Jennifer Campbell Mock wants to help balance the needs of Bulloch County’s children for quality education with taxpayers’ desire for efficiency and value by serving on the Board of Education. She is one of two candidates for the District 3 seat.
Mock and Suzanne Hallman are vying for the seat set to be vacated at year’s end by current member Stuart Tedders, Ph.D., who did not seek re-election. Early voting has now ended, and precinct polls open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday. Like other school board seats, it’s nonpartisan. So BOE District 3 resident voters will see it on their nonpartisan ballot, which accompanies both the Democratic and Republican ballots.
Owner and attorney of The Mock Law Firm, Jennifer C. Mock focuses especially on real estate law, but also handles wills and probates, divorce and juvenile cases. Daughter of Hadley and Beverly Campbell, she is a native of Bulloch County. After graduating from Statesboro High School, Mock attained a Bachelor of Business Administration at Georgia Southern and went on to the University of Georgia School of Law, receiving her law degree in 2007.
She notes that a number of her friends and family members are educators.
“My mom has been a teacher for almost 50 years, so education has always been incredibly important in my family and to me,” Mock said. “I do work, as I said, a lot with juveniles in the juvenile courts here in this circuit, and I think that education is one of the most important things, the greatest equalizer, that we have in society, and I think it is one of the most important things for a community to make sure that educational resources are there for everybody.”
She and her husband, Jared, have three daughters, all students at Bulloch Academy. One is in 12th grade and will be graduating from high school next week. The younger two have been in fifth grade and third grade this year.
Bulloch Academy is the largest private school in Bulloch County, but it is not part of the public school system the Bulloch County Board of Education oversees. Mock said she wouldn’t mind her children going to public school, but her mother teaches at Bulloch Academy, so Mock and her husband started their daughters to school there, and they liked it and have remained.
In fact, Beverly Campbell taught in the public school district for years before going to work for Bulloch Academy, where she teaches prekindergarten and is now in the 48th year of her teaching career.
“I think that no matter whether you have kids or you don’t have kids, whether your kids are homeschooled or private school or public school, public education is immensely important to every member of the community,” Mock said.
Growth and taxes
Asked if there’s one issue or concern that is important to her, she said she didn’t know if there is one that is more important than others.
“I do know that you have the projected growth of our county and community over the next five to 10 years that needs to be managed well, and education isn’t cheap, and it’s not unaffected by inflation, either,” Mock said. “So finding ways to ensure that all our children can be well educated while ensuring that the taxpayers aren’t overloaded is going to be a big challenge, and I think that is the big issue that’s going to be facing the Board of Education in the coming years.”
Asked specifically about taxes, she said the board needs to find a balance.
“I don’t pretend that it’s not expensive to educate kids and to provide what they need, but you just have to balance that with the taxpayers, and everything is a balance with that,” Mock said. “You’ve got to balance it and ensure that you find, or look at least, for places to cut or be more efficient, make sure you get rid of redundancies before you start adding new taxes.”
Mock is active in the Exchange Club of Statesboro and will be its president beginning this July. Other local service and professional organizations she is involved in include the Professional Women of Statesboro and the Bulloch County Bar Association.