Pinellas School Board | District 1

Janet R. Clark, Jennifer S. Crockett,  Runoff

Incumbent Janet R. Clark, a long-shot candidate four years ago, faces several issues: a budget crisis, a 67 percent graduation rate and a proposal by business and civic leaders to give individual schools more control.

	Janet R. Clark, 54	Jennifer S. Crockett, 35
Experience	Elected in 2004 in an upset over incumbent Lee Benjamin, Clark is running for a second term. Previously, she taught students with emotional disabilities for 11 years — first in Charleston County, S.C., and later at Meadowlawn Middle School in St. Petersburg. Clark received a bachelor’s degree in special education from the College of Charleston in 1993. Before that she was employed for 17 years as a restaurant worker in Charleston. She moved to St. Petersburg in 2000. She sits on the boards of several organizations, including the Homeless Leadership Network, R’Club, the Louise Graham Regeneration Center and Florida RCS Grace House.	Crockett is making her second run for the School Board. Since losing to Mary Brown in 2006, she has laid the groundwork for a second campaign, attending most of the board’s meetings. Last year, Crockett successfully lobbied the district to make Jamerson Elementary in St. Petersburg a full-fledged magnet school. Crockett graduated in 1990 from St. Petersburg High and in 1993 from Florida Southern College of Business Administration. She is a former legal assistant and a competitive swim coach. She also is a member of the PTA and the school advisory council at Jamerson. She says she logged more than 700 hours as a school volunteer in 2007-08.
Main pitch to voters	Describes herself as a thoughtful leader who focuses on the classroom. Notes that the leadership team is made up of the seven-member school board and the superintendent. If she were to lose, three board members and the new superintendent would be newcomers. “That’s half of the leadership team,” Clark warns. “I don’t have to get up to speed on issues.”	Says the board needs a member with kids currently in the system. She has three. She also argues that the board is heavy on former educators and needs people with other perspectives. She complains of board members “talking in full circles” during long meetings. “I have an analytical and logical approach to problem solving, she says.
Views on a proposed change to school- based management	Supports giving schools power to make decisions on curriculum and other matters but says functions such as bus and food service might be better left under district control.	Sees the proposal as a starting point for discussions on how the district could reorganize itself to get better results. Has serious concerns about details such as giving principals authority over multimillion-dollar budgets.
Other issues	Says she would continue to push for a “ground up” review of the budget and the hiring of a district auditor. Says middle schools need better reforms than have been instituted so far. Says district could improve graduation rate by abandoning its “one-size-fits-all model.”	Has three broad objectives: Engage students with more “relevant and rigorous” instruction and improve their ties with school staffs; improve discipline with more follow-through and consistency; improve communication between the School Board and schools.
Assets	Home, belongings	Home, belongings
Liabilities	Loan, credit card	Mortgage, home equity line
Net worth	$50,000	$91,500
Income	School board salary	Swim coach pay
Personal	Lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Steve Harbin. Youngest daughter entering University of Florida. Also has two grown sons from a previous marriage and three grown stepchildren.	Lives in St. Petersburg with her husband, Grant. They have two children at Jamerson Elementary and one entering Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School.
Web site	Yes	Yes
E-mail	Yes	Yes

About the job: District 1 is an at-large seat elected countywide. The board member may live anywhere in the county. Seven board members serve staggered four-year terms. They oversee a system with more than 140 schools, 100,000-plus students and a $1.5-billion budget. Under a state formula, members earned $40,592 in 2007-08.

Additional issue questions

Q. What strategies would you use to improve the rate of high school graduation?

Janet R. Clark: "If I could answer this, I would be a rich woman! Actually I do know the answer and we have the strategies in the District now. The root cause of the abysmal graduation rate is that we fail to meet the needs of our students. Our problem is that we (district level administration) keep insisting there is a fix to be had in a one-size-fits-all model and that if we find the right one, voila! our problems are over. So beginning in pre-k and on through twelfth grade we need to trust our highly qualified staff to assess students and determine the best methods and materials to take the students to the next level. We (district level administration) need to provide the infrastructure for the schools and provide for the needs of the school based staff."

Jennifer S. Crockett: "In regard to graduation rates, I mentioned earlier the concept of establishing and maintaining relationships for children before they even reach high school. The district should also continue its efforts towards new offerings through Centers of Excellence. While I support the Centers of Excellence, we must be careful to include options for lower performing students to keep them engaged. It is my understanding that the Centers for Excellence may require an even higher reading level than some of the honors/AP courses. If that is the case, we are not addressing the needs of all students. While the Centers of Excellence may prevent some of our brightest students from dropping out due to lack of relevance, it does not address our low achieving students who may drop out. We must have viable and relevant options for every academic level in order to improve the drop out rates."

Q.How would you reduce the amount and cost of bus transportation in the district?

Janet R. Clark: "The obvious method is to stop providing transportation for students who elect to attend non-assigned schools. The Board has committed to discussing this issue for the 2009/2010 school year."

Jennifer S. Crockett:"If the student assignment plan had been implemented a little differently, we would not be under the same burden that we currently face. I am also not opposed to looking into some school level grouping based upon housing patterns and neighborhood school locations. We must be willing to try something different. We cannot expect to do the same thing year after year and yield a different result other than a greater expense."

Q. Do you support changing the starting times for high school? If so, how would you achieve that?

Janet R. Clark:"Yes, I support later start time for high schools, although I'm not sure our high school students would agree. Dr. Wilcox insisted that a two-tier system was possible for the 2008/2009 and I believe him. We have to think smarter about transportation and by eliminating "choice" transport we will certainly be able to fund the two-tier system."

Jennifer S. Crockett:"I strongly support a change to both high school and middle school start times. I do not, however, suggest an exchange of times. If we look into my above suggestions regarding busing, I think we can realistically expect an improvement that would allow for a two tier busing system."

Q. The gap in achievement between black and white students in Pinellas, as measured by the FCAT, is wider than most of the state's urban counties. What is the school district's role in reducing that gap?

Janet R. Clark: "While the District is not solely responsible for closing the gap between black and white students, or students of other races or economic levels, we must take the leadership role in the effort. As educational experts, we have a duty to inform and teach parents what their children need for success and how to provide them with it. We have a duty to provide our students with enrichment and experiences to fill the gaps they have when they enter schools. We have a duty to provide curriculum that is meaningful and current and to provide qualified instructional personnel."

Jennifer S. Crockett: "While the school must carry some of the burden for the achievement gap we cannot take sole responsibility for that gap. Social and economic disadvantage contributes to low student achievement. The district must do everything that we can for students in our care, but we cannot be expected to be the sole provider of the most basic needs. It is crucial that we look at equity and differentiated instruction as we move towards higher concentrations of high needs students being placed in neighborhood schools. We should continue to consistently monitor our Title I funds in assisting our communities through tutoring programs and books. We should also use Title I funds to wisely invest in highly qualified teachers to assist our classroom teachers in the instruction process. The community plays a vital role in reaching out to the students who need help. It would benefit every school to have a group of community and school personnel working together to address the gap at each school. Every school has its own unique characteristics to address and we need to nurture this individuality. Schools may need to offer longer school days, tutoring and exposure to experiences that many of us take for granted."