Two more candidates have entered the District 2 school board race that will take place this November.
The seat is currently held by Stacy Hahn, who has filed for County Commission. In mid-February, longtime educator Daniela Daniela Simic filed to run. Since then, Chris Taylor, an executive at an equity company, former teacher and school administrator; and Brittany Lyssy, an attorney and public policy professional have also filed.
Here are the candidates.
A close eye on contracts
Lyssy is a graduate of the University of Florida and Stetson University College of Law and is pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy, with a focus on education policy.
She also serves on the city of Tampa’s Citizens Advisory Budget and Finance Committee, and said she hopes to bring more accountability to district spending.
“As a member of the school board, we are responsible for the $4.4 billion budget that the Hillsborough County School Board has, and part of being responsible for that budget is making sure that we are accountable to the taxpayers for every penny that is spent well,” Lyssy said. “With my experience in law, I’m hoping to be able to really inspect the contracts and make sure that we’re getting the best deal for the taxpayers of Hillsborough County.”
Lyssy said she’s previously worked with school boards nationwide on governance and ethics issues.
She said she wanted to make sure there are paths to success for all students in the district.
“That means not only being prepared for college when they graduate, but they should also be prepared for the workforce,” she said. “I am a big proponent of school choice, but I also see how that can (impact public schools). So as board members, we need to make sure that the schools are competitive with all of the other options that the state has been allowing parents to have.”
Lyssy also said school safety is a priority for her. Being a mother of children in the district heavily impacted her decision to run.
“I have very young children,” she said. “Every decision the Hillsborough County School Board makes this year, next year and the following years will impact them for the rest of their lives as they enter the school system.”
Background in teaching, business
Taylor started as a public school teacher and coach, where he taught advanced placement government, macroeconomics and American History, and coached wrestling and football at Lake Gibson and Armwood high schools.
He is currently an executive at U.S. Digitial Mining and Hosting, a mining company and serves on the advisory board of an investment firm. He is a board member and former chairperson of the Hillsborough Education Foundation and of Hillsborough College’s William Gregory Foundation, which awards scholarships; and co-chaired the USF College of Education’s Stavros Center board and dean’s advisory board, among other boards.
To this day, he said, his greatest joy comes from hearing from former students, including State House minority leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, and Pinellas County Assistant State Attorney Robert Bruce.
“That time as a teacher was probably the most rewarding period of my life, but like many teachers, I realized that you can’t feed your family on intrinsic rewards,” Taylor said. “So I went into private business.”
Taylor said addressing the structural issues driving out good teachers would be a priority if elected.
“The single most important person in a school is the human being at the front of the classroom,” he said. “We could take a classroom of kids, take them away from the computer screens with the PowerPoints or whatever, and put them outside underneath the tree, and if they have a good teacher, they’re going to learn anyways.”
Taylor also said he hoped to advocate on behalf of students to legislators, and push for consulting experts when creating policy.
“Our classrooms are not an appropriate place for partisan battles,” he said. “They’re a place where children learn, grow and prepare their futures. A good idea is not a good idea because it’s a Republican idea, or good idea because it’s a Democrat idea.”
He said that as a school board member, his decision making would center people whose voices are often not the loudest. During the last election cycle, he said he campaigned for the millage referendum and said he felt a he felt a responsibility to see it through as a steward of the funds.
“You are guardians of the most precious thing in the world to most people, and that’s their children,” he said. “And so when we make decisions, we need to consider the least among us. We have to think of how will this impact the most marginalized of our community.”
Divya Kumar is a reporter covering education as a member of the Tampa Bay Times Education Hub. You can contribute to the hub through our journalism fund by clicking here.
