3 Candidates Vying For School Board Seat Being Vacated By Debra Robinson

Photo: AFP via Getty Images

The Palm Beach County School Board member serving in District 7 has been on the board since 2000. But Dr. Debra Robinson is not seeking re-election.

Three candidates are vying for that seat. Edwin Ferguson is an attorney with his own law firm who ran unsuccessfully against Robinson four years ago. A former local high school teacher, Ferguson touts his ability to successfully run a business for 17 years in Palm Beach County.

"And that's something that I want to encourage a greater number of our children to do because I see a correlation between having more locally run and operated companies with helping us to ensure that we have the lowest possible unemployment rate. And if we have fewer people out of work, we have fewer people apt to get sucked into the criminal justice system."

Ferguson has kids attending public schools in the county and he is a Suncoast High alum.

We asked for his thoughts on the school board's enforcement of its mask mandate, even after getting ordered by the state to let parents decide.

"It's past us now and we keep revisiting that...I don't anticipate we'll ever go through that situation again so what I think I would have done or not done to me is not really germaine to the issue of the fact that a greater number of our kids are not properly prepared to excel from day one."

But many school board candidates are critical of the board's decisions, including Chris Persaud, who is also running for this seat.

He graduated from Palm Beach Lakes High School and was a teacher at an elementary school in the district before being arrested in his classroom for refusing to wear a mask. Persaud was charged and ultimately convicted of trespassing.

"I worked there, I was there after hours and I was by myself arrested by a guy with no mask on."

He says the school board's mask policy was all about control and fear and claims he would do it all over again.

Persaud, who has kids attending school in the district, also vows to stop what he calls "political indoctrination" in the classroom. CRT was among the issues he was referring to. That's something the incumbents running for other school board seats told us is not being taught in local schools.

"That's a lie straight from the pit. You look at Critical Race Theory and it's based on the premise that our society is rooted in white advantage. The material, the resources, the ideology that are being promoted in our district is encouraging Critical Race Theory."

He notes that the "white advantage" line was ultimately removed from the school district's mission statement after a fight from parents, but the word "equity" remains.

That has many of the school board candidates upset, but not Corey Michael Smith.

"I think the word 'equity' shouldn't be a bogeyman. It's just an acknowledgement of the fact that institutions have underserved communities of color and minorities since their inception. And equity just means that we meet people where they are. We meet children where they are. It doesn't mean we guarantee equal outcomes, because I've heard that be a criticism. But it just means that we use every strategy that we can to meet all children's needs."

Smith is an attorney who's spent most of his career in educational law and worked several years as an associate counsel for the school district.

He has kids in local schools and graduated from Palm Beach Lakes High. He also spent a few years as a teacher.

Smith talks about what he calls "attacks" on education by the governor and the Legislature, citing recently passed laws.

"I call it the slow descent into fascism quite honestly, because if we're not mindful of the history surrounding fascism and the things that were done in the countries that experienced fascism, we're seeing some of the same things in our country right now and in the state."

Hear more from all three of these candidates on a variety of issues in the audio players above.

As a reminder, Monday July 25 is the deadline for those who haven't yet registered to vote in the Primary in Florida and election day is August 23.


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