Yandell for School Board Intro

[voteyandell]

Hello,
My name is Tim Yandell and I am a candidate for WaltonCounty School Board, District 1. I grew up traveling the world as an Air Force brat and eventually ended up back homein Santa Rosa Beach. I am very proud of the fact that my family has lived inWalton County for several generations. The Wesley House or Eden State Gardenswas my mom’s doll house when she was growing up, she brags. I only included this because I read on another blog that my genealogy claim was “frightening”. Iam proud to call Walton County my home and because of this I am willing to contribute in any way I can to make it an even better place to live. When I noticed a gradual decline in the quality of education our children were receiving I decided to run for School Board. I believe the current School Board could benefit from having a member with a business background and maybe more importantly children in the school system. A person with no vested interest is surely going to give less attention than someone that does. For example, I enjoy Florida State football but if my son graduates next year and plays for the team my love will greatly intensify or you may support our local little league teams and may even be somewhat involved in the league but if your son or daughter played for a team you would be at all the games, attend fund raisers, volunteer coach, practices, banquets etc. etc.
I am a product of Freeport High School class of 1990. Upon graduating FHS I enrolled at Troy State University in Troy, Al. While there I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and eventually a MBA. The two degrees prepared me to govern the finances of large organizations with enormous budgets. The most important aspect of budgeting is compiling data. Currently our School Board approves budgets given to them by the superintendent. This is one of the major points where I think we have been failing our children, teachers, tax payers and schools. Without a solid understanding of budgets and a genuine desire to improve our schools it is easy for a board member to just haphazardly stamp approved. This negative action is especially evident if there is a prior relationship between a school board member and the superintendent. Our children, educators, staff and taxpayers suffer for this ineffective and costly way of managing a budget. If elected I will work closely with the superintendent, principals, teachers and staff members to create a budget based on what the employees need to better equip them to educate our children and not what is easy or politically correct. I have never been employed with the Walton County School District so I do not have any ties to the current School Board nor to the Superintendent of Schools.
My name is Tim Yandell and I would relish the opportunity to serve our community as School Board member. I’m running a political campaign but I am far from a politician. I’ve never been a member of any political clubs or organizations and in my opinion our children should not be hindered by politics or “friends” that just happen to be at the right place at the right time. I’m running for the sole purpose of improving our school district. If you feel that I am the right person, out of the three qualified candidates, for this position please cast your vote on the 14th. If not, stay home and relax!LOL If you have any questions or comments please email me at voteyandell@yahoo.com and I will do mybest to reply in a timely manner.

[kurt]

Hi Tim - thanks for posting. We really appreciate it when candidates are open and honest enough to speak directly to our community and directly to voters. I wish you the best of luck and thanks for caring about our kids.

[j p nettles]

Having been to a lot of school board meetings, I can attest to the fact that the board is nothing more than a rubber stamp committee. The board approves every recommendation that the superintendent puts fourth. A couple of the board members act like they don't even know what's going on. Here are some facts. In June 2010 5 teachers were dismissed by the district. During the school year, more than 60 teachers were hired. None of the 5 who had been dismissed were rehired despite Article 11.5 of the collective bargaining agreement which clearly states that non-renewed annual contract teachers with good evaluations would receive FIRST CONSIDERATION for re-employment. Sharon Roberts, then a candidate for re-election sent out an e-mail to all school district personnel with an attachment from the NEA, urging teachers and other employees to contract their members of congress urging them to vote for the bill to save jobs. This was sent on June 23, 2010 a couple of weeks after 5 Walton County teachers lost their jobs. An insult to those teachers who weren't rehired. Mrs. Roberts of course has no comment about this. It's also interesting that the e-mail was sent from an AOL e-mail address but she signed as a school board member. This, folks is what we have for a school board now. And my sense is that Gail Smith is Mrs. Anderson's hand picked choice, since Mrs. Smith contributed to Mrs. Anderson's 2008 re-election campaign.