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ON NUTRITION:
It is high time that we have a school board member who is invested in improving the quality of food in our county's schools. As your school board member, I will:
- Work with other board members to create a policy which instructs the Office of Student Nutrition Services to purchase healthier food, source more local food, and avoid serving any foods which are unnecessarily high in sugar or salt, or that contain harmful additives, preservatives, or GMO's. This policy will require that hormone free, organic milk replaces what is currently served at this time. Below are the facts regarding milk in the schools now, and what we can do to help the Office of Student Nutrition Services provide better milk for our students, teachers, and faculty.
- Support an initiative to establish a location which the Office of Student Nutrition Services will use to properly train employees, test recipes, and cater. The Office of Student Nutrition Services would need to use a school cafeteria to train employees or test recipes - and it is clear to me that a kitchen space would be beneficial to our county's nutritional preparedness. Hillsborough County feeds 215,000 students, and only five school districts in the nation feed more students than we do. Our school cafeterias need to be well equipped and well prepared.
- Talk to principals about switching the vending machines - which currently serve numerous junk and candy foods - with vending machines that supply only nutritious, low-sugar and non-additive snacks and beverages for our students and faculty. Principals are responsible for vending machines in the schools, and according to the Office of Student Nutrition Services, principals have the final say on whether or not the vending machines in their respective schools will be replaced.
ON TRANSPARENCY:
- As your school board member, I will be a consistent advocate for policies and initiatives which enable information kept by the school board and it's various departments to be FREE and OPEN to the public by the internet as well as on paper. The taxpayers of Hillsborough County are owed free access to information that affects them and their children. I will openly advocate to have the School Board Workshops filmed and available online to the public.
- Issues regarding transparency, and the freedom of information, will definitely have an impact on my decisions to vote in favor of, or against nominees for political appointment which the school board has to approve.
- No monies will be spent by this campaign for negative advertisements. I refuse to take part in what is truly an unproductive media-corporate-political trend that tolerates, and even encourages what I call "mudslinging." Too often, political candidates allow petty streams of attacks to fog up their campaign, and hide the important issues. Throughout this campaign, my priority will be to share dialogue on those issues, and focus on advocating conclusions and ideas that benefit the people of Hillsborough County, and their schools.
ON EDUCATION:
- The quarterly parent-teacher conferences need to better accommodate parent work schedules. In many schools across Hillsborough County, these conferences begin at 4:30 PM and end at 6:30 PM. With many parents working until 6 PM, a more sensible time for these conferences to be held would be from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. It is crucial to the future of education that parents maintain a vested interest in their child's success, and parent-teacher conferences provide precious time to parents who want to help their children. Per countywide policy, all schools should be required to hold their quarterly parent-teacher conferences at a later time which appropriately accommodates parent work schedules.
- Issues regarding standardized testing, and the treatment of students with different abilities or special needs, will definitely have an impact on my decisions to vote in favor of, or against nominees for political appointment which the school board has to approve. With exception to tests that can determine college placement (ie. SAT, ACT) I see standardized testing as a waste of time and money. There should not be a one-size-fits-all boondoggle threatening teachers with worsened livelihoods while taking away their time to teach and prepare curriculum for the classroom. I remember taking the FCAT, and how much student time and teacher time those sorts of standardized testing wasted. The procedure is unfair, especially to students with special needs who fall behind because they do not excel with these tests. These standardized state tests need to be replaced with greater attention to teacher preparation (ie. online education regarding Common Core, more affordable training at local universities) and growth in our county's technical, vocational, career, and adult education school programs.
- As your school board member, I will support policies and initiatives that actively engage teachers, students, and parents in programs that comprehensively discuss and dialogue understanding and accepting all different identities - whether that identity is religious, ethnic, national, or otherwise - so that our schools and communities better understand diversity, and so that our teachers are better prepared to understand, accept, and thus teach a diverse population of students.
- The Cook it Up program in our county annually hosts a competition for Hillsborough County students (3rd-8th grade) to enter and compete recipes. It is a fantastic event that encourages students to cook and improve their culinary skills, which is especially beneficial to students interested in a culinary profession. I will encourage other school board members to strengthen this initiative, maybe by expanding the event qualifications to incorporate K-12th grade, and increasing the amount of competitions held, so that there is more time per event to allow for a productive function.
- We need a more vigorous advocate for health and fitness downtown at the school board. I will work together with the other school board members to initiate a MANDATORY recess for all schools, all grades, countywide to adopt. This recess should not last longer than a class period, should get students and teachers outside, encourage some form of physical activity, preferably walking or stretching, and should be conscious of the effects of Florida's weather and temperature. This recess should not be the equivalent of a structured physical education class, which typically includes organized team sports. This intimidates students who are not comfortable with organized sports. Students who would not ordinarily participate in organized sports deserve the opportunity to improve their health through physical education without having to pick up a baseball bat.
- I recognize that the Common Core Florida Standards are inevitable and will shape Florida classrooms whether or not it is popular. I oppose the replacement of the FCAT with state standardized test - I will not support a one-size-fits-all boondoggle which unfairly evaluates student and teachers. Teachers are in a difficult position of properly handling their curriculum and making sure that their students are ready for the FCAT. If those students do not score well, their teacher's pay and livelihood is cut. I do not oppose more rigorous standards in the classroom, but I will not support state standardized testing. I advise teachers to visit a university website or YouTube and search for how teachers in states such as New York and Massachusetts are implementing Common Core in their classrooms. Teachers in Hillsborough County need to have the tools to prepare themselves for more rigorous standards.
- I support school choice; however, I do not support funding privately managed institutions with public finance. Therefore, I do not support funding charter schools with school board money.
ON SECURITY:
- Regarding school security, we have to look at situations where students have died or were injured. We need to look at events like the one which took place February 7th, where a student ejected from the State Fair was killed when trying to cross the intersection. The reason kids were being ejected was because of the uncontrollable crowds that overwhelmed the sheriffs on Fair Day. In all Hillsborough County Schools, state fair tickets are distributed freely in home room. I support passing a policy which would tie ticket distribution to student conduct or grades, so that the crowds do not become overwhelming on fair day and tickets are more valued. On our busy intersections, there is no reason not to have crossing guards. I personally know people who have been hit by cars at these intersections. As your school board member, I will advocate putting more crossing guards at our busy school intersections to avoid senseless deaths from occurring time and time again.
- I support purchasing new buses. Bus drivers are overworked and drive an aging fleet, which must be replaced. The role of the bus driver is solely to drive the bus safely. Schools need to step it up and connect with special education aides to provide assistance on school buses. Calling 9/11 in case of emergency should be required per policy in all types of situations countywide.
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April Griffin Incumbent
