Voters will elect 3 candidates to the Jefferson County Board of Education this year. Early voting for the May 10 election will begin on April 27 and run through May 7. Absentee ballot requests must be received by May 4. The last day to register to vote (or update your voter registration) is April 19 (Tue).
[READ MORE: The School Board — How It Works, Why It Matters]
Information on voter registration, absentee voting, polling place locations at GoVoteWV.com.
Jefferson County Board of Education Candidates
Carmen Taylor-Bratton — Andrea Elliot— Barbara Fuller — Laurie Ogden — Tiffani Sheppard — Kathy Skinner — Joyce Smith
School Board Incumbents
Laurie Ogden
Candidate Snapshot — Resident in Jefferson County for 25+ years; 3 children who are graduates of Jefferson High School, 1 child currently attending JHS. Prior community service includes 2 terms on BOE (since 2014), member & vice president of Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. Currently employed as a supply chain analyst. Prior work experience as a teacher, business owner, factory worker. Degrees in Early Childhood Education & Sports and Health Sciences. FB: Laurie Ogden for Jefferson County School Board. Email: LOgden1@Comcast.net
Perspective
The key question to ask always is: what are we going to do to make the system better? We know what the problems are; we don’t need a new plan or a new agenda. We have good leadership and we don’t want to lose them. The board needs to trust in a shared agenda and approach it as a team to keep the train moving. It’s a choice of making things go or making things stop. About focusing on the good things and understanding how to fix the bad things. We need to be positive and teach our students by example.
I decided to run for the board of education originally, due to my love for children, seeing them reach their full potential, and to leave the system better than I found it for the students that come long after my children have graduated. I still believe this. I have had a student in Jefferson County Schools for the last 15 years and still do. There is much more work to be done but I am proud of the staff and students who have worked incredibly hard to make great things happen. Jefferson County is a place where people come to live and raise families from many different areas. The expectations and ideas can be very different. I am running to continue to try and hear, understand, and meet those needs and expectations.
Priorities
The retention and recruitment of staff in all areas of professional and service will be a priority. The shortages that affect us nationally and here in Jefferson County will continue. We will need to work together as a community, think outside the box, and discover some new and some similar ways to educate and care for our students. Supporting our students and staff as we all mentally recover from the last two years is a priority. This pandemic has touched us all in different ways. Finding our way forward together will take intentional areas of focus. Additional priorities include better special education services and support for parents and staff. The Board just recently hired an Assistant Superintendent of Special Education so full focus could be given to ALL Jefferson County students whether it is for reading and math scores or any area of needed growth. The excitement of finishing what we started with building the two new schools in Ranson and Shepherdstown is an additional priority.
Kathy Skinner
Candidate Snapshot — Resident of Jefferson county for 19 years. 2 children who are graduates of Washington High School, 2 currently attending WHS. Prior community service includes 2 terms on BOE (since 2014), currently serving as President. Also service on Jefferson County Read-A-Loud board, Charles Town Now board. Licensed CPA, Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Masters degree in business administration. Email: SkinnerBOE@gmail.com. FB: Skinner for School Board.
Perspective
Experience matters. Running a school system with 1,200 employees and over 9,000 students spread across 17 different campuses is a complex endeavor. I am fortunate enough to be in a position of “been there, done that,” which means that when something new comes along, I am familiar enough with the machinery of the school system to help us adjust. We always want to leave an organization better when we leave than how we found it. I know that JCS is better today than it was eight years ago when I joined the board. Yet, it is still not where I as a parent and community member want it to be. There is still room for growth and improvement.
Priorities
Staff retention and recruitment must be our number one priority. Even before the pandemic, we had difficulty competing with the pay of school systems in our neighboring states. With the pandemic, finding qualified teachers and staff became even tougher. Since I have been on the Board, our community has twice supported a levy to supplement the teacher pay we get from the state. In addition, the Board has implemented Phase One of our Recruitment and Retention Plan offering incentives and financial opportunities for our staff. Finding and keeping great staff is the key to academic achievement.
When I came on the Board in 2014, our two high schools were ranked #23 and #28 in the state; by 2021 our two high schools had moved up to #9 and #10 in the state. Jefferson County’s most recent Reading and Writing SAT scores were #1 in the state. This is academic progress of which we can all be proud, and credit goes to our employees, especially during these tough times. We need consistency on the Board to keep improving our pay and benefit packages during these challenging times.
School safety is also paramount. One thing that we all learned during the pandemic is that a never-changing, one-size-fits-all approach to health and safety does not work. As the pandemic has shifted, whether due to new variants, the introduction of vaccines, or better understanding of how the virus spreads, we have shifted our policies to address the pandemic. We are proud of keeping schools open five days a week as much as possible, while also giving parents choices, such as by having their kids participate virtually. My second priority of safety means that the school system should never follow a simple-minded policy that will always apply to all people at all times, without any consideration given to changing circumstances.
School Board Challengers
Carmen Taylor-Bratton
Candidate Snapshot — Grew up in Jefferson County, Alumna of Jefferson High School. 2 children attended JCS schools (1 currently enrolled). Prior community service includes classroom parent volunteer (reading, field trips, tutoring), Currently volunteering as a tutor with JCS for elementary math and reading. FB: CarmenTaylorBratton. Email: Carmen-Taylor-Bratton4BOE@outlook.com.
Perspective
The board needs to take responsibility for building bridges to the community. That could be quarterly roundtable meetings with an independent moderator and members of the community with back-and-forth conversations. People deserve a response to their questions. We could be meeting with the local school councils [LSIC] quarterly instead of just annually to look at issues and set milestones for improvement throughout the year. Testing is important, but we need to ask how it helps each individual child, in terms of placement and services. We live in a technology world, but our children need books and should be able to bring them home, instead of the current policy of keeping them in the classrooms only.
The Board needs to connect with the community. I would want to listen and publicly address concerns the community brings up. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. I’d like to bring back unity to our community, between the students, the parents, and the staff. I’ve been attending a lot of Board meetings and the Board needs to respond to the questions posed, to help keep families in the public school system.
Priorities
Our number one priority should be the children and I would push the board to focus on several key areas to support them: improving academic success and test scores; keeping our students healthy; restructuring the special education program. I would also advocate to expand the reading, math and STEM programs to include free tutoring. I’d also like to expand community access to schools through adult and community learning programs.
Concerns
I believe families should feel good about their children’s education and I want to help guide Jefferson County Schools to be the education of choice for families. I will work to address the needs of families that have chosen to opt out of Jefferson County Schools to home school or attend private school. I respect the fact that the legislatures felt they needed to design alternative school programs. But it will be our job to address the concerns of families so that they may choose Jefferson County Schools as their top educational option. On the budget, I’d like to review the salary raises given to administrators in 2020 and see if service personnel, teachers, principals and coaches can be added to that pay raise.
Andrea Elliot
Candidate Snapshot — Resident in Jefferson County for 5 years. Currently a therapist providing outpatient mental health counseling in Frederick, Maryland. Masters degree in social work. FB: Elliot4BOE. Email: celebrateL10@aol.com
Perspective
The pandemic showed the problem with kids’ mental health issues getting more severe. Online learning doesn’t work with biology. Kids need to be using their five senses. We need to turn off the computers in the classroom and get back to basics — the schools need to adjust to a healthier way of teaching. The board’s role should be to engage in active listening and to review and change the policies and procedures to be more effective. Parents don’t know what their kids are being taught and feel powerless. Parents are looking for solutions and they should have a choice — we’ll see movement if schools don’t adopt healthier methods of teaching.
Barbara Fuller
Candidate Snapshot — Resident in Jefferson County for 14 years. 4 children attended Jefferson public schools (2 graduated Jefferson High School). Prior community service includes documentary photography for middle school sports games. Currently a volunteer ‘Search Angel’ helping adoptees learn about their birth families. Prior work experience in brokering equipment leases and loan workouts. Web: Fuller4BoardOfEd.wixsite.com/bffjcboe. FB: @BarbaraFullerforJeffersonCounty. Email: Fuller4BoardOfEd@gmail.com
Perspective
We need to focus on teacher retention. Without that, we can’t have student progress. We need to understand the reasons why teachers are leaving. Are they under-appreciated? Are they not listened to? We need to find the money, looking at waste in the board office, selling excess properties such as Ranson Elementary School when we build the new schools. There are grants available for high turnover positions — and they are all high turnover now. You have to ask why we didn’t address this five years ago and are leaving it to a new board to clean up. I would have a roundtable with the superintendent and give her an ultimatum — make changes or you will not have a place here.
Priorities
The top priority for me will be to get the finances into check. I have seen waste in many areas. One that sticks out is the Board office, it is time to trim the fat. Without access to a complete budget it is hard to identify specifics, but I do have some ideas about the needs of the county. I would like to see the Shepherdstown Elementary school remain as close to Shepherdstown proper as possible. If retrofitting and updating the current middle school is an option and is in the budget I would love to see it happen. I would love to see our own technical school in the county. Students lose approximately one and a half hours in transportation to Berkeley county. I would love to see more STEM programs in the county. It is the way of the future. Public in-person charter schools are good for Jefferson County, imagine if one was a STEM school. Children are like snowflakes, not one is the same and not all learn the same. Parents deserve the opportunity to educate their child that suits the child’s needs.
Concerns
My biggest concern is transparency. I think that people have given up going to Board meetings because their voices appear to fall on deaf ears. As an elected official the Board members have a duty to reply to the people who voted them in, good or bad. Staffing issues are a major issue. I would like to utilize all the necessary outlets to give our teachers and service personnel a wage they can say is not only fair but can keep them here in Jefferson county. I also feel that we have growing issues with special education and providing appropriate IEPs [individualized education programs]. I would like to see the process streamlined and offer help for parents to get the services they need.
Tiffani Sheppard
Candidate Snapshot — multiple children who are/have attended Jefferson County Schools. Currently employed as a manager in the hospitality/food service industry. Associate degrees in business administration and human resources management. Email: SheppardForBOE@gmail.com. FB: Tiffani Sheppard for JCSWV Board of Education.
Perspective
There needs to be a culture of accountability in the school system. I don’t agree with the board’s assessment of itself and the superintendent. The board is not doing a great job, especially with communicating to parents. As a parent it can be very frustrating, particularly if you are dealing with special education issues. We need to pay our teachers more, that’s part of the retention problem. We also need to improve teacher effectiveness. Nothing happens overnight, but we can’t wait four or five years to start fixing things.
Priorities
I think there will still be lingering effects of the pandemic that will require immediate attention and curriculum will be a huge focus. Also, raising our proficiency rates should be a top priority. I believe that we need to focus on special education needs throughout the county. I also know that it would be extremely beneficial for our kids to return to being able to go on field trips and educational outings. My youngest kids have been disappointed by the cancellation of the all the time-honored traditions such as 5th grade trips to Star Base and Hershey Park. I would also support our music and sports programs throughout the county, including away camps for band and sports teams.
Concerns
We are going to have to address the curriculum and to what degree CRT is included. We also need to address the way our kids are being instructed. We have been continually moving toward online learning even in the classrooms and this is not doing great things for our children or their test scores. They need handwriting, communication skills, and they need the interaction with their teachers put back into learning rather than 10 minutes of instruction time and the rest “independent learning.” My top concern is staff recruiting and retention, we need to be competitive when surrounding counties are paying so much more than Jefferson county. We need to address the fact that even though we have housing going up everywhere, our school enrollment is declining.
I think the school board and administration has disregarded and been very dismissive of parents and community concerns. They have often silently sat and disregarded pleas from parents, students, and teachers and then come back with sarcastic and underhanded remarks in later meetings which I don’t believe they thought we were smart enough to catch, and that is not right.
Joyce Smith
Candidate Snapshot — Resident in Jefferson County 30+ years. Prior community service: Elder (4 years) and youth group leader (10 years) at Presbyterian Church in Charles Town. Currently retired; previously employed at Jefferson County Schools in human resources (2005-2016); previously employed by Berkeley County Schools as substitute teacher and bus driver. Degree in organizational leadership and human resources. Email: J1Ellen@protonmail.com. FB: Joyce Smith for Jefferson County BOE.
Perspective
People are truly confused about how public education works. It’s so convoluted that even education professionals can’t figure it out. The board’s number one function is to create policy. Not all policies need to be updated, but every one needs to be looked at and it hasn’t been done for years. There is an agenda in the schools, and a lot of division with CRT and sexual education that’s not really educational. The local board should be a voice to the state legislature to pass legislation to make sure parents have education back in their hands and have a voice. There are a lot of small things we can do that will add up to a big difference. We need to give people hope.
Priorities
The first priority is, of course, hiring qualified teachers.… Pay is an issue. This also goes for our service personnel. Before it was said we didn’t have the extra funds and now we do have the extra funds, and this is still an issue. We need to look at spending some of the surplus on this issue, recruitment needs to be ramped up. We also should be encouraging high school students to become teachers with incentives. Transparency is another ongoing issue. I would like to see questions posed to the board at meetings answered via the website, newspapers, etc. We can hold board meetings at different schools around the county for increased turn out. The board are the policy makers. Most of the policies for JCS are very outdated. While new ones need to be made, old ones need to be reviewed and I feel this should be done on a yearly basis.
Concerns
My top concern is the teacher shortage as well as service personnel shortage. We have the schools to accommodate the children but we have experienced a steady decline in student enrollment. We need to find out all the factors that contribute to that and with the help of the parents and citizens make positive changes to reverse that. I feel that the public school system has a lot of work to do over the next coming years to improve in areas like special needs, teacher retention, basic curriculum … so that parents want to have children attend public school…. If I had small children in public school I would look into charter schools and possibly homeschooling.
The present board not listening to parents’ concerns regarding masking. The introduction of the Black Math Genius program which many parents feel is divisive and an intro into CRT. The recent Amplify program that was voted in without taking parents’ concerns into account of having elements of common core. The recent hiring of 4 or 5 new administrative positions in the Central Office while we are short on teachers and bus operators.
Jefferson County Board of Education Candidates
Carmen Taylor-Bratton — Andrea Elliot— Barbara Fuller — Laurie Ogden — Tiffani Sheppard — Kathy Skinner — Joyce Smith
Voters will elect 3 candidates to the Jefferson County Board of Education this year. Early voting for the May 10 election will begin on April 27 and run through May 7. Absentee ballot requests must be received by May 4. The last day to register to vote (or update your voter registration) is April 19 (Tue).
Information on voter registration, absentee voting, polling place locations at GoVoteWV.com.
[READ MORE: The Observer’s coverage of all the 2022 elections in Jefferson County]
This page was originally published in March 2022 and updated on April 2 2022 with additional information from the candidates.
By Staff Contributor