Public Education Matters

Independence Middle School teacher Jill Wagner was making plans for the new school year when Gov. DeWine signed House Bill 99, gutting the training requirements for school staff to carry guns, and Wagner knew she'd had enough. She made the difficult decision to retire, ending a career she loved. She's certainly not alone. 

• Jill Wagner, retired English teacher
  • Jill Wagner, M.Ed. taught English for nearly 39 years in three public school districts in Ohio: Bedford City Schools, Brunswick City Schools, and Independence Local Schools. Her duties included full-time teaching and advising many co-curricular clubs throughout her successful career, and especially rewarding to her was initiating a competitive creative-writing team 8 years ago at Independence High School. Too, coaching numerous Power of the Pen teams and Scripps spelling bee participants has been equally successful throughout the years.
  • Jill is a nationally-recognized educator, earning the Portraits of Awesome award from Ted Dintersmith and “What School Could Be” in 2021, and she earned the 2017 Ohio Middle Level Association (OMLA) Regional Award for best middle-level practice.
  • Jill served as the Northeast Ohio Education Association’s chairwoman of the legislative committee and served on the Ohio Education Association’s Legislative Committee, as well as being a local union representation in two public school districts for decades.
  • On a personal note, Jill has been happily married for 38 years to her husband Kevin, a Shaker Heights City School physical education teacher. She has two daughters, Jenna, who is a high school guidance counselor in Kodiak, AK, and Alexa, a Ph.D. candidate at Case Western Reserve University.

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