Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of stories Mainstreet Daily News is running to provide information about the candidates who have qualified for the upcoming elections. Click here to read about the Gainesville City Commission candidates.
In August, two of five School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) seats are up for election, and two candidates have qualified for each non-partisan race.
Two incumbent school board members will run against community members who have never been elected to an office, but who have both spent years working for public schools.
Current School Board Chairperson Diyonne McGraw, who has a history as a probation officer, will compete with Thomas Vu, a former teacher and Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) data team member, and current education consultant, for the District 2 seat.
Current Board Member and retired educator Leanetta McNealy will face retired guidance counselor Lew A. “Lincoln” Welge for the District 4 seat.
Candidate: Diyonne McGraw for District 2
Age: 55
Occupation: Business owner and Alachua County School Board Chair
Previous experience in elected office: Served as SBAC member (11/2020-06/2021, 11/2022-present)
Public service other than elected office: Former probation officer for Alachua County Probation, former board member of Alachua County Forever Committee, City of Gainesville’s B.I.G. Idea Committee and Parks & Recreation Committee, Alachua County’s Parks & Recreation Board, Santa Fe College’s Ambassadors Board, African American Accountability Alliance Organization, and Greater Gainesville Chamber’s I-3 Steering Committee .
Website: https://www.votemcgraw.com/
What prompted you to run for re-election?
In less than two years, as a leader, I have brought stability to our district, been visible, accessible, actionable, and visited 90% of our schools within the first two weeks, building solid relationships with administrators, staff, teachers, and students. I was able to implement a Barber Class at Eastside High School, strongly advocated for early childhood education, wrote a District-wide behavior plan, created a community-wide Career & Technical Education Committee, and supported one of the largest raises for all ACPS employees. As your candidate, I would like to have the opportunity to continue the great work that is in progress.
What are the two most important issues facing the school board?
The two most important issues facing the school board are our student achievement gap and addressing behavior in our schools. We have made progress with three schools coming out of School Improvement status, but now we must maintain this status without the additional funding that the state provides. To address behavior, we must provide additional supports to our students through mental health services, classroom management and other professional development training for our teachers, parents, and other staff deemed appropriate.
What do you hope to accomplish as part of the school board?
As a school board member, I want to continue working extremely hard to ensure every student has a successful pathway, through post-secondary education or career & technical education. In addition, I want our teachers and all employees to continue to receive more support financially and professionally. Furthermore, completing our strategic planning process is the blueprint to our overall success.
What do you think Alachua County Public Schools needs to be doing differently, if anything, and why?
One of the things we need to do differently is how we recruit and retain teachers. We need to provide an environment that is welcoming and rewarding. For example, I would like to see us revert to pass hiring packages which include tangible incentives that will draw quality candidates. Also, become an overall system that consistently supports and encourages all employees.
Candidate: Thomas Vu for District 2
Age: 37
Occupation: Education consultant
Previous experience in elected office: None
Public service other than elected office: Teaching for ACPS from 2016-2021, with experience serving as Math Chair and Team Leader at the Lincoln Middle School Lyceum Magnet Program; member of the data department at ACPS District Office from 2021-2023.
Website: https://thomasforalachua.com/
What prompted you to run for election?
I am running for Alachua County School Board because I’ve seen firsthand the challenges our teachers and students face. From being a teacher to working in the data department at the District Office, I’ve seen the disconnect between district leadership and those in the classroom. Our teachers aren’t valued or respected by district leadership. What is best for students is seldom discussed. Our community deserves a school board that listens to their concerns. We need systems in place to support our teachers to learn and grow, to support our students in making academic progress, and to listen to and show our families they are valued.
What are the two most important issues facing the school board?
Developing a long-term plan that creates systems to monitor student progress in reading, intervene when they aren’t making grade-level progress, and retain teachers and staff. Addressing the achievement gap, ensuring students read at grade level, and providing respect & agency to our teachers are critical priorities.
Engaging the community to tackle the achievement gap and literacy crisis. This requires willing collaboration with community groups, volunteers, and other government entities to improve outcomes for our kids, families, and the community. The current go-it-alone mindset is hurting our students and must change for real progress.
What do you hope to accomplish as part of the school board?
I hope to change board policy to require the board to take hard votes, ensuring real accountability to the community. This includes requiring votes on program changes and removing policies that excessively delegate board powers to the superintendent.
I also want to push for data-based program evaluation and decision making. This can help ensure efficient and effective spending by understanding what works in moving our students forward. We must use our tax dollars to maximize funding for our classrooms and for the salaries of our teachers and staff.
We also must do what we can to make ACPS the #1 option for our families. Enrollments are decreasing despite the population increase. We must understand community needs and make our families feel supported. This ranges from bringing merit-based admissions back to magnet programs, to actually acknowledging, addressing behavior, and actually responding to the community input survey.
What do you think Alachua County Public Schools needs to be doing differently, if anything, and why?
ACPS needs to stop fearing failure, as the current culture of not trying is failing our kids, teachers, and families. We need to change our systems, directing more effort into the primary grades and pairing them with robust systems to track and manage students’ reading progress. Students that read at grade level are far more likely to graduate and less likely to misbehave in school. This requires long-term thinking and decision-making that adheres to a long-term sustainable plan. The district needs to shift away from seeking short-term wins, as temporary successes and headlines do not improve literacy rates or inspire families to return to ACPS. Instead, we need a dedicated, consistent strategy that prioritizes the foundational skills for our youngest students, retains our teachers and staff, and makes ACPS the #1 choice for our families. To many in the community, this is common sense.
Candidate: Dr. Leanetta McNealy for District 4
Age: 75
Occupation: Retired
Previous experience in elected office: Served 12 years as School Board Member
Public service other than elected office: 35 years as an educator and administrator in Alachua County
What prompted you to run for re-election?
The challenges facing our state and local leaders to improve education for all children are issues that I want to continue to address. My 35 years of experience as an educator and my years serving as a board member have empowered me with the knowledge to take on many challenges facing Alachua County Public Schools. My goals that I would like to continue are putting children first and advocating for students at all costs; equity for all schools; parent and guardian accessibility; acknowledging academic performance at schools; protecting and supporting the arts; and working to create a safe environment at all schools.
What are the two most important issues facing the school board?
Even though we have accomplished three of our SI (School Improvement) schools moving out of SI status during the 23-24 school year, there is still much work to be done in closing the achievement gap between our white and Black students. The achievement gap between various students is an important issue facing the school board. The other issue is the rezoning of our schools. Many of our western area schools are over capacity and the schools basically located in the eastern portion of the county are under-enrolled. It is obvious that remapping of the county is needed.
What do you hope to accomplish as part of the school board?
Some of my priorities include recruiting and retaining qualified teachers; increasing salaries for all employees, with extra compensation for instructional staff; much improving behavior patterns throughout the district; increasing career & technical education programs within our schools; and completing project lists for all schools needing rebuilds or renovations. These priorities of mine are doable and attainable. I will continue to work with state and local leaders, citizens of the community, and district staff to make my priorities a reality.
What do you think Alachua County Public Schools needs to be doing differently, if anything, and why?
I think that Alachua County Public Schools is on track when it emphasizes its commitment to the success of every student. In doing that, our goals and objectives need to be solid. That is why the culmination of the year-long process of establishing a strategic plan is critical. Once the plan is complete, the goals and objectives set within will improve efficiency throughout the district, engage stakeholders and the community, implement a focus, and determine a plan for the future.
Candidate: Lew Andrew “Lincoln” Welge for District 4
Age: 69
Occupation: Retired
Previous experience in elected office: None
Public service other than elected office: 18 years as a Florida public school guidance counselor
Website: https://lewwelge.com/
What prompted you to run for election?
I’m running for the District 4 Seat on the Alachua County school board to use my 18 years of extensive and innovative guidance counseling experience in Bradford, Volusia and Duval Counties to help our students, their parents, and the employees of our Alachua County Public Schools system to experience the most broad benefit of counseling, which is to help #WeThePeople to “feel better about ourselves and to get along better with others.”
That’s counseling’s mission statement: “to help people, us(!) to feel better about ourselves and to get along better with others.” And those aren’t my words, they were taught to us counselor ed students for decades by UF Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert “Bob” Myrick #NEARLY a half century ago.
What are the two most important issues facing the school board?
The SBAC’s “two most important issues” are: firstly, meeting our charges’ nutritional needs (breakfasts and lunches). There’s an old saying: “We are what we eat.” And, as the kitchen is the “heart of the home,” all our schools’ kitchens should be allocated funds commensurate with their highly important and absolutely necessary function: feeding students nutritional and appetizing food. “Feed them and they will come,” right? (ref. “Field of Dreams.”)
Second, it’s critical we retain quality teachers. To do this, I’ll recommend following the policies and procedures in the brilliant and concise bestselling book #TheOneMinuteManager, with its key theme of reinforcing positive behaviors by our teachers and students alike. They should be frequently praised. They should be “caught doing good.”
What do you hope to accomplish as part of the school board?
Teaching is a cooperative endeavor, a reciprocal relationship, an interpersonal interaction which necessarily includes mutual respect.
My principal “hope” is to exert my influence to encourage bilateral understanding and respect between the powerful authorities (parents, teachers, “support services” personnel, and the too-frequently autocratic administrators) and the comparatively powerless conscripted youths we serve.
This is my second time running for a school board position, and my third time running for public office. So, I’m thinking third time’s the charm.
I’m not running against the incumbent, Ms. Leanetta McNealy, who has occupied #AlachuaCountyFlorida’s District 4 school board seat for the past eight years, two consecutive 4-year terms; rather, and I told her this directly: I’m running for the office, the position. She’s had eight full years to help effect improvements and she’s no doubt done her best, but it’s time for fresh blood. It’s time for a trained and experienced and innovative counselor to facilitate progress, to be a “change agent” for betterment in our public school system, which includes charter schools.
What do you think Alachua County Public Schools needs to be doing differently, if anything, and why?
We need to have a less autocratic and hierarchical organizational structure. The clear, concise, and convincing book, “The One-Minute Manager” should be our guidebook. Its democratizing, humanistic, and behaviorist principles should be instituted from the too-insular and exclusive Top, to the too-frequently frustrated and alienated downtrodden folk who feel “left behind.”
Tough call. Two incumbent members seem to be on the right track. But then the challengers are lookin savy also.
Tough race to call.
you mean that schools with a 3 or 4 rating out of 10 is a race too tough to call? If one settles for just barely above zero, one will achieve barely above zero.
Wow! I mean Good Grief . This is what we have to look forward to? Prediction: A lot more Charter Schools in the works. Failed ,mindless leaders never lead to success.
Thank MainST Daily News for doing this important job of discussing the candidates, and doing it so well.
Don’t vote for incumbents. They have had 4 years to do something about the achievement gap and have done NOTHING! Poorly educated children become the criminals of tomorrow. We need NEW leadership.
As a parent of a small child not yet in school, I look forward to being able to send my kid to a private school. Alachua county public schools are some of the worst, and none of these candidates give me any hope it will get better. I am very thankful for this information though, which is tough to find elsewhere, so I can be aware of just how terrible our options are.