Meet a Waukee Candidate: Jerry Ripperger

On Sept. 13, Waukee area voters will decide who should serve on the Waukee school board.

There are three seats up for grabs in the election. Susan Bunz, Larry Lyon and Jerry Ripperger are all in the race to keep their seats on the board, while newcomers Todd Dohrmann, Kurt Hiatt and Rob Thelen hope to replace them.

Today on Waukee Patch we profile the first of the six candidates running for the Waukee school board.

Name: Jerry Ripperger

Age: 46

Occupation: Director of consulting, Principal Financial Group

Address: 15415 Airline Ave., Urbandale

E-mail: panther1987@msn.com

Jerry Ripperger will be the first person to tell you that serving on the Waukee school board has never felt like a job or a duty.

“There was no one issue that made me run for the board,” says the current Waukee school board president.” I just felt a call to serve and be involved. I still feel very strongly about it.”

Two terms and six years later, Ripperger is still working to ensure that all students in Waukee Schools get a great education. His children — daughters, Megan, 18 and Sarah, 15 — have made their way through the district that now boasts almost 7,000 students. Sarah is a sophomore at Waukee High School.

Ripperger says some of the biggest issues board members will face in the next few years will be whether or not Waukee needs two high schools (he's for it) and whether or not to continue using standards-based reporting (he's also for that.)

He acknowledges that these conversations can get emotional, but that they need to be discussed.

Whatever the results of the election, Ripperger says his time in the Waukee district has been well spent.

“I’m to the point that after my next term, I will have graduated two kids from Waukee,” he said. “I will have no other vested interest than that we do the right thing by the district."