Incumbent Marcia Andrews is seeking a second term on the Palm Beach County School Board. She is up for re-election Tuesday, Aug. 26, and in her campaign, Andrews is putting the focus on her efforts over the past four years solving problems and bringing better school services to the western communities.
A veteran educator, Andrews is seeking another four years representing District 6, which covers the western communities and the Glades. She is being challenged by former Palm Beach County School District Chief Operating Officer Joe Moore.
Education activist Carla Donaldson, whose name will also appear on the ballot, dropped out of the race two weeks ago.
Elected in 2010, Andrews wants to continue her work as the western area’s voice on the school board.
Married for 43 years, she and her husband, Robert, moved to Wellington in 1985. In 2004, they decided to build a new home in Royal Palm Beach. Now, her daughter, a teacher at Royal Palm Beach High School, and five grandchildren live in their former Wellington home.
“I grew up here in Palm Beach County and graduated from the public schools,” Andrews noted.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in 1973 before teaching sixth grade at Jefferson Davis Middle School from 1973 to 1980.
Since then, Andrews has earned her master’s degree in administration and supervision from Nova Southeastern University, and earned an executive leadership training certification from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Andrews served as assistant principal at Jefferson Davis Middle School before becoming a personnel specialist for the school district.
Her first posting as principal was at Bear Lakes Middle School in West Palm Beach, and from there, Andrews headed to the district office to serve as the director of the Department of Employment and Placement Services. She was later promoted to chief personnel officer and served as the district’s chief officer for recruitment, before capping her career as principal at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington.
“I’ve been blessed to have a good life, and I’ve got to give it back,” she said. “That’s what I’m made of.”
After retiring from the school district after nearly four decades, Andrews volunteered in the Glades to help with educational issues and founded an educational consulting firm, Up Front Consulting LLC. In 2010, she ran for the District 6 school board seat being vacated by longtime School Board Member Dr. Sandra Richmond. She narrowly won that race, which ended up being decided by less than 100 votes out of nearly 50,000 cast.
Since then, Andrews earned her master board certification in 2012 from the Florida School Boards Association and can frequently be seen around the community advocating on educational issues.
“I’ve been working very hard in District 6, which is the size of Rhode Island,” she said. “I’m out on the road every day, almost all the time, in the east and in the west.”
Andrews has many projects and accomplishments she is proud of, and acknowledged that it takes a group effort to get things done.
“My leadership ability has been very strong with my school board, and I’ve been able to make these accomplishments with their help,” she said. “One of the goals of the school board is making sure that students are career-ready or college-ready.”
To help in that regard, Andrews is very proud of the work she did to re-open the shuttered West Technical Educational Center in the Glades.
After noticing that the building had been sitting empty for more than a decade, she took action to get career education programs back up and running there.
“I put my focus on trying to get that building opened up with community partnerships and business alliances,” Andrews said. “I started the Glades Career Readiness Round Table with a lot of business entities, community leaders, educational leaders and parents — anyone who really wanted to have a voice in getting that building open.”
With assistance from her round table supporters and their representatives, Andrews was able to solicit financing and grants to support West Tech.
“Everybody in the community is very excited about this initiative because our goal is to make sure our children, as well as our adults, are ready for employment with the skills necessary for success,” she said.
Andrews said that her leadership and communication skills have helped with many challenges, especially when there was flooding a few years ago after Tropical Storm Isaac. She worked closely with local leaders to re-open the schools quickly, but only if the community was ready.
At the time, Andrews noted that officials from the Indian Trail Improvement District stressed to her that The Acreage was not yet ready to have students return because many roads were not yet passable.
“Because of that relationship that we had, we kept those schools closed in The Acreage until we were ready to open it up, and not just for the safety of the students, but the safety of the adults and everybody else,” she said. “We really kept a close hand and our finger on the pulse.”
Andrews’ main goals for the district focus on financials. First, she believes the capital budget needs to be put back on track, with the assistance of financing from Tallahassee. Additionally, the way the budget goes to schools needs to be revamped, allowing the schools more autonomy to distribute the budget according to the specific needs of the school. One possible way to help the budget, she said, is to look at changing some contracts back from 12-month contracts to 11-month contracts.
Regarding Superintendent Wayne Gent, Andrews feels that he is strong in some areas, but is working on other areas that need improving.
“Mr. Gent has to do a lot better in working with programs for our neediest areas, not just the Glades area,” she said. “You’ve got your urban areas of Palm Beach County, where you have your more at-risk students. We’ve got to put programs in place and hire the best teachers… to go into those schools and make a change and make a turnaround.”
The Florida State Standards and the Common Core system are an area that concerns Andrews.
“I don’t think we’re ready for it yet. We don’t know what we’re getting into,” she said. “The Florida Board of Education has been reluctant to talk a lot because it’s an election year. Everybody’s a little nervous with this piece rolling out.”
College preparation as well as vocational programs both have places in the school system, Andrews said, noting that getting kids excited to go to school will decrease the dropout rate.
Programs such as Wellington High School’s Fire Science Academy and Seminole Ridge High School’s Construction Academy are programs that have excited and inspired Andrews. “That’s how I got the idea for West Tech,” she said, citing Seminole Ridge’s program that works on building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
Andrews said she considers herself a leader with a strong presence on the board, bringing “attributes of being a teacher and a motivator.” This has led to several successful initiatives, she said. Aside from the Glades Career Readiness Round Table and West Tech, she was recently able to connect women from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce with Turning Points Academy, a local school for at-risk youth, to work as mentors.
“I have been preparing for this all of my life by being an educator, by being home-grown right here in Palm Beach County, by being a teacher, by being an administrator, by being someone who understands the needs of all students and working to make things happen,” Andrews said. “And I have not always had everything my way, but if you get knocked down, you get up, and you can be a voice for those less privileged and for those more privileged, and I know how to get from the top all the way to the bottom and put it all together for the betterment of students.”
Leadership, persuasiveness, the ability to take action, to analyze situations and to bring solutions are traits Andrews considers her strengths, citing her “bleeding heart” and desire to help everyone as a possible weakness, because, she said, “you can’t always do what you want.”
Right now, Andrews hopes the voters grant her a second term representing District 6. “I think one term doesn’t do it all,” she said. “You have to kind of give me time to see my schools materialize, to see me finish up West Tech, to see me continue to work and then grade me at the end.”
Andrews invited voters to look at her history when determining who to vote for.
“My history speaks for itself,” she said. “I have proven myself as a leader. I have proven myself accessible. I have proven myself as the voice for District 6 for all schools. I have relationships with everybody at every level in District 6, and I make myself amenable for them if they need anything, adults as well as children.”
Her 40 years of experience at all levels of the school district are what makes her work as a school board member possible, Andrews said. “I am the one who can come up with visionary things that can take our students to the next level,” she said, “and I’m willing to go out and work for that by getting input from all of the stakeholders and not just a single entity. I believe all of us have knowledge, skills and desires. It takes the whole village to take District 6 to where we need to take it. And that’s why you can pick up the phone at any time and say, ‘Mrs. Andrews, I need you to come in here because I have an issue.’”
Learn more at www.marciaandrewsforschoolboard.com.
