EDUCATION: Jen Dohner will join MBUSD school board

by Mark McDermott 

When Jen Dohner made the decision to run for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District’s Board of Education, she braced for a tough campaign. Two years ago, the school board race was contentious, with six candidates running for three seats. 

But a funny thing happened on the way to Election Day. Two seats were open, and two people ran —  Dohner, and school board President Cathey Graves. With no opposition, their names weren’t even placed on the ballot. Dohner won election and Graves reelection. 

Dohner was primed for a campaign that never happened. 

“The only silver lining would have been that this was my daughter’s first election to vote in, so she could have voted for me,” Dohner said. “But that’s okay. I’ll forgo that in order not to run a campaign, sure.” 

Dohner is new to elected office but a familiar figure within the school district and the larger community. She served on the Measure MB committee, handling communications, and then served on Superintendent John Bowe’s parcel tax advisory committee. She likewise served on a committee charged with the allocation of Prop. 28 Arts and Music in Schools funds. Dohner was also a City of Manhattan Beach Cultural Arts commissioner, a position she stepped down from in order to serve as a board trustee. 

Dohner, and her husband, Jay, came to Manhattan Beach 25 years ago in large part because of the schools. She majored in biology at UCLA and worked in the pharmaceutical industry, then later obtained her MBA from USC. 

“We decided, ‘You know, this is such a great place to live and work. It would be a great place to raise our kids here, too,’” Dohner recalled. “And that in no small part is due to the great school system here. So it’s given a lot to us. It’s nice to be able to give something back.”

Both of her daughters are now in high school, so the timing was right. 

“For me, with my kids as a sophomore and senior at Mira Costa, it seemed like the time to serve would be now or never,” she said. “Because I think it’s good to have at least a majority of people who are parents of students in these [school board] roles. It keeps them more connected and understanding of what is going on.” 

Dohner will be sworn in at the board’s December 18 meeting. Dohner said she will arrive at the dais with an openness to better learn the intricacies of the district, its needs, and her role as a school board member. But she also has a few baseline priorities. 

“We all know that the community wants to make sure that every student is safe. That is obviously essential,” she said. “The community also wants to know that funding is being spent and managed responsibly. That is also essential. Those are the two baselines that the community cares about a lot. But also, as a parent whose two children have gone through the school system, I think it’s important to try to create ways for every single student in our system to thrive, regardless of what obstacles may stand in their way. And finally, I think it’s important to have the right level and conduits of communication with our community, so they understand what we are doing.” 

“So it’s all a tall order, but all of those things are already part of the stated board goals. I think that as a person who is sort of analytical, and sort of creative, I’ll have an interesting perspective to bring to solutions for these things.” 

Dohner’s business background should be helpful in helping her with her fiduciary duties as a trustee on a board that oversees the district’s $90 million annual budget. But she also said her time in the corporate world also helped her think analytically in a way she hopes will be useful as a board member. One area she would like to dig into is enrollment, which has stabilized the last two years but still far below pre-pandemic levels, impacting state funding MBUSD receives. 

“From my time in the pharmaceutical sector, I think in statistics a lot,” Dohner said. “So I want to understand what is causing people to come to us? What’s causing people to leave? How do people take in the information that the district disseminates? What channels are underutilized? What’s over-utilized, or where are people feeling flooded? Where are they feeling like they’re in an information desert? All of those things are important to the schools partnering well with the city and the community.” 

Dohner is also well acquainted with her fellow board trustees, a fact that also made the decision to run more attractive. Only board member Bruce Greenberg, who was appointed after Jason Boxer’s resignation two years ago, will be stepping down. Greenberg’s kids are close to graduation age and he chose not to run for election. 

“It’s a really good group of people,” Dohner said. “I got to know them over the course of the campaign cycle two years ago, when there was a really stark difference between the two sets of candidates. I really have a lot of respect for those board members who came on at that time, because it was a really contentious election, and they really upheld what is important. They’ve really kept their sights on what keeps the district healthy, what is good for the students, the families, and the staff, and what will keep the district going and give it longevity. I really appreciate that, and I want to help preserve that if I can.”