On August 11th, School Board Member David Thomas stepped down from office as our District Four representative. Unfortunately, his wife Cindy who has been treated for cancer in the past will need further treatment. Because of the time required by the position, it would leave him unable to be available to give her the type of care that she needs. He will return to teaching at JP Taravella High School where Cindy works as well. This is good news for the students of JP Travella who will get a fantastic teacher back in the classroom. Unfortunately, it won’t be good news for the residents in our district as several people are already lining up with their applications, ready to be our next school board member.
District Four, which consists of Tamarac, Coral Springs, Parkland, North Lauderdale and part of Margate will now be represented by our at-large member, Robin Bartleman, or until Governor Rick Scott picks someone to temporarily replace Thomas until an election is held in 2012.
Unfortunately, all of Scott’s School Board appointments have been along party lines, so instead of finding the best person for the job, Scott will find someone among the applicants who is a Republican. After the 2012 election, the Republican appointee won’t even have a shot to win the election in this primarily Democratic district.
The community of the Woodlands were supporters of Thomas’s, well before the primaries in 2010. Starting last spring, the residents were trying to change their school boundaries and had a lot of questions about their schools. Besides learning about school boundaries, they received information about school choice, reassignments and magnet programs because of their involvement with the election and by Thomas himself during the eight months he was in office.
Tamarac and the Woodlands will greatly miss David Thomas and wishes both him and Cindy Thomas well.
