Ep 121 | School Board: A calling to serve

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're not going to please everybody. And you have to be able to know that if you win or you lose, you are still the passionate servant person that you wanted to be. Because when you run for office, you're a public servant. You are not there. Well, you shouldn't be there for power. You should be there because you want to serve the public in some capacity.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. We all hear about the school board, but do we know what they really do? And what it takes to be a school board member, and what motivates someone to run for school board. My next guest has a master's in education, has been a teacher in a variety of capacitive capacities, and notably an Escambia County School Board member for 20 years, the longest running school board member to date. Today she's going to share the behind the scenes of what it's like to run for and serve on the school board and what two decades has gifted her by way of perspective and hope for the future. Heart of Service, Voice of Reason, School Board Pro Patty Hightower. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for asking. So you were a school teacher and also taught college courses, but what planted the seed for you to branch out and run for school board?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Well, I think it was just kind of an inevitable next step. I as I was involved with PTA here in Florida, and I ran and became the president of the Florida PTA. Which is a big deal. I mean, for the whole state. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah, it's a whole state. Like that's a humble brag, you know, like, yeah, you know, for the whole state. Well, it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

I I had a hard I have a hard time helping our PTA members understand that they aren't just PTA members because PTA is the largest volunteer advocacy group in the United States. Really? Yes. And um PTA was responsible for student lunches being put into the schools, child labor laws. I mean, there's just so much history. We've we're over 100 and some odd years. And in fact, the Escambie County of PTAs will be holding their hundredth anniversary in January of a hundred years of Escambie County Council PTAs. Wow. So, and we've got amazing help through our parents that become members of our PTAs. Some of our schools really rely so much on them for their help with volunteers, mentors, helping out in the cat in the cafeteria when the first day of school happens and all the kindergartners can't open their milk or get their potato chips open or whatever they're having for lunch. If you ever want to see what's really a true dedicated teacher show up on the first day of school in a kindergarten cafeteria, the poor teachers barely get to sit down and eat. And so this was the gateway drug. It was. You know, I taught in so when when my child, my first child started school, was when I further really understood the angst that a parent could have handing off their most prized possession to people that they don't know. You know, so it is really an amazing thing to kind of a ha a ha moment. Yeah. So you get involved in PTA because then you can have access to the school and you get to meet people and you get to meet every, you know, you volunteer in the classroom, you get to see the kids and you get so you know and then I I moved on to the county level. And then when I moved to the state level, I wasn't president first, I was secretary and other things, but it was really when I I I truly understood that there are a lot of kids out there that don't have a voice and they don't have anybody that has a voice for them. And that's what the PTAs do. They help empower the parents to have a voice, you know, because they're their most important advocate for their own child. And so that's kind of where I was. And so when I finished that, I had two years as the immediate past president, and it was time for an election here in Escambia County. And I I had had some people mentioned kind of running for to me off and on over the years, and I can't remember exactly what happened that made me want to do it, except that we had kind of a dysfunctional school board at that time. Um offense to any of them, but there was an adversarial uh tension between the superintendent and the school board. And so I thought, and also my church did a Bible study on the purpose-driven life. And so we had just finished that book, and I thought, okay. Everybody always tells me education is my purpose. Everybody that knows me says, well, of course, education is what you do. So I talked to my husband and my family first, of course. And that's what you have to do if you're gonna run for office, because it's not just you running for office. Everybody that's related to you in the town is part of that process. And then, and and my husband is a kind of a political guru, kind of he has a political science background, and and so, you know, he he was kind of. He was excited. Well, in fact, he's responsible for my first truly elected position when I was at the University of Alabama, real tight, this weekend especially. But when I was there, there were student government elections, and he convinced me to run for the House of Representatives, representing the dorms. And so that was my first truly elected position where I had people that I didn't really know that were voting for me. But anyway, so I've pulled a group of people together and that knew me, and I kind of said, I'm thinking about this. What do y'all think? You know, and and I think that's a very important step, too, is you've got to find out from those that that know you and like you and love you anyway, no matter all the warts you have, and we'll be very open with you and tell you the truth, you know. So I had a wonderful group of people, most of them PTA people. And so we started this process, and I started like a year and a half before the actual election. Is that typical? Most people, if you're running against an incumbent, you want to do it as early as possible. If you're not, it's you can start later. You know, the really hard starts after the the primary, not the primary, the the the qualification period is when they really start. It's like three months. And I don't know who in Florida's past thought it was great to run for office in the heat of the summer in Florida.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

But we need to have a talk with them, yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Because usually you prime uh your qualifying is in May and your primary is in August. So, you know, you really get to work in that period of time. So when you're when you're contemplating this, one of those things that you and I talked about earlier is you have to have a real good sense of self. Because when you're when you're running for office, there's a lot of people out there who may not embrace you.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

That feels like it was delicately worded.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

And so, you know, you have to realize that, in fact, I have a cartoon on my uh desk upstairs at the board office that says, you know, on a good day, you will always have somebody who doesn't like you. And so I think when you run for office, you have to understand that, that you're not gonna please everybody. And you have to be able to know that if you win or you lose, you are still the passionate servant person that you wanted to be. Because when you run for office, you're a public servant. You are not there. Well, you shouldn't be there for power. You should be there because you want to serve the public in some capacity. And so it's really hard sometimes if you don't win. I haven't had that experience, but but I understand that it can be devastating. And so, you know, I I got busy when we started this, I put together a team. I started reading every book I could find on how do you run an election. I have four books that I read. Wow. And and some things that that if you're if if any of your listeners are thinking about running for office, any office, some of the things you want to start doing is creating some networking opportunities, you know, joining civic groups, being a PTA member, whatever those kind of things are that fill your passion, you know, be sure that you're getting out there and people are getting to know who you are as an individual.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Are you supposed to, or is it typical to run on a certain platform, like like this is the change that I will make, and that's kind of the platform that you run on. Is that normal? That is normal. What was yours?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Mine was bringing civility back. Ooh, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

I'm sad you're going away. That's such a great, uh, great platform.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

And at that particular time, we had a lot of opportunities. The school board at that time would show up when people read the newspaper above the fold with things that were not setting forth, in my opinion, the best role models for our students in our schools. It was so I felt like, you know, we needed to do something to bring back civility. People could disagree without being disagreeable. And so, of course, there were other things, you know, because we had we were oversight, we had too many schools and too few students, and there was a lot of things that were out there that we were talking about. But I remember one of the forums, I had three other opponents, and one of the forums asked, you know, why don't good people run for office? And I happened to get that last. And I said, Well, they do. I'm running.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Nice. That was how you announced it? No, that was just at a public forum. Oh, wow. But that's still such a wonderful mic drop scenario. Yeah, that's amazing. When you were during your time, how many women were on the board? There were two sitting members at that time.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Including yourself? No. Um, when I came on, we also brought on District 5 board member, and that person had been a female and it changed to male. So at the time I came on, there would be two. And now that you're retiring. Depending on who wins the district four race in November, could be one or none. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

We need to get some more ladies on there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Well, you know, I i i you know, it's hard, and I hate to say this, but but you know, women have a harder time making up their mind to do this because as I've talked about, your family is very much involved. If you're a mom with young children in particular, and unfortunately in today's world, there are people that are not not cautious about what they say. And, you know, they can they kids can hear it in, you know, people talking, they can see it on TV. And so you want to be careful with that. I my son had just left high school, so it it wasn't as hard on him, he was out of town. But but that is one of the things any male or female looks at, you know, how does this affect my family, especially if if there is some some contentious things going on on the do on the board itself. And in today's world, if we if I know we're gonna talk about the 20 years, but that is what to me is so different today, is that when I first got on the board, yes, there were some disagreements, but it seems like it's more vitriol, vitriolic. And and and it's not, I don't think it's necessary, but it does seem like we have gotten to where, you know, if you disagree with me, you're obviously wrong. And I don't remember that being that bad before.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

So why would that environment affect women more than men? Because if certainly some of the men on the board have small children, why is it, in your opinion, affecting them less?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

You know, that's I've often thought about that. I was trying to figure that out. But I do know that as when I first got on 20 years ago, women were not quite at the place they are today. Right. And so I think we have more women that are available, that they they have husbands that support them and would be able to help them with the with the children process. You know, we know that child care is expensive. We know all of these things. And so, and I know when I sit in church and I look out over the congregation and I look at all the young families, most of our young families today, mom and dad both work. You know, we we don't have a lot of moms that stay at home anymore. And I think that you're probably right. I don't think today it would really make a difference because I think that everybody looks at how that would affect the home structure and how it would affect their children.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Well, you would hope so, but I mean, a lot of gender studies do show that despite being double workers, the women usually take the cognitive and emotional labor of the home along with the child rearing. So I could see from a that vantage point why they might be hesitant to also run. But hopefully things will be changing and there'll be, you know, there'll be success stories that you'll be reading about soon. Because you're right, 20 years is a long time. When I think about like, okay, 20 years ago, you know how you kind of imagine, okay, Britney Spears was still with Kevin Federline. That was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Well, see, I remember it because 20 years ago in September, Ivan hit. It was right after my primary election.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

And I was so grateful to have been elected in the primary because it would have been very difficult to do any campaigning from the from after Ivan until the the election in November. Wow. Yeah. So that kind of frames my whole thing about where I am and how long ago that was.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

It absolutely does. What what things have what successes have you seen since you beginning 20 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Well, I think that we have done a really good job of math of financial security. Hard things have happened, you know, when I was talking about we had more buildings than students. And so there were things that had to be done to right size our district with the number of students, because the state would not let you build a new school if you had capacity anywhere in your district. Well, as it's still happening today, a lot of the the growth was north and and west. And so that was where our students were, but our capacity was here in the in the south end of the state in the county. And so, you know, we had to start doing that. And then we were very fortunate that we got the citizens to approve the half cent sales tax so then we could build some additional schools. If we did not have that, we would not have been able to because the state quit giving money to the public school districts to provide us with funds to build and to do renovations. And so that was an excellent, excellent. We've built seven schools in the 20 years I've been here. I think I may I may be miscounting. I haven't sat down and counted them up. We have gone from, just speaking as a school board member, we used to have our agenda in a notebook that was like a five-inch notebook that we carried around all the stuff. We now have it all online. Our students, some they still had blackboards and then it went to whiteboards, and now everybody has a computer. Um, some of that can be good, some of that we're still thinking about. But, you know, uh our teachers have had to to grow with that too. Education, the delivery of education has has really changed in that um the teacher's still the best part of the school day, but they're having to keep up with all the changes as well and all the different resources that are out there. And so, you know, those are some of the things that happened that are just kind of mind-boggling when I think it's only been 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

I know it is. It's only been 20 years. It's you're so, you're so right. Yeah. The amount of adaptability required from then to now, we didn't know that we would need it, but here we are. And the amount of adaptability and flexibility that we'll need in the next 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Well, and and to that point as well, you know, we have total continually had career academies. So we are offering kids the opportunities to get some real job skills. Well, in that 20 years, the difference in the the type of jobs that are out there and you know the 20th century job skills. We're now in the 21st century. And so I sometimes ask when I go to presentations and so what are the 21st jobs? I mean, it's still communication, it's still creativity, it is still being able to create solutions. And so that's what our teachers are doing. You know, they're trying to help our kids be adaptable because we don't know what's going to be out there in 20 years. So you've got to have that ability to work as a team, you've got to have that ability to solve problems, you've got to have that ability to communicate. And that's those are the three most important things that are going on in our classrooms. So, how does the school board help teachers and families do that? Well, what we're school board members are tasked kind of differently. There are two lanes. The superintendent runs the day-to-day operations of the schools, school board members work on policy and funding. And so the main way we help is by listening to the superintendent and his staff talk about the needs of this, each school, so that they can make the best possible educational opportunities for the students in their school. And we fund those things, and then we help create the policies that are always changing every time the legislature goes to Tallahassee. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

So in your time, how has being a military spouse, because your husband is an army or was an army JAG? Yes. Yes. How has that perspective shaped your time as a school board member member? Because I feel coming from a military community outside, I've come from off at air base in Nebraska in Bellevue. Um, I feel like military families are just reinforced differently, right? And they operate differently. And military kids are the, I just think they're the coolest. They just have a specific set of skills. They do. And certainly you did too. Can you explain what that how what that brought to the table?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Well, I think I I also grew up in Mobile when Brooklyn Air Force Base was there. So I actually had a lot of friends that were military as well. But I think that that was one of the things that pushed me to help keep helping the district understand that we had students coming in that were coming from different areas. Um that was, you know, so I remember one of my friends saying, Well, my son, my son was like a brilliant math student when we were in Texas, and then he gets here, and you're in a totally different place, you know. And so being aware of that, and then we've also put together our Joyce Milit, our joint military council that helps um really the district and the NAS talk about what are the things that we're needing to do. We've gotten so many DOD grants now, um, and and it's just you know, making us aware of the fact that this is a rich resource for us, not just because we can be getting the Department of Defense grants, but because they have world, worldly influence. They know things that have happened, and then to be able to help them through things when mom or dad are deployed, and we have several schools that have have military liaisons that are there to help the families with the transition, because every state does things just a little differently. Their grading systems could be just a little different. And and as that was one thing I liked about Common Core was I I saw it from from a military standpoint that you know, in California in the third grade, they're learning their multiplication tables. In Florida, if they get here in the third grade, they'll still be learning their multiplication tables. And so um I think that we're very aware of the fact that we have we have to be very sensitive to those changes as students come in and try to adjust to that. And we're very helpful, very grateful to have help from the Naval Air Station with helping our people make those adjustments.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Our military families are such assets to our community in general, regardless of if they're children or adults. I'm just so grateful. I get so excited if a military couple moves into our neighborhood and you know, I'm probably a little extra when I go up to them and say, I'm so glad you're here. I remember saying that once, and he said, You are? I said, Absolutely. Absolutely. I I just have such an appreciation for what they bring to the table. And I think they're important an important ingredient. And for not just what has happened and what is, but but for that next 20 years that we were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

What do you see as uh a challenge on the horizon in that next 20 years for the school board?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Well, it's a continuing challenge. Since I have been on the board, I've I've been very much aware of the fact that we have got to be competitive. Competitive to whom? To private schools now. Before actually, when I was president-elect of the Florida PTA, I was the chair of the anti-anti-voucher movement for the state. But so Governor Bush and I had many conversations about that. And and you know, I understood what they were saying in that we need to provide a great product. And and if we weren't, and this I would say this to, I said it to at least four four superintendents now, you know, if we're not the choice of the parents, why we need to be asking, why aren't we the choice of the parents? And some sometimes it's something as simple as schedule, you know, and that may not be something we can really address. But, you know, it we do have to compete. Uh, we know we've got the best teachers, we know we have the best programs, our career academies. I mean, they're amazing. I know you've had many people come on and talk about them, you know, and we're very grateful that all these superintendents have given us opportunities for our students to come to our Thursday uh workshops. They'll come and do each academy has come to do a presentation. And the last time it was on the communications um academy and um telecommunications academy. We had a young man who graduated less than uh two years ago, who's working and he he put a lot of the communications stuff in that new ship, the McCool, Richard McCool. And I mean, he's making six figures.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

I know it's amazing. I I love featuring the academies. I'm so glad that we have them.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

And it and you know, it that is one of those things that you know outside groups can't compete, but we're we in education are so we talk amongst ourselves so much. And that's what I love about these podcasts, because we tend to talk to each other. We talk about how great we are, you know, to each other. But what we haven't been successful at doing is tell telling those people that don't have kids in school anymore or never had kids in our schools, you know, what are why you know every year at this time with tax time, they're going, so why should I be paying taxes? I don't have a kid in your school. Yeah, but you've got somebody that's gonna have to be taking care of you. You've got doctors. All of these kids are being educated today in our public schools, and they're gonna take care of you, whether you paid your taxes in here or not. And if we don't provide the most up-to-date, most relevant education, we won't have those people around to take care of us in our old age.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

What do you feel like overall at this moment people misunderstand the most about the school board?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

The the school board itself, I think my primary job, and I you know one thing that most people don't understand is one school board member by his or herself has no power, you know, because we are a board and you vote by majority. And so sometimes they forget that just one person can't make something happen. But I think that that my primary role is helping the citizen navigate the system that is education. It's a very complicated system in in trying to figure out, okay, if I want student records, where do I go? Who do I talk to? Do I go to the school? Do I go to the, you know, and it depends on how many years have passed. So I always think that our school board members are those people that are the closest to to the voter, the ones who can answer those questions because the superintendent's got a lot of things taped that he or I can say he, that's what we have, he takes uh care of. And so instead of them calling 15 different people, they could call a school board member and I say, Oh, I you need to call so and so, you know, and and you need this is where you need to go. So you feel like they're closer to the voter than the PTA people? Well, the PTA people who I talk to.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

So well, that's what was my next question. Is like, so a parent listening to this, they have important insight, advice, perspective requests that they want to make sure that get the ear of a board member at least, or the board members. What's the process for them to do that?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

I would suggest, and and this is what I I'm gonna do a presentation next week, as a matter of fact. Remember that all five board members, you can talk to all five. In Escambia County, we do have district elections. I was elected by the citizen good citizens of district four. But by statute, I represent the entire county. And so in the best of circumstances, a board member looks at whatever is being proposed and evaluates it not just basically on what their particular district needs or um wants, but how it will impact the entire county. So, you know, that's one thing that I think some people don't understand. They'll call Patty Hightower and say blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And and I'll I'll say, well, you know, I you can't call you can't tell them that you talk to me, but I would advise you to call the other board members and share with them this issue. Or you can come to the public forum and you can talk about an idea that you have. Let your board member know that you'd like to serve on some of the district committees. That's kind of how I got involved too, because I I sometimes was the parent representative on many of the district committees while I was with PTA. And and, you know, emailed phone calls. I mean, that's how you get to know what's going on, but what's how we get to hear what are our concerns. At the beginning of the year, we always get calls on bus routes and we always get calls on on the number of students in a classroom. And and what we do is then share with the appropriate person, whether it be the superintendent or one of the directors, you know, we're getting calls about this. You know, can you help me figure out how I can help you with the communication?

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Interesting. That paints a really clear picture, actually, of like how a normal mom or dad can kind of have their voice hurt. So I'm really glad that you described that. And before we wrap, I I want to give you the chance to talk to people who are thinking about running for a school board. What advice would you give someone who is kind of rolling that around in their mind? Do it. Tell us how you feel, Patty.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Yeah. Well, I I mean, I want to say that when I was reading the books the first time I ran, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter's first elected positions were school board members. And so, you know, it's it is sometimes people see it as a stepping stone, but it's really and truly one of the most important jobs. You really get to know what's happening because it's it's a small group. I mean, you're I I when I was running the first time for the district, and I was thinking about the presidential election and how hard it was for me to just get around and knock on doors in district four. I could not imagine what it must be like to run for a national office or a state office or you know, because it was that much worse. But but it's it's really, you know, the knocking on the doors and meeting people and hearing what they have to say and hearing their comments, and then being able to share with them what you know about the district. And and, you know, there's always room for improvement, but we need people with good ideas and people who will keep children as the top priority, no matter what the whatever is coming in front of the board, if we can always remember the child is at the center of whatever our decision making is. And so as a school, a person that's looking at it, you know, I always tell people, call me, I'll take you to lunch, I'll take you to have a cup of coffee, whatever, we can talk it out. But it's really it's a good way to get started. See if this is what your passion is. Maybe, maybe you move on to a House representative seat or to the presidency, but it's a way to get started and it's really meaningful because I truly believe that school board members are servant leaders because they really are close to the voters that elected them. Or the I've never met anybody who didn't elect me, actually. But but does I have a follow-up question about that?

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Oh so uh because you said that when we were talking in our pre-chat. Um, does that mean that when you become elected to as a school board member, that you kind of enter into a silo of opinion and you don't ever meet anyone that didn't vote for you because they're not speaking to you?

SPEAKER_00 31:25

No, no, it means that everybody that calls you will remind you that they voted for you.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Roger that. Okay, one more follow-up upon the advice for prospective board members. What would you say to a person that is thinking, gosh, I'd love to make a difference in the lives of children? I'd love to take what I know about Escambia County and transfer that in an actionable way. But I already have a job.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Well, you know, surprisingly, school board is a part-time job.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

And it sounds not like a part-time job.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Well, you know, you can put into it or or not. But I mean, really and truly, the most you you you go to one meeting a month, it's required. And then we have workshops here and there and maybe some special meetings. But it it's and the board has been very kind about, you know, looking at other people's schedules. I know a lot of times people that have jobs think, oh, I can't do that. But I will tell them that they can if they want to. I mean, any busy person, you know this, can find time for those things that they believe in and that they're passionate about. They'll find some time in their their schedule. We do it all the time. You know, if you need something else done, ask the busy person. 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

That's so true. So true. And you are certainly passionate about this. Uh so my final question is what's next for you? Because you strike me as a woman who doesn't sit on her laurels.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Well, I haven't really made lots of plans. I have a two grandchildren in Lexington, Kentucky. I hope to be able to go and see more of their activities than I have been able to do. I have a lot of applications at my church, but I'm just gonna take this one day at a time. And, you know, if something pops up that I'm passionate about, I'm kind of getting back involved with the PTA here locally. And so I know I'll I'm not gonna sit at home and eat bonbons, but I don't know exactly what it is I am going to do.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Well, I appreciate you spending part of your day today here with me, and I know the listeners do too. This has been fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Thank you, Zip, very much, and I hope that people gain something.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

I'm they would have to be completely unplugged, unengaged to not get anything out of this discussion. Your passion is contagious, and thank you so much for your 20 years. Thank you. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.