The

Jacksonville Public Education Fund, Save Duval Schools, Duval County PTA, Jacksonville Kids Coalition and Jacksonville Urban League are nonpartisan organizations. We do not support or endorse any specific candidate. Our goal is to educate the community and promote increased participation in school board elections. Candidate responses to all questions will be published verbatim on a special web site at www.schoolboard2012.org. While candidates are strongly encouraged to complete the questionnaire in its entirety, partial or non-participation will not prevent candidates from participating in subsequent public forums or other election-related events hosted by these organizations. The deadline for returning this survey is July 2, 2012. No responses will be accepted after this date and all responses will be published simultaneously to the web site subsequent to this date.

2012 SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE

Andrew Thomas Cordek Candidate Name: ____________________________________________________________ 3 School Board District: __________ andrewcordek.com Campaign Web Site: ____________________________________________________________

Primary Campaign Contact Andrew Cordek Name: ____________________________________________________________

andy@andrewcordek.com E-mail Address: ____________________________________________________________ 904 631-0087 cell Phone Number: ____________________________________________________________

JACKSONVILLE PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND 245 RIVERSIDE AVENUE SUITE 310 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202 904.356.7757 FAX 904.394.2005 WWW.JAXPEF.ORG

Candidate Biographical Information Please provide a short biographical summary of no more than 500 words that can be used on www.schoolboard2012.org web site and in other publications: My name is Andrew Thomas Cordek. I was born in Bethesda, Md., while my father was stationed with the Navy in Washington D.C. I grew up in central Florida, the third of eight children. I attended public schools, and my father taught math at a public middle school in Longwood. After graduating from Lyman High School, I attended the University of Florida on a N.R.O.T.C. scholarship, earning my BA in Political Science in 1986. I received a commission as an Ensign in the Navy and was stationed in Pensacola, where I became a helicopter pilot. After serving two tours of duty in the Navy, I decided to become a schoolteacher. I began my teaching career at Mandarin High School, where I taught social studies, coached varsity soccer, sponsored the Key Club, and was elected by my peers to be their Duval Teachers United representative. I have been married to Carolyn Schafer Cordek since 1991, and we have three children: Patrick, 16, Chelsea, 14, and Matthew, 13. All of them attend public schools here in Jacksonville.

Instructions Please answer each of the questions below. If you need additional space or wish to elaborate on your answers to one or more questions, please feel free to attach additional pages to this questionnaire. Please make sure, however, to identify the question to which you are responding by number so we can correctly align your responses with the proper question. You may respond by email, fax, or postal mail. Directions on how to do so are at the end of the survey document. Questions Overall 1. If you had to give the Duval County Public Schools a grade, how would you rate its current performance at educating a. High-performing students? _____ A _____ B _____ C _____ D _____ F b. Average students? _____ A _____ B _____ C _____ D _____ F c. At-risk students? _____ A _____ B _____ C _____ D _____ F 2. In what respects do you think Duval County Public Schools are doing well in their mission to educate students in Jacksonville?
I think the school system treats all children from every corner of the county equally. The school system tries very hard to meet the demands of the State Board of Educationalthough I am not sure that is always the best way to educate our children. I think the teachers and the system as a whole have been successful in creating a desegregated school environment.

3. In what respects do you think DCPS needs to improve significantly? What specific changes do you want to make in school district policies or programs to make these improvements?
We need to spend our resources more wisely. The board and administration should be more in touch with the experiences of our teachers and students. One way to address both these priorities would be to reform the substitute system, for example, using administrators to fill some teacher absences. Just getting ten administrators per day out of their offices and into our classrooms each day would save more than $180,000 per year. That kind of money would have a real impact on those sports programs that were almost cut this year. DCPS has too many firewalls in place between the consumers of the product (parents, children, and all taxpayers) and the people who make and carry out policy (CFO, COO, HR, etc.) The district also has a problem with nepotism, so we need a policy that prevents the continuation of this cancer that keeps us from having the best school system in the nation. I dont think the school board administrators put students and teachers first when they make policy. What I see is a lot of damage control and efforts being made to make sure the bureaucrats in Tallahassee are happy. We need to make sure the people who can make the biggest difference in our business (the teachers) are motivated toward and rewarded for extra efforts, because those efforts are not just appreciated but also necessary if we as a school community are going to be all that we can be.

Strategic Plan Duval County Public Schools has a strategic plan approved by the school board in 2010 that guides the day-to-day management and activities of the superintendent. A copy of the strategic plan can be accessed at http://www.duvalschools.org/static/ aboutdcps/superintendent/strategic_plan.asp. For the following questions, please cite the strategy number and title (e.g. Strategy 1.A: Provide additional support for all low performing students in all schools). 4. On which specific strategy do you see as most critical for the district staff to focus in 2013?
It is important that we have a strategic plan. However, that plan has to be a living document: we need to be able to alter it to make sure it can meet the changing demands from our state board of education, our economy (both local and national), and most important, the changing needs and abilities of our children. Remember, the composition of the board changes every two years. All candidates for school board should be fully aware of the strategic plan so they can go with the flow in areas of success but also be able to look at it critically and propose constructive changes.

As for the current plan, I believe that Strategy 4AIntegrate best practices that encourage positive behavior, develop respect toward others and ensure safe environments throughout our school district is the most critical strategy to develop and implement in the coming school year.

5. Which specific strategy or measurable would you propose revising or eliminating and what would you change about it?
It appears that we have met or exceeded all of our objectives for Goal 6B: Improve district-wide program management and execution. So as long as we maintain our current practices, this part of the strategic plan could be removed or altered. We can remove the current Plan 6 and introduce a new Plan 6 that seeks out new techniques and technologies that are coming out of the universities. We can take these new applications, introduce them using an experimental school model, and work to implement them district-wide if they are successful.

Governance 6. Please provide a description of how you would differentiate between the governance responsibility of the school board and the management role of the superintendent.

First of all, I have some moral and leadership concerns with the existing relationships and chain of communication in the school district. But the way I see that it currently exists is that the superintendent has the ultimate authority to run and manage the district, and yet the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the school board. I also feel that there are inadequate means of establishing accountability. Top administrators should be rewarded on the basis of the success of the districts schools, and there should be consequences for their failure to meet goals and expectations.

7. Describe in your decisions how you would balance the interests of your specific neighborhood school board district with the interests of the entire school system if they come into conflict.
It is a board members responsibility to be in touch with their constituency and be able to assist those constituents with their needs and problems directly if necessary. That can only happen if the board members have a real understanding of the administrations inner workings and an ability to take action. At the same time our constituents have to understand that the board members are responsible for working to meet the needs of all the students in Duval County. I will strive to be at the disposal of my district 3 constituents, listening and responding to their concerns and criticisms. It is the responsibility of the board members to do their utmost to meet those needs within the constraints of a priority system that the entire board agrees upon. There will always be negotiations as representatives are urged to bring home the bacon; however, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.

 The Duval County School Board is currently engaged in a search for the next superintendent, who will replace retiring Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals in December 2012. 8. What do you consider the key qualifications the next superintendent should possess in order to be most effective?
Our superintendent must be an effective leader who can motivate the teachers who put their hearts and souls into our classrooms every day. He or she will have the difficult task of making sure the teachers keep that excitement and enthusiasm they had when they made the decision to go into the teaching field. The teachers are the ones who accomplish the goals of our billion-dollar industry: the business of educating children.

9. The school board is in the process of developing a new formal evaluation instrument for the Superintendent. In addition to this annual evaluation, please describe how you would propose providing formative feedback to the next superintendent on his/her performance on an ongoing basis.
I would need access to the current evaluation instrument to properly answer this question, but I will list a few things I consider critical. How does the superintendent demonstrate accessibility and involvement in the community? How does he or she develop leadership within the administration, and what leadership styles does he or she advocate? How does the superintendent evaluate the districts administrators, and what is his or her plan for training or removing ineffective administrators?

Financial Resources and Budgeting The Duval County School Board is responsible for adopting an annual budget that outlines expected expenses. A copy of current budget documents can be accessed at http://www.duvalschools.org/static/aboutdcps/departments/ budget/budget_resources.asp. Please review these documents so that you can answer questions #10-12 as specifically as possible. 10. What specific areas of the district budget would you prioritize, particularly if additional resources became available?
First and foremost, we need to reinstate transportation for the magnet system. Second, extracurricular activities are one of the most if not the most important factor in motivating students to make good choices so they can participate. There must be funding for sports! I also think that while most teachers realize that they are not in a high paying job, we cannot expect them to work effectively without the necessary materials, such as

paper, copies, and books. Those materials must be funded so teachers can properly do their jobs.

11. With revenues expected to continue to decline in the coming years, additional budget cuts are all but a certainty. What specific areas of the budget would you recommend reducing first?
Leadership starts at the top, so we start by reducing the pay of administrators, both in the school board building and in the schools. As I have walked the streets of district 3, I have had the opportunity to speak with many teachers, and I was one myself. A common theme in the discussion is that the school board and the administration just arent in touch! I have a plan that will solve two problems at the same time. Since I am already qualified and experienced as a substitute teacher, if I dont have any school board business during school hours on a given day, I can go work in a classroom. I save the district $105 and learn whats happening in that school. As a policy maker, if I win over three other board members to this pragmatic approach, we can mandate that ten people from the administration building work in the classrooms each day. Resources are saved; policy makers get in touch with the needs and experiences of teachers and students. Tell me, Superintendent, which day of the month are you going to work in the classroom? Out of 500 people who work in the school board building, there are probably around 300 who are qualified to be substitutes. They can even work as coaches and in other supporting roles within the system. If ten people a day filled those slots, we would save the district more than $180,000 per year, a sum sure to be appreciated by those parents who scratched, pleaded and begged for financial help from businesses and other entities in our community. I plan on spending three or four days a month in the classrooms around the county: Leadership by example.

12. The school district generally maintains a carry-forward balance and reserve fund in its budgeting process, a portion of which is required by state law. How would you balance the maintaining of a reserve in excess of the state requirement and continuing to fund programs and services during tight fiscal times?
The required 33.5% required by state law is accumulating somewhere, and the parameters that allow the district to access those funds to offset re-occurring costs must be clearly defined. I dont understand why you would want to maintain a reserve above that which is mandated by the state, especially in tight fiscal times. In other governmental entities, you allocate the entire budget so that there is no carryover to the following year. Those who handle public budgets learn that if there is money left over at the end of the year, you didnt need it, and the state will take it away.

13. To ensure the district has adequate fiscal resources and avoids budget shortfalls in the future, what, if any, revenue sources should the school district pursue and on what timetable (e.g. increased local property or sales taxes, statewide tax increases, etc.)?
The reserve fund, both at the district level and at the state level, is there in case of tight fiscal times. If those funds are exhausted, then we search for temporary cuts within the system wherever possible. Our current tax system is stabilized, and our pay and spending is tied to it directly. Dont spend more than you know you have coming in.

Community, Parent and External Relationships 14. How would you propose strengthening the relationships between parents, schools and community members?
I am a strong believer in leading by example. I have been actively involved in our public school system for 17 years. First, I was a substitute teacher and coach at DuPont Middle School. Then I was hired as a full-time teacher at Mandarin High School. I taught social studies, but I was also a soccer coach and the Key Club service club faculty sponsor, and later I was elected to represent and fight for the teachers as Mandarin Highs DTU representative. Later on, when my children were in elementary school, I served as president of the parents association for the school patrols. We had to do lots of fundraising, and that means knocking on doors and washing cars, not to mention the Christmas tree lot. Ever since we moved to Jacksonville in 1994, I have been involved as a coach at local community sports organizations: JYSC, HAB, and I-9. I volunteered to help coach the Kirby Smith soccer team four years ago, and I plan to continue that service whether I win this election or not. This past year, I helped prepare the pre-game meals for the Paxon High football team, served those meals, and cleaned up afterward. Then I ran the chains during the home games on Friday nights. Because of my involvement with the team, I was asked to join the coaching staff, and we just started our summer workout program. My children love being a part of the Southside United Methodist Church youth program, and I do everything I can to ensure that that organization continues to grow and flourish in our community. I chaperoned several activities during youth week as well as school field trips. I worked as a volunteer P.E. coach, both at the Academie di Montessori and with a home-schooling group. Whenever I see a need, if I am not preoccupied with something else, I step forward and volunteer to get the job done. If I am not out there doing the dirty work that needs to be done, like washing cars, serving pre-game meals, or asking local businesses to buy advertising, then how can I expect those other entities in the community to

do that work? There is nothing quite as rewarding as doing good work that needs to be done. That is how I will forge relationships in our community.

15. How would you ensure that the school district remains transparent to the community in terms of student academic performance, financial management, school board meetings, public records and other areas?
Floridas Sunshine laws and our public media help to maintain that transparency. I have advocated, and I plan to work on, improving the districts Web site and making it more user friendly so that the public has easier access to pertinent data about our schools. Again, I will understand the details of how our district works and then communicate those details to the members of our community electronically, at PTA meetings, at ball parks, and various community gatherings.

16. There are a number of external organizations that interact with and work to support the Duval County Public Schools, from the PTA to the Mayors Office to local nonprofits. Please describe the ideal relationship with entities like these and how you may leverage their services to support students.
These organizations share a long-term commitment to the children of Jacksonville. They are an invaluable source of ideas and should be welcomed as participants in roundtable discussions with DCPS policy makers. They are, of course, an essential source of funding and research. The school board has to strike a responsible balance, integrating the input of supportive community entities without abdicating its authority or sidestepping its accountability for the policies and programs ultimately adopted. The board must be able to work with the community, seriously considering all methods, policies, and paths that can advance the success of our schools while retaining its focus, supporting its employees, and maintaining clear lines of authority and accountability.

Legislative & State Issues

The actions and decisions of the Florida Legislature and State Board of Education have a significant impact on the education of Jacksonville students. 17. What law or policy passed in the past few years by the Florida Legislature or State Board of Education had the greatest positive impact on education in Jacksonville?
I think the class size amendment has had the greatest positive impact.

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 18. What law or policy passed in the past few years by the Florida Legislature or State Board of Education had the greatest negative impact on education in Jacksonville?

I think the implementation of the FCAT has had the greatest negative impact.

Major Policy Issues 19. What do you see as the advantages and/or disadvantages to using standardized testing data as a portion of a teachers evaluation?
I see tying teachers evaluations to their students performance on standardized tests as divisive. There are so many levels of ability in the classroom; the assignment of an evaluation to student performance that equates to pay and status has resulted in competition for students perceived to be of higher ability. Such a system corrodes the mutually supportive and collegial relationships among teachers that are critical to all students success.

20. Duval County currently operates magnet programs in more than 50 schools, including 13 dedicated magnet schools. How do the districts magnet programs positively and/or negatively impact overall student achievement in Jacksonville?
Our magnet program provides wonderful programs and opportunities for students to focus on areas of interest to them, and this is very beneficial. However, many say the magnet program creates a brain drain in neighborhood schools. In fact, my experience talking with other parents in the community tells me the reason most parents choose the path of the magnet program (and the choice is usually made at the elementary level) is that there is such dissatisfaction with the neighborhood schools. The ultimate goal for parents is Stanton or Paxon, and in some cases Douglas Anderson. Parents in my neighborhood opt out of the public school system early on if they arent able to get their children into the right feeder school. They lack confidence in their neighborhood schools, perceiving them to be of lower quality overall. I intend to change that perception! Parents and children should have choices, but all the choices we offer in DCPS should be good ones. Parents need to know that the school where they send their children will be one where the children feel safe, and one where they can get an education that makes them competitive so they can attend college. I intend to work within the system to ensure that all our schools are of that kind of quality, and in the community to change perceptions so that parents will begin to see that

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our neighborhood schools are just as competitive as the magnet schools. This is a huge challenge, but it is one of the most important that we face as we strive to provide excellent opportunities for all of Jacksonvilles children.

21. What impact does out-of-district school choicecharter schools, tax-credit scholarships/vouchers, opportunity scholarships, and similar programs have on the success of students in Jacksonville?
Out-of-district schools provide a choice. But why do the parents choose something other than their neighborhood school? Kids are kids, but the perception in the community is that the neighborhood school is not a good one, and many concerned parents end up choosing private schools or homeschooling. The biggest difference is the environment. Fortunately, we do have schools in our district that create an environment that is conducive to learning. All three of my children are in public school and they are flourishing. It is a challenge for families; we were fortunate enough to get our kids into magnet schools of their choosing. We have lots of other kids spend time at our house, and they run the gamut from home school to virtual school, to Bishop Kenny, Bolles, and Episcopal and magnet schools. These kids all make good choices, and that is the real struggle in our schools. How do we get all kids in our school system to learn how to make good choices? Once we do that, the grades and the environment will change, and our school system will be the envy of the nation. These kids need help! Help from family. Help from teachers. Help from local businesses. Help from the entire community. That is where leadership can make the biggest difference, and that is where I intend to start.

22. Currently, the Florida Constitution limits class sizes to no more than 18 students in Grades K-3, 22 students in Grades 4-8 and 25 students in Grades 9-12, as measured at the actual class level. From your perspective as a potential board member, is the impact of this measure positive or negative in the effective education of students and management of our district? Why?
Floridas class size limit amendment probably represents the most significant positive policy change in the history of public education. Anyone who has experience teaching in our system understands how much more one-on-one teaching can be done in this relatively new environment. Even as late as 2001, when I stopped teaching full time at Mandarin High School, we would routinely begin a course with an enrollment of 39 to 42 students in a class. After leveling, wed be lucky to get that number down to 33. The biggest challenge for teachers today is to maximize the number of minutes of personal instruction in each period, and this amendment eliminated a huge number of classroom distractions and thereby created more quality instruction and higher student performance. It is very unfortunate that it wasnt funded when it was passed.

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23. Currently, nearly 60 percent of high school graduates need remedial coursework before being eligible to take credit-bearing courses at Florida State College at Jacksonville. What would you propose to increase the number of students graduating college and career ready and reduce the numbers requiring remediation?
Well, you cant move on to calculus if you dont understand algebra. You wont be able to properly balance chemical equations if you cant do conversions. The fundamentals and building blocks have to be there. If a student is not succeeding in math, for example; rather than assign that student to a generic remedial math class, which they might also fail, we need to accommodate that students needs and fill the gaps in his or her learning. If we keep all our students on strict, uncompromising curriculum schedules, it becomes too easyfor students and teachersto fall behind and develop a defeatist attitude. We have to recognize that a cookie-cutter approach doesnt work: every child learns at a different pace and with different modalities, but every child can and must learn.

24. If you have children, what type of school do/did they attend? (mark all that apply) Public (inside Duval County) _____ Public (outside Duval County) _____ Private _____ Charter _____ Home Education _____ Other: ______________________________________________________________________

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