Kristy Venne
Elections and appointments
Education
Personal
Contact
Kristy Venne ran for election for an at-large seat of the Dublin City Schools Board of Education in Ohio. She lost in the general election on November 4, 2025.
Venne completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Kristy Venne was born in Columbus, Ohio. She earned a high school diploma from Olentangy High School and a graduate degree from The Ohio State University. Her career experience includes working as an educator and business owner.[1]
Elections
2025
See also: Dublin City Schools, Ohio, elections (2025)
General election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Endorsements
Venne received the following endorsements.
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kristy Venne completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Venne's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Expand all | Collapse all
I am a lifelong educator, community connector, and advocate for student success. My purpose has always been to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to thrive - in the classroom and beyond. I bring three unique perspectives to this role:
Educator: I've spent nearly two decades in education, first as a classroom teacher and later as a building and district administrator. I hold two education degrees and earned my principal and superintendent licenses from OSU. In 2018, I was honored to open and serve as the first principal of Emerald Campus, Dublin’s innovative college and career readiness hub. I then led community engagement for DCS, co-authored the strategic plan, and played a key role in passing the last levy.
Entrepreneur: As CEO of an education consulting company, I partner with schools, higher education, and businesses to create “classroom-to-career” pathways. This work gives me insight into workforce needs and how to prepare students for a rapidly changing world.
Parent: My husband David and I have two teens with diverse strengths and needs currently in Dublin City Schools. Like many parents, we want our kids to be safe, challenged, and supported.
I am running for the Board of Education to put students first, empower educators, and strengthen community trust. My campaign team is made of student interns and is non-partisan. Dublin is already a strong district - I am committed to helping us lead the way in preparing every student for a bright future. - 1. Future Ready Students
We are living in a time of unprecedented change - technologically, environmentally, and socially. Students need not just academic knowledge, but also adaptability, agency, and real-world skills. Yet the traditional structures of school haven’t fully caught up. Dublin has everything it needs to lead the way in reimagining what education can look like, and I’m ready to help shape that future.
- 2. Build Trust through Transparency
Building trust is essential to strong schools and requires collaboration, open two-way communication, and intentionally growing relationships over time. We must be as transparent as possible about issues such as school funding and redistricting, while working in partnership with our community to identify innovative approaches to continue supporting our schools.
- 3. Organizational Health
Our learning community's ability to function effectively and sustainably over time is dependent upon aligning our people, processes, and culture. That includes a shared vision, strong leadership, effective communication, and a commitment to staff well-being and growth. Investing in our organization's health directly benefits our students and has a ripple effect on our community.
1. Improve family partnership and communication
2. Extend student agency and experiential learning
3. Support educator innovation and flexibility
I’d make sure any policy choices are driven by data, community feedback, and adherence to our mission of preparing all students for success. Adding more policies does not necessarily improve outcomes and can use precious additional resources to monitor and ensure compliance. Better policies - and practices - do improve student outcomes. The school board member's first responsibility is to lead with intention, ensuring each decision advances student success, adheres to community values, and preserves long-term district well-being. This involves making policy, adopting a budget, selecting and assessing the superintendent and treasurer, and keeping an eye on mission focus for the district. It entails being an accessible, active listener - connecting community perspective with district leadership, building transparency, credibility, and accountability.
My constituents are all students, parents and guardians, teachers, staff, and taxpayers of the Dublin City Schools community. However, I feel my main duty is to be accountable to students first - so each learner feels seen, supported, and ready for life after graduation. Everyone who lives in our school district has a vested interest in the way we teach our young people, and their opinions count.
By advocating for needed policies and practices, listening with humility, and ensuring resources are allocated to meet both student and systemic needs. That means expanding access to academic support, career pathways, and enrichment; increasing student agency; and supporting professional development that empowers educators to meet the needs of all learners.
I will continue to serve as a connector - something I did in my former district leadership roles from 2015-2024. I’ve already built strong relationships with the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Visit Dublin, City Council, nonprofits, businesses, and higher education partners. I will also prioritize outreach to underrepresented families and those who may not traditionally engage with the district, through intentional presence and partnership-building.
Good teaching is grounded in relationships, rigor, and relevance. It meets students where they are and helps them grow through engaging instruction, high expectations, and real-world connections. While traditional evaluations offer some valuable insight, we must also listen to student feedback, observe engagement, and celebrate learning and innovation. I will champion professional learning that fosters collaboration, inquiry, agency, and teacher leadership.
We need to be explicit and upfront about where school funding comes from, its history of dysfunction in Ohio, and what’s at risk. Community education, relationship-building, and honest conversation would be a top priority of mine. These efforts must happen between levy cycles, not just when we are on the ballot. I am an advocate for exploring innovative funding approaches with the brightest financial minds in our community and investigating potential public-private collaborations that are aligned with our educational mission.
Safety is the first priority of schools; students who are not safe cannot learn. It’s not physical safety alone - it’s psychological and emotional too. Policies must balance protection with welcoming, inclusive, connected school cultures. Prevention in relationships, mental health support, and early intervention is as crucial as having a well-practiced response for emergencies and strong partnerships with local law enforcement.
The District has recently increased social workers through an innovative internal pathway program for classroom teachers to get certified and placed in schools. This is an amazing step in the right direction! In addition, we have to show that we value the well-being of all staff and students as a cornerstone of learning and success through our day-to-day practices and decisions. The District uses survey tools to identify areas of focus for student well-being and sets an annual goal. I see an opportunity to shift efforts to healthy behaviors around anxiety that many students struggle with. This can be achieved by modeling a balanced approach to work/life integration, using failure as a tool for learning, and managing stress in a healthy way. In addition, embedding executive functioning strategies for students in all classes could significantly impact their ability to better manage their workload and use action as an antidote to anxiety.
Dublin Educators' Association Political Action Committee
A place where students feel safe, challenged, and known. Where relationships run deep, learning is intentional, and each student gains a sense for their future. A space that combines academic challenge with curiosity, personal and real-world significance, and emotional well-being because successful students are more than just a test score.
Listening with respect to all perspectives and being present are a starting point. As a parent of two current students in the district, I am fortunate to have a solid foundation of understanding and relationships already established. I will make it a priority to be at school events, meetings, and family forums - not only to speak, but to listen. And I will help create systems that bring parents from all neighborhoods into decision-making rooms. Trust builds when families feel their worries are heard and they can be part of the solution.
We need to hire with purpose and retain with support. This involves cultivating pipelines with nearby universities, implementing inclusive and value-driven hiring processes, offering competitive compensation, and creating an environment where staff are treated with respect, heard, and empowered. A positive working relationship with both the teacher and support staff unions is also key. Word of mouth is strong - when employees are proud to be here, they are our greatest recruitment tool.
I would support efforts to expand quality experiential learning opportunities, especially at the secondary level to better align with the evolving workforce. This includes career-connected learning, intentionally embedded durable skills, entrepreneurship, internships, and apprenticeships. We need to continue to broaden the definition of success and ensure every student graduates with purpose and a plan, confident to take on their future.
As generative AI becomes part of everyday life, one of our greatest responsibilities is to ensure students don’t lose the ability to think critically, explore independently, and develop their own ideas. At the same time, we must equip them to navigate and shape the technology of their era - not just as consumers, but as empowered creators. While much of this can (and should) be taught without a device in hand, authentic learning also requires experimentation. Teaching students how AI works and how to leverage it can open the door to personalized learning, serve as a collaborator to solve problems, and build agency in this rapidly evolving digital world. Schools must keep students safe and teach responsible use.
When speaking with a man from my community, he was adamant that he would not vote for me, even though he only knew one thing about me; I support teachers.
He was angry, and rightfully so. Through conversation, I learned that he had a family member who had struggled academically for many years in a nearby district (not the one I am running for board in). He had retired early just to tutor and support this young person to pass high school.
And along the way, he met nothing but challenge. The student, strong-willed and possessing great potential, did not fit the traditional model of school. They did not "play school" well. They did excel in areas that required problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and independence - all areas the workforce is in search of. In fact, the student completed a near-impossible project most would not have been able to do and almost didn't get credit because of a technicality. This young person felt like a failure and so did the man I spoke with.
So the man was angry at the entire education system and took it out on me because I support teachers. I completely understand - I have seen many students who do not fit in our industrial model, one-size-fits-all system. I have built programs to help students personalize their learning, discover their purpose and apply their strengths.
At the end of the conversation, he kindly said he was going to vote for me, that I had truly listened and heard his concerns. This conversation was so powerful - he was willing to change his mind - not an easy thing to do. I appreciate his honest candor and could hear beyond the anger. We all have past hurts and at times we are the most passionate about initiatives because we care deeply.
As a community, it is my belief that there is more that we agree on than disagree on. We all want our children to be safe, receive the best education possible, and be prepared for their future with the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to be independent, happy, and to flourish. I look forward to many more powerful conversations! 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
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 26, 2025
