West Fargo School Board candidate Jessica Jones says communication, teachers are key to future success

(West Fargo, ND) -- From a 10,000 foot view, there may not be a lot of issues inside the West Fargo Public Schools, but one candidate for School Board says there are a couple of improvement areas that could be tackled to help continue to build on the solid reputation for the district moving forward.

Medical professional and parent Jessica Jones says the biggest issue she's noticed from board members and district officials has been communication on exactly what's going on.

"I’m always kind of an action oriented person who always sees room for improvement and thinks if there’s things we could do to make things better let’s go ahead and consider all those options," said Jones, who is pushing for more accountability and communication when it comes to decisions made involving the district.

Another key pillar of Jones' campaign is being able to bring teacher-driven options to the negotiating table to keep educators inside the school district moving forward.

"And then they can see that actions are taken based off their input so maybe it’s things like wages or health insurance benefits or reduced co-pay," said Jones. "It might also be things like a topic that has come up quite a bit as what kind of support is there for teachers to address behavioral concerns in elementary schools."

As for the size of the school board, Jones says she would be open to hearing arguments about expanding from seven, seeing as how West Fargo has more students than Fargo Schools, who have nine board members. Her biggest concern though is interest in serving the board, if two more positions were added.

"I continue to be surprised that I think there is overall a lack of engagement from the community as a whole," said Jones. "I think it be an interesting topic to consider whether it would benefit adding additional school board members. I am also curious about, you know, the level of engagement and whether or not there would be people that are interested in running to represent all those perspectives."

Jones says the move does make sense, considering the addition of another new elementary school, and the ingratiating of Horace into the district, which has caused numbers to skyrocket.

For more on Jessica's campaign, and for all your June 2022 election information, click here.