Jessica Laurent Clark, who ran a grassroots campaign as an independent, is one of two new Rockwood school board candidates elected Tuesday.
“That’s what has made this win so amazing,” Clark told the St. Louis Record. “My team included parents and community members knocking on doors, putting out signs, opening up their homes and churches for me to speak.”
Clark had no consultants, campaign managers, or big donors.
“It was just people spreading the word,” she said. “The response has been great. We have of course seen some negative emotion towards it and that's okay. Not everybody is going to be happy but once we get in and the work begins to happen, I think that will change.”
Clark’s messaging on the campaign trail was to get back on track with academics and to move the school district away from being overly fascinated with race.
“Parents have valid concerns and as we go forward to find a solution, we have to start communicating with each other and stop listening just to prove somebody wrong or prove ourselves right,” she said. “We have to start listening to really find common ground and understanding.”
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Rockwood School District became a center of controversy involving the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools nationwide. Time Magazine even featured Rockwood School District’s director of student services Terry Harris in a July 21, 2021, article titled, ‘Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman: Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History,’ in which Harris was labeled “the most racist guy towards white people you’ll ever meet.”
Clark, who will be sworn in this week at a board meeting, said she has already met with the interim superintendent Mark Miles who will soon be replaced by Dr. Curtis Cain.
“I’ll get some training and then hit the ground running,” she said. “My goal is to start building a relationship with the existing board. Before you start coming in and making demands, you have to build trust. You have to build that relationship. So, that will be the first and only thing that I focus on going in.”
Izzy Imig also was elected to the board, according to media reports.