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Former Sunol Glen school board president Ryan Jergensen is back in the limelight as he will be looking to win a seat on the board this November after having been recalled in July.
According to his campaign website, Jergensen said he is willing to learn and grow as a person while he focuses on similar goals he had for the community back when he was first elected to the board.
“At its core, my vision for our future is the same as when I started to seek a school board trustee position, to be a representative of all people living in these valleys,” Jergensen said on his website. “My vision and goals grow and mature with time as I am always learning and growing. I hear your concerns and I am trying to do my best to learn, change and grow.”
Jergensen, who did not respond to the Weekly’s request for comment this week, is running against recall advocate Erin Choin for a new, four-year term through November 2028.
Jergensen has lived in a few different Bay Area communities before he and his wife moved to Sunol nine years ago. According to his website, they had moved to the small town so that they could raise their six children in an environment and school that they all loved.
After moving to Sunol, he said he and his wife immediately began getting more involved with the school once their twin boys started kindergarten in 2017.
“We have donated money and time,” he wrote on his website.
Since then, he said he and his wife have attended board meetings and town hall — even when it was only possible virtually during the pandemic — and have helped with the clean up efforts during the January 2023 floods that heavily impacted the school. He said his kids even helped pilot the return to classrooms during the pandemic.
“We have moved sand bags, shoveled mud, moved downed trees and hauled dumpsters of trash alongside all of you,” he said.
Jergensen was first involved in the school board when he was appointed by the district in 2021 to replace former trustee Denise Kent-Romo, who resigned one year into her second full term because of health issues — she served on the board from 2016 to 2021.
He then ran in 2022 for the full four-year seat, which he held up until last month.
The turning point in his tenure was when he and now-former trustee Linda Hurley — who was also recalled — approved a resolution that led to major controversy because it didn’t allow teachers to hang up any flags around campus outside of their classrooms other than the U.S. and state flag.
Many people in the community pointed out several other moments of what they deemed bad governance over the following months, which led to a group of community members forming a pro-recall campaign and leading the push to remove the two trustees.
Now that Jergensen has been ousted from his seat, he will be trying to reclaim a spot on the board under the pretense that he still wants what is best for the school and the community, even after all of the negative disputes he and Hurley had with current Board President Peter (Ted) Romo.
“I have tried to get to know Ted and Linda better over our limited interactions in the board meetings, and I give it my best to work as a team on various issues facing the school like flooding, budgets, contracts, architects, construction … and respect what each of them can bring to the table,” Jergensen said. “At times it has been quite spirited, but I remain resolved in my effort to see the good in people and find what unites us rather than what divides.”
He stated on his website that his future vision if he is elected would be to create a unified and welcoming community where people are also free to express their individual beliefs and where people don’t “pry into personal lives, personal identities, beliefs, lifestyles, or practices with judgment, gossip, or rumors.”
“I have voted for what I felt was best for the school and the kids, and I have sided with each of my colleagues on the board at different times,” Jergensen said. “I will continue to strive to work through conflict, toward a board and community that can work together.”
More information about Jergensen’s campaign is available at www.drjergensen.com.
