Kent Curtis is running for the District 3 seat on the Pinellas County School Board.
1. Why are you running for this office?
I am a parent, educator, and active volunteer in the Pinellas County School system. For the past 20 years I’ve been a classroom educator, for the past 15 years I have trained teachers and students in innovative classroom techniques and hands-on education, and for the past eight years I’ve been involved in schools on the south side of St. Petersburg as a parent, educator, and active volunteer.
What I’ve seen in the schools concerns me. It concerns me not just because I have students in the public schools here, but because I’m a member of this community and I know that our community is remade every day in our public schools. They represent the basis of our economy and sustain the health of our neighborhoods. If we are going to live up to the great promise of this county, where every child has an opportunity to compete, we have got to succeed in our public schools.
I’m running for Pinellas County School Board because I believe that we can do better. I believe that my training, commitment, experience, and vision can provide a positive and effective voice for school improvement and can contribute to making Pinellas County Schools a leading school district in the nation.
My volunteer activities during the past eight years reveal my belief in public service and it is this belief and my deep desire to contribute to positive social change and effective policy actions that has led me to seek this office.
2. Why do you think you are the best qualified candidate for the office?
I believe that my commitment to public schools (almost all volunteer), my experience in the classroom, and my vision for improving schools in Pinellas County would be a breath of fresh air for a county school board that has struggled and at time languished over the past eight years.
I understand parents as a parent with kids in public schools and as an educator who knows that parents care the most but don't always understand the strategies taken by public schools. I know how critical it is to bridge that gulf here in Pinellas County and particularly in our most challenged schools, and I have a vision for making that happen. I understand that some kids aspire to higher education, but that every child does not want nor need to attend college.
My own path was one of higher education, receiving a Ph.D. in United States History in 2001, but I have friends from high school who took different paths, some of whom chose vocational training and found fulfilling and high-paying careers in the trades. I understand the perspective of helping the child fulfill their own individual aspiration, and the benefits of making that happen as they begin their young adulthood.
As a college professor, I have seen the profound impacts of high stakes testing on our public school graduates and I am committed to changing those impacts as quickly as possible. As the founder and initial prime mover behind the Edible Peace Patch Project in St. Petersburg, I worked with students in our lowest achieving schools for five years and I understand the broad diversity of students attending these schools and the error made in painting the whole school community, children and parents alike, with a single brush.
In brief I bring high-level educational expertise alongside community-level understandings of Pinellas County that, when combined with the large system understanding possessed by our new superintendent, would add vitality and effectiveness to the school board. I know what to do and have have already done a lot to address the issues facing our schools as a parent and volunteer.
As a school board member, I could make those efforts part of our public institutions and help to guide Pinellas County School toward its clear abilities to be a leader in public school education in the state and nationally.
3. If you are elected, what will be your top priorities?
1. Rebuilding parent and community relationships, helping to make parents and teachers better and more effective collaborators in our kids' educations.
2. Expanding and enhancing career training and pre-apprenticeship opportunities for our high school students to ensure that every student is allowed to achieve their aspirations and that those who don't attend college find themselves adequately prepared for the job market and sufficiently supported by the school system.
3. Working to help re-imagine teaching so that classroom teachers have the opportunity to teach our kids and aren't just tasked with insuring that they perform on tests, by instituting an improved teacher evaluation process including in-service feedback and clear evaluations, and improve overall communication and conversations with teachers about education and educational goals in our schools.
4. Seeking budget savings in energy, transportation, and staffing to invest more of the budget in classroom education.