By John Meeks
In the race to represent District 5 on the Duval County School Board, the three candidates appeared to be a complex Venn diagram of common agreements and the occasional clash of viewpoints.
The introduction of the candidates presented the traits of three candidates who have all worked in the classroom in one form or another.
Pervalia Gaines-McIntosh began the round of introductions. She comes from a long line of educators and has advocated for public education for at least a decade, including working at WJCT for five years.
Ms. Gaines-McIntosh also included organizational work as she “provided best practices to hundreds of international organizations.”
Gaines-McIntosh’s has served as a substitute teacher in Duval County Schools in addition to her work to rally support for William M. Raines Senior High School.
“I am passionate about public education and I am passionate about children,” she said. This, she said, is because she has been ‘breathing education for ten years’ and wants to take her advocacy to the school board.
She believes that the “system is broken…We have to include the people in the decision-making process to work the design,” saying that, through empowering all stakeholders, “you gain a voice.”
She summed up her mission in a few words.
“If you are ready to reclaim education for the people, we need your vote.”
Next to speak, in alphabetical order, was Chris Guerrieri, a prolific writer who has published over 50 commentaries in The Florida Times-Union, Folio Weekly and other local publications.
Starting his twelfth year as an educator this fall, Guerrieri says that being an educator gives him unique experience to know what works and does not work in the district.
He elaborated by telling of how he idealistically participated on committees and how he took the traditional route of writing to administrators. Discouraged by their lack of action, Guerrieri ramped up his efforts and began writing to the local media and creating his ‘Education Matters’ weblog.
“I am letting people know what is going on in this district,” he said, adding that one important aspect of his campaign was his listening to teachers and education support personnel.
Guerrieri agrees with Gaines-McIntosh that the public school system needs improvement but differs with her belief that the system is ‘broken.’
One deficiency of the system, in Guerrieri’s opinion, was that the school board is ‘more worried’ about numbers and appearances in seeking the data that make them look good.
The final candidate, Dr. Constance Hall, had the most extensive experience of the three contenders. She received her doctorate from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee. She served for over three decades as a classroom teacher, resource teacher, principal and district administrator. She currently mentors aspiring teachers.
Observing the social imbalances that occur in the county, Dr. Hall spoke of serving students who were dropped off at school by social workers instead of parents and then also seeing students dropped off at school in a “Rolls Royce.”
“We have pockets of success,” she said, “but we also have struggles and challenges.”
She expressed her desire to ensure that success is all over the school district.
After the preliminaries, Scott Kim moderated the forum with questions from the audience.
The first question asked of the candidates what they thought were some of the opportunities and challenges that faced Duval County Public Schools and how they would address such issues.
Guerrieri focused on the need for more career education. He said that there are over 6,000, or approximately five percent of the overall district enrollment, students in career academies but that there should be at least 60,000 students in such programs.
Regarding teachers, Guerrieri said that the school system has not been very concerned with “doing things the right way.”
He wants to let “teachers be professionals and teach.” This can be done by teaching students a work ethic and establishing consequences for student discipline problems.
Dr. Hall said that this is a school system that has a wealth of data.
“There is a plethora of data,” she said, the challenge, in her opinion, was that administrators and teachers use the data appropriately to ensure student success.
“We have a teaching force that has the desire and passion for teaching. The challenge is tailoring targeted professional development to help teachers meet daily challenges.”
Gaines-McIntosh said that this is an opportunity to focus on teachers, students and all stakeholders in the education community.
Pointing to the work done on the classroom level, “We need to appreciate our educators for their work, and it starts with the superintendent,” said Gaines-McIntosh.
Once on the school board, she said that she would make sure that she communicated with the superintendent of schools to improve teacher morale.
The next question was about how the candidates viewed the role of the school board in its governance role in relation to the administrative function of the superintendent.
Dr. Hall said, “We have one employee and that is the superintendent. We will hold the superintendent accountable. It has go beyond the superintendent where he is holding people accountable as well. We will ask the appropriate questions to strengthen transparency.”
Ultimately, she said that she would “move forward with building a world class school system in Jacksonville, Florida.”
The superintendent, said Gaines-McIntosh, needs “to make sure that all stakeholders are working collaboratively together.”
Such cooperation, she said, would “bring back the strong passion and strong love that our community had in public education.”
With community support, Gaines-McIntosh said that the stakeholders have to do something in order for the system to be successful.
“We need them as much as they need us. I want the people to know that we don’t have public education without you.”
Guerrieri’s concerns were with creating a safe and civil atmosphere for learning.
“We don’t let teachers discipline kids and we don’t let teachers teach kids,” he said.
His key frustration came from compiling a 500-page data notebook that barely attracted the attention of the administrator who was charged with evaluating him.
Guerrieri said that he was especially concerned with teachers who “need time at home so they can feed their kids.”
Guerrieri also challenged the school board to have a stronger presence in the schools without resorting to “gotcha” tactics. He was weary of school officials who sat in their offices and “hoped for the best.”
A common community complaint with schools was the lack of vocational education in an age of preparing all students for college. This was the basis for the third question of the evening that asked the trio what they believed about the benefits of vocational programs for students.
Gaines-McIntosh said that it was a priority to “train children to be productive and to be citizens. She bemoaned the force feeding of children “an education that they do not want.”
She said that the current mindset of college preparation and rigor was affording students the chance to be treated as people with whom teachers should be allowed to meet their needs in professional relationships that recognize the abilities and gifts of each child.
“The state is making teachers teach to a test,” she said, “We want to change education into the future and we have got to change the model.”
“Students first” was her mantra.
Guerrieri couched his answer in a question. He rhetorically asked of those in attendance what was the difference between the top student at Stanton College Preparatory High School and the average student at Raines. Throwing a curveball to the crowd, he said that there was no difference between the Blue Devil and the Viking, explaining that both students needed to take the same exact tests to earn their diploma. The difference, however, lay in the ability of teachers to differentiate instruction to ensure that both students made the grade.
“We have to prepare these kids to be productive citizens,” he said.
Dr. Hall took a more pragmatic approach to the existence of career academies, acknowledging their necessity, but making it clear that the top priority was that these same students be proficient in reading and math before they branch out into a career track.
Dr. Hall told of students who were eleven years old and in the second grade and other students who were far below grade level in literacy.
“To become a proficient electrician,” said Dr. Hall, “ we have to buckle up and do a better job of teaching reading.”
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