- September 13, 2024
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District 5 School Board Candidate Lauren Ramirez answers a question at the Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition School Board forum. Photo by Brent Woronoff
District 3 School Board candidate Derek Barrs. Photo by Brent Woronoff
District 5 School Board candidate Vincent Sullivan. Photo by Brent Woronoff
School Board District 3 candidate Janie Ruddy. Photo by Brent Woronoff
School Board candidate Lauren Ramirez. Photo by Brent Woronoff
School Board candidate Janie Ruddy. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition's Marian Irvin was the moderator at the forum. Photo by Brent Woronoff
What impressed Travis and Leigh Anne Sundell the most about the Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition’s Flagler County School Board candidate forum was the civility among the four candidates.
“Sometimes you come to these and they’re more arguments than a forum,” Travis Sundell said.
“We got to hear where they stand without the negativity,” Leigh Anne Sundell added.
The July 29 forum at the Carver Center in Bunnell was the first of three School Board candidate forums scheduled on consecutive nights. The candidates were also slated to participate in a forum sponsored by the Flagler County NAACP on July 30 at the African American Cultural Society following the County Commission forum.
And a virtual candidate debate was scheduled for 5 p.m. July 31 on the Flagler News Weekly Facebook page moderated by Flagler News Weekly Editor Danielle Anderson and Carmen Sanders of Flagler Schools Parents Facebook group.
Two of the five School Board seats are up for grabs in the Aug. 20 primary. Both seats will be occupied by new members with Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro retiring in November.
Janie Ruddy is running against Derek Barrs for the District 3 seat. Ruddy, a former Teacher of the Year at Rymfire Elementary School, has 13 years of teaching experience and is currently the director of Professional Learning for n2y, which distributes special education software, curriculum and learning tools. Barrs, a former Florida Highway Patrol chief, has 33 years of experience in law enforcement and is currently an associate vice president at HNTB Corporation, a transportation consulting firm.
In District 5, Lauren Ramirez, owner of Salus Medical Training and a mother of four Flagler Schools students, is running against attorney Vincent Sullivan, a partner with Chiumento Law and a board member of the Flagler County Education Foundation.
The four candidates were not only polite at the July 29 forum but seemed to be in agreement on many of the questions that Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition Board Chair Marian Irvin tossed out.
“Most of them see eye to eye with each other,” Travis Sundell observed.
They are all in favor of a diploma-plus program in which high school graduates achieve industry certifications or dual-enrollment degrees in addition to their high school diplomas. Ruddy, Sullivan and Ramirez said the district should make sure that all classrooms have permanent teachers, and they all agreed that to retain teachers, the district should increase teacher pay.
“I have a friend whose son didn’t have a (permanent) teacher the whole year last year,” Ramirez said. “We are 11 teachers short. Even one teacher short is too short.”
They disagreed on leasing the historic county courthouse to provide space for some programs.
“What’s the structural integrity of that building?” Sullivan asked, adding that the maintenance problems of an old building could become a burden. Ruddy agreed while Ramirez and Barrs said the building should be utilized.
They were asked to suggest strategies that would help the district attain an A grade. It has had a B grade three years in a row since the pandemic.
Barrs said the key is attracting and retaining teachers. Ramirez said ESE scores brought the district’s grade down and suggested help in that area. Ruddy said more students need to be involved in AP, IB, AICE and certification programs. Sullivan noted that literacy and comprehension scores for third and fourth graders were low. That’s the age group that was learning to read during remote learning, he said.
“Let’s focus on these students. They had no choice in what happened,” he said.
They were asked about the separation of church and state. Sullivan, Ramirez and Barrs are in favor of the new law allowing chaplains and patriotic organizations to host programs on campus. Chaplains can help students with mental issues, Ramirez said.
“Every student has different needs,” Ramirez said, noting that vetted volunteers can assist district professionals.
Barrs agreed. “Are we pushing religion on anybody? Absolutely not,” he said. The program doesn’t promote one religion over another, Sullivan said.
But Ruddy said a government entity is not a place for church and wondered what instructional time would be sacrificed to accommodate those programs.
