Three Highlands County School Board candidates who did not participate in the Aug. 3 Lake Placid Insider candidate forum are making their case to voters through campaign statements and previously published comments. Lake Placid Insider reached out to candidates following the forum to provide another opportunity to share their priorities. For James Jonsten, Reese Martin and Andy Tuck, the information below is drawn from their publicly available campaign statements and comments.
Each has emphasized a somewhat different priority — service and accountability, teachers and employees, and the classroom.
District 1: James Jonsten
James Jonsten has built his campaign for the District 1 School Board seat around service, experience, faith and accountability. Jonsten has avoided making broad promises about what he could accomplish if elected, instead presenting his candidacy as an opportunity to bring his experience and values to the board. “This campaign has never been about making promises I can’t keep,” Jonsten said in a campaign statement. “It’s about offering my experience, my faith, and my commitment to serving Highlands County.”
Jonsten said his priorities include students, teachers and parents while also recognizing the School Board’s responsibility to taxpayers. “If elected, I’ll work hard to represent District 1 with honesty, accountability, and a focus on what’s best for our students, teachers, parents, and taxpayers,” he said. Jonsten identifies himself as a conservative candidate and has framed his campaign less around individual policy proposals and more around the way he says he would approach the responsibility of serving on the board.
District 4: Reese Martin (incumbent)
Reese Martin has emphasized leadership, student success, collaboration and accountability in his campaign for the District 4 School Board seat. Martin has also spoken more specifically about teacher morale, identifying compensation and rising insurance costs as significant concerns for Highlands County school employees. “We have an exceptional staff of support personnel and teaching professionals in our schools,” Martin told WGCU News. “A major issue for low morale stems from low compensation and increase in insurance cost.” Martin said addressing morale involves more than compensation. He has also called for teachers to be treated as professionals and given greater authority over instruction. “Our teachers desire an environment where they are respected as professionals,” Martin said. “I feel we should empower our teachers with the autonomy and freedom to teach to the student based on their learning needs as well as include teachers in curriculum decisions.”
Martin’s comments put employee morale and the role teachers play in classroom and curriculum decisions among the clearest issues he has identified during the campaign.
District 5: Andy Tuck
Andy Tuck has made the classroom the centerpiece of his campaign for the District 5 School Board seat. Tuck has argued that decisions at the district level should begin with their effect on students and teachers rather than with the administration surrounding them.“My campaign is simple. We’re going to work from the classroom out,” Tuck said in campaign remarks.
He said he would not support decisions he believes would negatively affect what happens in the classroom and has framed educational quality as the standard against which he would evaluate School Board decisions. “Every child deserves a high-quality education,” Tuck said.His campaign message is straightforward: put the classroom first and evaluate policies, spending and other School Board decisions based on whether they help or hinder the education students receive.
Rather than offering a lengthy list of individual initiatives, Tuck has presented that classroom-first approach as the principle that would guide his decisions if elected.
