Former Marine from Edgewater enters District 7 Board of Education race for Anne Arundel County

Jan. 1—By Brian Jeffries — bjeffries@baltsun.com

PUBLISHED:January 1, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.| UPDATED:January 1, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

An Edgewater resident and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, filed earlier this month to run next year for the District 7 seat on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.

Jeremy York, who is originally from southern California and works for an education technology company, will seek the seat held by Michelle Corkadel, who has not yet announced whether she is running for reelection.

District 7 includes the Crofton High School, Southern High School and South River High School clusters.

York, 37, moved to Anne Arundel County 11 years ago with his wife so their children could attend a good public school system, he said. After the pandemic, when he sat at home watching Board of Education meetings, York said he became fascinated with how many things are affected by how the board votes.

"You just realize how much influence the school board has over lives of the children and the parents and the teachers," he said. "It's a lot of families affected, whether it be schedules or zoning or redistricting, so many key decisions."

York said that growing up as one of seven children and receiving food from a food pantry and churches gave him a keen understanding of the plight of lower-income households.

He also grew up battling an undiagnosed learning disability, causing him to barely graduate high school. He persevered, however, and after serving for five years as a linguist in the Marine Corps graduated with honors from George Washington University and earned his master's in business administration.

York has two daughters, ages 10 and 5. The older daughter attended Central Elementary School for five years before being diagnosed with a learning disability, which forced her to attend private school.

"I'm finally at a place in my career where I could put my daughter in the best position to help her succeed," he said. "Even still, I believe Anne Arundel County Public Schools is a good place and I want to help it be a better place."

York said one of his priorities if he were to be elected would be to fight for better wages for teachers, noting that two of his brothers are teachers.

"There is nothing in the public education system more important than high-quality educators," he said. "I really hope our county continues to support them and attract the best ones."

Another priority is college and career readiness for students in line with the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, a massive education reform initiative that will inject billions into state school systems over the next decade.

"I really want to make sure that programs for career readiness are up to date with shifting demands," York said. "Understanding what skills companies are looking for is something that I do in my day job and it's important to prepare students for that. They need to train for where certain industries are going rather than where they're at today."

He's also interested in investing more in students' mental health.

Corkadel has served on the board since August 2018. She served as the Policy Committee chair from February to December 2019, school board vice president from July to December 2019, and board president from December 2019 to December 2020.

Recently, the board elected Robert Silkworth, representative of District 2, as president. The new vice president is Corine Frank, representative of District 3. Former president Joanna Bach Tobin has announced she will run again to represent District 6.

All seven board seats are up for election on Nov. 5, 2024.

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