Nearly eight years ago, Tracy Miller stepped into Susan Pulsipher’s position on the Jordan Board of Education. This January, Miller assumes Pulsipher’s seat at the Utah House of Representatives.

“It's a great honor and responsibility to be elected to represent people in my district,” Miller said. “It’s humbling when you have people who are supporting you; I feel really blessed. Education still is important to me. I can still help (Jordan School) District in different ways and help education with more kids in our state. That will always be a priority for me.”

Before the first day of the annual general session on Jan.21, Miller already had cast her first vote in the leadership elections.

“It was my very first vote,” she said. “It was a bit anti-climactic because they all ran unopposed, but it makes this real to me.”

Miller is not new to the legislature.

“I've been up at the legislature for more years than I've been a school board member, over a dozen years, advocating, getting involved and following bills. I've worked closely with several legislators on pieces of legislation. People have sent me drafts and I give feedback on legislation,” she said.

Before Miller was on the Jordan school board, she was the trust land fund specialist for Utah PTA, which, in 2016, worked to educate voters on Utah Constitutional Amendment B, the Utah School Funds Modification Amendment. It increased and stabilized funds distributed to Utah schools from the permanent State School Trust Fund. 

“I helped run the campaign to get the constitutional amendment passed that changed the way our school trust funds are invested and distributed to the schools. I saw it through the whole legislative process and the outcome made a huge difference — millions more dollars to schools. It got me interested in the legislative process, and I stayed involved,” she said.

It was after Pulsipher decided to retire and Miller’s unsuccessful attempt to talk her into staying for another term “because she cares about the community and wants to help people and wants to do the right thing,” when Miller decided to run.

“There are not many people who are as prepared as I am to be a legislator. I've been involved at the capitol and I understand the legislative process. I thought ‘I can continue to sit on the sidelines and help people and state my opinion, or I can step into the arena and be a legislator myself,’” she said.

With a background in education and a desire to continue to “do what’s best for students, teachers and our schools,” Miller is familiar with more than 200 bills that passed and touched on education last session.

“Everyone thinks they're an expert on education because they went to school or they have kids or grandkids in school, but we don't have people there who have served on a school board and that’s an important voice we need. I hope to be able to lend that voice as someone who has set the budget for a large school district and knows where the funds go,” she said. “When the bills are passed, legislators have good intentions. I have the perspective of seeing exactly which bills work and don't work, so I hope to be able to lend that perspective going forward.”

One of those is House Bill 415.

“There has been a lot of concerns with the school fees bill that passed last session. It eliminates (school) districts’ ability to charge co-curricular fees and registration fees. The legislature passed it, but it didn't provide the money to replace the fees so the concern is programs will be cut since they’re not funded,” Miller explained. “There will be an amendment this session, and I will advocate the legislature needs to provide funding to replace what they're taking away from schools. If it doesn’t pass, then there will be some hard decisions for school boards to make when they're putting together their budgets and need to decide where to cut. Those are decisions that will have to be made with the loss of millions of dollars.”

Miller served through difficult times during her tenure on Jordan’s Board of Education, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan Education Foundation Executive Director Mike Haynes appreciated her concern for others and her level-headed leadership then.

“During the pandemic, trying to come up with guidelines for the district, she was calm and level-headed; she always had the energy and commitment to serve students first and help employees,” he said. “Watching her lead during those challenging times was comforting; I felt like Jordan excelled in that area across the state.”

Miller also headed the selection committee for a new superintendent when former Jordan District Superintendent Patrice Johnson stepped down.

“I’m proud of hiring our superintendent, Dr. (Anthony) Godfrey,” she said. “We had many applicants, but he’s not only been a strong educational leader, he cares about people and wants to be right for students and employees and innovative, he is not afraid to try anything.”

Boundary changes are always tough, Miller said, and she was faced with several, including one where her children had attended school.

“One of the hardest things is always boundary changes,” she said. “Moving ALPS from Jordan Ridge Elementary was especially difficult because it was personal. It was a hard thing to do, but it was the right decision. South Jordan Elementary was the only school left in the state on year-round and they needed to get off that schedule. We could have built another school, but the right thing to do for the taxpayer was to use the buildings we have, and that meant having to move ALPS to another school so we could move South Jordan Elementary students in Jordan Ridge.”

As school board president, Miller likely will have one more boundary change vote, this being to alleviate the student population for Aspen Elementary. As of press deadline, the vote is anticipated for the Dec. 10 meeting.

“We had robust discussion and a lot of public comment, a lot of survey feedback, and as the board, we're leaning toward making a smaller change for Aspen right now, but then the school board would do a deeper dive into the whole Herriman High feeder system over the next year,” Miller said, aware those decisions will be handed to the upcoming school board, including Suzanne Wood, who was selected amongst 14 candidates to take Miller’s seat beginning Jan. 1, 2025. “It’s incredibly hard to hand off something I care about so much to someone else. I really care about our district and about the kids and teachers.”

Miller’s term as president of the School Board Association Board of Directors also ends in December. She plans to relinquish her position on the Jordan Education Foundation’s board of directors.

“I plan to stay involved with the Foundation, because they do such great work, and it will keep me connected to the schools and the students,” she said.

Miller, who has her bachelor's degree in human resource management and master's degree in organizational behavior, worked in benefits consulting and healthcare administration, but when her second child was born, she stayed at home and worked her way into the schools.

“I'm grateful I had the opportunity when my kids went to school, I went to school, too. I started volunteering in schools, then on district committees and statewide committees and I became involved in the community. I appreciate having a husband and family and friends who have supported me,” she said.

Mayor Dawn Ramsey worked alongside Miller for many years in the PTA.

“We've worked on a lot of projects together over the last 20 years, wearing different hats, and she is a woman of integrity,” Ramsey said. “She's very smart, she asks thoughtful questions, and she's a problem-solver. She understands our community, having her local background is extra benefit, and I'm grateful and I can’t think of anyone who would do a better job representing her district. She has served our community well on the school board and she will be dearly missed.”

Miller wanted to be on the school board simply because “I care.”

“My parents were involved in the community while I was growing up, and that's something they instilled in me, the sense of giving back to the community is important,” she said. “Public education is the bedrock of our society, the fact that every child in our country gets a good education. It's not that way in every country, and it’s what makes our foundation. Being part of a school district that is committed to providing a high-quality education for every child, no matter what their circumstance, has been most rewarding.”

Her three children all graduated from Bingham High. “The highlight of my eight years on the board was being able to give all three of my kids their diplomas at graduation,” she said.

Additionally, she’s proud of being able to increase teachers’ annual salaries from $34,000 eight years ago to more than $60,000 now as well as provide additional support to them for students.

“Our board has focused on supporting teachers with more prep time, more professional development, more support for challenges they've experienced, especially with an increase in behavior problems. We’ve been able to provide school psychologists and vice principals to every school who help with issues so teachers can focus on their classroom teaching,” she said. 

Miller also has been “careful with taxpayer dollars with the impact it has on people's budgets.”

“We plan to remodel West Jordan (High School) starting this summer and it will be spread out over four years. We remodeled Bingham High School. Other school districts are building brand new, big schools; we chose to remodel and save the taxpayers millions of dollars. I'm proud of how fiscally responsible we have been, especially addressing our student growth. We have been careful as a school board to only build what needs to be built and be frugal with the way we build our buildings,” she said.

Having that knowledge of her community growing will serve Miller well when the legislature addresses affordable housing — “housing is definitely something I'm concerned about” — and water is vital— “in a state with a drought, we always need to be concerned about water supply.” Miller also said “our state and energy development” are important issues.

What tops her list is to listen. Haynes isn’t surprised.

“She’s great at, ‘seek first to understand.’ She's great at listening and letting people express positive feedback and some concerns,” he said.

Miller already heard from voters who “feel the legislature isn’t listening to them.” 

 “It's important we're listening to our constituents and not passing bills which cut them out of the process,” she said. “They need to be heard.” λ