Jessica Kopp

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Jessica Kopp

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

Saint Paul Board of Education At-large

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Education

Bachelor's

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Graduate

University of St. Thomas

Jessica Kopp was an at-large member of the Saint Paul Board of Education in Minnesota. She assumed office on January 6, 2020. She left office on December 31, 2023.

Kopp ran for election for an at-large seat of the Saint Paul Board of Education in Minnesota. She won in the general election on November 5, 2019.

Kopp completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Kopp received her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 1997 and her graduate degree from the University of St. Thomas in 2000.

Elections

2019

See also: Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota, elections (2019)

General election

General election for Saint Paul Board of Education At-large (4 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Saint Paul Board of Education At-large on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Steve Marchese (Nonpartisan)	17.1	23,845
✔		Zuki Ellis (Nonpartisan)	17.0	23,753
✔		Jessica Kopp (Nonpartisan)	14.3	20,021
✔	Submit photo	Chauntyll Allen (Nonpartisan)	13.8	19,209
	Submit photo	Charlie Castro (Nonpartisan)	8.6	11,950
		Jennifer McPherson (Nonpartisan)	7.6	10,557
		Omar Syed (Nonpartisan)	7.0	9,833
		Tiffany Fearing (Nonpartisan)	5.7	8,024
	Submit photo	Ryan Williams (Nonpartisan)	5.0	6,920
	Submit photo	Elijah Norris-Holliday (Nonpartisan)	3.1	4,325
		Other/Write-in votes	0.8	1,147

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 139,584
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

A list of Kopp's endorsements may be found here.

Campaign themes

2019

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jessica Kopp completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kopp's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a former middle and high school English teacher who put myself through undergraduate and graduate school by coaching soccer, mentoring high school students, leading summer recreation programs, and working as an English department secretary and educational assistant. My first introduction to SPPS was ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) when my daughter was four months old. Five years later I was a kindergarten parent and soon after a school volunteer, member and leader in the PTA. I learned how to organize small and large events, how to run (and not run) meetings, how to build a budget, and how to be flexible and try new things. And when our school needed something more, I organized and facilitated a parent- led working group which brought together families, educators, community partners, and district professionals to build relationships and solve problems. Together, we did a lot of awesome things including charting our own path to become a full-service community school and laying the foundation for an ambitious, equity and student-centered school program redesign. My love and work for my school community led to a deeper commitment to my neighborhood. I am pleased to serve on several community coalitions and committees where I've actively supported, organized, and led several projects centered on building relationships between schools and community. I've been twice awarded by the City of St. Paul for this work and it's work I love to do. You can learn more about me and the work I hope to do on behalf of St. Paul schools here: http://www.jessica4stpaulschools.com/home

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Building a welcoming, responsive, and accessible district and board
• Development of effective, sustainable community/city/county partnerships
• Commitment to support diversity and innovation in teaching and learning

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am deeply interested in education, public health, and housing policy - specifically, how we build collaborative partnerships across departments and agencies to be more efficient in our use of resources and more effective providing compassionate supports and services to our communities.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

The primary jobs of a school member are to hire and evaluate the superintendent, provide budget oversight, and direct and review policy.

How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?

I would love to see school-community collaborative teams built for every SPPS program that includes members of the school community (educators, principals, staff, families, students), local district councils, city councilmembers, county commissioners, city parks and recreation, and other neighborhood leaders and organizations for the purpose of identifying both assets and needs of the school and surrounding community. From here, these teams would develop shared solutions and practice shared investment and seek to build a strong collective foundation so that the school and community benefit from the work. After committing to at least one meeting each year, teams will establish a schedule for meeting and communicating throughout the year to maintain the relationship and respond to concerns and opportunities in a timely fashion. I've organized and led this type of team and it allowed us to solve problems ranging from pedestrian safety to funding public art projects to identifying enrichment and support opportunities for students and families.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2019 Elections

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