are going to follow after me in Jefferson County. And keeping that consideration, too, is we're making decisions about things that are in the moment and of of the right now in front of Jeffco. Um, that this is a long game. Public education is a long game. It's been here a long time, and it's going to be here for a long time. And how do we take care of it? So that we are serving the needs of all of our students? Awesome. I appreciate that you will continue to hold this wonderful space and take care of our kids and communities. And, um, and so thank you both for your time. Thanks for joining us on this special episode of Elevate Education. And I hope that anyone and everyone that's listening feels inspired to get involved, to stay curious, to keep making a difference. Join committees, run for the Board of Education. Do all of the great things that help make a difference for each and every one of our students. And until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep elevating education. Bye. Yay! All right. That was fun.