About Jillian & Qualifications
Jillian Tozer is a local small business owner, professionally trained Community and Regional Planner, and a dedicated Nocatee mother with two daughters attending Valley Ridge Academy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning from Temple University and an associate’s degree in Culinary Arts from The Culinary Institute of America. Jillian is stepping up as a parent and community leader to bring common-sense leadership to the school board, rather than acting as a career politician looking to build a resume.
Jillian is invested in this community. She is the only candidate in the race who actually owns a home in District 4, meaning she pays the property taxes that fund the district. Jillian is the only candidate with children currently enrolled in the district’s public schools. Furthermore, she has been a registered voter in District 4 longer than her opponents and stands out as the only candidate without personal debt, which is crucial when managing a multi-million dollar school district budget.
To prove that her focus is strictly on serving local community and not for personal political or financial gain, Jillian has formally pledged to donate 50% of her School Board salary directly back to the local PTOs within District 4. This financial commitment highlights her dedication to public service and ensures that a significant portion of her salary goes right back into supporting classrooms, teachers, and parent-led organizations that directly benefit the children.
Managing Growth & Infrastructure
Jillian plans to leverage her professional background in Community and Regional Planning to implement proactive, data-driven infrastructure modeling to solve capacity and rezoning issues fairly. She believes the district must stop wastefully building $67 million new facilities while neighboring schools sit under capacity due to poor demographic planning. Her solution focuses on smart, common-sense rezoning that maximizes the use of existing facilities and handles explosive population growth without diluting the educational excellence of the community.
Rooted in her professional planning background, Jillian believes that major district changes should never be dictated blindly from the dais without community input. If faced with critical transitions, she will rely on transparent demographic modeling, over-communicate with impacted staff and families early in the process, and hold robust community town halls. Her ultimate goal is to build genuine community consensus to ensure stability for both students and educators during any major infrastructure shift.
Budget, Finances & Taxes
Jillian is committed to a “smart money, not just more money” financial philosophy that focuses heavily on maximizing the tax dollars the district already receives. By utilizing data-driven modeling to solve overcrowding and avoiding the construction of expensive new schools when neighboring facilities are under capacity, the district can save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars using existing revenue. Additionally, she will rigorously audit district operations to identify efficiencies, cut wasteful spending at the top, and demand strict accountability for unregulated voucher programs that drain public funds.
As a local homeowner in the district, Jillian completely understands the frustration that families feel when opening a significantly higher tax bill. While maintaining the district’s top academic rating requires stable funding, she believes the key to relief is smarter spending and strict accountability rather than continually asking for more taxes. Her approach guarantees that current taxpayer funds are maximized and directed exactly where they belong, which is directly toward supporting students and elite educators in the classroom.
Supporting Teachers & The Classroom
To stop the severe “brain drain” that recently caused St. Johns County to lose over 60 highly qualified teachers to neighboring areas, Jillian will fight to eliminate wasteful overhead spending so the district can offer competitive, living wages. With the explosive cost of living in the county, current starting salaries are not competitive enough for professional educators to put down roots. By adjusting compensation using existing revenue and prioritizing teacher retention, she aims to keep top-tier talent in local classrooms and maintain the district’s top-ranked status.
Improving the classroom dynamic goes beyond just competitive pay; it requires treating educators like the highly trained professionals they are by trusting their judgment regarding curriculum and what is developmentally appropriate. Jillian is fully committed to keeping distracting national political culture wars and classroom activism completely out of public schools so teachers can focus entirely on academics. She also supports maintaining manageable class sizes and ensuring educators have the specific classroom resources and order needed to deliver individualized attention to every student.
Jillian believes that safe and productive learning environments require a comprehensive approach that includes secure infrastructure, trained safety personnel, and consistent disciplinary policies across all schools. She stands firmly behind empowering teachers and administrators to maintain order, ensuring that disruptive behavior does not constantly interrupt the education of other students. Furthermore, she advocates for protecting categorical funding for counselors and mental health professionals to identify and address the root causes of behavioral issues early, preventing safety concerns before they escalate.
School Choice & Vouchers
Jillian’s stance is clear: public money requires a public quality guarantee. She believes it is fiscally irresponsible to hold traditional public schools to strict testing, transparency, and accountability standards while handing millions of taxpayer dollars to private institutions that operate with zero oversight. Any private or home school entity accepting public voucher dollars must be held to the exact same rigorous Department of Education accreditation, testing, and financial reporting standards as public schools
Jillian is a fierce defender of traditional public schools and strongly opposes efforts like charter co-locations, which strip resources, space, and funding from district-run schools while increasing overhead costs. To protect the district, she will focus on fiercely promoting, protecting, and expanding elite academic, arts, and advanced programs like AP and IB courses to keep local schools nationally competitive. She will also use her platform to mobilize parents and staff against state overreach, while loudly advocating in Tallahassee for tracking and accountability measures to protect local public education funds.
Career & Technical Education (CTE)
Jillian believes that CTE programs are absolutely essential to a well-rounded public education system because a four-year university is not the only path to success. Having earned a technical associate’s degree in culinary arts herself, she knows firsthand that skilled trades provide students with direct, debt-free pathways to highly lucrative, essential careers. She insists that skilled trades and workforce pathways must be prioritized equally with college prep, and she will ensure guidance departments present technical fields as premier, first-choice options rather than just alternatives.
To strengthen the pipeline into high-demand industries like commercial construction, HVAC, welding, and engineering, Jillian supports introducing hands-on career exploration much earlier in middle school electives. She advocates for expanding dual-enrollment programs and articulation agreements with First Coast Technical College so high school students can graduate with immediate employability and industry certifications. Additionally, she plans to build active public-private partnerships, regular roundtable planning sessions, and apprenticeship opportunities with local contractors and trade associations to align school curricula directly with local workforce demands.