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3 Vying For District 7 School Board Seat In Hillsborough Race

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By MARILYN BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 7, 2008

TAMPA - At 16 years on the Hillsborough County School Board, Carol Kurdell is the board's longest-serving member.

She sums up her tenure and her life - "I'm just a survivor" - from earning her bachelor's degree as an adult when first elected to the board in 1992, to her 22-year-old son's death in a car accident five months later to breast cancer nearly two years ago.

"I believe in what I'm doing," she said. "I have experience, leadership and integrity. You have to be trustworthy. I am trustworthy."

Two others are trying to end her run as a countywide representative.

Kurdell agrees she is probably the quietest member of the board at public meetings. She is concise and usually direct.

"When I've got something to say, I say it," she said. "I'm not going to embarrass you in public. I'm having that conversation behind closed doors."

Kurdell always has drawn opposition, even if it was a write-in candidate. Until this year she had the endorsement of the teachers union.

Kurdell lost that endorsement to challenger Stephen Gorham by one vote, said Yvonne Lyons, executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.

Kurdell said it was a shock: "It was very political. I was stunned. ...This has been a very difficult year politically."

In contrast, she said, "I've never been a political person. I'm a child advocate."

Despite losing the union's support and its $500 contribution, Kurdell is far ahead of her opponents when it comes to raising cash.

As of July 25, Kurdell had collected $33,870, including $300 in kind for her campaign. Donors included checks of $200 to $500 each from architects, contractors and others who do business with the district. Dozens of current and retired employees gave her checks.

"I'm a Tampa native. Some of the people I've known for a really long time," she said.

Kurdell, 63, lives in South Tampa with husband Joseph, who works in engineering services for GE Aviation. She attended Ballast Point Elementary and Madison Middle schools before graduating from Robinson High, then moved on to Florida State University for a quarter before returning home to work.

Beginning in the 1980s, Kurdell became active in PTA, including state and district leadership. Before being elected to the school board, Kurdell was a consultant for two Hillsborough schools projects - one a court-ordered intervention program for students to return to school.

In a candidate questionnaire submitted to The Tampa Tribune, Kurdell characterized the board as "effective and hard working." Conversation and debate help "improve the system," she wrote, but "we still need to communicate better" and get better at strategic planning.

Controversial school boundary changes "could have been communicated differently," she wrote. She does not support term limits: "Voters can end the term of a school board member at any election."

Kurdell has rated Superintendent MaryEllen Elia high in her annual reviews and said she is "doing a good job" in the candidate questionnaire. "One of my issues has always been improved communication," she wrote of the superintendent.

When asked what she is most proud of during her time on the board, Kurdell says:

•Initiating a land swap between the district and the Tampa Housing Authority to replace dilapidated public housing with new, affordable homes and apartments. The district got land next to Robinson High for future needs.

•An initiative for Robinson High and its feeder schools to bring technology to teachers in the classroom. It led to future district technology plans and teacher training.

•Her work to improve the business division, including buying the Lawson software system to manage it. "We would have been in real trouble" had the antiquated system not been replaced, she said.

If Kurdell retains her seat, as current vice chair, she is in line to become chairwoman again in November.

Stephen Gorham Gorham won't be 30 until Sept. 21, but he has earned two college degrees, served five years in the Navy, another three in the National Guard, and established both a career and a family.
Gorham said he won't have a problem fitting in the job of Hillsborough County School Board member should he be elected to the District 7 seat.

"I've learned time management," he said, noting he earned his degrees while working full time and works an average of 50 hours a week while balancing family life with two young children.
Gorham earned his master's degree entirely online, a growing option for students of all ages.

It fits, he said: "Technology and education are how I earn my living."
Gorham was born in Philadelphia. His father was a postal carrier; his mother stayed home with their four children.

When Gorham was in second grade, the family moved to Lakeland. Gorham worked as a bag boy for Publix and graduated from George Jenkins High School. A battalion Army commander for his high school ROTC unit, he figured he would follow a family tradition of military service. His father is a Vietnam veteran.

After high school, Gorham joined the Army National Guard and spent a year on active duty, training.

"College wasn't an option for me; my family couldn't afford it," he said, noting neither parent had a regular high school diploma. "College wasn't even spoken about in my family."

After his year in the National Guard, Gorham moved to Tallahassee, worked full time at Publix and enrolled at Florida State University for two semesters.

In 1999, Gorham enlisted in the Navy, where he trained as an electronics technician.

During his first duty station in Jacksonville, Gorham married and completed a bachelor's degree through Florida Community College and classes offered through the Navy from Southern Illinois University.

"The Navy is kind of where everything came together for me," he said.

When he left the Navy in 2004, the family moved to Plant City. Since 2005, he has overseen design, installation, maintenance and security for the network, server and telecommunications systems at Hillsborough Community College.

If elected, Gorham could be the only board member with a separate, full-time job also funded by taxpayers. The school board job technically is part time, pays $40,887 and also includes insurance and retirement benefits. Terms are four years.
Gorham said he can get flexibility to attend meetings and to do his school board work and plans to take vacation, personal time or unpaid leave if needed.

"It's a citizen's responsibility to get up every day, go to work, see what's going on in the world and then take that back, " he said of holding public office. "Then we're not operating in a vacuum."

At the community college, Gorham said he sees the end product coming from public schools with at least a third of the students requiring remedial classes to do college-level work. He thinks more can be done to better prepare students for either college or the work force.
Gorham also likes the community college's practice of rotating its board meetings among its various campuses and setting aside time at each meeting for faculty and staff to comment.

Employees speak at school board meetings now during public comment time, but Gorham said setting aside a separate time and saying, "We want to hear from the employees," would send a different message: "It sets a good precedent."
Gorham says the board's relationship with the superintendent "has grown too close" and that the majority has "become a rubber stamp for the administration."

Gorham's wife, Rebecca, is a sixth-grade math teacher at Mann Middle School.

The couple have two daughters, one ready to begin kindergarten in public school in Plant City; the other is 18 months old. Another baby is due in March.

As of July 25, Gorham had $11,846 in campaign contributions, including several from trade workers' unions plus their endorsements.
Gorham ran unsuccessfully for state senate in 2006. His agenda then was education, he says, and that has not changed.

"I'm exactly where I want to be for my children," he says. "I don't know what's in their future."

Jason Mims

Jason Mims most often sits in the audience at Hillsborough school board meetings and says nothing.

When he does sign up to speak, it is usually to draw attention to the dearth of black males taking challenging classes and going to college. He targets Tampa zip code 33610 in the urban core.

Lately, Mims has added a new cause: Pushing students at all grade levels to read good books.

Simple causes with complex, seemingly impossible fixes don't rattle Mims. He describes progress while participating on a district committee to close the achievement gap: "It's kind of like watching a tree grow."

"You have to sit on a committee even if you think you might have a voice," he says. "If you don't sit at the table, you certainly don't have a voice."

Mims started attending meetings in 2001 shortly after the district was released from its 1971 federal court order to desegregate schools.

"I said, 'Whoa... Who's going to watch the store if the courts don't do it?'" he asked. "It didn't sit right with me."

Mims also had a son and a daughter in Hillsborough public schools at the time. His son, Jason II, now 24, graduated from Bloomingdale High and New York University. His daughter, Sierra, 21, is a Robinson High alum scheduled to graduate from the University of Tampa in December.

"Both of my children were able to find teachers, administrators and others in the schools who kept them on track, guided them along the way," Mims says. "A parent can't do it by themselves."

Mims started collecting data and asking questions. And he counted - there were 145 black male faces in his son's freshman class yearbook and just 22 when he became a senior.

He asked school administrators to place his son in an Advanced Placement class to prepare him for college work. Making an A in his AP English class his junior year helped secure a scholarship to NYU, he contends.

The experience also led Mims to tally the numbers of other minority students in such classes and volunteer to mentor those students. He was also named to various boards and started his own foundation, the MIMS Institute, to encourage urban students to graduate with six or more Advanced Placement classes and seek entrance to top universities.

His work brought Mims recognitions, including adult volunteer of the year from the state Department of Education in 2005 as well as three district consultant contracts Mims says totaled less than $15,000. He provided workshops for college readiness and drop-out prevention.

Most of Mims' work has remained voluntary, however, including starting a program to teach families computer skills.

In 2001, he and his wife, April, lost their home in Valrico to foreclosure.

"When people talk about foreclosures today - we were 10 years ahead of them," Mims says. Money has never guided his life, he says.

As of July 23, Mims had collected $2,998, the least of the three candidates in his race.

"I don't have any money to run for school board," he says. "I'm also the 'do more with less' candidate."

That has been a theme of his life.

Mims was born on Hamilton Air Force Base in California 55 years ago to a career service father and a school teacher mother. His father was stationed in San Antonio, Texas, when his parents split. His mother remained in San Antonio to raise her sons.

Mims attended Notre Dame University on an Army ROTC scholarship, leading to 20 years of active duty before he retired in 1995 as a lieutenant colonel.

His military career brought Mims and his family to Central Command in Tampa in 1987, and it served as home base when he was deployed overseas.

Mims figures he has attended about one board meeting per month for seven years - minus part of the year he was recalled for active duty in 2002.

"When are we going to elect a 'Read Good Books' candidate?" he asks. "I think it's possible."

As to his limited agenda of pushing minority students to excel, Mims says, "I haven't received a change of mission yet," but being elected to the school board would qualify.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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