August 20, 2024 Primary Election Palm Beach County, Florida School Board District 5
In February I wrote about a debate I attended between the two Republican candidates for Sheriff in Part I. This post I will be focusing on a debate that was held between three of the candidates for the District 5 position for the Palm Beach County School District School Board.
First, to clarify, the Palm Beach County, School District 5 position will be voted on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 in the Primary Election. School Board is a non-partisan local government position. Since this is a primary election, people will receive a different ballot according to either the Democratic, Republican, or Nonpartisan voter’s registration preference. But the five people running for PBCSD Board District 5 will appear on all three of these ballots, unlike sheriff regardless of their particular party status.
A winner for District 5 could also emerge from this Primary Election on August 20, 2024, but it is unlikely since the winner must secure more than 51% of the votes which will be difficult with five people running. Most likely whoever the two individuals who secure the highest percentage of votes will then run off on November 5, 2024.
The Palm Beach County School Board is comprised of 7 districts that do NOT geographically coordinate with the the 7 districts for the Palm Beach County County Commissioners Board. Why this is is a whole additional subject. In short, I view it as a convenient complication to keep the normal citizen ignorant and unaware of their local governance. Stay with me though so that you can change this and hold these leaders accountable. After all, the school district taxes your property without homestead relief, determines its own millage rate, and is the largest business in Palm Beach County with an astronomical budget funded by your public tax dollars.
PBCSB like most boards rotate terms so approximately half of the board is up for election at the same time. This also allows for incumbents to have time to merge into the board and learn the system should they be new, which many of the American Founding Fathers envisioned. People would leave their farms and businesses for a time to serve their community. They would then return to their farms or businesses. Each would take their turn leading. This professional politician game where they move from different position to position isn’t what was intended.
School Board members serve for a four year term. This year, 2024 the seats that are up are Districts 1,2, and 5. Women Impacting the Nation, founded by Trombino hosted a Candidate Forum at the August monthly Charter Meeting Tuesday evening in School Board District 5 in Boca Raton. The leadership of WIN asked three of the school board candidates who were present several questions followed by the audience. The three candidates present were Gloria Branch, Mike Letsky, and Suzanne Page.
Each were given an opportunity to answer, but Branch rudely interrupted Letsky early on because she didn’t like that he was differentiating himself from her. Meanwhile Ms. Branch was the one who went first and arrogantly claimed to be the ONLY one… blah ,blah, blah. Heated exchanged calmed down and civil dialogue ensued.
Branch began to sound like a broken record resaying the same things over and over again. My teen daughter who I took with me for her summer homeschool civics field trip found it amusing that a grown woman would claim experience because her father was a principal and superintendent in the past. We are also puzzled why a “successful banker” would give that career up in order to be a substitute teacher. If she cares so much why didn’t she share specific plans that she has to implement if elected?
She just kept harping on getting back to the basics of “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” Thankfully she didn’t refer to them as the “Three R’s.” It might be a catchy phrase, but it’s a terrible way to teach reading, spelling, and writing. It’s already confusing enough for students to differentiate between write, rite, and right! Then its just sloppy speaking to claim that R in arithmetic. But this was the slogan to start public schools in the beginning of the 19th century. See my blog on Private, Public, or Homeschool The Answer Part II in the references below for that bunny trail.
Back to the school board debate, Mr. Letsky specified that student scores and learning were not improving with the laptop curriculums. He shared data on this and proposed ditching these costly programs in order to replace it with returning to empowering teachers to lead daily instruction and require students to read physical books.
Letzky also impressively articulated specific ideas of where to cut wastefully spending in the budget to increase teacher salaries and benefits in order to retain talent. Details like “15.5 million dollars were spent on Multi-Cultural a.k.a. DEI curriculum and 5.5 million dollars were spent on Social Emotional Learning, SEC.” He understands what I blogged about curriculum this time last year. See that story in the references below.
Mike is also aware of the busing and transportation problems and has solutions to address them. Good talent needs to be retained through good leadership, respect, and decent pay.
Suzanne Page kept calling herself Pitbull Page. She promised to address the DEI problem in the schools. Dr. Page also promised to deal with the bloated budget. She pointed out that PBCSD has 24 different lawyers whose incomes are consuming some of the wasteful expenses. She didn’t seem too excited about increasing teacher pay like Letsky.
Obviously, I’m endorsing Letsky. But look up the candidates web pages, read, and determine for yourself. I included the link for Letsky’s below. Branch has her page designed to take over mine when I tried to insert it, so I ditched it. Her page should be easy to find because she raised a lot of money from donors outside of the county unlike Letsky. 71 of Mike’s donors are grassroots locals who care to change the board. If Suzanne Page has a web site, I couldn’t find it. I’m sure she’s a great person with good values, but it’s hard to envision her being successful in what she claims she will do.
Two other candidates are on the ballot who were not present at this debate. Mindy Koch who is boasting that she is endorsed by former Chair of the Board, Frank Barbiari, Jr. I’m curious if this man still has any supporters. The disrespectful way he treated the public at board meetings revealed him as a tyrant. The other candidate is Charman Postel. Both of these women are democrats with progressive views. I’m guessing that’s why they weren’t at WIN’s debate.
One closing thought, understand the reason for public school, how it is funded, and operated before you cast your vote. It’s one of the most important government businesses that affects you and your community whether you have children in the system or not.
https://ballotpedia.org/Statewide_primary_elections_calendar
Click this link to find your sample ballot: https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Precinct-Finder