Welcome to Perspectives online also on air from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan.

This is program number seven in our series of Political Perspectives in the run-up to the August 18th primary election in Leon County and this program was recorded on Thursday, July 30th for playback both on WFSU FM and also on our WFSU Public Media Facebook site on a Tuesday, August the 4th and today we're going to be talking with the two contenders for the Leon County School Board seat which represents District Four if you're not familiar with the map here I'll spell it out for you, the district is essentially the Northwest quadrant of Leon County and it's bounded roughly by Highway 90 west from Capital Circle out to the Ochlockonee River and then from I-10 north to the Georgia line and as far east then as Thomasville Road it takes in that entire area.

Lots of lakes.

>> Well-said, yes.

>> A whole bunch yeah so if you're into kayaking and and fishing and stuff it's just heaven personified here um there is an incumbent who's running for reelection there's also a challenger in the race and we'll meet those folks in a moment uh what we'll do is each candidate will have a few moments to talk about their background, what they bring to the office as far as unique qualifications and then we're going to jump into some general education issues followed by some matters of specific import to Leon County schools and we ask our guests to keep the comments pithy even though we don't impose a specific time limit on that so let's meet the candidates for uh Leon County School Board District Four.

We did a drawing here to get an order of response and on the basis of that we'll hear first from the incumbent in the race, Dee Dee Rasmussen.

Miss Rasmussen, it is all yours, go right ahead.

Thank you sir, great to be with you Tom, thank you for doing this as always and to our friends at public radio and WFSU we're grateful for your service to our community.

A little bit about my background, I have been, well I am a mom of three children who all attended and graduated from our Leon County schools and so they have been through elementary school and middle school and high school and so I think I have a pretty robust experience as a parent and also as a school board member and I've been in Tallahassee since 1990 but i also was here before that as a student at Florida State.

I have a master's degree in public administration from FSU and i'm a good Seminole fan like most of us, and I just love this community so much, grateful for the honor and the privilege of serving on the board for these years and just feeling like you know now is really a critical time and we're in a crisis and that's when experienced leadership matters most and so I'm going at it again and you know grateful to be here.

Thank you very much I appreciate that Dee Dee.

Meet now the challenger in the race for District 4 School Board, Alex Stemle.

Alex go right ahead.

Sir thanks for having us here today thanks Dee Dee for being here Hi my name is Alex Stemle and I am the challenger here in the Leon County District Four race, I am a lifelong resident of Leon County schools I attended District 4 schools Sealey, Raa and Leon.

When I graduated high school I started a job at the District 4 school working in the after school program out on the playground.

I worked my way up as the director there and got my masters of business administration at Florida State and when i finished up with that I went to go work for a company, a local company here that had just been given a 10 million dollar grant from capital health plan to put resources into our schools and so I was responsible for developing and implementing that program and and not just you know the eight schools that they were currently in but all the way to 54 schools and that's a program where we went into each school and we found the fit that would really you know work for their school culture I was able to work with a lot of principals and build relationships with district administrators and district staff and then you know i got myself after two years and we completed that implementation into the four counties surrounding counties went back into the school district worked my way up I'm currently the um the Dean of Students at Deer Lake Middle School, we call it the dean of everything.

I'm also the athletic director and activities director and I teach a Leon County Virtual School class and so you know I feel that I have a very unique perspective I've been able to build successful programs in our schools at the district level in all of our schools and I also have got a chance to see what it really looks like from the school level and so I also I have two boys my wife is a career educator as well I have two boys seven and four um so I'm personally invested in this for the long run and I'm looking forward to being a part of the school board so that I can really impact their future and the future of all of the kids here in district four.

Alex if we could stay with you for just a moment on that you talked about what you would bring to the job because of your past experience as a teacher and the other things that you do as a an instructional front liner if you will but let's move that into the district level what specifically do you bring do you think to that job potentially that is not in that position now?

Well I feel that I bring a voice to district four and I feel that we've lost our voice at the school board level and I think this district is looking for somebody that's going to be active and involved and visible on our campuses and so as I work at the school level and work in the district level I understand it's very important that the two work together the district and the board and the schools all have to work together to be able to find solutions that work for our schools and so U think my advantage is that I have my ear to the ground and I have relationships built with people throughout this district and really understand what impacts student learning um at the school level and what really our priorities and our policies and our budget initiatives really need to be addressed to um and I feel that I can bring that that to the board and it's a and you know it's a different aspect than my opponent.

Dee Dee, back to you.

Defend what you have done specifically within district four on the school board that you think needs to be continued as far as the voters are concerned.

Thanks Tom and I appreciate the perspective of an educator but in fact we have a board that already has a Deer Lake teacher on it and a seasoned principal on it, superintendent himself was a principal, most of our do most of our assistant principals were excuse me assistant superintendents also were educators so we have the very vital voice of education professionals at the district already but the school board is a citizen board and what I believe I bring and have brought for these years is my perspective as a leader informed by governance and structures and systems as you may recall from a long time ago in my career actually worked for the governor cabinet when they served as the state board of education um so we set policy and and to hear the voice of of educators and teachers and parents absolutely and I do hear that also visit campuses pretty often I know a lot of teachers i see i go to you know the competitions that they have and the stem night uh science fairs and those kinds of things but the fact is that the role of the board is not to be fully present in the schools all the time that is the role of school administrators and teachers and and the statutes are pretty clear on exactly the delineation of responsibilities between the superintendent and board members in fact it was only a couple of years ago that the legislature actually had to change the law to allow a school board member to actually just show up on a campus and so I thankfully have never had that kind of problem, I've always had great access to our principles, I try to talk to them frequently and find out what's happening but the day-to-day operations of the school district are delineated and specifically statutorily authorized to the superintendent whether he or she is elected or appointed um there's case law even that that specifies exactly what to do so I believe that I offer uh I actually have a master's degree in public administration which is what governance is and and I would point to the other night to be a prime example of that we and we'll probably get into this more in a minute but you know we had a really divisive issue on the agenda.

I had one board member who wanted to reopen schools yesterday and one that wanted to not reopen schools until we had a vaccine and a group of people out there that are part of a national movement called refuse to return and I believe I was able because of my experience to help navigate and lead us, we had to, I had to really thread a needle pretty tightly and I took those very diverse opinions and that we were able to craft a compromise where we landed on a plan with a unanimous vote and that is why I believe that seasoned and experienced leadership is critical especially in time of a crisis.

Moving forward however, oh yeah go ahead Alex go out.

I'll let you respond.

I respect that and and I will say that you know I feel that lately we have not seen Ms.

Rasmussen in our schools and I do believe that that's apparent in some of the things that have come across we had a failed bus implementation at the beginning of the school year which was a very um clear uh the superintendent said several times that we did not listen to the people at the front lines and so as we bring that plane in for landing which Ms.

Rasmussen talked about the other night we have one wheel falling off the brakes aren't really sure if they're gonna work and we we still haven't talked to teachers and we still haven't really given them the the ideas and what it's going to look like when they return to be safe and so I respect that you know Ms.

Rasmussen says that she's involved and I just I'm not sure if that's really accurate or represented in a clear winner.

Okay as long as we're on that uh that train of thought here Dee Dee, an opportunity quickly to respond if you wouldn't then we'll move on to some other things well as you see in the campaign I have the strong endorsements of multiple principals and teachers so I think they would beg to differ and I regret that Mr.

Stemle hasn't seen me in a school or doesn't recall having seen me in a school that's his perspective and and probably not one worth taking a lot of time on today.

Okay Alex let's throw it back to you here uh whereas before we may have had some really scintillating discussion about should there be a seventh period uh what will the bus schedules look like all of these kinds of things those bets are off we are now in totally uncharted territory we are in a new position of having to essentially redo the entire spectrum of public education not just in leon county but across the state of florida nationally we have to deal with these issues too so what do you do when you have a circumstance where you may not know if we will ever get at least within our lifetime perhaps 100 of the student bodies that we have back into the classrooms again in some sort of normal fashion as a board member if you're elected how do you move forward under those circumstances Well you know looking back at this and I really appreciate the district and the school board members the superintendent working really hard on this plan and they have they really have they've tried to do the best that they can and provide as many um you know resources to our parents to know but sitting back at the bird's eye level it's nobody's fault that we've had some of those missteps that we've had we have an organizational design that is set up from decades ago it's a very siloed approach it's a very top-heavy district and so when we start to look at how our organizations design and how we learn and how we structure the power structures within our organization we've got to make sure that it works for everybody and it it's nobody's fault it happens over time from organizational creep where the power structures begin to become unbalanced and so we've got to work together to build those those structures back to where the schools and the district office are working together to come up with these solutions.

Unfortunately you know we did get the plane landed here closely but I'm still not confident these schools are going to open and so I don't know what our backup plan is, I know that Ms.

Rasmussen talked about the computers one of her big initiatives was the computers and the Chromebooks that was sent out to thousands of voters and and we know that she was a crime you know was the primary person that negotiated that contract and unfortunately those aren't going to be here and I think everybody in the district knew that that was probably a long stretch for those to be here on the first day what Ms.

Rasmussen is not telling you is that they're probably not going to be here the second nine weeks they might not even be here the second semester and so we were able to find 11,000 devices within our system and so if you look at that decision right there that's four million dollars that we could have put back into our schools roughly to be able to really address some of the concerns that our teachers have and our staff have at returning and so you know Ms.

Rasmussen they've done some things to try and give us some more resource at the school but I I would hope that she would support maybe the district office and a lot of the district staff who are not 100 percent needed to be at the district office maybe they'll come out the first few weeks and really help us understand what we need to do and they can help us ride buses and wipe down surfaces and check temperatures and sit with sick kids and sub for classes and so I hope that I'll see that initiative supported and we can get maybe 60, 75 percent of those people at district the first several weeks helping us I think that would go a long way into making sure our administrators and our teachers feel safe about going back.

Okay Ms.

Rasmussen for the response please.

I don't know how to respond to uh the fact that I didn't see a pandemic coming and I couldn't affect the supply chain to make sure that the Chromebooks got here, I think we're all doing the very best we can under the circumstances clearly these are uncharted waters unprecedented time we uh we've done everything we can to we've convened uh over 20 focus groups uh a citizen task force we've solicited the um expertise of the medical profession and public health officers I've added a call for a public or a chief medical officer to because I do agree that our teachers and the folks that are going to have to go back to the front lines, they deserve to know that everything humanly possible has been done to ensure that the space that they're entering is as safe and clean as possible and so that is why I added that into the mix I felt like uh we haven't done the the district I you know again not my specific job but the district probably has not done the best job of communicating but I know from experience in crisis management sometimes it's a choice of doing the job or communicating about it and we need to do both so I am regretful that the teachers some of them didn't feel as included in the communication process and we absolutely have to fix that I was on a call I had a zoom call with all of my elementary school principals in district 4 the other day just to make sure that their voice was heard and part of the conversation that's what prompted part of the delay uh to give them some more time to get their master schedules put together you know we are all I think it it's um regrettable that folks feel like they can you know it it kind of goes back to the arena quote when you're it's you know when you're in the arena and you're taking the slugs you're doing the best you can and I think all of us are really trying really hard to get it right and uh while i'm grateful for constructive suggestions and criticisms I don't think being an armchair quarterback is helpful right now.

Okay if you're just joining us on our Political Perspectives from WFSU Public Media you are in tune with the two contenders for Leon School Board District for the incumbent Dee Dee Rasmussen and Alex Stemle who is the challenger in that some dates to keep in mind for the upcoming primary election early voting as we speak here is now underway in Leon County continuing through august 16th and early voting locations are posted on the supervisor of elections website there have been some changes especially out in some of the areas where you have a large number of uh senior citizens who are residing there they've made some uh changes for that primary election day of course is August 18th.

The question for both of you, Alex let me start with you here, do you think the Florida board of education maybe overstepped its boundaries when um Mr.

Corcoran the commissioner came out and said hey all you guys back to the classroom just as quick as you can make it.

Yeah I think that definitely needs to be a local choice here at the local level um you know that's you know we we have a pandemic obviously like Ms.

Rasmussen said and there's different of effects throughout the different states and different localities and so so I'm all about you know local control and I you know I do I do hope and still you know still do we wish that the education commissioner will give that control over to the locals and be able to let them really make the decision which fits best for their their kids and their community.

Ms.

Rasmussen you talked about your background having to do with a lot of interconnection with state government so when it comes to the board of education or the Florida Department of Health in Leon County uh how how do you get uh everyone kind of singing out of the same page of the hymnal there seems to be a lot of policy disconnect right now.

There does appear to be some policy disconnect and you know again I don't want to be I just like I don't want people to criticize us when we're in the arena I'm not trying to criticize them when they're in their arena it's different it's a different perspective uh you know clearly there are uh i would prefer to have home rule uh Ii've always had that position that the local government closest to the people is where it ought to be um that said though as a board chair I have a responsibility to make sure that I at least you know make every effort to remind my colleagues and our constituents that I have an obligation we all took an oath of office that we would uphold the laws of the state of Florida so that's a big part of the conversation right now I don't I can't sit back I can't preside over a school district and watch it go bankrupt if we aren't if we don't comply with the rules of the department of education then our we would be bankrupt and we would teachers and principals and deans would have no job to go back to and so I just I can't you know we have to we have to work within the rules that we're given and you know sometimes you know you don't get all the right cards but you got to learn how to play a rough hand and that's where we are.

Well you mentioned revenues and not only are we dependent on revenues that come from the state uh when it particularly for the such things as construction dollars and and that but you also have to depend on a fairly healthy local real estate market so that property tax revenues remain intact we saw something just recently that showed that Tallahassee is really in relatively good shape if you look nationally as far as the job losses that we have seen and also the drop in potential property tax revenue don't have hard numbers on that i'm sure that's going to be forthcoming quickly but still there's good chance you're not going to have the bucks to play with that the district has had in the past what adjustments do you make if you stay on the board and go forward well i think we're in relatively good i say this very hesitantly because i i lived through the great recession of 2008 on this board and made some tough choices we closed a school we closed a very popular program for gifted children we um it was rough uh and so I'm hesitant I don't want to you know get out there too far but we i think we are in great shape in terms of our own reserves right now um just as state agencies are being asked by opb to hold back five percent or six percent um we've already begun to make those preparations with our i've been working with our cfo to make sure that we are in as good of shape as we can be under the circumstances but I'll tell you um when I worked in the appropriations committee and then during the recession of the 90s we had 21 special sessions where we cut the budget 21 times so and disney world never closed back then so I'm concerned I mean the revenue estimating conference hasn't met with the new numbers yet they the we don't even have you know I just saw something today a headline about universal studios during the peak of the pandemic having lost you know upwards of 94 percent I think of their revenue it was, you know the the numbers are going to be staggering because we rely so heavily on our um you know on the tourism and hospitality revenue through the general fund but also as you mentioned our local tax dollars are sales tax dollars we the half penny that we count on you know for our schools um are when people were staying home and only buying groceries delivered to their porch from publix and not going out shopping our local state sales tax revenues will definitely be impacted the last time we went through the great recession our our property values we were kind of in a bubble in Tallahassee we we really did withstand that largely because of state government FSU family being the major employers and of course Leon County Schools so um you know i want to be cautiously optimistic and hopeful but i think we might really be in for a rough time.

okay and Alex Stemle, how how do you move forward why do you even want to move forward into a board position it's so much more fun when you say hey i'm going to do this and i'm going to do that and you teachers can count on me for this and that and suddenly you're going guys we're not gonna have the money to do anywhere near what I'd like to do.

Thank you tom for saying that.

Alex how do you how do you approach that if you're going to jump into a board that is going to be in the midst of a lot of cost containment and and revenue shedding and that kind of thing it doesn't sound like a very fun job.

Well I will tell you I do feel like I do have the best job in the district right now at Deer Lake Middle School and I and I'll fight anybody tooth and nail about that one and so there's a lot of people that asked me that tom but this campaign was launched before COVID and so there were several things that you know when you run for office it's because you have some some some issues with the current person in it or the way that the system is moving and so I hear Ms.

Rasmussen, we are going to have some budget cuts but when we make decisions one week to say that we're going to cut the school budgets by 20 but the next week we pass out 400 000 dollars to the people making the most at the top um that is that's concerning to me and so decisions that we are making you know and Ms.

Rasmussen speaks of being an armchair quarterback and I've been very proud of this campaign we did not touch in any criticism in terms of the COVID response and and retreat back in March we did not get into the graduation debate we did not even engage into the school reopening plans until the 11 million dollars was put out there on a campaign slogan and put out there and said that hey this is going to be the way that we're going to solve all of our problems and we know that putting kids in front of computers and not teachers is not going to solve our problems and so we got to look at the resource allocation and how we use our resources we had a failed bus implementation that I mentioned before that we were hoping to get 30, you know 30 percent efficiencies that you know that we could have put back into our system and instead we came out with a a non-disclosure agreement and $350, 000 on the table and and we didn't get those efficiencies um we've purchased search all sorts of vans at schools we have um turf fields which I really do like I enjoy having turf fields but we've got to make sure that we're making decisions that really impact student learning and in the classrooms and so moving forward we got to look at our research allocation we got to figure out how we can create synergistic relationships between our assets um whether that be physical assets of personnel assets so that we can really understand what it is that impacts student learning and we don't lose that as we move forward you know we that's what we got to do tom and i think when when we talk about my candidacy and bringing that to the board those are those are things that I that I think I can bring to the table and work with the other board members and support the superintendent and making sure that we create a structure and we look at our resources so that we are using them in the most efficient manner and we're not messaging to the community that we're going to have 20 budget cuts and then passing out raises to the people at the top right after that.

Dee Dee you look like you want to jump in there.

Thanks I appreciate it uh okay well let's talk about the the raises up Mr.

Stemle, did you take one of those raises because um they weren't raises they were they were a small token of a bonus because we couldn't afford raises that were recurring dollars and at that time I remember looking at it and thinking well and what I really thought was well we've got the money right now we better give it to them while we can and lo and behold if we didn't end up asking those people to practically work 24/7 for the next three-to-six months.

These are the people who are in the trenches now trying to figure this thing out and these are the people who I saw at a time when the you know the teachers are going to get a significant raise thanks to the legislature and the governor pushing that um but these folks are the ones who were parking cars during the drive-in graduation just as an example and they're the ones who've been in the trenches non-stop this is you know this has not been a summer for those folks and I'm glad that we were able to give them a small raise.

You know at the time I kind of paused for a minute but I would have been the only no vote it wouldn't have mattered so I think that was that was fine, let's talk about the devices.

one-to-one computer devices has been a goal of ours for a number of years and the Florida Department of Education has been um setting deadlines and they keep kind of getting moved back but the one the goal of a one-to-one for every student to have their own device has been around for a number of years.

I believe that covid was an accelerant that made it happen, now we would have been so much better off in the last quarter of the last school year when we had to quickly pivot to an all online scenario that no one envisioned because nobody saw this uh pandemic coming had we had those devices then that nine weeks we would not have lost the kind of learning gains that I'm afraid we may have lost because we didn't have those devices and we weren't prepared.

So I'm still proud can I control the supply chain?

No but think about your home computer How old is it before it's really kind of outdated so most of the most of some of our schools have been fortunate and that they've had ptos that have been able to come up with raised money and come up with enough money to buy some computers I think fairview had already had one-to-one maybe they had a grant that funded that but but overall the district can't support all different kinds of devices all across all across the county so if one school has one kind and another school has another we can't -- that's impossible for the IT department to support so it was important for us to land on a singular type of device and a singular learning platform.

That's another thing that we learned during the last quarter of last year as people were really frustrated that they didn't have the ability or they excuse me that they were required to go to all different sites one might be going to zoom and one might be going to meet someone might be going to a different this a different that if you had seven different teachers you imagine if you've got three high schoolers they each have seven teachers using seven different things that's 21, you know that the mom is supposed to try to supervise or the dad and um so that's the issue on the device is that it's it's long overdue and it should have been done before now and then finally with regard to turf fields one of the things that Mr.

Stemle may not realize is that we have different pots of money that are used for different things and the turf we actually are going to save money from mowing and maintenance the turf allows us to play multiple sports all year long when regular grass would not because of maintenance so we're saving money, not only that, we're now especially once COVID is gone we were headed on a great track toward being able to attract bring in big tournaments that's tourism money for the county you fill up hotels people come in they buy things and we make a little money uh to pay for it so um those are my answers to the things he just raised.

Okay and Alex as a coach moving ahead at some point we may actually see a return to uh not just regular physical education classes but actually competitive sports in the school level now what do you do in the interim though regardless of what kind of turf you got down on the field well let me let me just address first I I totally support the district staff getting paid and compensated for their for their work and and Ms.

Rasmussen used the term raises and bonuses back and forth within her response and so I understand that they were a bonus and and so Iyou know I don't want anybody to think that I don't support the staff thoseare the people that were working hard this summer there's no doubt about that I support one-to-one and like Ms.

Rasmussen said if we had the leadership at the board level over the past years to get those one-to-one devices in the schools earlier you're right we wouldn't be in this situation and so I really think that you know when we talk about going in with 35,000 you know Chromebooks we got to do this in a phased implementation that makes sense and so we now have pulled back 11,000 computers and devices from our school level that have been repurposed that will be pushed out so that we can pull off this digital academy when we come back and you know and I just don't want that to be lost that I don't support that in terms of your your question and your response we've got to come up with solutions not just for the kids that are at our schools but the kids that maybe are staying home at digital academy so that they can have interactions meaningful interactions with other uh you know stakeholders their friends their teachers their coaches and we have to organize those and we have to work with community partnerships to develop those we can't do it all we can't park all the cars and we can't feed all the kids by ourselves and so I want to see us get into some community partnerships that help us with this big load and this big this big um you know dilemma that we're in andI would like to see some of our administrators from our staff get back to what is really the priority which is student learning and classroom learning and so that's my response time but I think we can I think we can do it all we just need to have some optimism and we just have to be able to get in there and and find somebody that can can really ask the right questions early on in the process and not not ask teachers and meet with teachers the day before we throw out the reopening plan and actually sit down with the teachers and the teachers union and come up with plans and solutions and give them some reassurances the problem we have right now thomas we have list service flying out from schools where they're saying kids don't have to wear a mask inside we walk into class walk into schools and principals aren't wearing their mask and so we have some teachers who are walking into schools right now who are very fearful about the policies and the procedures that are going to be enforced andvour bathroom is going to be cleaned and I noticed that Dr.

Gayle did a great job of wiping down the podium the other night at the uh at the school board meeting but we know when a kid walks into a teacher's bathroom in their classroom nobody's going to clean that bathroom before the next kid walks in and so we got to come up with some solutions and and really show our our teachers that they that we're doing everything we can some of those dollars we could have looked at our ventilation systems we have an open air duct ventilation system which we could have put some resources in early in the summer.

Ms.

Rasmussen asked at the workshop the other day she asked the the question of what it's going to cost for us to do that and nobody knew that answer and so for some reason we didn't ask those questions early on in the process and so I really do feel that's the difference between me and the status quo is that I will ask those questions I'll know what questions to ask when and where and and really understand what's going on at the school level so that we can help the superintendent and support the district administrators so that we get them in a situation where where we are working together and as successful as possible.

Okay Dee Dee an opportunity to respond to that Well you know if Mr.

Stemle can see a pandemic coming and could have known ahead of time that there would be a supply chain problem you know I'm one of five board members and uh I do think leadership is important but sometimes you know one vote doesn't carry the day soyou just have to learn how to work within the system and and do the best you can and that's what I've done.

Okay Dee Dee while we're in your neck of the woods here a problem during the latter part of the last semester of the spring semester was that a significant number of students did not even log on they kind of just disappeared and as far as your concept for the district to what you we go back to truant officers uh on virtual truant officers there we go uh do you want to try to find what kids are not hooked in and how you compel them to actually become part of the process if they essentially vanish.

Well yeah that was a problem and and i think that's why the superintendent came out with his plan um for some kind of real-time synchronous learning and then it morphed into a little bit of this and a little bit of that and that probably uh still remains to be seen how that ends up working with the autonomy that's now been given to each school um you know the idea I believe from his proposal is that um by the way this is his proposal um that the idea is that if you choose the digital academy you are for the most part checking in and you're there not in front of a computer screen all day but you're logging in throughout the day and in some kind of synchronous communication with your teacher that was one of the big criticisms that we heard from parents whose kids were trying to log in is that the teachers were there was not great communication back and forth and that's one of the reasons as I understand it that the superintendent has insisted that teachers even if they're going to teach in the digital academy space they're going to do it from their classroom so you know if a student doesn't log in it's like they're absent and I guess they don't pass the class but i don't know if we send it to truant officer to see what's going on the other option is our Leon County Schools Virtual School or Florida Virtual School and either of those are all about completion rates so that you know you don't get the credit if you don't complete the course so um you know we're in a new time in a new space and uh I certainly hope it doesn't mean virtual truancy officers I hope we'll see I think with the improvements that we're going to make and the dedication of our teachers who who I mean the teachers thatI know are calling their kids on the phone if they're not on there they are calling uh and trying their best to find them and you know if I have to I guess get in the car and drive and see if we can find them maybe that's what it comes to but um you know these are new days and new times and this is a new obstacle that we're going to have to try and figure out.

From the viewpoint of a teacher, Alex Stemle, what do you think how do you get the kids engaged and involved in to log in for crying out loud?

Well I don't agree with Ms.

Rasmussen that families were trying to log on and teachers weren't available you know that might have happened in a few situations but the teachers aren't the enemy here and so what I'm gonna what i'm gonna suggest is that I heard stories about that what i'm going to suggest is that we really I mean I'm concerned because we told our parents one thing and now we have a new plan that has a I call it remote learning we have you know digital learning and this is called remote learning and I have major concerns about how a teacher is going to pull off multiple forms of formats of of delivery during the school day and so you know those are answers that haven't been um you know those are questions that haven't been answered that that we really need answers to and so I think that you know I teach a Leon County Virtual School class it is a asynchronous class where I do have communications that are scheduled with my my students and they're able to work at their own pace they do have videos and recorded videos and powerpoints and and assignments and so for some kids that is ideal and for some parents that's the the um the best environment for their kids to be in based on maybe some of their home life and situations with their work however I do hear what Ms.

Rasmussen is saying we have some kids we have quite a few kids that have just checked out and we know that kids that come to school even in traditional brick and mortar we have to engage them in the learning that we do they don't always come with the uh the energy and the uh the focus to get in the mindset to to learn and to push themselves and so as teachers and as educators we have to do whatever we can and so again that's why we got to get somebody at the board level that really understands what it takes in the classroom for student learning so that we can engage with these kids whether it be virtual whether it be in a small community pods whether it be at school those are all things that we got to do but we we still have unanswered questions about the formula delivery and again that goes right back to our teacher concerns we have a safety concern we have a form of delivery of teaching concern and again i think it all hinges on the fact that the chromebooks weren't going to be here and so we weren't able to go to the asynchronous digital learning format there and so you know I don't I'm not going to stay here and criticize like I said before we tried our best to stay out of this um and you know but we do have we do have some situations that we still need to work out within the next two weeks I heard Ms.

Rasmussen say that we we landed the plane the other day and I just don't agree with that.

As a teacher though do you have any fear that for a significant number of students this is this is lost this is gone forever these kids will never get this back?

Well Tom you know obviously we can't make up time and so there are some there are some time constraints that we you know we are going to struggle you know with getting that learning that we missed there is no doubt um and I can tell you even from my own experience with my own kids I'm starting to see a little bit of of skill drop off you know just from not being engaged in front of kids and so as a community we can't afford for that to happen we can't let this be the end of learning for our for our students and this is for a lot of these kids this is their you know this is the what they're counting on in order to be able to to to have opportunities in the future and so we have to as an organization we have to do everything we can but unfortunately i think our our plan here is pushing more and more kids out of our public school system into the private schools into the florida virtual school model and a lot of that has to do with a communication plan that was consistent and early on in the process we should have given the parents this reopening plan prior to them making decisions and prior to our teachers saying that we're coming back and we still haven't discussed anything any any of this with the union and so i'm not really sure it's all even gonna going to happen.

Dee Dee Rasmussen, same fear on on your part and how do we proceed?

Yeah let me uh just back up once I want to do want to talk about the kids first but before if i may just respond I think mr stemling might be a little bit confused about the role of the board versus the superintendent and the role of the superintendent has had uh you know we don't collective bargaining happens with a bargaining team and then it comes to the board for approval or not we have shades you know we have sessions that are called executive sessions that are not in the public purview and so what's happening in those sessions right now i'm not at liberty to disclose uh but we have professional lawyers and litigate that handle this kind of the negotiations with the union and the union is by its very nature uh doing what it does and I'm not being critical let me be quick to differentiate between teachers the lovely human beings that we all love and appreciate in our community and the big the Union with capital "U" I think that um that will work itself out eventually um I certainly can't defend every position that the superintendent has recommended uh I can do my best to make to make it work and to interject my leadership when I can and when I'm able to and that's exactly what I've done um but the role of the superintendent here versus that of the of a single board member um and you know is it can be unique and particularly in our district where the voters of leon county have three or four times now decided that the superintendent should be elected and not appointed so let's be clear that the superintendent does not report to the board uh he he has his own autonomy to do a lot of things and we as a board have a responsibility to do our job and as I mentioned even on the board there's some differential differentiated opinions so anyway not to get off on that um I am concerned about children and very concerned about those that we may have lost during this I think I was struggling with an answer earlier today I kept rephrasing I was like we have learning gains that have been learning gains that would have been lost normally we have a summer slide I'm calling this the summer avalanche because we lost the nine weeks plus the summer and i for my whole career of the last couple of decades I was completely focused on pedagogies of engagement community-based learning community-based research things that engage students the arts athletics all the things that keep kids in school and keep them wanting to learn more and inspire and drive them and i'm very concerned that stepping back and sitting in front of a computer that can't won't get there and won't keep them engaged now not to say that the people who um have developed some of the learning platforms especially at the collegiate level um aren't doing a great job of making it more like right now we're having a really robust conversation with the three of us through a computer screen i'm at my house you're in the studio I assume or somewhere Alex is somewhere but we're it's still it's very interactive we're still having a conversation so there are things that can absolutely be done a good friend is a teacher and when when we first went into this at the end of the last quarter she started using her kitchen and she teaches in her classroom she teaches little kids fractions with with cooking well she turned her i mean her kitchen became martha stewart all you know she was all in there and they were interacting and it was a really great thing but that doesn't help the kid that never logged on and that's where i'm hoping that maybe maybe when the Chromebooks get here that maybe with the hot spots we've been able to add with the smart buses um maybe working with the city and the county to increase the bandwidth and access to um to digital will will help you know I am concerned and one more thing not to sorry I don't mean to ramble on but I'm also concerned about how we meet our kids where they are I don't think the children that left here right before spring break in March are the same kids that are coming back they have seen and witnessed and felt trauma many of them live in poverty families have lost their jobs there are real issues that have impacted these young lives and I believe um we have a lot more to overcome than just the lost learning gains we have got to find a way to meet them where they are and to help them feel safe and protected and nurtured and then when we check off Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs then we can talk about educating.

Just one quick question for both of you before we have a summation here as time runs short and start with you Ms.

Rasmussen, if we could what do you tell parents what's the best advice you can give them besides vote for Dee Dee.

Now you know honestly I haven't had a lot of time to think about the campaign tell you the truth i've been pretty busy trying to um trying to navigate the pandemic for the district and as best I can given my role in my lane parents call all the time they stop me what do I do what do I do and what I think it is I really think it's just deeply personal.

Every family has a different circumstance either an older relative at home that they're worried about or an immunocompromised child my goodness I had no idea how many people had underlying health conditions um in this community because you know most people try to put on their brave face and move forward and keep going um and so I think it's a deeply personal choice and I think one of the things I am most proud about even if it's not perfect as Mr.

Stemle has pointed out it's not perfect we don't have all the answers nobody does this is a pandemic that we have never dealt with before so are we getting it all right absolutely right no probably not has it been messy yes it's been messy but one of the things i'm really proud about is that we're able to offer families and students three different options on the virtual space if they're not comfortable coming back to school then we're encouraging them to find one of those options that works best for them and that will allow us hopefully to have fewer students physically present on campus that will help with social distancing.

Okay Alex Stemle what do you tell parents?

Well I tell parents vote for Alex Stemle and then I also tell them that student learning will be a priority for me when I'm on the board not only student pro student learning but i'm also going to to make sure that wellness um you know and I don't just say mental health but wellness of our families and our students is also a priority on our board and last but not least the open communication channels and connecting those dots between the schools and the district is something that I really look forward to working with we've got to work on these power structures we've got to open back up the communication channels that have closed over time from organizational creep and i do believe that those things even within a pandemic we can be optimistic about coming with solutions that are that are that are going to be valuable for our our community some of the things that have highlighted in this pandemic you know are things that we had issues with before they just were magnified by this pandemic and so these those three things are things that I will make a priority on the board and I look forward to serve in this community in the future.

That kind of brings us to the the wrap-up part of our program on this Political Perspectives talking with the two contenders for Leon County School Board District 4 and we'll go back to our original order to kind of get the uh oh about a minute and a half again we're not gonna tight time this folks but just if you could keep it within that time frame it would be very useful starting with you Dee Dee Rasmussen as the incumbent.

Your best pitch to folks as to why you should continue in the position that you have now for another four years.

Well thank you Tom I appreciate the opportunity and again under normal circumstances i would applaud and welcome anyone who's interested and willing to go and to do what it takes to run for office and under the circumstances though I think in the middle of a crisis that um trusted and tried leadership is important we may not agree on every decision but again being a part of a collegial board I don't have the luxury of pushing my own agenda I have to try to work to create a consensus across disparate positions and build consensus so that we can have a singular focus moving forward and I believe I've done that and I'd be honored to have your continued confidence and and that you know as Mr.

Stemle has mentioned he does bring the voice of education but I would contend that we have an education voice strong and clear among the staff and the leadership and even on the board with an already a Deer Lake teacher and a seasoned principal on the board my voice is different my voice is as a community member and someone who understands government processes.

I don't know that i'm not sure i'm not sure that my opponent's ever even sat on any kind of board like a board of directors as a volunteer even before so it's very different when you're in the arena and uh some of the suggestions that he's made you know while worthwhile I I just because I've been on the board as long as I have I kind of feel like I know why that won't work uh but um you know I would just be honored to to continue to serve if the voters see fit but you know what this is their seat not mine and uh I feel like this is sort of like a job interview the voters will be the ones who make the hiring decisions and Tom you're the interviewer so thank you for having me.

Thank you Dee Dee Rasmussen and uh Alex Stemle, your elevator pitch for why there should be a change in your opinion.

I think first off is I can commit to the voters that i'm going to vote on all the issues that come before the board I can commit to the voters that this will be my primary full-time job and i will be able to commit the time needed to be able to to get through these challenges that in these changing situations um and and you know and Ms.

Rasmussen may not be aware but I have sat on boards and commissions and been part of councils before and so I look forward to using that leverage and I'll tell you this campaign is supported by district staff and supported by teachers it's supported by families voters across this district and if you if you want to know who's supporting the two campaigns you should look into our finances and you'll see that significantly almost ninety percent of my funds are coming from district four um and unfortunately my my opponent's funds are coming from vendors that do business directly with the with the school district here and so I hope the voters see the difference between the two candidates here um and and look for something that's different than the status quo and they'll find that here and i'll do everything I can to represent them on the issues moving forward and I look forward to it.

Thanks Tom.

Alex Stemle, Dee Dee Rasmussen, we appreciate your participation in this political perspectives to both you good luck in the upcoming which is of course August 18th the primary election here in Leon County and thank you folks for tuning in both on air and online perspectives produced by WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee.

We thank Taylor Cox, Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Trisha Moynihan, Lydell Rawls and also Kim Kelling who helps us get this set up sometimes with only moments notice i'm Tom Flanigan, we have one final three primary political perspectives coming up later this week.

On Thursday we'll meet the incumbent and the challenger in the hotly contested Second Judicial Circuit Group 16 judges race, should be a shoot out.

We invite you to join us then on air and online from WFSU Public Media, take care.