To the growing list of Democrats vying to head Montana’s public school system, add one more: Denise Juneau, a former high school teacher from Browning with three college degrees, including one from Harvard.

Juneau is currently the head of the Office of Indian Education for All at the Office of Public Instruction, the agency she is seeking to run.

The Office of Public Instruction oversees public schools from kindergarten through high school and is headed by an elected superintendent. Linda McCulloch, the current superintendent of public instruction, cannot run again due to term limits.

“I want to make sure that when kids leave high school, they will be prepared to do whatever it is they want to do,” she said Friday, after announcing her bid. “The kids going through our system now are going to be our future state, tribal and federal leaders.”

Juneau joins fellow Democrats Sam Kitzenberg, a state senator and former Republican from Glasgow, Holly Raser, a Missoula teacher and state lawmaker, and Claudette Morton, a former teacher and college professor who worked in Glasgow and Dillon.

No Republicans have announced plans to run. Candidates have until next February to formally file for the race.

Juneau is an enrolled member of North Dakota’s Mandan and Hidatsa American Indian tribes, although she grew up in Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where her father is an enrolled tribal member.

Juneau went to public schools in Browning, then went on to earn an English degree from Montana State University, a master’s in education degree from Harvard and a law degree from the University of Montana.

She returned to her hometown to teach high school from 1994 to 1996, saying it was “very satisfying” to come home and watch some of her former students go on to college.

Juneau currently heads the office that writes curriculum for all Montana schools about the state’s American Indian tribes, an educational requirement provided in the state constitution. She was also a clerk for the Montana Supreme Court.

Juneau said her current post, combined with her own experience as a student in Montana schools, has given her a unique perspective on the state’s diverse schools and has taught her that the state should act as a buffer between federal government edicts and the local districts.

She said one of the biggest problems facing Montana students are pockets of entrenched, multi-generational poverty persistent in parts of the state. Standardized tests show that students in the poorest parts of the state routinely perform the worst in school.

Schools alone cannot address problems of poverty, she said, but they can work with local governments and other agencies to help students succeed. The state cannot afford to let some kids fall through the cracks because today’s students will be tomorrow’s workforce and leaders.

Juneau said already working at the agency is a help. She has a bird’s-eye view of Montana’s schools, knows how the state works with the federal government and knows how to work with the Legislature, which writes many of the checks for education.

Juneau said she also wants to bring more respect to the teaching profession.

“Teachers have a tough job,” she said. “They really do need to be respected for what they do.”

Juneau’s name is not entirely new to Montana politics. Her mother, Carol Juneau, was an outspoken state representative from Browning who now serves in the state senate.