Two candidates are seeking this office. It is a non-partisan race that will appear on the August ballot open to all voters.
News4Jax sent a questionnaire to each candidate asking about their background and their views on several issues. Scroll down to read the responses of those seeking your vote -- in their own words.
Recommended Videos
Note: Responses are sorted alphabetically by party and are presented exactly as submitted, with no editing by News4Jax staff.
| CANDIDATES |
Bud McInnis
Occupation: School board member
Age: 66
Your family: My family includes my son Jesse, his wife Crystal, their three children Cameron, Cason, and Sophia, and my son Evan. I have 6 dogs and 3 cats.
Education: B. A. Middle Grade Math
Political experience: currently serving
What do you see as the top three issues you’ll likely face while holding this office?
- School safety and meeting mental health needs.
- Unfinished learning which is real and unequitable. Students testing in 2021 were about ten points behind in math and nine points behind in reading, compared with matched students in previous years.
- Budgetary constraints with projected lower enrollment.
With input from our most loyal viewers, News4Jax asked each candidate additional questions to help voters determine which most agrees with their viewers:
“Parental rights” has recently become a law in Florida and a political buzzword. What does that concept mean to you and how would it affect your decisions on the school board?
I firmly believe in parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions regarding their child’s upbringing and education. This ruling doesn’t change my position as I would align decisions according to the statute.
Parent’s play an undeniable role in the success of their child. Parents have the right to remain involved in their child’s education by asking questions, proposing solutions and working collaboratively with educators to promote their child’s academic success. Parents have the right to attend School Board meetings, Parent Teacher Association meetings, individual meetings with administrators and teachers. I believe the more involved a parent is in their child’s education, the more opportunities that child will have to excel.
While Governor Desantis’ recent House Bill (HB 1557: Parental Rights in Education) has been maligned by those who prefer slogans and soundbites over common sense. At the end of the day, a child’s education hinges on the involvement of their parents. Parents have the right to remain highly involved in their child’s education, and by exercising those rights, schools and families succeed together.
How would you balance new state laws and guidelines restricting how history, gender identity and civics can be taught in public school classrooms with the need to educate children in a complex 21st Century society?
- I would continue to follow Florida statutes in order to balance new state laws and guidelines. As a board member I would continue to seek legal advice from our board attorney for matters beyond my understanding. Again, the most important responsibility of school boards is to work with their communities to improve student achievement in their local public schools.
Outline your ideas to address teacher shortages and morale.
- I am in support of opening public school classrooms to well-educated people from other careers and giving them a fast-track route to becoming a qualified teacher. I am hopeful that the Florida legislature will waive the one-year hiatus of returning to the workforce and allows teacher retirees to return to work sooner. To address morale, our board recognizes employees of the district who have served 20 or more years of service with certificates of appreciation hand delivered to each school.
How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?
- I have served the last 4 years as representative for District 4. Prior, I retired after a fruitful 30-year career from the US Postal Service as a letter carrier and later as a supervisor. After retirement I pursued my bachelor degree in education and graduated summa cum laude. I taught sixth grade math. Later I served as a mentor and case manager for two years through Communities in Schools AmeriCorps Vista program. I also served as the Putnam County School District’s Graduation Coach in 2016-2017. I have been intimately familiar with the Putnam County School District over my lifetime. I am a Class of 1973 Product of Putnam; my children are successful products of the system who graduated and went on to college. Over the 30 years that I worked for the USPS I also volunteered at my son’s schools and did everything from working one on one with struggling readers, PTO officer, and President of the Interlachen Football Boosters Club. I’m a great listener, a team player, and I truly care for all Putnam County students and for my community. As a board member I have been trained to tutor adults through ProLiteracy and have supported Take Stock In Children mentoring two students. My varied perspectives lend themselves to my being an outstanding board member.
What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?
- I want to be known as the board member who inspired and activated our community to value education and see it as one of the most important ways to be a more vibrant Putnam County.
Campaign website: (No response)
Campaign’s social media site(s): @reelectBud FaceBook
Linda A. Wagner
Occupation: Attorney
Age: 55
Your family: Husband, two sons, one step-daughter
Education: BA in English from UF; J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law
Political experience: None.
What do you see as the top three issues you’ll likely face while holding this office?
- I believe addressing parents’ concerns will be one such issue. Through the pandemic, many parents became more keenly aware of what their children were being taught, and have since taken a more active role in their children’s education. This has occasionally caused friction with teachers and School Boards and is an important issue to overcome for the sake of our students.
- Another issue will be addressing the extra needs of students whose progress stagnated or declined during Covid. Recent 3rd grade ELA scores reflect how Covid affected reading progress, and this must be addressed quickly.
- Third, I feel that teacher retention and salaries will be a top issue that our School Board will be facing in the upcoming years. With Florida’s shortage of teachers, we must find innovative ways to attract new teachers, increase morale, and retain our valued educators.
With input from our most loyal viewers, News4Jax asked each candidate additional questions to help voters determine which most agrees with their viewers:
“Parental rights” has recently become a law in Florida and a political buzzword. What does that concept mean to you and how would it affect your decisions on the school board?
- Parental rights are fundamental rights. This means that parents have the absolute right to be involved in any decisions that affect their child’s upbringing, education, and welfare. Parents should be strongly encouraged to get involved with the issues that come before our school boards, and those school boards should listen. My decisions as a school board member will be based largely on my constituents’ input, and I will have an “open-door” policy so that parents and teachers can feel comfortable discussing their concerns with me.
How would you balance new state laws and guidelines restricting how history, gender identity and civics can be taught in public school classrooms with the need to educate children in a complex 21st Century society?
- The primary role of a school board is to create policy that is consistent with the law. While this sounds simplistic, it is certainly not. However, I do not believe the new laws must be “balanced” with the need to educate today’s children. Instead, I believe the new laws were developed to protect our children from issues and subject matter that are simply not appropriate for young children, and do not belong in our public schools. These laws also protect the rights of parents to be informed of changes or concerns with their children, and our school boards must modify their own regulations to comply with the current law.
Outline your ideas to address teacher shortages and morale.
- Teacher shortages are currently around 4,500 in Florida. Of course, the easiest solution to encourage teachers to continue teaching, and encourage new graduates to become teachers, is to pay them a fair salary. But we must be careful in how such salaries are implemented. In 2020, Putnam County did increase the base salary for teachers with up to 8 years of experience to $45,142, while teachers with more than 8 years of experience received a $1,200 salary increase. While this increase clearly helped the younger, less experienced teachers, it did very little for those with decades of experience. More care for our seasoned teachers should be taken when making salary decisions. As for morale, it is imperative that we seek input and ideas from our teachers, and implement them into our system. Morale will remain low so long as teachers feel powerless to make change. Valuing their input and implementing their ideas will give them a vested interest in our schools and our students.
How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?
- Having a law degree helps me to better understand the Statutes, laws and policies that are handed down through the State, as well as being able to help create the policies that a School Board must produce. I am also in the process of becoming a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator, the training for which has taught me to look at every angle of an issue, consider the merits of all sides, and work to find solutions that best align with the problems at hand. Further, my prior bookkeeping experience for several law firms has given me an understanding of financing, budgets, and expenditures that is critical for anyone making budgetary decisions for our school system.
What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?
- I hope to be remembered for increasing the quality of education offered in Putnam County by bridging the gap between parents and teachers; for making sound, fiscally conservative decisions; and for listening to my constituents and representing them accordingly.
Campaign website: N/A
Campaign’s social media site(s): Facebook