Candidate for
City; City of Santa Rosa High School District

My name is Jenni Klose and I am running for the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education.

I am a proud and grateful product of public education in Santa Rosa. It prepared me to earn a degree in biochemistry at UCLA and a law degree at Indiana University. I'm now a lawyer with a private practice in Sonoma County.

In my community work, I have served on the board of directors of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), which provides support services for children and teens living in foster homes or group homes. I currently serve as a director on the Sonoma County Family YMCA board and as vice president of the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation.

I've kept an interested eye on schools in Sonoma County as my niece has grown up and is now preparing to enter elementary school and her mother, my sister, has become an accomplished elementary teacher in the Santa Rosa school system.

My interest in seeking a seat on the Santa Rosa School Board evolved over the past year as Doyle Park Elementary was slated for closure. Both of my younger sisters attended Doyle. My sister taught there for 14 years. Throughout the years, our family has stayed involved with Doyle Park as volunteers and in fundraising activities.

Through observing the Board and community struggle with the Doyle Park closure issue, and doing related research, I have come to better understand the new and difficult challenges facing our local schools.

There is no question that our schools have been hurt by repeated budget cuts, but that should not be the end of the discussion, it should be the beginning. I am interested in bringing creative problem-solving skills to our school district.

As a member of the Santa Rosa School Board I hope to:

1) Get the community involved: We are lucky to have a community composed of educated, experienced, and compassionate people that value volunteerism and philanthropy. We also have a strong business community that requires and benefits from well-educated high school graduates. We need to tap our community resources to fill program and funding gaps, and better encourage and prepare parents to take active roles in their kids' educations.
2) Improve transparency and communication: We need greater transparency into the Board and administration's decision-making processes. We need to maintain open lines of communication that allow students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members to freely communicate their concerns, feedback, and ideas to the Board.
3) Focus on learning, not testing: We must better understand what standardized tests can and cannot tell us about student, teacher and school performance. Compliance with state and federal testing requirements must not dictate everyday classroom curriculum.
4) Respect our professional educators: Budget cuts, reduced classroom time, and increased time dedicated to testing have put additional strain on our teachers. We need to support our teachers, trust them to make good day-to-day decisions in their classrooms, and provide them with professional development and peer feedback opportunities.
5) Embrace diversity in our community and our schools: Our community's diversity is an asset. We must take a proactive approach to prevent economic or ethnic fractures in our district. We need special outreach programs directed to English language learner families.

I don't begin to suggest I have all the answers. But I think I have some ideas on how to ensure that our public schools and students thrive even during challenging times.

I appreciate your vote!

Jenni