Shelly Jackson

We need you.

You're from here.

You taught in the district, right?

You have an education background.

And I said no.

And I said no for a couple of weeks.

And it really got to a point where I was like, am I going to be okay with whatever happens if I'm not there?

Am I going to be okay with students missing out on more resources?

Am I going to be okay with this ideology being pushed that's also going to show our black and brown students that they don't belong in their own neighborhoods?

And then I said, no, I'm not okay with that.

And I finally ended up saying yes.

So I'm really grateful that people kept pushing me.

And we were able to do really great things.

Two years in, I became the board president.

So I spent my last two years actually leading the district and working on the ground with really great people.

But

It was hard to see myself in that position because I had never thought of it for myself.

To your point, I was also 24 years old and I did hear a lot of rhetoric around, well, young people can't do this, right?

Or we need more qualified people.

But I'm lucky that I had finally got to a place of, no, me being young is exactly why I am qualified, right?