The Moreno Valley Unified School District Board of Education last week voted to appoint Justin Jackson to the Trustee Area 3 seat vacated last month by longtime board member Cleveland “CJ” Johnson. Trustee Johanna Leiva abstained.
“I am sure that I speak for the entire board when we congratulate Mr. Justin Jackson and welcome him as a provisional appointee to the governing board of the Moreno Valley Unified School District,” Board President Brandy Clark said at the special February 25 meeting. “I would like to thank each of the other candidates for their participation.”
Jackson currently serves as the press secretary for the BlueGreen Alliance and was previously an associate press secretary for the Sierra Club.
Prior to his communications work, he worked in the public sector as a field director for Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, a project coordinator assistant for the city of Los Angeles and a caseworker in the U.S. House of Representatives, experience he said would allow him to better advocate for the district.
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“As a board member, I’ll be able to strongly advocate at each level of government for resources for MVUSD and make sure that our students, our staff and our faculty have those resources here,” he said. “And I’m more than happy to advocate alongside you all in Sacramento and Washington, DC, if given the opportunity.”
Jackson said the opportunity to be part of the board was about more than just giving back to a school district that set him up for success, it was about being able to set up future generations of MVUSD students for even greater success.
“Standing here in front of you all at this podium, it truly is the promise of our school district,” he said. “I want to make sure that those opportunities are not only still robust for our students, but that we grow those opportunities.”
Jackson, who said he plans to run for a full term in November, is set to be sworn in at the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting set for March 10.
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