The District 2 school board race explained, Vote Andersen and experience over Howland and Hubris
health counselor Elizabeth Anderson going against Navy veteran and businessman
Nick Howland. Before I continue you should know the corporate reform movement
hardly ever supports teachers preferring to go with the businessmen to lead our
schools a pattern you will see when we discuss the other two races.
Howland took in 56,559 dollars or more than all the other candidates, 4,
combined.
and received 4,823 votes for $1.09 a vote. Nick Howland spent $51,496 dollars
or nearly ten times as much and received 6,678 votes for a cost of $7.72 per
vote. I am told he spent 17 thousand on his commercial, where he touted that he
was a conservative businessman which should have raised flags for many, as
school board races are supposed to be nonpartisan because what is best for our
children is supposed to transcend political ideology. Howland however has taken
every opportunity he could to let people know he is a republican even having
the republican party of Jacksonville canvas for him.
questionable decision. He also accepted
a defacto endorsement from the Seaside Charter school when he accepted an
invitation to the ribbon cutting ceremony where they proceeded to push his
candidacy for the school board. Public schools and nonprofits are not supposed
to engage in political activities but that did not stop the Seaside charter
school and Nick Howland.
false data to push his narrative that DCPS schools are not safe, claiming if we
continued the way they were going then 1 in 11 of all students would be a
victim. When the blog education matter pointed out what he was doing he changed
his campaign web page but made no mention of the mistake he repeated for
months.

His campaign site currently.

oops, sorry got the years and numbers wrong.
only changed his page after a blog pointed out he had the numbers and year
wrong. That means for months he went out saying something that was at best
wrong. With no effort on his part to get things right.
important? The Times Union reported that it’s a small percentage of kids that
are constantly in trouble and getting in fights but that probably wouldn’t sell
as well on the stump.
one fight let alone several thousand is to many I would agree, though to be
honest that’s not a plan to fix things, but he is saying, if this trend continues, nearly 1 of every 11 students
could be a victim every year. He’s saying that to scare people
because he thinks scared people will vote for him.
contribution from 30 people or companies and the Times Union reported that he
received money from several PACS and many of his donors are known to support
charters and private school scholarships.
Nick Howland’s resume is nearly identical to the current school board member
Scott Shine whose resume was nearly identical to his predecessors Fred “Fel”
Lee. All are wealthy business men who
nibbled on the edges of public service having never been elected but having
served on various boards and none having anything approaching relevant
education experience.
the other candidates for the district 2 school board seat, Shannon Beckham,
Casey Ayers and Sam Hall have all rallied behind Elizabeth Andersen and her
uniquely qualified background, being both a former teacher and a current mental
health counselor in an era when schools are finally starting to take mental
health seriously.
The district 4 school board race explained, vote Smith over Willie who has to many poor ideas and dubious connections
Smith versus Teach for America executive Darryl Willie who has been in
Jacksonville for seven years and has now run for school board twice.
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.
Counseling and leadership while Willie has no certifications.
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.
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.
board then the two of them may be able to reverse TFA Jax’s current standing.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.

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?
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.
donated at least $4,000, records show. Ten political action committees
contributed, including the Watchdog PAC, First Coast Conservatives, and
Floridians for Economic Freedom.
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.

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?
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
Paula Wright goes all in for Cynthia Smith in the district 4 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
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.
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.
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
and taking millions of dollars from our anti public education secretary of education, Betsy Devos
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.
From the Times Union:
Generally experience is the most valuable asset for a politician.
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.
DeSantis says education has plenty of money, and its just wasting what it has.
From The Tampa Times:
Superintendent Greene’s troublesome leadership style
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,
Duval county public schools elects to give into fear
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,