John Nygren is running for the District 4 seat on the Pinellas County School Board.
1. Why are you running for this office?
I am a strong believer in public education. In public education the school board makes the decisions about system needs and the superintendent carries them out.
Currently, the superintendent makes the decisions and the board rubber stamps them. I want to help change that. The taxpayers should be getting the best school system for their tax dollars.
2. Why do you think you are the best qualified candidate for the office?
I am the best qualified because I have school board experience as well as 35 years of teaching math in public schools (traditional high schools, alternative schools, vocational schools).
As a school board member I made sure that all contracts followed legal guidelines and the school system got the most for its money.
I also reviewed the budgets of each school in the district so that I could talk competently about system needs. Our school system has a $1.33 billion budget which contains complex components unique to school systems and not found in business budgets.
3. If you are elected, what will be your top priorities?
- The current annual pay of a School Board member is $41,985. It takes a teacher 12 years to make that much. The pay should be cut drastically to reflect the public service nature of the position.
- Create vocational technical high schools throughout the county.
- Create more alternative schools throughout the county. Disruptive students should not be allowed to interfere with the education of students who want to leave.
- Departmentalize elementary schools wherever possible.
- Put middle schools and high schools back to 6 period days.
- Provide staff the proper training and support to be successful in their jobs.
- Make school nurses and psychologists full time positions in each school.
- Reorganize the administration throughout the county.
- Institute a zero based budget in each school building so administrators can set their priorities.