MEET THE CANDIDATES: Kyle Goudy, Orange County School Board District 4

KYLE GOUDY
Age: 33
Residence: Dr. Phillips
Family: Wife, Brittany McDonald Goudy, and daughter, LilliAnn
Education: Bachelor degree from Ohio University’s Patton College of Education
Profession: Business development at NBCUniversal — GolfNow
Qualifications: AAU Cares, Feeding Children Everywhere,  The Verb Kind, Roger Goudy Scholarship. 

You would be replacing Pam Gould, who has served on the Orange County School Board since 2012. Evaluate your predecessor’s work in the role. What was done well? What improvements will you make as her successor?

Pam (Gould) was great in expanding our career and technical opportunities through our six different campuses around the county. In her time on the School Board, she helped to increase career and technical certifications by 300% and also helped to increase opportunities for students with disabilities. 

This is not directed toward Pam (Gould), but I have a lot of people who have reached out to the School Board at large and waited a long time for responses and, in some cases, received no response. I will make it an emphasis to get back to people within 24 hours. Even if we do not have a full answer to the question, we will acknowledge receipt of the question and that the answer is in process.

Why are you running for Orange County School Board District 4?

To sum it up in two words, it would be family and community. Both of my parents were lifelong educators, which inspired me to teach out of college. My brother is still a teacher to this day. Having a daughter and a lot of friends in the community has also inspired me. Many of our close friends have kids in all different levels of the OCPS system, some of whom unfortunately did not trust the public schools. 

What are the key differences between you and your opponents?

All three candidates have varying degrees of education backgrounds, and that portion is incredibly important. Understanding the needs of teachers and students is a must. Orange County Public Schools consists of more than 200,000 students, more than 25,000 staff and manages a $2.6 billion budget. What makes me unique is my combination of education experience and first-hand, relevant work experience. I worked at the Amateur Athletic Union for more than eight years, with half of that time spent as director of business development. I am the only candidate with first-hand experience creating programs for large groups of students (more than 300,000), working with multi-million dollar budgets and going through the zoning/building approval process in Orange County.

What are the three most pressing issues facing West Orange and Southwest Orange schools today, and how will you address them?

Transportation: We have kids (who) are getting out of school at 3 p.m. and not getting home until 6 p.m. This is the result of a bus driver shortage. OCPS has just shy of 1,000 buses and around 500 drivers. We need to find a way to create more attractive compensation packages to recruit more drivers. 

Literacy rates: We have more than 40% of third-graders (who) are not reading proficiently. Using evidence-based teaching practices, such as Orton Gillingham, is one important step. I believe Spencer Mills is a great instructor and could be a good person to bring in to work with our elementary school teachers.

Fiscal responsibility: Everyone knows parents, students and teachers are stakeholders in education, but often taxpayers with no students in the schools are forgotten. I have met hundreds of people who support the schools with their property taxes and other tax contributions. My promise to them is that I will be a good steward of their tax dollars. 

Last year, Florida expanded the school voucher system, enabling more parents to opt to send their children to private or charter schools. In theory, the move could take away both students and funding from OCPS. How should the district respond to this change to ensure future success?

On a fundamental level, I believe parents should be able to send their children to the best school possible. This is something the state needs to think through as it relates to funding, because for some people, the public school in their area is the only choice. 

We need to continue to improve and work with our families to meet their needs. There is no place that (most) people would rather send their kids than public school, but we need to make sure we’re earning their trust with schools that are high quality and focused on the things that matter.

In the past few years, public education has emerged to the forefront of the national political conversation. Evaluate how Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state has navigated through some of those challenges.

I think the governor and the state have a mixed record on education.

The good: 

- Starting teacher pay has risen from $40,000 to $48,000 in DeSantis’ time as governor.

- The allotment for teacher pay increases was the largest amount ever in this year’s budget, up $200 million from last year.

- Increased school safety funding by $569 million dollars for K-12 schools.

- Made it easier for former law enforcement officers to become school resource officers.

The bad:

- Cutting funding from the arts. I believe if there were grievances with how art programs were being run, then everyone could have met and come to an agreement on how to proceed without cutting funding.

Discuss your view on how much access and input should a parent have in his or her child’s education at OCPS.

There needs to be transparency between schools and parents. This is one of the reasons some parents homeschool or choose alternative education (charter or private). This does not mean parents should be dictating how a teacher teaches, but they should know what is going on in the schools. 

One of the polarizing issues in student athletics is whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete with other athletes in their identified gender. What is your opinion on this subject?

I believe boys should compete against boys, and girls should compete against girls. I have met many female athletes who have lost opportunities because they lost a competition to a biological boy. If there is enough demand for it, we could consider a division that is exclusively for transgender athletes. We do not want to be taking opportunities away from girls in sports.

Recently, Louisiana lawmakers enacted legislation that requires public schools to display a version of the Ten Commandments. What is your view on this?

These lawmakers are representing the will of the people who elected them.

It seems every year, OCPS and the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association enter a difficult, months-long negotiation process. What can OCPS do differently to make this process smoother?

We need greater transparency between the negotiating teams. We need to ensure the OCPS representatives and teachers association representatives are bringing the full and accurate information when the negotiations are going back and forth, not skewed views from one side. There are steps being made to do this as we speak, and I will support increased transparency in the negotiating between the two parties.