Name: Terry Kemple
Age: 66
Residence: no response
Occupation: owns a management consulting business
Political affiliation: nonpartisan office
Political experience: none
Office being sought: Hillsborough County School Board District 7
What separates you from your competitors(s)?
I have new thoughts and ideas. My opponent has become part of the status quo.
An example is the difference in our views of the Empowering Effective Teachers program. All the teachers I know dislike it and teacher morale is at its absolute lowest. I think the EET needs a drastic rethink. My opponent continues to pander to the staff, ignore the problems and claim that it’s a wonderful program. Find out for yourself; ask a teacher or two.
We also differ dramatically in our view of parents’ rights to decide what students are confronted with in the classroom. I believe parents have the right to make important decisions regarding their children’s education priorities and practices. My opponent disagrees, apparently believing that she knows better than parents.
I think parents should be able to opt their children out of classes when people linked to terrorism will be speaking to the class. This is no joke, it has happened! My opponent disagrees, choosing instead to ignore the evidence of the need to address the situation.
What do you hope to accomplish in your first six months in office?
The most pressing difficulty we have right now is many parents’ lack of involvement in their children’s education. This lack creates many difficulties. Among the most serious are that students whose parents aren’t involved are more likely to drop out of school and before dropping out are more likely to cause classroom disciplinary problems that impair everyone’s education.
My opponent won’t acknowledge the problem. I think part of the reason for this avoidance is that if parents aren’t involved then the board majority can continue to make decisions that should be being made by parents. Another possibility is that it’s a difficult dilemma that’s difficult to address without ruffling some feathers.
We need to purposefully develop methods to encourage parental involvement. There will never be a perfect solution, but if there continues to be no effort there will for sure be no resolution.
What do you hope to accomplish by the end of your term?
1. Make sure that processes are in place to protect parents’ rights to make educational decisions regarding their children.
2. Develop measures that provide active accountability for the school board, staff, teachers, parents, students, and the community.
3. Bring transparency to the budget so that it’s simple for anyone to see where money is going, what bids are available and/or awarded, and so that there is clarity on the long term financial impact of accepting the “strings” that come with many grants.
4. Establish a more effective outreach to the community to encourage non-controversial community groups to help in the educational process.
5. Find ways to put more money in the classroom.
6. Dramatically revise or eliminate the EET program.
7. Bring visibility to the ESE program and be sure we’re in compliance with state guidelines.
List your political endorsements: United Christian of Florida Political Action Committee, News Times Journal – Editorial Board, 342 Individual endorsements on my website: Vote4TerryKemple.com
