The district 4 school board race explained, vote Smith over Willie who has to many poor ideas and dubious connections

District 4

In district 4 we have teacher and lifelong resident Cynthia Smith versus Teach for America executive Darryl Willie who has been in Jacksonville for seven years and has now run for school board twice.

Cynthia Smith has a compelling story, she started as a book keeper and worked her way up to assistant principal before leaving to run a preschool. She served in DCPS schools for sixteen years, which is only sixteen years longer than Darryl Willie did.

Smith is also certified in ESOL, Reading, Guidance and Counseling and leadership while Willie has no certifications.

Darryl Willie did spend three years in a classroom in Arkansas over a decade ago. Since then he had a variety of jobs but has been with Teach for America since 2011, becoming the Jacksonville location executive director in 2015. These however are troubling times for TFA and that more than anything may have influenced his decision to run again.

It's no secret that Teach for America is on its way out of town. They only brought in 50 new teachers this year and none of them are working at traditional DCPS schools, just charters. Superintendent Green told me personally the district planned to honor last year’s contract but the district wasn't going to bring in any more.

Teach for America Jacksonville did get 5 million, yes 5 million from the Quality Education for All initiative, money that never saw the inside of the classroom but even that money has to be running out by now.

That brings us Darryl Willie's six figure salary.

According to the supervisor of elections page, his salary is 120,000 dollars. Pretty good right? And an amount no teacher in Jacksonville will ever see, and that few principals that oversee hundreds of staff members and thousands of kids will take home.

However, if he along with Chauncey also a TFA alum got on the board then the two of them may be able to reverse TFA Jax’s current standing.

It's not just Wilie's dubious connections to charters and their supporters who he has taken lots of money from and the privatization movement, it's his terrible ideas which all seem to benefit TFA and poor judgement like first putting public school kids on blast in a campaign video and then being told by the district t take it town.

Finally, if you think District 4 has been capably represented the last 8 years by Paula Wright, she wrote on Facebook, Cynthia Smith, School Board Candidate, District 4 is the education advocate who deserves acknowledgement.

The district 6 school board race explained, why Joyce is the choice and Chauncey is not

District 6

District 6 sees long time teacher and lifelong Jacksonville resident Charlotte Joyce going against recent transplant, former Teach for America corp member and current lawyer David Chauncey. Mrs. Joyce has been working in our schools since Chauncey was in middle school.

Joyce would have the unique experience of being a school board representative of not just the schools she worked at but the schools she went to as well. Chauncey on the other hand does have some relevant teaching experience, teaching for two years at Ribault middle as a Teach for America teacher. He left however as soon as his two-year commitment was over while Mrs. Joyce has spent her entire adult life in our public schools.

Joyce raised $9,455, spent $8,396.47 and received 6,629 votes, for a cost of 1.22 per vote while Dave Chauncey raised $75,247 and spent 65.952.24 on 6,624 votes, for a cost of a whopping $9.92 per vote.

Then Becki Couch the two term current school board member has supported Joyce as well saying,  If you live in my district, I ask that you vote for Charlotte Austin Joyce to represent the school board seat I am vacating. She is a seasoned educator who will put the needs of students first. She has grown up on the Westside and attended Stilwell and Ed White. She is an experienced educator with school aged children, so she understands the needs of our students and community on the Westside.

Of Chauncey’s 75 thousand 57 thousand came in the form of a maximum donation which was seventy-nine percent of his total, furthermore 75 percent of his money came from outside district 6. This begs the questions how many teachers and parents from within district 6 can afford to drop a grand on a school board race and why are so many people who don’t live in the district supporting him?

 While Joyce was bringing in small dollar amounts from teachers and parents the Times Union reported, Among (Chauncey’s) donors were pro-school-choice advocates, including people who support charter schools and state-funded scholarships for private and religious schools.

For instance, Gary Chartrand and organizations linked to him donated at least $4,000, records show. Ten political action committees contributed, including the Watchdog PAC, First Coast Conservatives, and Floridians for Economic Freedom.

Since Chauncey took so much money from charter schools you may be wondering how Chauncey feels about charter schools, here is a tweet of his from last year that seems to indicate that he is all for them.

When Corcoran and Chauncey speak about “high expectations, high support” charter schools, one of the schools they are speaking about is the KIPP chain which recently expanded into Miami. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Chauncey received a lot of financial support from the KIPP Jacksonville board and leadership.  Did I mention his wife works there as well?

There is a huge distinction between the candidates in district 6, a lifelong educator and resident of the district or a well-connected lawyer new to the district who has close ties to and lots of support from the corporate reform movement.

Note: As of today Chauncey has brought in over a hundred grand, for a school board race, and practically none of it from teachers, parents or from within district 6

https://www.voterfocus.com/CampaignFinance/candidate_pr.php?op=cv&e=21&c=Duval&ca=840&rellevel=4&committee=N

Paula Wright goes all in for Cynthia Smith in the district 4 school board.

Wearing a vote Cynthia Smith she was at the Highlands library supporting Smith to take her place on the school board.

She spoke about her impressive education resume which saw Smith spend 16 years in our schools or sixteen years longer than Daryl Willie.

She also mentioned how Smith is a lifelong resident and graduated from DCPS schools two more things that Willie can't say.

https://www.facebook.com/paula.wright.37853/videos/1505933436217242/

Paula Wright, "Cynthia Smith is best suited to ensure the continued progress that District 4 is enjoying."

I agree Mrs. Wright, I agree.

Charter super pac, runs ads for Dave Chauncy

Oh, he's not in bed with the charter school industry.

Not only has Dave Chancey taken in over six figures from the charter and business community but he is having Charter Super pacs pay for and run ads for him too.

On Facebook he has been running the ad below paid for by Parents for Great Schools



A more honest name for the pac might be, We want to make money off of your children.

http://parentsforgreatschools.com/?fbclid=IwAR1WOS7il2gRrDVntO3hv9TU0fqux9s-1sXkpTXLHKlTeRJrr_yLSZbZCjQ

Who are the parents? They were John Danner of the Rocket ship Charter chain. You may have heard of them as they are famous for having rows and rows of children sit in front of  computer, with one teacheresque person navigating through the warehouse like classrooms providing assistance when needed.

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2011/0901/John-Danner-shoots-for-the-stars-with-Rocketship-charter-schools

Where some people might like the idea of their children sitting in front a computer for 8 houes a day, they have a history of both failure

https://chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2018/02/01/rocketship-becomes-latest-charter-network-to-pull-the-plug-on-tennessees-achievement-school-district/

and taking millions of dollars from our anti public education secretary of education, Betsy Devos

https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/betsy-devos-just-gave-12-6-million-grant-to-rocketship-chart/

This is who Chauncey his thrown in with.

If you care about our students and schools Charlotte Joyce is really your only option is district 6.                                                                                                                                                A Tfa alumni accused me of saying Chauncey had broken some campaign laws. That is ludicris.  If I thought he had broken any laws I would have put it in capital letters with exclamation points. There can be know doubt however that Chauncey's charter connections run deep. 

Even the Times Union wants Ken Organes to be elected and to send Jason Fischer home.

I am no fan of the Times Union's editorial board. A broke clock is more accurate than they are when it comes to education, so I was surprised when the Times Union in a blistering take down of Fischer endorsed Ken Organes for the HD 15 race.

From the Times Union:

Generally experience is the most valuable asset for a politician. 

But that’s as long as the experience is constructive.

Incumbent state Rep. Jason Fischer did not find the time to meet with the Times-Union Editorial Board.

He did not bother to provide a bio or answers to a questionnaire.

And even Fischer’s campaign website is skimpy on any achievements in Tallahassee.

In short, Fischer’s experience isn’t the plus that it should be.

Why not?

Because it is experience that Fischer appears have gained while also developing a sense of entitlement along the way. 

And that’s just not a good look for any public servant.

District 16 deserves a representative who is both knowledgeable and humble.

That’s where Fischer’s opponent, Ken Organes, comes in. 

https://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/20181023/tuesday-editorial-renner-organes-are-impressive

It's pretty cool that Organes slogan is, You deserve to be heard, I am listening, because the only people Fischer has listened to is his mega donors.

I get why Fischer didn't want to interview. he would have a hard time explaining the millions he sent to KIPP and his attacks on public education and school teachers. Who knows the board may have even asked him about his day job which is working for John Kirtley the state's voucher king.

Fischer has been a disaster for public education since he appeared on the scene and its time to send him home.

If you care about public ed and I hope you do, then Ken Organes is the choice for you.

https://www.kenorganes.com/

DeSantis says education has plenty of money, and its just wasting what it has.

In a way I agree with DeSantis. There is a lot of money being wasted in education. We are wasting money on charter schools, vouchers and high stakes testing. We spend/waste billions on those corporate reform options. Unfortunately for DeSantis those are the things he supports. 

From The Tampa Times:

Florida’s school leaders have made plain for years their desire for more money to run their districts.

They’ve asked lawmakers for higher per-student funding, and the freedom to spend the money where it’s needed. They’ve requested more construction money, and pushed to keep property tax rates the same so schools can reap the benefit of rising values.

Not so fast, says Ron DeSantis, the Republican candidate for governor.

He suggests the system has plenty of money in it already — unlike Democrat Andrew Gillum, who has backed a corporate tax rate hike to bolster education spending by $1 billion.

It just needs to be spent more wisely, DeSantis suggested, calling for reductions in "bureaucratic waste and administrative inefficiency."

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/Ron-DeSantis-says-Florida-public-schools-are-wasting-money-Are-they-_172747756?

Um reductions in bureaucratic waste and administrative inefficiency sound great don't they? But without specifics they are just phrases people throw out when they don't have ideas. DeSantis also talks about mandating that spending 80 percent of budgets in classrooms but he doesn't detail what that means. I mean does that include lunch and a bus trip to school? Also from the Tampa Times.

 Officials in many districts argue that, depending on the definition of "into the classroom," they’re already approaching that 80 percent mark DeSantis seeks. A huge portion of it comes in the salaries and benefits they pay to people who work with students, although not all of them directly.

Trying to get much higher, they suggested, could be difficult — particularly if the state continues to mandate how they use much of their money.

"If you think about it, we really haven’t had a big increase. And all of the increases we have received are most of our categoricals," said Olga Swinson, the chief financial officer for Pasco schools, referring to state money such as lottery funds that are earmarked for certain expenses.

Swinson, who also chairs the Florida School Finance Council, noted that lawmakers this year directed millions of dollars in new funding toward security and mental health services — neither of which might be considered "classroom" expenses — while increasing the rest of the operating budget by just 47 cents per student.

"I don’t know how you restrict us to 80 percent of the money having to be instructional when we have little control of the money that comes to us," she said. 

Hmm is it beginning to seem like DeSantis has no idea what he is talking about? That he is just dripping out gobbledygook that he thinks sounds good? Well lets add to that and remember he thinks schools have enough money the just waste it, and once again from the Times.

Meanwhile, the Finance Council she heads, which advises education commissioner Pam Stewart, observed in a recent white paper that Florida’s education funding has not kept up with rising costs.

"Average funding would need to be increased an additional $1,120, or 15 percent, to $8,528 per student to offset the estimated impact of inflation as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics," wrote council members Michael Burke of Palm Beach schools and Ron Steiger of Miami-Dade schools.

Complicating matters, the state has forced districts — which in many counties are the largest employers — to reduce their tax rates an average of 18 percent over three years, they noted, while municipalities and local governments did not face the same reductions.

Sigh, everyone knows Florida has starved public education of resources, maybe everyone it seems but DeSantis  or maybe he does know and that's just the way he likes it figuring his base will fall for more gobbledygook meandering. 

If you care about public ed, then the bottom line is you have just one choice and that's Gillum for governor.

Superintendent Greene's troublesome leadership style

I was out last week and when i returned i was told the superintendent told us to change our bus release schedule.

I work at a center school for disabled children and everybody rides a bus and pretty much everybody has to be escorted to the bus. 

Then there are a lot of buses and they come in waves. This new schedule has thrown everything out of whack and now the last buses have typical still been picking students up after teacher and para hours end.

She didn't discuss this with anybody, find out our reasons behind the schedule nope she just showed up and said change it and didn't worry about the chaos that ensued.

Then there is this , from WJCT about meta detectors,

School board members had a lot of questions for who would be monitoring the metal detectors and how the process would work. A lot of that hasn’t been figured out, because the plan wasn’t supposed to be made public yet.

Edwards originally talked about the plans at Monday evening’s safety meeting at Raines High School. At Tuesday’s workshop board members arrived confused as to why they hadn’t been clued in.

Greene said there’s a school board workshop scheduled for next month where the grant application would be discussed. At that meeting, board members will be able to suggest changes to the district's grant as prior to its submission, although requests are supposed to be based on needs principals identified. Greene apologized to board members about their finding out about the plan through news articles.

http://news.wjct.org/post/metal-detectors-likely-coming-all-duval-county-public-high-schools

The board didn't know and there was no stake holder input? Greene just ruled by fiat that we would have metal detectors. Her promise of inclusiveness thrown out the window replaced by her gut decision. That friends isn't leadership. I am against metal detectors, and I get it, a lot of people might be for them, but isn't this a decision the community should make?  Greene obviously doesn't think so.

Duval county public schools elects to give into fear

I was very disappointed today that the district has chosen to put metal detectors in our high schools. 

This is a knee jerk decision which doesn't address the real problem mental health and a lack of discipline, and which quite frankly I don't believe will keep our schools safer. 

From WJCT,

Duval County public high schools will probably have walk-through metal detectors for checking students for weapons later this school year, according to the district's police director Micheal Edwards at a school board workshop Tuesday.

The recommendation was made after security risk assessments of district schools, including principal feedback identifying their schools’ most vulnerable areas.

More cameras with better resolution and walk-through metal detectors in high schools were determined to be most needed.

“Our goal is to quadruple the amount [of cameras schools] have,” Superintendent Diana Greene said. “The average school only has about 16 cameras. Our high school campuses have thousands of square footage.”

State lawmakers passed school safety legislation after February’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. It dedicates $99 million to hardening districts’ schools. Duval is planning to apply for some of the state funding to get the cameras, metal detectors and other improvements.

http://news.wjct.org/post/metal-detectors-likely-coming-all-duval-county-public-high-schools

Everyone wants to keep our children safe but I don't believe we want our schools turned into prisons either. Metal detectors don't do anything to address our mental health problem, nor do they address poverty or hopelessness in our schools.   

It's time to send Jason Fischer home and elect Ken Organes in HD 16

Jason Fischer has been terrible. He quit his job n the school board to run for the state house and he only showed his love for the school board after he failed to get elected to the soil and water board. 

In Tallahassee he has been a constant foe of public education and has actively tried to enrich his employer John Kirtley and biggest donor Gary Chartrand.

From the Folio Weekly

 The District 16 race has the feel of a classic election upset. Organes, a retiree who worked at CSX for 32 years, was an active community volunteer until he became frustrated by the current political discourse. Energized through his involvement in the Duval County Democratic Party, Organes decided to run for office. On the stump, no one will confuse Organes’ oratory with that of Andrew Gillum’s. He has made school funding and school safety his top legislative priorities. Yet his sincerity connects with those he meets and his ideas are at the heart of Democratic values: Education, opportunity and equality. Organes has raised $41,000, mostly from nearly 200 small-dollar donations contributed by regular people who live in his district.

Fischer, a one-term state representative, has been running for public office since his mid-20s. In fact, in 2012, Fischer became the youngest person ever elected to the Duval School Board. In GOP circles, he’s thought to have a bright future; he’s Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s protégé. His affiliation with Curry helped him collect nearly $200,000 by Labor Day, all from major Florida GOP donors and corporate PACs. In a largely Republican district with a conservative voting record, Fischer would appear to be on track to pursue higher office in the near future with an agenda that mirrors the national Republican agenda: Lower taxes, create jobs, gut Obamacare … and repeat.

So can Organes beat Fischer? The common wisdom would say no. Fischer has a 5-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage and the ability to raise far more if things get sticky. Fischer has an A rating from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and NRA. District 16 is largely white and performs strongly Republican, despite a healthy amount of No Party Affiliation voters. In fact, Organes would need to get nearly three-quarters of the NPA votes in the district to balance the Republican registration advantage. So what is the case for Organes? There are a couple of reasons for genuine Democratic optimism.

First, at the ripe old age of 34, Fischer is already a career politician with a record. This includes supporting the privatization of Florida’s beaches, propping up Jacksonville’s KIPP Charter Schools with millions of taxpayer dollars, voting against debating an assault weapons ban, while students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gasped in the House Gallery, and voting against increasing the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic assault weapons to 21. While Fischer wears his NRA “A” rating as a badge of honor, Organes will make that badge the proverbial scarlet letter for someone beholden to the gun manufacturers’ lobby. Fischer’s voting record gives Organes the opportunity to reintroduce Fischer to his own constituents and create a clear contrast.

Second, this election is being held with the backdrop of a truth-averse sitting President of the United States in the throes of a Nixonian-like meltdown. What will be Donald Trump’s fate by Nov. 6? Republicans who have attached themselves to Trump like remora on a great white will suffer from his demise. The greater the attachment, the worse the trickle-down effect.

In the past, Fischer has had trouble with alternative facts. In his race for Duval County School Board, his campaign website claimed for months he was a Navy engineer when, in fact, he was a civilian employee who never served in the military. This was well-covered by The Florida Times-Union, yet Fischer still won his race in an upset. Regardless of such missteps and the Trump dumpster fire, Fischer will overwhelmingly win the majority of Republican votes. But how much of that vote will stay home? One can assume the smaller Democratic voting base will be greatly energized. But energized how? District 16 residents have not had a chance to vote for a Democratic candidate since the 2007 Special Election.

The race in District 15 is certainly worthy of the statewide and national attention it will receive in the fall. Tracye Polson is a dynamic candidate who connects with voters. Wyman Duggan performed well in a contested primary. He’s popular in the local GOP establishment and, though he’s temporarily short on funds, he’ll get major support from the same sources backing Fischer, namely the Lenny Curry machine.

http://folioweekly.com/stories/attacking-the-gop-firewall-in-tallahassee,20616

I can't imagine anybody being on the fence about Fischer but if you are let me point something out to you. Both men worked for CSX, which was run by Micheal Ward. Now nobody is going to confuse Ward with a democrat , he has been a power player in local republican politics for years but in this race he chose to support Organes over Fischer, and the reason probably is he knows Fischer only cares about himself.

I care about public education and if you do as well, then you have to support Ken, our schools, teachers and most importantly our students will depend on it. 

How the rich are trying to buy school board races in Jacksonville

Dave Chauncey a recent transplant and thirty year old lawyer has raised 98,000 dollars for a local school board race or about 2 and a half years salary. From September 15th through the 28th he brought in over 17 thousand dollars or more than his opponent Charlotte Joyce has raised in 9 months.

Now don't think he is popular with the masses as most of the money came from a handful of millionaires looking to dominate our schools and that should trouble us all.

Investor William Walton the III and his trust have given 4,000 dollars.

The Baker family who lives in Ponte Vedra sent him 5 grand

The Steins, more Ponte Vedra residents chipped in 3 grand

The Weavers and their various companies gave him 5,500 too.

Then look at this, VCP real estate investments, JDR Jax LLC and Vestcor Communities all sent him a grand each, and they all share the same address too. Then their owners, the Roods, donated another four grand on top of that.

Do you know a teacher or parent who has 7 grand to chip into a school board race? I sure as heck don't.

What's atrocious is this is perfectly legal too. A system set up to benefit the rich and give them more voice.

I could go on and on about Chauncey's donors. but you should take a look for yourself.

https://www.voterfocus.com/CampaignFinance/candidate_pr.php?op=cv&e=21&c=Duval&ca=840&rellevel=4&committee=N

Our democratic process is being subverted by millionaires many of whom don't live in the city nor sent their children to our public schools. We aren't being led, we are being ruled.