Prescott Cowles: Everyone in schools deserves to be heard, protected

I started working in the Alachua County School District in May of 2014, and I can’t remember a single time when our School Board worked together effectively to solve a problem.

When the board seemed to get along, real issues got kicked under the rug and growing inequities went ignored. When board members disagreed, they created gridlock. Today, they are simply nonfunctional when our schools and families need them the most.

Our school district is facing monumental challenges, from leadership in Tallahassee that is determined to destroy public education to the systemic inequities that have persisted in our county for generations, and the collective trauma of the pandemic just underscores the need for urgency.

This moment demands change. It calls for leaders who are paying attention to what is really happening in our public schools every day, and who will respond with initiative and endurance to connect them with solutions. That will not be easy, but change rarely is.

My name is Prescott Cowles, and I’m running for School Board of Alachua County because I understand the obstacles that impact the learning and working conditions across our district. I’ve proven that I can turn input into meaningful action to address these concerns.

I led our school district’s COVID response and worked with every school to keep our students and staff safe. I saw firsthand the massive disconnect between what happens in the district office and the real experience in our schools.

I fought every day to build new partnerships and fix the broken systems that put people at risk, because every person in our schools deserves the dignity of being heard and protected. I believe that’s the mindset and commitment that we need on our School Board.

I care deeply about this community because this is my home, and these are students that I have watched grow up. I grew up here, a proud Talbot Tiger, Lincoln Terrier and Eastside Ram.

As a teacher, I worked hard to create a classroom that brought out the best in each of my students, where they wanted to show up each and every day. My belief in the dignity of every student in my classroom drove me as a teacher, and we need School Board members who will bring that same attitude for every child in our district.

We know that many changes coming from Tallahassee aren’t designed to help our students, but instead benefit the testing companies that profit off of our children, the charter school operators and private schools with voucher programs that reap in public dollars and play by a different set of rules, and lawmakers who score political points by creating division over the simple teaching of accurate history.

Our community needs leaders who will stand strong in their commitment to providing safe and inclusive classrooms where every child can learn, who won’t rest until our educators have the resources and support they need and the compensation that they deserve, who won’t back down in the face of threats from Tallahassee, and who will fight to protect public education from profit-seekers and their politicians.

I have so much hope for this community, because I have seen the problems that we can solve when we come together. I believe there is so much good work that can be done if we elect School Board members that understand our schools and will work as hard as the students, the families and the educators they serve.

I know that overcoming the challenges that our school district faces will be incredibly difficult, but it is entirely possible and it is absolutely necessary.

Prescott Cowles is running for the Alachua County School Board, District 5. Opinion columns written by the candidates in this race and others running in the upcoming election can be found online at /bit.ly/august22electioncolumns. 

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Column from Alachua County School Board Candidate Prescott Cowles