PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. - The four candidates running in the Pinellas County School District 7 seat discussed on Wednesday why they were the best candidate to succeed Rene Flowers in the seat this year.


What You Need To Know


  • Candiates: Dr. Sharon Jackson, Corey Givens Jr., Caprice Edmond, Karl Nurse

  • Hour-long virtual forum was held Wednesday

  • Election set for August 18

  • More Election 2020 headlines

Dr. Sharon Jackson, Corey Givens Jr., Caprice Edmond and Karl Nurse all took turns weighing in on issues like what grade they would give school superintendent Michael Grego; the effectiveness of school-resource officers; how to improve under-performing schools, and others during the hour-long virtual forum hosted by the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club.

Jackson brings the most education experience in the race, having served in elementary, middle and high school levels as a teacher, school counselor, principal and professor at the collegiate level.

When asked how to improve under-performing schools, Jackson said “one size doesn’t fit all,” citing examples like school uniforms, expanded school days and in one case, a Montessori program to enhance learning as methods she has employed in the past. But she said the most important element was getting family involvement. 

“You have to find creative ways to get parents involved, whether it’s a phone call, a text or these days, or these days, doing a virtual meeting like this,” she said.

Although only 28, this is Givens Jr.’s third bid for office. He ran for a school board seat in 2012 and for a St. Pete city council seat in 2017. He took a verbal shot at Jackson and Nurse regarding their experience, questioning what it’s brought to the community.

“They’ve all been involved in politics or education in one way or another for a combined total of over 50 years, but yet they’ve done nothing to improve our quality of life or raised our standard of living,” he said.

When asked about racial inequities in academic achievement, Givens said it was important for students to see a reflection of themselves in the classroom, so he would focus on recruiting and retaining minority teachers, especially Black males.

“We need more men who are going to teach our students not just things that are going to help them succeed in the workforce, but things that will help them succeed in life,” he said.

Caprice Edmond is a science coach at Fairmount Park Elementary who has been endorsed by the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association and the Suncoast Police Benevolent Association. She said she values the role of school resource officers, but drew the line at them “handling the behavior of situations that can be handled by an administrator or school staff.”

The other candidates essentially agreed, though Givens said he didn’t believe that they were needed in elementary schools.

This week the Pinellas County School Board released a survey asking parents, students and employees their level of comfort in returning to in-person classes this fall. 

Forty-two percent of employees said they were “uncomfortable” about that possibility, while the majority of parents/students said that they were either “comfortable” or “extremely comfortable” about returning.

Edmond said that officials needed to be “realistic,” noting how summer camps in St. Petersburg have shut down due to COVID-19.

Under Grego’s reign, the district’s graduation rate has climbed to more than 80 percent, an eight percent increase since he took office in 2012. When asked what grade Grego deserved, Nurse was the only candidate to give him an “A,” saying that he has brought the district back from the days of the “so-called ‘failure factories,’” a reference to the Tampa Bay Times 2015 expose on five poor performing elementary schools in south St. Petersburg. 

Givens pounced on the remarks.

“I want to be clear that our schools are not failures. The system has failed our students and we can fix it,” adding that he was giving Grego a “B plus.” 

Jackson gave Grego a “B minus,” and Edmond gave him a “C.”

Nurse’ entry into the race has raised concerns among those who fear that with his high name recognition, the black vote could be split among the other three candidates and he could win the seat, depriving the school board of African-American representation. 

When asked about that, Nurse noted that the district is diverse, with approximately 20 percent of the voters Black.

“I will tell you that when I was on city council I represented a district that was roughly 50-50. I got more than 70 percent of the vote each time I ran because I spent a lot of time in the community, and tried to fix what I could fix,” he said, adding that he was in the most challenged neighborhoods in his district all the time and understands “the full gravity of my responsibility to reach out to the entire community.”

The seat has been held for the past eight years by Rene Flowers, who is now running for a seat on the Pinellas County Commission. 

The election is on August 18, but if no candidates receive a majority of the vote, the top two candidates in votes will square off against each other in November.