Former Palm Beach County School District Chief Operating Officer Joe Moore is challenging incumbent Marcia Andrews for the District 6 seat on the Palm Beach County School Board.
The race will be decided on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Three candidates had been running, but parent advocate Carla Donaldson pulled out of the race two weeks ago. Donaldson’s name will appear on the ballot, but a vote for her will not count. She has endorsed Moore’s bid for the seat.
Moore is a 37-year resident of Palm Beach County and a 22-year resident of the western communities. “I raised my family here, and my wife is a 32-year veteran with the school district,” said Moore, who lives in Wellington.
Moore worked 30 years with the South Florida Water Management District, serving the last six as chief financial officer before retiring in 2001. He then went to work for the school district.
“I went into the construction area when I first joined the school district, but shortly after I arrived, they were looking for a CFO,” he recalled.
Moore served as CFO for two years before becoming chief operating office. He held that job for eight years before retiring in 2011.
“The chief operating officer is responsible for pretty much everything that is not academic in nature,” he said. “It really is a whole litany of finance, technology, construction, maintenance, food service, transportation, purchasing, labor relations. All of those functions reported to me. In that position, I worked closely with the school board on a number of issues.”
Moore was heavily involved in retooling schools in preparation for vocational and technology programs. “We knew that we had to adapt the facilities to house those kinds of programs,” he said. “There was a major construction effort undertaken to build those facilities into existing high schools.”
Over his tenure at the district, more than 90 schools were built or rebuilt. “The district was growing at that time at between 4,000 and 5,000 students a year,” he recalled.
Moore believes his skill set would help the school board shape policy by redirecting resources to support policy. “That is a big requirement,” he said. “The hard decision is redirecting resources to emerging issues.”
Since he left the district in 2011, Moore has not been happy with the changes he has seen.
“There is a growing number of D and F schools,” he said. “In District 6, there is a double-F school out in the Glades. People say the state is upping the bar, but there is also a greater number of A schools, so it shows you that some of the schools are being successful, but the high-risk schools seem to be dropping.”
Moore said unconventional thinking is needed in order to improve. As an example, he calls attention to the state requirement that principals in failing schools must be changed, which he feels is problematic because it’s a disincentive to potentially qualified principals.
“I do have the endorsement of the principals, and I take a lot of pride in that,” he said. “That, I think, speaks volumes about the fact that I do have a reputation for supporting academic programming.”
Moore lists his top accomplishments as having been involved in several major policy initiatives with the organizations he has worked with. “I have been part of the team, and I have certainly provided leadership to help the team be successful,” he said.
As an example, he said that when the SFWMD embarked on Everglades restoration, he prepared the packages to send to Tallahassee for approval.
“I also stayed with the project as they built the stormwater treatment areas,” he said. “There was a lot of legislative oversight to make sure the projects stayed within budget and on time.”
Moore takes pride in leading the school district’s major construction initiative.
“Looming in the future were these class-size reduction requirements under the constitutional amendment that had been passed,” he said. “We were still growing with new students, so everybody knew that was certainly going to strain the capital budget. Nobody in Tallahassee had confidence to identify the funding source for facility requirements around class-size reduction.”
The school district worked with community leaders to get support for a half-cent sales tax for six years to support the capital project for new schools, class-size reduction and equity in existing facilities.
“Wellington High School got an auditorium out of that,” Moore noted. “There were a number of high schools that lacked some of the facilities that were being added to the newer high schools, so there was an effort to go back and ensure that those facilities had that same equity as the new high schools.”
He worked closely with the school board and superintendent during his 10 years with the district. He noted that school board leaders from that time, such as Tom Lynch and Dr. Monroe Benaim, have endorsed him in his bid for office.
Rating Andrews’ tenure on the board, Moore believes that she has not been a good leader in policy-making.
“I think she has worked hard in the Glades and accomplished some projects in the Glades,” he said. “What I see on the board is that some of these tougher challenges have to be accomplished at the district level. They have to be accomplished by changing board policy at the board level. I don’t think that she has been effective in leading her fellow board members to major changes of district policy that would remedy some of the shortfalls in schools that we’re seeing, like the number of D and F schools.”
Moore thinks he would be a better school board member because he has a broader focus. “I think I can move the board on some of these tough issues,” he said.
His top goals if elected include getting the board to work more collaboratively and state a definitive position on tough issues. “There’s a lot of up and down the dais of where this board member stands and that member stands, but I don’t think the board has taken time to summarize what that position is for the board,” Moore said.
He also wants to restore the business community’s support of the district, something he feels is now lacking.
“The reason we were successful in the half-cent sales tax and getting the support of the community on some of these major initiatives was we had a very close working relationship with the business community,” he said.
Moore would oppose increasing the school district tax rate, which he said has been discussed by some board members, and instead look at some of the inefficiencies.
“I don’t think you balance your budget by raising taxes,” he said. “There’s never going to be enough money. I think there are tough choices they are going to have to make that they’re not making. As a board member, I think I could draw that out, at least into an open discussion.”
Rating Superintendent Wayne Gent’s performance, Moore believes there is room for improvement.
“Wayne is new on the job,” he said. “He’s still assembling a leadership team around him. I think he’s done a good job. I think he’s capable of better. I would keep him and certainly give him a chance.”
However, Moore would like to see specific performance goals in the superintendent’s contract so that it is very clear what is expected of him.
Asked whether there is too much emphasis on testing, Moore said he believes there is.
“I like standards and I like the ability at some point that there are assessments that are measuring folks against that assessment, but it has to be in context,” he said. “I think every kid should be taught to his full potential, and to me, that’s the teachers’ job.”
Moore said the biggest reform needed in the district is better efforts to retain good teachers.
“I don’t think the district has done enough to support new teachers to make sure that they have enough access to resources to even outfit their classroom,” he said.
He also thinks that the profession does not recognize that all teaching jobs are not the same, and teachers should be paid according to the challenges of the schools, such as those in the Glades.
“You have no incentive built into the system to attract and retain experienced, capable teachers in those schools,” Moore said. “The teachers will go in and start their careers there, but as soon as they have an opportunity to move out, they don’t lose pay.”
Moore believes that the new Common Core standards are generally misunderstood.
“The tough issue is where do you go after you’ve developed the standards?” he said. “How does that lead to curriculum and how does that lead to assessment? My attitude at a broad level is to put the standard out there and let the districts decide on how best to court teachers to teach to those standards. Ultimately, it’s the teacher who is charged with teaching to that standard.”
In regard to the expansion of charter schools, Moore said he believes in parent choice, although he has seen some good and some bad charter schools.
“If your child is assigned to a failing school, I think a parent should have a choice,” he said. “Charters are one of those choices. What I think is that the district should continue to authorize those charters but be very diligent in ensuring that they are accountable.”
He favors the expansion of vocational programs in public schools, pointing out that students in those programs generally perform higher than those who are not.
Moore said voters should vote for him because he brings a lot of background and skills to the job.
“I’m not in it for any reason other than to contribute back to my community,” he said. “I think public education is the foundation, and I know how to get things accomplished. I think I can reach out to fellow board members and influence them enough to support my position on these major policy matters.”
For more information, visit www.votejoemoore.com.
