Knowyourcandidates: District 4 Citrus County School Board

District 4 Citrus County School Board

SEVEN FOR SCHOOL BOARD: Each candidate believes their experience and viewpoint is what the board needs.

BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published August 24, 2004

Seven candidates are vying for the chance to replace retiring School Board member Patience Nave in District 4. They are retired educators Olivia Dyson and John Kolley, educator Bill Murray, nurses Cindy Cino and Felicia Kelly Smith, consultant Fred Clark, and floor installer Michael Lyons.

Each is confident that his or her life experience and viewpoint is what the board needs.

"I think I'm the only person who should be in this seat," Cino said. This is her third try for a spot on the School Board. She said she thinks her nontraditional school background - earning a diploma via a GED test, going back to school later in life - could provide a needed role model for children.

Cino said she has the critical thinking skills, tested daily as she performs the duties of a charge nurse, to make the important decisions.

As someone who has never been wealthy, Cino said she can make difficult budget decisions. She also said she can work with the School Board as part of the team and would be accessible to the public.

Cino said she would like to see changes in the district's attendance policy, which she considers punitive, and would push for more after-school tutoring opportunities. She also wants more day care opportunities at school sites and would support finding ways to use school buildings for children's activities when school is not in session.

Clark, with his background as a consultant and businessman and a lifelong concern for children, said he has just the right history to serve on the board.

His key issue: the budget.

His interest was piqued by school officials considering the $14-million surplus last year as "small."

With teachers buying supplies out of their own pockets and the district now talking about not filling more than two dozen teacher aide positions because the surplus is gone, Clark said, someone with more of a business background needs to be involved. He would advocate that the board members be trained in the language of the budget to be sure they understand it.

Clark said his careful oversight and leadership as chairman of the School Readiness Coalition has helped that organization become more efficient and serve more youngsters.

When asked about his lack of a college degree, he quoted Mark Twain: "I've never let schooling get in the way of my education."

Dyson, a career educator, retired for three years, but, "I felt like I had a little bit more that I wanted to give," she said.

Where Dyson worked in Michigan, parent and community support for schools was strong. She said she would like to help create that same level of involvement in Citrus County. "I think they need to have a stronger voice," Dyson said of parents.

She is a supporter of the appointed superintendent. Citrus County voters have said they want to keep that job elected but Dyson said that under the elected system, the lines of responsibility can be unclear between the board and the superintendent. If the board hired the superintendent, "the board could hold him and his generals accountable."

Kolley is also a career educator who landed in Citrus when he retired. Soon after, he started attending School Board meetings. He was especially concerned about agriculture fading from the curriculum and got involved in an advisory committee on the subject.

He has continued to attend board meetings and has visited schools to learn about other issues.

"You have candidates running for this office who have never been to a meeting. How do they know what the issues are?" he said.

Kolley supports finding programs both for students bound for college and those who are not, and wants more students to take advantage of the job training at Withlacoochee Technical Institute. He also said attention should be directed to how the universal prekindergarten issue is going to affect schools.

As a former resident of Palm Beach County, where rapid growth changed the face of the community, Lyons said he wants to assure the school district plans far enough in advance to avoid the pitfalls of growth. The district needs to be thinking of facility needs far in the future.

"We need serious people right now. We need people who want to make a difference," he said.

Lyons said the School Board has struggled with decisionmaking. As someone who has been in business, he said, he knows what it's like to work with a budget, to hire and fire, and to make business decisions.

While he thinks there is a place on the board for the educator's perspective, there is also a place for noneducators, who bring different skills to the table.

Murray said he would like to take the skills he has used for four decades in the classroom and on the ballfield - 20 of those learning the ins and outs of Citrus - to the next level by serving on the board.

He sees planning for growth as a main focus for the new board. "I don't want to be a Pasco north," he said.

While Murray does not want to get into micromanagement, he did say that recent problems, including construction deficiencies at Homosassa Elementary School, show the board needs to be much more directly involved.

Murray also supports expanding the proposed Renaissance Center so that specialized programs can help more disruptive students.

Smith said her background as an educator and a nurse and health educator focused on the needs of children, has prepared her for public office. "I'd be able to pursue that advocacy on the School Board," she said.

Her interest in the position was piqued when she urged the board to reconsider building the new Renaissance Center beside the Citrus County Jail. That would send the wrong message to students, she said. The board eventually chose a site at the Lecanto school complex.

Smith said she would work as a team with the board and speak her mind. Now, she said, only a couple of board members speak up and she would like more vocal involvement.

Visually impaired herself, Smith said she would also like to serve as a role model to students to show that they can overcome disabilities.

THE JOB

School Board members are elected by voters countywide but must live in their district. They set policy and approve the budget for the county's public schools. The term is four years and the election is nonpartisan. District 4 encompasses southwest Citrus County. The annual salary is $28,800. One candidate must win 50 percent of the vote plus one to be elected Aug. 31. If not, the two top vote-getters will appear on the November general election ballot.

THE CANDIDATES

CYNTHIA "CINDY" CINO, 47, was born in Long Island, N.Y., and came to Inverness 41 years ago. A charge nurse at Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center, she previously worked at Citrus Memorial Hospital, Brentwood Nursing Home and various doctors' offices. Cino attended Crystal River High School and received her GED in 1974. She graduated from the Withlacoochee Technical Institute as a practical nurse and studied at Central Florida Community College to become a graduate nurse. She is currently taking additional course work through Jacksonville University. She is married and has seven children.

ASSETS: home, property and business property.

LIABILITIES: mortgage and loans.

SOURCES OF INCOME: salary and rental property.

* * *

FRED CLARK, 60, is a Staten Island, N.Y., native who is self-employed as a marketing, advertising and public relations consultant for four years. He served briefly as the executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Citrus County. He has worked as a financial adviser, a print and advertising specialties broker and in various other businesses. He has his high school diploma and attended classes at the College of Staten Island. He served two years as chairman of the Citrus County School Readiness Coalition and has been active in many civic groups. He is married and has two children.

ASSETS: home, land and a retirement account.

LIABILITIES: none.

SOURCES OF INCOME: none.

* * *

OLIVIA DYSON, 68, is a native of New Haven, Conn. She moved to the area in 2000, upon retiring after 40 years as an educator, mostly as an assistant principal in middle and high schools in Michigan. She earned her bachelor's degree from Southern Connecticut State University and her master's from Springfield College in Massachusetts. Dyson also took advanced graduate studies at the University of Hartford and completed course requirements for her doctorate through the University of Connecticut. She has been active in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Women of Sugarmill Woods, the Oak Village Women's Club, the Southfield Counseling Advisory Board and the Michigan Cancer Foundation Service Center and other organizations. She is married and has two children.

ASSETS: home and investments.

LIABILITIES: loans.

SOURCES OF INCOME: pension and Social Security.

* * *

JOHN KOLLEY, 59, came to the area four years ago from Ohio and is originally from Lowell, Mass. He worked as a teacher, coach and administrator for 30 years in Ohio and worked briefly as a job coach for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kolley earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Miami University in Ohio and has taken post-doctoral classes at the school. He has been active in Citrus 20/20, the Citrus County School Readiness Coalition, the Toys for Tots Campaign, the Korean War Veterans Chapter 192 and the Friends of Fort Cooper. Kolley is married and has two children.

ASSETS: home and savings.

LIABILITIES: mortgage and loan.

SOURCES OF INCOME: pension.

* * *

MICHAEL LYONS, 41, is a native of Bridgeport, Conn., who came to the area several years ago from Palm Beach County. He is self employed in the floor installation business. He earned his associate's degree in from Palm Beach Community College and attended Loyola University. He has been active in the Crystal River Little League and the Community Relations Board and North Boynton Task Force in Boynton Beach. He is married and has three children.

ASSETS: home.

LIABILITIES: mortgage and loans.

SOURCES OF INCOME: salary.

* * *

BILL MURRAY, 63, is an Indiana native has worked for nearly 40 years as an educator - 20 years in Citrus County. He has worked as a teacher, an athletic director and a coach, spending 12 years at Crystal River High School, six years at Crystal River Middle School and two years at Lecanto High School. Murray has served on the Citrus schools Gender Equity Committee and has won several coaching awards. He earned his bachelor's degree from Manchester College and his master's degree from Ball State University. He is married and has two children.

ASSETS: home, property, mutual funds and savings.

LIABILITIES: mortgage and loans.

SOURCES OF INCOME: school district salary.

* * *

FELICIA KELLY SMITH, 63, is a Brooklyn, N.Y., native who came here several years ago from New York. She is a retired psychiatric-certified registered nurse who has worked at Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center, the Centers and the Cypress Creek Detention Center, where she was a teacher. She also worked as an addictions counselor. She graduated from the registered nursing program at the University of the State of New York and received a bachelor's degree in community health and human services from St. Joseph's College. Smith served as vice president of the Citrus County chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and has worked as a mentor at Lecanto Primary School and worked with the Drug Coalition of Citrus County. She is married and has two children.

ASSETS: home, car, personal belongings and condominium.

LIABILITIES: mortgages and credit cards.

SOURCES OF INCOME: pension.