James Evans (Florida)
James Evans ran for election to the Seminole County Public Schools school board to represent District 2 in Florida. Evans lost in the primary on August 23, 2022.
Evans completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2022
See also: Seminole County Public Schools, Florida, elections (2022)
General election
General election for Seminole County Public Schools school board District 2
Kelley Davis defeated Sean Cooper in the general election for Seminole County Public Schools school board District 2 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Kelley Davis (Nonpartisan) | 52.2 | 77,883 | |
 | Sean Cooper (Nonpartisan)  | 47.8 | 71,422 | |
| Total votes: 149,305 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Seminole County Public Schools school board District 2
Kelley Davis and Sean Cooper defeated Eric Monte and James Evans in the primary for Seminole County Public Schools school board District 2 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Kelley Davis (Nonpartisan) | 37.9 | 29,666 | |
| ✔ | | Sean Cooper (Nonpartisan) | 23.3 | 18,240 |
 | Eric Monte (Nonpartisan) | 20.2 | 15,797 | |
 | James Evans (Nonpartisan) | 18.5 | 14,496 | |
| Total votes: 78,199 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
James Evans completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Evans' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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For too long, this county has fallen in love with its autobiography.
We need district leaders willing to have difficult discussions. If Title 1 is designed to aid economically disadvantaged students, why are SCPS historically underperforming schools full of kids from economically disadvantaged students? How are we tracking the funding and how it relates to performance?
If we're underreporting our behavior, as most teachers believe, then how bad is behavior actually if we are seeing more violence in schools today than ever before?
I don't blame the teachers. These are top down issues. Now, more than ever, we need strong leadership. We need someone willing to fight for what is right - both ethically and professionally. We need someone who has experience working with others in high stress situations.
I ask that you vote for me for Seminole County School Board, District 2.- We must raise up our underperforming schools (those ranking below the state proficiency rate of 52% in math and English). This is an ethical issue; a school system cannot laud itself for being 'great' when we have schools that are educating less than 25% of their population. From day one, I will start the process to create objective standards for our superintendent, I will be meeting with business and community leaders for leaders willing to step into these schools to mentor students, and I'll personally be meeting with teachers to develop ongoing policy to ensure we cement SCPS as a strong system for years to come - for all kids.
- Behavior is affecting teachers and staff at every single school in Seminole County. Leaders need to make tough choices; choices that might damage things in the short run but are worth it in the long run. I believe our schools have drastically underreported behavior issues - this is a key leadership issue. Currently behavior does weigh on a county's grade, but we must decide: are we focused on state rigors or are we focused on educating children? My belief is we must focus on educating children. I will promote the equal application of rules and consequences and give support to our teachers and principals when disciplinary issues arise. Bad behavior leads to lack of teaching time in the classroom.
- Transparency. This ties into both messages above. Our county for too long has enjoyed a reputation of being better than the rest. I'm not here to dispute that, but I am here to say that our school system has problems! Violence is at an all time high, nearly a quarter of schools ranked below the state average in Seminole, and teacher morale is perpetually falling. In order to fix these very real, and very normal pains, we must actively discuss them at board meetings. Enough with the statistics that say we are, on the average, better. Kids aren't "on the average". And one failing school is one too many.
I have been a finance nerd since I was a child. By the time I attended UCF for economics, I had already read most famous treatises on economic or financial planning. While at UCF I ran a finance blog which dealt with topics ranging from should you finance a vehicle to discussing the differences between IRA's. Government budgets however don't work like most. Every dollar is earmarked and revenues are largely defined rather than created. My professional and academic experiences allow me to have a very deep understanding of balance sheets.
Through college I coached mock trial and mentored dozens of pre-law students. I have also been an advocate and volunteer for Prosecution Alternatives for Youth (PAY) for over 15 years helping at-risk youth overcome criminal offenses through training and community service. Both have been incredibly rewarding in their own ways, but I love the feeling of being a conduit to someone's success. As an elected school board member, I would use that position to bring mentorship to more at-risk students.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Seminole County Public Schools school board District 2 |
Footnotes
