- September 7, 2024
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Voters will get their first chance to decide who will represent District 4 on the Volusia County Council come the Aug. 20 primary election.
Three candidates are currently vying for the seat: Incumbent School Board member Carl Persis and challengers Donna Brosemer and Sarah Marzilli. If no candidate wins 50% of the vote, plus one, at the primary, then the top two candidates will go into a run-off in the November general election. All three candidates participated in Citizens For Ormond Beach's candidate forum at the Ormond Beach Senior Center on Wednesday, July 17.
Persis has been representing District 4 on the School Board since 2016. He was reelected in 2020 with no opposition. A former teacher, he worked as a school principal for 27 years. He isa former Ormond Beach City Commissioner and mayor, and former Volusia County Council District 4 representative.
"There isn't anything more important that children, because children are the future of our country," Persis said.
Marzilli is the art teacher at Pine Trail Elementary School in Ormond Beach. She has been teaching for 15 years and grew up in a family with many educators.
"I have been working to make sure that everyone knows that my campaign is about transparency in our school district," Marzilli said.
Brosemer is a former lobbyist with 30 years of experience working in public policy. She has served on higher education state boards, such as the Daytona State College board of trustees, and previously worked as a community relations specialist for Embrace Families, a foster care nonprofit.
"An educated population produces stable communities," Brosemer said. "After retiring from a 30-year career in public policy, I thought this was an opportunity for me to contribute, to add value, to Volusia County."
Here is how these candidates answered CFOB's questions.
Question: What do you think Volusia County School students should be taught about climate change?
Marzilli said the curriculum for students comes from the state.
"So whatever they deem is applicable to our students is what we are as educators instilled to have to teach in our classrooms," she said.
Persis said students should be taught honestly about every subject.
"Whether it's climate change or racial injustice, whatever it is — let's be honest about it and teach them in an intellectual way that is relative to their age," Persis said. "There is a scientific consensus around the world that we are experiencing a climate change and that's what student need to know about it."
Brosemer said schools are not the place for the "buzzwords for each decade."
"They should be taught science, but not necessarily from a political point of view," Brosemer said. "Science is not determined by a consensus. It is constantly evolving and asking questions and making discoveries, and those are the things that students should be taught to look into and study and explore."
Question: How would you as a board member ensure that the state law and established district policy are followed each and every time a book is subject to a challenge?
Persis said the School Board has to comply with the law, but the law is flawed.
"In a nutshell, one parent should not be able to dictate their values on everybody else in the whole district, and that's what's happening now," Persis said.
Brosemer said there's a contradiction now between the state law and the district's policy, the latter of which she said was made as complicated as possible to discourage book challenges.
"The fact is that there have been obscenity laws on the books for long than I've been alive that restrict the materials that can be provided to minors," Brosemer said. "There is a long list of books that violate those restrictions. The district has an obligation to comply, not only with the new law that was passed, but also with the existing laws that were already on the books that apply to this literature."
Marzilli said she believes the School Board has to follow the state laws that are mandated. New guidelines also dictate book challengers must be residents of the county in which school district they are asking for book reviews.
"I would want to make sure that any books that were previously brought up and questions are reviewed based off of who was the person bringing that book up for a possible concern," she said.
Question: What would you do to make our schools safer for children who want to walk to school?
Brosemer said she was astonished at the recent Sugar Mill Elementary School incident where a child died after being struck by a car in the parent pickup loop. It's hard for her to understand, she said, why nothing was done despite there being knowledge that there were traffic issues at that school.
"I would strongly support making sure that every school has a crossing guard at every point where students have to get into traffic," she said.
Persis said the Sugar Mill Elementary School incident was horrible, and recalled the three deaths of students he experienced during his time as a principal. The district relies on crossing guards for safety, he said.
"We have great cooperation from law enforcement in every city, however, law enforcement — they do not have the personnel to guarantee that they can put people at every single school to direct traffic in the morning or afternoon," Persis said.
Marzilli said the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is hiring crossing guards and that she would like to look at all the schools in the district to ensure they all have a crossing guard, and when possible, a law enforcement officer to direct traffic.
"We also need to make sure that we as schools are reaching out to our parents and community— when we're dropping our students off, we need to make sure that we're not on our cell phones when we're driving," Marzilli said.
Question: What would you do to hire the most qualified persons for instructional and support positions?
Marzilli said recruiting for these positions has to do with wages. People leave VCS to teach in other districts that offer better pay and benefits, she said.
"Wages are very important when it comes to salaries for each individual, whether it be teachers or staff," she said. "If we have competitive wages in our district, we're going to encourage people to come to our district and stay here."
Persis said there is a clear wage issue, ranking 50th in the country in average teacher salary. The state ranks 16th in starting teacher salaries — but veteran teachers find themselves not making much above their starting pay a decade later.
"We can't attract veteran teachers from other states because they look at what they're making," he said. "... When they look to transfer here, they're saying, 'Oh no, I can't take that kind of a pay cut.'"
Brosemer said it's not just about the money. The classrooms are chaotic, she said, and teachers retire or leave the profession because they can't handle the classroom conditions.
"We have a student code of conduct that we don't appropriately enforce, and as long as we have chaotic classrooms and we hamstring our teachers so that they can't remove disruptive students, then we are not going to be able to recruit good teachers for our classrooms," she said.
Question: What would be your ideal cell phone policy in the classroom?
Persis said ideally, students would not have cell phones, but parents want to be able to contact their child.
"It is a distraction, to say the least," Persis said. "If we could not have cell phones, that would be great."
Brosemer said parents that want to communicate with their child could provide them with flip phones or beepers. It's the smartphones that are the problem, she said.
"I agree that they should not be in any classroom at any time, but there may be a middle ground for those parents who want to be able to communicate with their kids," she said.
Marzilli said there is a cell phone policy in place and she wants to make sure it's being followed consistently. Cell phones are not always a bad thing, she added.
"We do live in a very technology influence world," Marzilli said. "We want to make sure that students know that there is a time and a place for the cell phone."
Question: What are your intentions for disabled students who are currently required to take assessments at grade level?
Brosemer said ESE is a complicated issue and the issue needs to be addressed at the individual student level.
"I think we need to fundamentally look at the mission of the school district, and that is education," Brosemer said. "When we bring in a variety of disabilities that need to be addressed, I think we need to be honest with ourselves and our policies of what's appropriate to be expected."
Marzilli said she would like the district to ensure the ESE students are being challenged at a level appropriate for them.
"I would like to see our district make sure that we're working with the ESE community as well as in Tallahassee to make sure that these tests that are mandated have rule in place for ESE situations," Marzilli said.
Persis said ESE students have to have an IEP — Individual Education Plan – which dictates how the child can be taught and assessed.
"There's no one-size fits all," Persis said. "It's called an Individual Education Plan and whatever is in that plan, that's how the child must be assessed."
