Father of SHS freshman runs for high school district board position

As students created a pile of backpacks next to the cafeteria right after the lunch bell, a few of the backpacks stood out with their red and yellow “Vote for Ron Jones” pins. Freshman Sofia Jones and her friends have all pinned buttons on their backpacks to support her father’s LGSUHSD School Board campaign.

The campaign has been a family effort: Even Jones’ elder daughter and SHS Class of 2015 Alumna, Tia, who is at UC Santa Barbara, has been supporting her father from the sidelines.

“I’m really excited to see how far he can go,” Tia said. “Ever since we moved here, he has always been giving his all to improving our education and I know he’d be amazing as a board member.”

Jones is running against incumbents Katherine Tseng and Rosemary Rossi, and investment banker Kyle Park for two open positions.

Out of these four candidates for the school board position Jones is only one with a child now at SHS. After Tia graduated and Sofia entered high school, Jones decided this was the ideal time to hold a position in office. He believes that one of the major advantages he will bring to office is his connection to the school through his daughters.

“It’s different, really, having a kid in high school,” said Jones. “I think that’s a plus to bring that view.”

Jones said his decision to run for the position seemed like a natural progression after he started volunteering 10 years ago on traffic duty at Foothill Elementary. From then on, he has always been connected to the Saratoga community.

When SUSD superintendent Lane Weiss was looking for a member for a math committee, which supervised a transition in the math department in 2006, Jones stepped up immediately. He has since also served on the School Site Council, which overviews interactions between students and the school administration, and oversighted the Measure A and Measure B Committee, which increased taxes to assist the county.

After over 10 years of being in touch with the inner workings of the district, Jones is now putting his emphasis on the students. He mentioned that he wants to “make sure that we get as much for the kids as we can: the most electives and the best teachers, but at the same time keep money in reserve so that if things do get bad, we'll still be stable.”

He also has 20 years worth of work experience at a consulting company, which he says will help him monitor the financial aspects of the district.

Ever since he started campaigning three months ago, he has been raising money by contacting parents from over the last 10 years. Because it is his first time running for a public position, he has had to figure out how he will prepare by considering how much of what to buy, like yard signs, campaign buttons and cards.

Jones said his main goal is to target Los Gatos communities, since he knows that he is more well known in the Saratoga area.

He hopes his efforts will pay off and win him the local election on Nov. 8. “I don't think there's anything broken. I'm no big crusader saying I want to fix everything,” Jones said. “But does that mean there's not a lot of things we can do? Absolutely not.”