School Board Candidates, Voters Talk Issues

HERNANDO — Michelle Bonczek, 53, a former substitute teacher, decided to run for the school board to ensure her children, along with others, receive the quality education they deserve. She has seven children, one of whom is medically complex and disabled. Bonczek has built her life around her son Jacob, 25, fighting for his education and making sure he got what he needed in school.

Mark Cioffi, 67, is a retired Air Force veteran who joined the military after finishing college with a degree in biology. He joined the Air Force because there were few job opportunities in his chosen field, and he also wanted to follow in his parent’s footsteps. His father was a World War II Army veteran, and his mother was a World War II Marine veteran.

Bonczek and Cioffi are two candidates running for Hernando County School Board District 4. This race is nonpartisan, meaning candidates appear on the ballot without party affiliations, and voters from any political party can vote for them.

During the primary election, the three candidates split the vote, with Bonczek receiving 28.84%, Cioffi receiving 44.34% and Gregg Laskoski receiving 26.81%. Since none of the candidates received more than 50% of the votes, the top two candidates advanced to the general election.

Bonczek began the process of running for school board in August of 2023. One factor that influenced Bonczek’s decision to run was an incident that took place at Fox Chapel Middle School in 2023, where a transgender teacher experiencing a mental crisis during school hours made statements that were perceived by some as threats against students.

Bonczek said she didn’t like how the situation was handled or the lack of communication between the school and parents.

“If I can make a positive change in our county and make our schools better, then that’s what needs to be done,” she said.

Cioffi began considering running for school board after several friends suggested he should. At first, Cioffi was shocked by their insistence and hesitant to accept the idea, but his wife convinced him otherwise. His friends said he had the leadership qualities needed in a school board member.

Cioffi received endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police, the Republican Party and Governor Ron DeSantis.

Bonczek said she didn’t seek or receive any endorsements other than those from parents.
“If I win, it’s all on my own and my merit,” she said.

Kenneth Mayon, 47, a Spring Hill resident and data and survey managing tech, said he’d like to see the school board candidates put the children and parents in the community ahead of their employees and the voters ahead of the unions.

He said he would also like the school board to pay school bus drivers competitive wages comparable to those in surrounding counties.

“I think if we put the right candidate in, they’re going to focus on saving money, keeping taxes low,” Mayon said.

Three of the most pressing problems Bonczek would like to address if elected to the school board are improving the bus situation, providing exceptional student services to those in need, and ensuring school safety.

Bonczek aims to hire more bus drivers and raise their pay to retain current staff and attract new teachers. Bonczek plans to implement stricter discipline on buses to help ensure the safety of both bus drivers and students. She suggested hiring retired police officers as bus drivers to make sure students behave on buses.

If elected, Bonczek said she would like to ensure that parents with children in exceptional student services do not have to pay for their children’s education. She said she would like to hire ESC-certified teachers and make sure they are heard to prevent burnout.

“I see the parents saying, you know, our kids can’t get services. Our kids should get services; they’re federally funded,” Bonczek said.

She also intends to have the exceptional student services classrooms painted with educational visuals, like the alphabet, rather than relying on posters that could be torn down by other students, ensuring a more durable and engaging learning environment.

A number one priority for Bonczek is school safety. She said having children still in school gives her insight into what is happening in the school system.

“My daughter comes home and tells me they’re having sex in the bathroom, and they’ve got THC gummies in the bathroom in middle schools,” Bonczek said.

She said she wants to protect students and teachers by having canines run through the schools occasionally.

“We just had a school shooting in Georgia that my nephew was on the call. So, he went to the school shooting in Georgia,” Bonczek said. “Here’s the thing we’ve got to keep our kids safe. So yeah, safety should be our number one priority.”

Three of the most pressing problems Cioffi would like to address as a member of the school board are enhancing the classroom environment, constructing more schools, and improving leadership.

Cioffi said that a big part of improving the classroom environment would be eliminating cell phones in schools.

In order to accommodate overcrowding and reduce the reliance on portable classrooms, Cioffi is in favor of building more public and charter schools in Hernando County.

In Hernando County, there are 135 temporary buildings that are over 20 years old, and maintenance costs over $9 million, Cioffi said.

“We haven’t built a structure in 10 years, and it’s just appalling to me,” Cioffi said.

If elected, Cioffi said he aims to address the lack of respect in the classroom, which he believes stems from a leadership issue.

He said students think they can act and speak without repercussions, while teachers are not receiving the necessary support to address the problem.

“That’s an attitudinal issue, a leadership issue, call it what you want, but we need to change the paradigm on that.”

Desiree Castaldo, 54, a registered nurse, said that she wished the school board would take into consideration more of the parents’ concerns and would let parents have more of a voice in the decisions that are being made. Since COVID-19, she said she feels that the school board has not been handling parent involvement in schools very well. “I do feel like parents have kind of been placed on the back burner over the last four years,” she said.

Some changes Bonczek would like to see in the curriculum to better prepare students for college and future careers are adding more certificate programs and making them available for all the high schools in the county. Bonczek said she would like an EMT program in schools where students can get a job as an EMT straight out of high school.

Cioffi said he would like to perform a curriculum review in collaboration with the Department of Education in Tallahassee. He is worried that schools are not teaching civics and American history. He wants to make sure students know the difference between a democracy and a representative republic and they know how the electoral college works. He also supports Governor DeSantis’ mandate that schools in Florida teach the dangers and evils of Communism.

Barry Meindl, 26, a graphic designer, said, “Making sure that our kids are getting the best education is number one.”

Meindl, however, is concerned that there seems to be a lot more political posturing in the school board than there has been before.

Measures Bonczek would like to take to ensure school safety is to address bullying as soon as it happens. Administrators and school resource officers should be walking around campus throughout the day. Bonczek said she would like the administration to become more involved with what is happening in schools.

“If you’re involved, you’re going to catch more things,” Bonczek said. “No different than if you’re involved with one child or your own child. You find out things when you’re involved with all the children and you know them, and you know them by name, and they know you less things are going to happen.”

Cioffi said he thinks that the current measures in place to ensure school safety are effective.
“I think it’s fully funded, fully manned, and I support that,” Cioffi said.

As an alumnus of Hernando High School and father of two graduates, Mike Steele, 50, said he has witnessed changes in the school system due to evolving safety standards.

“I went to school at a time when there were kids who had shotguns in their windows because they were going hunting or shooting after school. That wasn’t a big deal,” said Steele.

But now, the standard of safety has changed, and schools must adjust with the times.

“We grew up in a different way. If two people had a fight, two guys just sat and they boxed it out, and then they were friends later. They didn’t have grudges and guns in schools,” said Steele.