Teresa Mast and Caroline Zucker are this year’s candidates running for the District 2 Sarasota County School Board seat. The election will take place Tuesday, Aug. 30. To better learn about the candidates running, here is a brief overview of their platforms and experience.
Zucker has been serving the Sarasota County School Board from 1992 to 2000, and from 2006 to the present, for a total of 17 years.
Zucker has plans that she wants to implement if she wins the seat. She wants to address the problem of teacher shortages in the county. Zucker also wants to overcome the challenges that low socioeconomic students face, and wants to help them to read at their grade level. She wants to focus on the budget and continue to track it to see whether it is balanced or not.
Additionally, Zucker wants students to learn life-long academic and career skills from school and be well-prepared for tests. She wants to focus on student learning instead of testing. Zucker also wants to expand summer learning programs for both students and parents. She wants collaborative ways to identify links with the business community, nonprofit organizations and neighborhood associations to provide programs and services for students.
Mast formerly served as Community Outreach in the Sarasota County Neighborhood Services department, and she handled Business Relations in the Office of Business and Economic Development for 10 years. She is a small business owner, and this is her first time that she is seeking elected office.
Mast wants to facilitate guidance and leadership encouraging achievements that close the gap for proficient reading by third grade. She wants to focus on increasing graduation rates and making sure students are prepared to enter college and the workforce.
According to her website, Mast lists four missions she has that she wants to fulfill if she is elected. Mission one states that Mast wants to look for effective solutions to current problems. Mission two describes that we should fight for local control of education. Mission three says that all discussions and decisions should involve students and parents. Her fourth mission states that she wants to engage the community to continue to advance education in Sarasota County.
For more information on these two candidates, see the link here.