Stories from the school board races you probably missed

Stories about the school board races you probably missed

Full disclosure, I am running for the district 5 seat and I have found the whole process distasteful. When meeting for endorsements I am invariably asked first, who else endorsed you and second, how much money have you raised? That pesky reading problem question is always way down the list if it comes up at all but enough about me. Let’s get to the stories you probably haven’t heard.

Betty Burney was running for her third term until the city attorney said she would go to court to stop her from running. This happened the Tuesday before qualifying. A day later Mrs. Burney’s handpicked successor, Connie Hall joined the race. Mrs. Hall is the darling of the current school board and administration getting donations from the Burney family and an endorsement from Burney herself as well as donations from WC Gentry and our Chief Financial Officer and potential superintendent Doug Ayers as he applied for the position. That’s right friends a potential superintendent gave money to a potential school board member. Quid pro quo anyone?

Another quid pro quo might be the donation that Nancy Broner gave to Martha Barrett. Mrs. Broner a former school board member is coming off a fat no bid contract and just because the appearance of impropriety is all over something that doesn’t mean it is, right. Right?

Let’s talk about donations for a bit. Becki Couch’s husband also donated to Martha Barrett, which might make it awkward if Cheryl Grimes wins that race.

Martha Barrett got the bulk of her money from a fundraiser hosted by former Mayor Jake Godbold who during a rousing speech implied Peter Rummel might be a nazi if he ran businessmen candidates in the school board races. In case you don’t believe me, Godbold’s quote involved Rummel running blond haired, blue-eyed candidates.

It’s to bad that Mr. Rummel went from hero when he crossed party lines to endorse Alvin Brown over a tea part candidate, to a zero when he expressed concern about the same old school board candidates running for office. Since this is the case it is hard to understand why he and his businessman’s club supported who they did. They supported Grimes over incumbent Barrett in one (oh no school board member Becki Couch’s husband will be mad) but in 5 he supported Hall, Burney’s handpicked successor. Why the status quo is okay in district 5 but not in 1 is beyond me but I guess having money doesn’t always make you aware of the issues.

Speaking of money; Ashley Juarez Smith a candiatae in three and already a millionaire raised 113 thousand dollars, or more than 3 years worth of school board salary for her race. This is significantly more than all the other candidates, all 14 of them combined. She is backed by the Chartrand foundation and Duval Teachers United at the same time and if that sounds incongruent to you, then you have been paying attention.

Gary Chartrand, Smith Juarez’s mentor and employer funded PEN the anti-union, union organization and who is on record saying teaching experience doesn’t matter, smaller classes don’t matter and was one of the leaders in bringing KIPP to town which is staffed mostly by non-union member Teach for America teachers. In short he wants to end teacher’s unions and reasonable people can wonder how far the Smith-Juarez apple falls from the Chartrand tree. Though it’s not like many of the other DTU picks made much sense either.

In district one they endorsed Martha Barrett, you know the woman who has been on the board for arguably the worse ten years since desegregation.

In 7 they endorsed John Heymann and where this pick doesn’t make me cringe he has said when talking about the union, he would be teachers best friends and he would also fight tooth and nail any organization that protects bad teachers. Now the union doesn’t protect bad teachers but I don’t get the vibe Heymann is convinced.

Then in 5 they co-endorsed long time union member, teacher and education advocate yours truly, which is good but also Betty Burney part 2, Connie Hall. That’s like endorsing Romney and Obama or rooting for FSU and Florida to win the big game.

I decided to decline their endorsement and the money that came with it. I didn’t want to be beholden to anybody and thought that most of the rest of their picks were so bad I didn’t want to be seen with then and where that decline didn’t make the paper other endorsements did.

Jason Fischer in the 7 race received endorsements, from Jeb Bush, John Thrasher and Steve Wise. You know the three that most public school advocates point to and blame for the mess we are in. He received several other high profile republican endorsements too, including I think from the ghost of Ronald Regan.

There are a few other things. Heymann’s communities in schools gets a little bit of money from the school board but as Heymann likes to point out the 300 plus grand is really just a drop in the bucket. They get the bulk of their money from the Jacksonville Children’s Commission instead. Where does the JCC get their money to give to Community’s in Schools? Well from the school board of course and where not an expert on finances, I do know that in an Oliver Stone movie they would call that money laundering. He’s not alone though; Connie Hall also gets a few grand from the school board for her “Ready for Tomorrow” program. They can always recuse themselves when discussing those expenditures if they are elected I guess. Though that might be a lot of recusing for Hall because wouldn’t it be unseemly for her to help pick new superintendent what with her history of taking money from potential superintendents. Also not to dump on Mrs. Smith-Juarez but for some reason when on the Shannon Ogdon show when asked to describe her background she said she taught at a local independent school. Um, I guess she thought nobody has heard of the Bolles school, it must be that not that she is embarrassed or wanted to keep that fact from the general public right?

Finally at the first three school board debates only about 50 people showed up to each. For a city with serious education problems and whose leadership says over and over they are committed to fixing the problems those turn outs are woefully and embarrassingly low.

So hopefully I have informed you a bit about the things you missed. Be sure to vote early and often.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher