Two residents of northern Jefferson County are running for election to an at-large seat on Jefferson High School’s Board of Trustees—one with prior experience on the board who touts steady but open-minded fiscal conservatism, and one who would be a first-time board member and aims to ensure that Jefferson High is the clear choice for north-county families.
Jenny Genger, 42, of Montana City, is running against Travis Pierce, 51, of Jefferson City, for an at-large position currently held by Kyrie Russ, of Clancy, who did not seek reelection. Bryher Herak, the current Basin-area trustee, also did not seek reelection this year. Her seat will be filled by Lindsey Graham, who is running unopposed. Ballots were mailed out across the school’s district, which encompasses much of the county, on April 15, and must be returned to JHS Business Manager Lorie Carey’s office at the school by 8 p.m. on May 3, a Tuesday.
Trustees serve three-year terms. Going forward, the board faces challenges including hiring a new superintendent to replace outgoing longtime Superintendent Tim Norbeck, who will leave the school at the end of June after nine years, as well as implementing a $14.58 million facilities bond for major expansions, and serving a growing student population.
Genger and Pierce, in separate interviews with The Monitor, both said they have children at Jefferson High, and both praised a strong sense of community surrounding the school. Pierce has a freshman at Jefferson and two older children, each in their 20s, who graduated from Jefferson. Genger’s oldest child, Jake, is a senior, and her daughter Clara is a sophomore. She also has two children at Montana City School who plan to attend Jefferson in coming years.
Genger, originally from Boulder, Colorado, attended Boulder High there and noted that the school, like Jefferson, is the Panthers and its colors are purple and gold. Genger attended University of Montana in Missoula, where she met her husband, Noah, who is currently an Army aviator flying Chinook helicopters.
Genger has lived in Montana City for “about 15 years” and lived in East Helena before that. After 15 years as a stay-at-home mom and frequent volunteer—and through her husband’s two deployments—she started her “first real job since college” two years ago, she said, serving as a community outreach coordinator for the Options Clinic in Helena. Now, she said, she feels ready to increase her community involvement with a seat on the school board.
“I’ve always wanted to, just the timing never quite was right, just being so busy and [with my] husband gone,” she said. “If I’m going to do it, it has to be 120%.”
Pierce, Genger’s opponent, has lived in Jefferson City for “about 12 years.” He was born in Wisconsin but “spent the majority of my life in Great Falls,” Montana, he said. He’s worked “in management for 25 years,” specifically in sales and operation management. He previously worked as a manager for Farmer Brothers Coffee, a job that landed him and his family in Twin Falls, Idaho.
“They closed their branch in Twin Falls and I got on with a trucking company, and I moved up here with Old Dominion Freight Lines,” he said, noting that he’s now a dispatch manager at R & K Trucking in Helena.
Pierce previously served on the Clancy Parent Council from 2011–14, and on the JHS School Board from 2013–19, originally as an appointment to serve the final year of another trustee’s term, and then elected to two consecutive three-year terms.
“I had suffered a stroke in ’18. I ran in ’19 but I didn’t run that hard, I guess,” he said. “It was kind of time for a break, let somebody else do it.”
But with a freshman at the school now, “I’d like to get back on the board and serve again.”
Genger, too, is motivated by having her own children at the school, and more poised to attend in years to come.
“With kiddos who are still going to be going through the school, I just want it to be the best school it can possibly be,” she said. “I’m in the school, I see the things, I’ve gone to school board meetings, especially with COVID. I am invested, especially as a parent.”
Genger said she wasn’t ready to make statements about how, exactly, the school should operate or spend money until she had a more detailed, inside look at its budget, but that “I feel that we can be one of those excellent schools. I’ve never been OK with being mediocre. I’m not saying that Jefferson is, but I love Montana City’s motto of ‘Above the line.'”
Genger, praising Jefferson High, said that her family learned more about the school upon moving to Montana City, when some friends with students at Jefferson invited them to sports games. Learning more about the school and its community, she said, made it the clear choice for her kids. But “not everybody knows a family that goes there,” she said, particularly around Montana City, where many students look to Helena for high school.
Genger said she wants Jefferson to be the “one clear choice” for north-county families, and that “we could really be a consideration for people who are coming out of our feeder schools.”
Part of that, she said, is improving transportation, particularly over the Boulder Hill—something she said she believed is a deterrent to many families.
“That’s what people freak out about, is that hill,” she said, adding that “communication is another one. I think the communication between the school and the parents can just be a little bit better,” especially with event and schedule changes.
Extracurriculars and academics, which Genger praised as already strong, should see even more investment, she said: “We have one of the best theater programs, in my mind, and I would love to see more money go into that.”
Genger said that while she’d “love to see our [enrollment] numbers go up even more … I want healthy growth. I don’t want us to be spread too thin.” She said she also would like to see increased mental health services at the school, including more peer-to-peer mentoring and “adding a full time licensed mental health counselor.”
Pierce similarly praised Jefferson’s current performance while also looking toward the future.
“I think what we offer is a wonderful educational opportunity up there. I think there’s been a lot of changes because we have a lot more students,” he said. “Our administration out there is wonderful. Mr. Norbeck has done wonderful things. I helped bring Mr. Norbeck in. Hopefully we find somebody that has his energy to replace him.”
With millions in taxpayer-bond cash to spend on facilities expansion, Pierce said, “the board needs to be very thoughtful with that money to make sure they use it correctly.”
“I was a proponent of doing what we’re doing with the school now, as far as upgrading the school, and I want to make sure it’s done correctly and we get the most bang for our buck,” he said. “I’m very conservative fiscally and I think taxpayer money should be used responsibly. In my time on the board we went to the taxpayers sparingly and only when it was necessary.”
Pierce said he doesn’t have “an agenda” and that “I want to keep JHS what JHS has always been: A great little school that kids can go to, there’s a sense of community and family there, and they get a great education.”
“I didn’t go in last time, I don’t go in this time with any strong agenda … trying to change anything or trying to fix anything,” he said. “The last time I was on the board, you listen to what the administration and the teachers and the staff, what they want, and what the parents want.”
Pierce said that during his previous time on the board he served with people who were “more liberal or more conservative than I am,” and that he often voted differently on an issue than he initially thought he would once he learned more about it.
“I have strong opinions, but I don’t make a decision until I know all the facts.”
