PTA president appointed to fill seat on Ocean View School District board
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Jennifer Rank humbly first introduced herself as “just a lady” on Monday, as the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees held a special meeting to conduct interviews for an open trustee position.
She wasn’t sure she should apply for the position, but got some encouragement from her best friend.
The PTA president at Harbour View Elementary was ultimately selected among four candidates to fill the position, and she was sworn in at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“An opportunity just presented itself this year,” Rank said in an interview with the Daily Pilot. “While it wasn’t on my immediate radar, I was interested. Upon further reflection of the impact I’ve had the last six-plus years as a PTA president, hospitality chair, being in the rooms working with the teachers and the staff and the district, it kind of became an easy decision to lean into it. [I] have that opportunity to make a bigger impact in the other schools and kind of showcase what I’m most passionate about, which is the students and the teachers in our district.”
Rank fills the position opened when Jack Souders resigned from the Ocean View School District board, effective June 10. Souders, who had been serving since 2014, said he moved outside of the district.
The position is up for election in November. Trustee Morgan Westmoreland asked Rank if she planned to run.
“I think so,” Rank responded. “I believe so. I mean, that’s four people [the other trustees] that like me.”
In response to another question from Westmoreland, she added that she did not have larger political aspirations.
“God, no,” Rank said. “Absolutely not. Here’s the thing — I like to sit and drink with my girlfriends and talk about and laugh about things, or roll our eyes. I, in no way, want to be sitting on a city council or assembly or any of that. No, I’ll leave that to the people who get paid far more than me who did very well on standardized tests. That is not me.”
Rank, 47, is a Pacifica High graduate and lives in Huntington Beach. She and her husband Adam have two children in the district, a son who will be in third grade at Harbour View and a daughter who is going into sixth grade at Mesa View Middle School. Her husband Adam is a fantasy football analyst for NFL Network.
She is also president of the OVSD Presidents’ Roundtable, a monthly meeting with district officials and parent-teacher representatives from other schools in the district.
“My biggest thing is like, let’s not reinvent the wheel,” Rank said. “If Harbour View is doing something that Village View likes, I’m open. Here’s all of the stuff I’ve done. That happened with Multicultural Night. I went to go see it at Golden View, and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re doing this.’ They sent me all of their information, and then two other schools saw it and wanted to do it too, so I sent all of that information to them too.”
Board President Gina Clayton-Tarvin made the motion to appoint Rank to the seat, seconded by Trustee Keri Gorsage. It passed unanimously.
“I identify with you in a lot of ways,” Westmoreland told Rank. “I stood here and said, ‘I’m just a mom.’ Not to devalue it, it actually is a superpower. You’re a mom, you have kids in the classroom. I feel your passion and I think that you would be a great asset to this board.”
David Clifford, Jaclyn Kimble and Trung Ta were the three other candidates who interviewed for the position during Monday’s special meeting. Clifford previously ran for the board in 2024, finishing third in a two-seat race.
