Jenny Thomas

What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau school board?

I think I’m a good candidate because I’ve done a lot of speaking to people in the community regarding what they want, and what they think needs to happen. I’m a parent of two kids in the school. Well, my son just graduated, but one child in the school district. And I’m a good communicator, I’m open-minded, I’m ready to listen and make some important decisions, and be a strong voice. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Juneau School District right now?

I think the biggest challenge is going to be how we navigate this next year and the following years due to the consolidation. And, how we make that work best for our students, our families, the staff, especially with the budget still not quite where we want it to be. Obviously, the BSA [Base Student Allocation] flat funding. You know, there’s a lot of things coming up in the budget that’s going to make a lot of challenges in providing good education to all of our students.

Last year, the district had to solve an abrupt multimillion-dollar deficit in a matter of months. Not all residents were happy with the decisions made and it prompted a recall effort this election for two of its current members. Moving forward, what role does each school board member play in ensuring that the district remains on firm financial footing?

The school board members need to be direct and communicate with the public about what’s going on. Like, I understand they say there was a multi-million dollar deficit, but it wasn’t what they said it was. I mean, that’s just flat out, they ended up ahead. So, they need to make sure that they speak their mind and ask the important questions and the questions that are coming in from the community. And the information coming in from the community, they need to address that. I mean, they need to let the public know that they’re hearing them, and by hearing them, you respond so that people are like, ‘OK, they understand what’s going on,’ rather than it falling on deaf ears, and you just think they’re doing whatever they want.

The school board voted to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools this past winter. And, with the uncertainty about education funding in the state and the district’s declining enrollment, do you think more school consolidation will be necessary in the future? If so, how will you tackle that situation?

I think we’re looking at definitely some consolidation in the future, and I think we should start tackling that now. In September [2023], the city and the school district had somebody reevaluate a study that was done in 2017 and they had a series of suggestions. And so I think that that should start to be evaluated right now with what currently has been done because they did an in-depth facility study. So they should look and say, ‘OK, what have we’ve done now, what’s our best way to move forward with as least impact to neighborhood schools as possible?’ And evaluating what schools offer. There are elementary schools that have special classrooms where kids with special needs, so we need to take that into effect, you know. What it’s going to do for the overcrowding, what’s our teacher stuff going to do? So it’s more than just building consolidation. They need to do a little bit more creative thinking for other programs. Maybe there could be some shared services as well.

With hundreds of more students at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé this year, issues with the lack of parking have been a hot topic. What more could the district be doing to mitigate that?

That’s a great question. They knew this was going to be an issue. I mean, it was an issue when I went there in ‘96, so the parking downtown is an issue regardless. I really think that they need to look at trying to find an agreement with UAS across the street, with that overpass. I mean, maybe the Marie Drake parking, we could share that with the city. I mean, because in the winter, it’s going to get even worse, and new kids from the Valley that aren’t used to driving downtown with the snow berms where they can’t see over them. It’s going to be a hazard, and the city needs and the school district needs to realize, ‘Hey, it’s going to be an issue, it’s dangerous,’ rather than, ‘Oh, it was fine back in my day, you know, they’ll have to live with it.’ It needs to be taken seriously.

Is student achievement where it should be in Juneau? What can the district do to improve reading and math scores as students grapple with major shifts in their school environments?

Student achievement can always be improved, I believe. I don’t know what it was ranked in the middle schools or the elementary schools, because my kids aren’t in there, but Thunder Mountain and JD[HS] placed fourth and fifth in the state. So I mean, they were on a good track.

The major shifts in the school environment is I’m afraid it’s going to be harmful to our test scores, simply for the fact of the kids being stressed. A lot of kids I know have empty periods, including freshmen, so there’s a lot that goes into that, but I also believe that reading and math scores are not the end all be all of how successful a school district is.