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Tuesday, August 6, 2024The Daytona Beach News Journal ran this article on the School Board Candidates Forum.
Some voters' ballots for the Aug. 20 primary election are limited to just a handful of races, but from Ormond Beach to Ponce Inlet, voters will have a say in a consequential one: Volusia County School Board, where the teaching of Black history and book challenges are among the key issues.
With the start of early voting just a week away, five of the six nonpartisan candidates for two school board seats sat in front of a painting of Florida's most celebrated educator, Mary McLeod Bethune, and responded to nearly two hours of questions.
The League of Women Voters of Volusia County, Daytona Beach branch of the NAACP and the Volusia County African American Leadership Council hosted the forum at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach on Saturday, August 3, 2024. Ann Smith of the League of Women Voters moderated, asking a mix of questions from the sponsoring organizations and attendees. About 50 people attended.
There are two races. In District 2, covering Daytona Beach, part of Port Orange and down the coast to Ponce Inlet, three women are looking to fill a vacancy left by the departing Anita Burnette: Cassandra Gonyer, Krista Goodrich and Angela Kopnicky. And in northeastern Volusia's District 4, incumbent Carl Persis is being challenged by Donna Brosemer and Sarah Marzilli, the only candidate not present Saturday. Organizers said Marzilli had a prior family commitment out of town.
Here's a look at each of the candidates' pitches on why they should be elected and their responses to two questions.
Donna Brosemer: Experience in public policy
“The school board is a public policy board, and I spent 30 years in public policy. My areas of particular interest were higher education, local government, and agriculture and natural resources, and because of that background, a school board member has to know a broad range of subjects, not just curriculum. ... I felt that this was a good place for me to bring my level of experience to Volusia County.”
Carl Persis: 'Bullish' on Volusia County
“I got into education in 1975. Helping children ... gives me great joy, as a teacher, as an assistant principal. I was a principal for almost 30 years. ... I have also served as ... the mayor of Ormond Beach, ... Volusia County (Council) for eight years. ... I've been on the school board for eight years. ... My heart and soul is in Volusia County Schools. I'm a Volusia County school product, graduated from Seabreeze High School. I'm bullish on Volusia County.”
Cassandra Gonyer: 'Voice of a current teacher' and parent
“I want to bring that voice of a current teacher and a current parent to school board. ... Decisions are made at the school board level without really knowing how it's impacting families, and I want to be there to tell them exactly how it's impacting my family. ... I've served on the Parent-Teacher Association both at (Turie T. Small Elementary) and at the county level. ... I am very invested in having both the voices of parents and teachers involved in their schools.”
Krista Goodrich: 'A financial background'
“I've started over 20 businesses. I have several here in town as well as in other states. I have a bit of a financial background. ... Our schools are ... one of the largest if not the largest employer in the county and we're educating over 60,000 kids. We have a missing link on our board right now and that is we don't have someone with a big business or a financial background. I think I can fill that gap. Why is that so important? Because it starts with the money.”
Angela Kopnicky: 'Teaching a science-based curriculum'
“I've had all four of my children graduate through Volusia County Schools. ... The United States used to be in the top and now we're in the bottom when it comes to educating our kids. ... I want to go back to teaching a sciencebased curriculum, where our children are learning with proficiency how to learn, not what to learn. They are leaving high school not prepared for the real world, and you wonder why mental health is off the charts.”
Black history is U.S. history. How will you promote and support teaching the contributions of African-Americans?
Gonyer: “I'm going to follow the law. I'm not going to tell the teacher to stop following the law, but I'm going to remind them and empower and encourage them that they have freedom. Their students have freedom to choose the books they can read, the class discussions that they lead. ... Right where this campus is ... we see the impacts of what's been done in the African-American community, so it's not something that was so long ago. It's still happening now.”
Kopnicky: “It starts with the curriculum. I think we can go through and try and find a curriculum that would teach more African-American history, first of all, and then teach it in its entirety and not skip around. If you're going to teach it and if you're one of those history teachers or civics teachers that's wanting to teach it not be ashamed of how you're going to teach it and not get away from the actual curriculum.”
Goodrich: “If you think it's been taken too far out, then we can advocate together to make changes at the state level. I'm going to agree that we can't as a school board member do anything outside of the law. We have to do what's been set for us. But we can create situations for children where they can go to the libraries, go and get books, study more outside of what's being taught in the current curriculum to get more educated.”
Persis: “Every child should know backwards and forwards about Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. ... And then Jackie Robinson, right here, breaking the professional baseball color barrier. ... This is something we should be taking advantage of so students can really understand some of great contributions. ... Any subject can be taught to any grade if it's done in an intellectually honest manner and that means age-appropriateness. African-American history is not a one-month deal.”
Brosemer: “I agree with most everything that's been said here, but I want to take it a step further. We, of course, have to follow the state curriculum, but if we imposed fewer tests on our teachers, there would be more time for that curriculum to be broadened, for them to expand what they're able to teach their students, the experiences they give them. Right now the state imposes three tests. The district imposes more than a dozen more tests, so the teachers are constantly jumping from test to test.”
Book challenges and curriculum content continue to be an issue here in Volusia County. As a school board member, how will you choose to handle a reading of the controversial excerpts triggering book removal without going to the district policy?
Brosemer: “The district policy has created a very arcane and complicated way to address this, largely to discourage any book challenges. And this is something that was not an issue until relatively recently. There was a cultural understanding of what was age-appropriate and so books that typically would be found in an adult bookstore were not sent by vendors to K-12 libraries. That's not the case anymore. I think it's necessary to look at what the statute requires and maybe make our policy conform more closely to that process because right now it does not.”
Persis: “We've never had books in Volusia County schools that would be found in an adult bookstore. ... The state law is hopelessly flawed. ... Here's the way it goes. A parent comes to the school board meeting, starts reading from a book. ... If the school board chairs says, 'I don't like that, stop reading that passage....' immediately that book is removed from all of the Volusia County School Board libraries ... and it's labeled pornographic if it had any sexual content in any way. ... Two people decided that book should not be on any shelf anywhere where any child can have access to it. That is wrong.”
Goodrich: “We have a lot of work to do at the state level to overcome what has become clearly the biggest issue that I've encountered in the nine months that I have been campaigning. It's the No. 1 question that I get asked: 'Are you a book banner?' ... It's not a oneside- or-the-other topic. There are certainly books that do not belong in our schools that have somehow found their way in, and that had to be addressed, right? ... We have to come up with a much more efficient way of making sure that our books are the correct books, that are age appropriate.”
Gonyer: “I agree with (Persis) that I don't think it's right that one parent ... and one school board member should be the one to decide what the entire district gets to read. ... I'm actually way more concerned with ... things that students are looking at on their cellphones than I will ever be with the books they're checking out, because especially teaching high school I can tell you that they're not checking the books out. Actually, the books that are being challenged are being checked out more because they have been challenged because that's how teenagers are.”
Kopnicky: “From Day 1, I would say I could care less about the books. I was more concerned about cellphones. ... With kids, they are smarter than we'll ever be. They'll know how to go in and delete the history so you can't see what website they went on, so I wasn't focused on the books, because I think that that's a distraction. ... And one thing that we're not focusing on is our children receiving a quality education. So therefore, my answer is I don't have a say on books. Parents may choose what they want their children to read.”
Reported by Mark Harper, Daytona Beach News Journal.
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