New To the School Board. Water Main Break on West Walnut Dowsed.
Tatjana Brown Wins First Term on Westerville School Board, Embraces Role as Parent, Leader, and Listener
On her first run for public office, Tatjana Brown secured a seat on the Westerville Board of Education marking a personal milestone and adding a fresh parent perspective to the district’s leadership.
Brown spent election night at a volunteer appreciation gathering along with fellow candidates Kelly Stocker and Kristy Meyer at her Meza Wine Shop in Uptown. As early results trickled in, excitement built, but she remained cautious.
“Somebody messaged me congratulations, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t know if it’s official yet,’” she said. “We were still watching both the Franklin and Delaware County numbers come in.”
Later that night, she quietly celebrated with close friends who had helped her campaign and then went home to her family.
Brown is a mother of three; her daughter is a high school junior, her middle son is in seventh grade at Walnut Springs, and her youngest is a second grader at Mark Twain Elementary. For her, the victory felt personal as well as public.
“My youngest son’s entire second-grade class made me congratulatory cards,” she said. “That was pretty awesome.”
She credited her family with being both enthusiastic and supportive throughout the campaign. Her husband, she said, was “excited and proud.” “They got to watch the whole process,” Brown said. “I think it’s been a really cool experience for them.”
Before running, Brown had no political experience and admitted that campaigning was outside her comfort zone. “I didn’t know much about the process,” she said. “But I really enjoyed getting to talk to people in the community. That was the best part.”
Throughout the race, Brown made a point of connecting with teachers, MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) coaches, and other district staff to understand the academic landscape from the ground up.
“I want to continue leaning on those voices, learning what’s working, what’s needed, and how to support them,” she said. “Then I hope to bring some of my business sense to the financial side of things.”
Brown acknowledged the complexities of school board work, particularly the balance between funding, academics, and public accountability. With voters approving the district’s income tax measure, financial pressure has eased slightly, but scrutiny will follow.
“People should expect the board to be judicious with the money,” she said. “My goal is to make sure our students and our staff get what they need to succeed.”
She also echoed the desire for more transparency, something she heard from residents while going door to door.
“People want to know what’s happening in the schools,” she said. “They want to feel connected.”
Like several other successful first-time candidates in Westerville this year, Brown was endorsed by the Westerville Progressive Alliance (WPA). She credited the group’s volunteers with playing a crucial role in her win.
“The amount of time and energy people gave, weekends spent canvassing, helping, supporting, it was incredible,” she said. “That made me feel hopeful.”
Brown hasn’t decided what she’ll say during her first official meeting in January. But she knows her family will be there.
“I’m just excited,” she said. “Excited to get to work and to do some good for this community.”
Water Line Break on West Walnut Sends Crews Digging
A broken water main on West Walnut Street sent city crews into the ground Friday morning after residents reported water running across the pavement just after sunrise.
The break occurred near Grove Street next to Otterbein Cemetery, exposing a 50-year-old cast iron pipe with a large, heart-shaped hole near the connection point between two sections. Because of the location of the rupture, a standard clamp repair wasn’t possible.
“The hole was too close to the joint,” a crew member said. “We had to cut it out and replace the whole piece.”
Using a backhoe, workers cleared the area around the break while a vacuum truck removed standing water from the trench. A new section of pipe was installed and sealed with dual couplings on both ends. Water service was restored shortly after the repair.
Rain fell intermittently during the day but caused no delay to the work, aside from soaking raincoats and making surfaces slick. The repair site remained stable, and the trench held as crews worked.
At one point during the repair, a crew member used an unconventional technique to help verify the location of the break. Holding a long steel soil probe horizontally between his palms, he walked the edge of the dig site and watched the rod slowly rotate in his hands. While the tool is normally used to probe the ground for obstructions, in this case it was being used as a dowsing rod.
Dowsing, while widely regarded as pseudoscience, is still occasionally used by experienced workers as a supplemental method when searching for underground lines.
The repair was completed in the afternoon. A temporary asphalt patch was laid over the trench, with permanent resurfacing to follow in the coming weeks.
The Westerville News is a reader-supported publication by Gary Gardiner, a lifelong journalist who believes hyper-local reporting is the future of news. This publication focuses exclusively on Westerville—its local news, influence on Central Ohio, and how surrounding areas shape the community.
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