- November 18, 2024
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When he moved to Palm Coast in 1999, John Fischer, a former insurance agent, couldn’t help thinking about the billboards he saw along the highways advertising the state lottery and touting the amount of money it puts into education.
He wondered how it was being spent. So he called the lottery to ask.
“They didn’t give me a satisfying answer,” he said. “They told me to call the governor’s office. So I called the governor’s office, and they gave me the same answer.”
The issue got him thinking about school funding.
In 2005, he said, he ran for the Flagler County School Board for the first time, losing to Evelyn Shellenberger.
During the race, he said, a local reporter asked him if he’d stay involved with the school system even if he lost.
“I said, ‘Well, absolutely I will. Absolutely, if I do not win I will stay involved in the school system,’” Ficher said.
In the intervening years before his election, Fischer said, he attended about 100 School Board meetings.
Fischer is running against challenger Janet McDonald, who came in just ahead of him in the primary: She got 32.8% of the vote in the primary — which also included candidates Toni Baker and Lynette Calendar — and Fischer got 32.62%.
Fischer became an unexpected figure of controversy in 2011, when his wife Jamesine was charged with — and, in 2013, sentenced to 25 months for — leaving the scene of a car crash that killed a 76-year-old woman.
Priorities and successes
Fischer said he would like to see the school district lengthen school days by 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half to replace time lost because of budget cuts, add more vocational-technology programs, and improve mental health plans and programs in the schools.
“We need real help with mental health,” he said. “Mental health is a situation again we need to be aware of; we need to be communicating
with each other, looking for the signs. … We need to start communicating, work out some kinds of plans and programs,” he said.
With the rest of the board, he recently supported a decision to take a closer look at the district’s inclusion program, which places students with disabilities in general education classrooms.
The program has been spurred by state mandates, he said, but “seeing these children and the issues that they have, I just feel that the state mandated too much.” Fischer said inclusion can work, “but it has to be done correctly. … It has to be in a kind of a progression. But
one size does not fit all.”
He said the district also needs to work on “trying to narrow the minority gap, whether it be in hiring, or helping the students” through tutoring and mentoring programs.
And the district was just a few points from an A ranking this year, he said, and could work to gain that status. He said he believes the district can also do more to improve student safety, without adding more school resource officers.
Fischer said he considers the district’s flagship programs some of its greatest successes, along with it’s uniform policy, which he pushed for.
He also pointed to special initiatives like the paperless program at Belle Terre Elementary, which drew a visit from the superintendent of Miami-Dade County schools, he said.
“There are so many school districts that are contacting Flagler County
for the things that they’re doing,” he said.
Arts and academics
Fischer said he supports the district’s most academically demanding programs: Advanced Placement classes and the IB program at Flagler Palm Coast High School.
“(IB) is something I would like to expand if we could,” an issue that comes down to budget constraints, he said.
He said, “I’m very proud and our school district is very proud, because we’ve been able to maintain the arts … your strings program and various other programs” while other districts have cut them, he said. “
I have to say that Flagler County is one of the top counties maintaining the arts, and the arts are very important in making a
well-rounded child,” he said.
Leadership, weaknesses and strengths
Fischer said he considers himself a “supporter and motivator” of students and schools, and is known for it.
“The reputation’s ‘John Fischer’s everywhere.’” He said. “The kids, the teachers, I’m out there listening to them.”
He said he has “learned how the School Board works, where you’re only one vote,” and has become respected as a “team player.”
He said he has shown leadership by staking out positions on controversial issues — school uniforms, for instance — and that if he needs more information on something, he consults staff to get it.
“I’m a proven leader; I’m a proven motivator. I make things happen. I listen. I do my due diligence,” he said. As for weaknesses, Fischer said he has “a tendency sometimes to talk too fast, and the words get bumbled.”
And, he said, “I just can’t handle the folks who are negative all the time, and they don’t want to do anything about it. …I think that I just get upset about people being negative. I mean, we’re trying to work together as a school district with the kids.”
Asked what sets him apart from Janet McDonald, he initially declined to answer because he said he didn’t want to engage in negative campaigning.
But he said, “There are a lot of people that have beautiful resumes, and they should be very proud of that, but you have to put that into action and work with everybody.”
“I love what I’m doing, and I’m sincere,” he said. “I just love what I do, and it comes from my heart.”
Previous press coverage of John Fischer:
Click here to view previous Palm Coast Observer stories about John Fischer, here to view FlaglerLive stories and here to view Daytona Beach News-Journal stories.
