Kyc: District 5 Pinellas School Board

Nancy Bostock wants your vote because she would bring a "parent's perspective" to the Pinellas County School Board. Moses Holmes wants your vote because he offers experience as an education lobbyist and teacher.

Holmes is trying to unseat Bostock, who is serving her first term representing School Board District 5. All School Board members are elected countywide, and with only two candidates in this race the winner will be elected Tuesday.

THE JOB
School Board District 5 covers southeast St. Petersburg, generally east of U.S. 19 and south of St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. The board member must live in the district but is elected countywide. Board members serve four-year terms and make $35,391 annually.

Every time she considers an issue, Bostock said she thinks about what she has learned from her children's friends and their parents. She also considers the wide variety of students' needs, drawing on her own perspective as a mom with three kids: one gifted, one special education and one "typical."

She said she will push for quality teachers, smaller classes and adequate classroom materials. She will advocate for schools to be more "parent friendly." She would like to see reading programs for struggling students expanded so all kids' needs are met.

"We need to build on our strengths more," Bostock said.

Bostock is among the district's most enthusiastic defenders of the new school choice plan. She has defended the $7-million increase in annual operating costs for buses, saying board members have known for a long time that it would be expensive to transport kids during choice.

She was one of four board members who voted to extend Superintendent Howard Hinesley's contract. She said Hinesley's expertise was important during the transition to school choice.

But Holmes said Hinesley's contract demands were out of line and criticized Bostock, who has called herself a fiscal conservative, for supporting it. He also is concerned that even today, board members don't really know the choice plan's total cost.

"If you're going to be a fiscal conservative, you ought to be a fiscal conservative," Holmes said. "You don't vote for certain things when you're cutting programs."

If elected, Holmes said he would work hard to prevent schools from being resegregated. Under the new school choice plan, caps on African-American student enrollment at every school will go away in 2007.

"I think we're going back to an era in time that I don't really want to revisit," Holmes said.

He would focus on raising teacher salaries and developing policies to retain qualified teachers. He wants to see higher high school graduation rates (which hover around 64 percent). Every student entering the working world, he said, should have marketable skills.

THE CANDIDATES

NANCY BOSTOCK, 33, is a mother of three who has been active in Pinellas County politics since 1989. Before being elected to the School Board, she had been a substitute teacher, Christian school teacher and curriculum writer for the Southwest Florida Water Management District. She graduated from Clearwater High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and a master's degree from the University of South Florida. She is a member of the Junior League of St. Petersburg and serves on the board of directors for Head Start. She is married and lives in St. Petersburg. ASSETS: home, retirement investments, bank accounts. LIABILITIES: mortgage, loans. SOURCE OF INCOME: School Board salary. E-MAIL: Bostock4SB@aol.com.

MOSES D. HOLMES JR., 66, is a retired lobbyist for the National Education Association who returned to St. Petersburg and opened a car wash and detailing business in 1998. His professional experience includes time teaching elementary school in Pinellas and Pasco counties, as well as leading teachers unions in Broward County and Baltimore, Md., before going to NEA. Holmes graduated from Gibbs High School, where he was on the honor roll and was a star athlete. He earned a bachelor's degree from Kentucky State University and a master's degree in physical education and health from Indiana University. He is married with five grown children. ASSETS: home, cars, investment property, business. LIABILITIES: mortgage, loans. SOURCE OF INCOME: retirement, Social Security, rental property.