EDITOR’S NOTE: The May 18th ballot features dozens of opportunities to serve your community on local boards for our schools, ports, transportation district, recreation districts, water districts, fire districts and more. There is not a voters pamphlet for a primary/special election, therefore the Pioneer provides this opportunity for candidates to tell voters about themselves and the position they are seeking, even if running unopposed.
Tillamook County Pioneer CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT – 5 minute “why we should vote for you” pitch; include information about why you are running for the position and your TOP 3 most-important-issues facing the board/organization you wish to serve on.
Meet the Candidates: Jesse Werner, Tillamook School District Board Position #3
I was born and raised in Tillamook, growing up on a family dairy farm. I learned early on the value in hard work and finishing what I started. I attended a private school through my freshman year of high school and then transferred to Tillamook High where I graduated with the class of 1998. I’ll never forget the incredible experiences I had playing Tillamook Cheesemaker Football. I have many fond memories of my years at THS.
I graduated at the top of my class from U.T.I. with an Associate’s Degree in Truck and Industrial Technology. I worked in the heavy duty truck and diesel industry for 17 years. During this time, I served in a couple of different ministry roles, one as a volunteer worship leader for 8 years and the 2nd as a part time worship director for a period of 4 years at a different church. In that mix was 6 years of working a small sales business and serving on a church board. These two things allowed me to grow into a person that could communicate well, work through differences with other people and in the end, find common ground for a good end result.
I have been happily married to my wife, Crystal for 22 years. We have 3 children. Caleb, who graduated from THS in 2019. Alex, who graduated from THS in 2020 and our daughter Emily who is currently a sophomore attending THS.
I’ve been asked to list the top 3 things that I feel our school board is faced with.
1. The biggest is the continued lockdowns due to Covid. I firmly believe that all of our schools should have been fully open with zero restrictions many months ago. The data does NOT support continued restrictions. We do have state mandates to abide by, but we should be pushing hard against them. We are seeing unprecedented mental stress in our students brought on by restrictions to normal, healthy activities. There are more parents than ever transferring their children to private schools due to less restrictions.
2. General Curriculum. We have gotten way out of balance with our public school curriculum. We need a balanced approach where students have the opportunity to learn about Intelligent Design and Creation, not just Evolution. Our students need to be given more opportunity to think independently and critically for themselves. State guidelines limit this to a degree, but as a school district, we have flexibility in how topics are presented.
3. Communication between schools and parents must improve. Parents need more information into what’s going on with activities and topics being taught in school. This gives parents an opportunity to talk with their student ahead of time and prepare appropriately.
If you choose to elect me, I will do everything in my power working alongside other board members to get our schools fully opened ASAP. I will fight to bring back balance to our curriculum and work to find ways of improving communication between schools and parents.