Listen to all three District 6 candidates in the podcasts below.
TAMPA -- Three candidates are vying for the District 6 seat on the Hillsborough school board.
Incumbent Karen Perez, elected in 2018, is asking for another four-year term. Perez raised three children as a single parent and has been an advocate for mental health support in the school board, in part because of her own family history. Perez calls that her greatest accomplishment on the board. "I have been a champion of mental health for our students." Otherwise, she says, funding has always been an issue. "Our charter schools received $198 million for maintenance alone. Public schools received $11 million. Funding matters."
Hiring teachers: Our teachers don't seem to get compensated for what they do. That didn't start overnight. We need to start valuing the profession that gets our children ready for their future, prepares our children to be our future leaders, by teaching them to read, to write, to add, to subtract. Our children are prepared because of our teachers, and it seems like they're the last ones that we dignify with pay. They're the last in the conversation in Tallahassee or Washington. We fight more about property values than the value we place in teachers.
Referendum: Whether it passes or not, it's only a four year fix. That's a Band-Aid. We need to find a solution that is going to be practical, that's going to stabilize the pay for our teachers going forward. I don't think anybody would be OK with "We'll give you a raise and then we'll go backwards." The cost of living continues to go forward. When I look at our finances, there are a lot of multi million dollars contracts that I believe we need to look at. Reassess and renegotiate those contracts, and (give) that money to teachers.
Parental rights: "Parents have always had rights. Parents rights in the schools and classrooms have always been respected. One of the things our public schools are known for is... welcoming of the parents, that opening the front doors and allowing parents to be part (of education). How long has the PTA been around? Schools (have always been) parent centered and parent focused."
An issue she'd like to focus on if re-elected A study on children being bused long distances. "Many children are being transported on a bus an hour and a half. It does not allow them to get enough time for tutoring, (or) after school activities or sports. We have so many underutilized schools in many areas." Perez says long-distance busing is affecting parental interaction and may be feeding the school-to-prison pipeline.
Perez is endorsed by the Florida Democratic Party.
---
Aly Marie Legge is an Army veteran from a military family. Her husband is 20 year retired veteran, and they have five children.
Legge says she was motivated to run in 2020 when school districts decided to close schools and require children to wear masks. Legge has a special needs child. "I spoke up at school board meetings for mine and other special needs children... who had doctors notes that they can't mask up due to anxiety. The lockdown (also) had adverse effects on students that couldn't get food." She adds that children who were at home with their abusers were stuck at home with their Abusers. She says the district had to spend a lot of money to help children without wi-fi and other amenities keep up during remote learning. "We expressed our frustration of students being sent home to quarantine for two weeks. We were ostracized...We were told that parents are 'too stupid' to know what's best for their children. It put a lot of strain on our families. " Legge says she took her special needs student out for homeschooling. That student is now AB+, transitioning back to public education.
Legge says here experience with remote teaching gave her concerns about curriculum. She says teachers told her son to denounces his white stepfather, and that the Constitution could be abandoned during a national emergency. She decided that "I can't trust anyone but me to do what's best for my children, now's the time"
"I just want to make sure that our parents have a voice. Parents have been pushed aside. Our staff says that parents need to be involved but they are pushed aside and set aside."
Legge says she wants to make sure students have consistent teachers and a supportive administration. Legge says teachers have told her they feel they don't have support and can't speak up without being ostracized. She wants to get more parents involved and keep the schoolhouse door open to them.
Legge says the school system must balance its budget. On the property tax increase that goes to a referendum on the same ballot, Legge says the citizens should decide, but accuses the school district of "propaganda" in favor of the tax hike. "Right now, I don't believe our district has done its due diligence before going to the public...Our budget is three point five billion dollars... Teacher pay should be ..funded first and not subject to a renewable tax. They're also not taking account of increased property tax revenue. You're going to force people to choose between gas, food and rent or property taxes...To ask teachers to tax themselves to get a raise is disrespectful... Teachers and students should be funded first not last.
Legge says now is the time to change the status quo, saying "we're in the same position we have been in for decades."
She says the challenges of hiring and retaining teachers are pay, culture and curriculum. She adds that teachers are refusing to come back because of violence and behavioral issues in classrooms. She says the district should have been proactive by installing a teacher apprenticeship program, to encourage current students to go on to college and come back to teach. She wonders why superintendent Addison Davis is calling for a referendum to pay teacher's salaries after firing staff in 2020. "The only reason we're in the black is covid relief money. We don't have enough money to pay teachers but we have enough to give Davis a raise. We can't say one thing and do another."
Legge is also concerned about books in school libraries that she describes as "porn." "Who has approved these materials and how we can remove access to porn in schools." Legge says she and other parents aren't blaming teachers but are blowing the whistle. She says there are books with vivid explanations and depictions of sex acts. "That is a felony to have in our classrooms. I would like to see a robust way of vetting these books to make sure children don't have access to porn on campus.... It's not about banning books... it shouldn't be part of any extracurricular reading."
Legge is endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
---
Roshuan Gendrett is a former remedial reading teacher from the Los Angeles area. He decided to run about the low literacy rates in Hillsborough County. "I am focused on really helping our youth to be able to read, because if they're not able to read, it will lead to other problems (such as) the school to prison pipeline." He says that while some of that is due to the pandemic, scores were dismal before. Gendrett says a child who cannot read, faces a future of failure.
Gendrett says financial transparency for the district is also an issue. "Our parents have lost trust in Hillsborough County to manage money wisely.
On the teacher shortage, Gendrett says the district needs to use bonuses and also reward longterm teachers, while acknowledging the district will need help from the Legislature.
On parental rights, Gendrett says "The issue is that, the parents and community of Hillsborough have lost faith and trust in our school board. Parents not only need to be at the table, they need to have a large voice. I will make sure our parents voices are heard and listened to. We have to make sure that when a parent drops off a child at school, they don't lose their parental rights."
Gendrett says a top priority for him is expanding pre-K and VPK. "We need to stop thinking about (children only) once they're school age." Gendrett says 50 percent of those entering kindergarten aren't ready.
Listen to all three District 6 candidates in the podcasts below.
Photo: Canva