School board candidate Jennifer Kerns says she’s ready to be heard

One of the six candidates is ready to go from "sideline" to school board. 

After running for the St. Joseph School District Board of Education in 2023 and losing by 28 votes, Jennifer Kerns has some experience and is ready to get boots on the ground with her campaign. 

"I've been on the sidelines for years doing the PTA stuff with the Parents and Teachers Association," Kerns said. "It's a big deal to have the parent engagement and to support our staff and teachers."

Kerns said serving on so many local boards and committees, such as the PTA, Project Graduation, InterServ and the Philanthropic Educational Organization, she understands community needs.

"I listen to all of them, I get to see what our community needs," Kerns said. "I get to hear what the teachers and the staff needs, and it's important that we support them and then the community as well."

Kerns said heading into the April 8 election that will see two people chosen for the school board, she has certain policies she wants to focus on.

One is academics. 

"You know, our scores are slowly getting better, but we're still under the state level that we need to be at," Kerns said. "We need to look at our academics, we need to look at what our teachers and staff needs to give our kids the best education because they go hand-in-hand."

Kerns also said teacher retention and recruitment, having additional classroom resources and community involvement are also something's she wants to advocate for. 

Kerns also said, one of her daughters has already gone through the District, and the other one is currently attending school in the SJSD- Showing Kerns is no stranger to the District.

One big item candidates are sharing their opinions on ahead of the election, are the efforts to foster Proposition two- a bond initiative which would support the construction of two new high schools. 

"However it's voted is up to the community now," said Kerns. "Whether they vote for, you know, the new high school or whether they don't vote for it, we've gotta move forward from there no matter what."

Whichever way the the bond issue is voted, Kerns said she's ready to "get her hands dirty" when it comes to moving forward with the District's long-range plan. 

Regardless of how you vote, Kerns said it's important to make sure your voice is heard.

"If we want to see change, if we want to move forward, then you gotta go vote," said Kerns. 

You can learn more about the candidates for the St. Joseph School Board every Tuesday through the end of March.