Candidate: Richard A Murphy

First and foremost, I want to provide the best overall representation and open communication as an elected public servant representing the residents, students, parents, grandparents and all of the employees of the Manatee county school district team. I want to provide good stewardship and transparency of the taxpayers money and spending based on justification of need and the  specified guidelines in the 1 cent sales tax and 1 mill referendum that the voters barely passed as referendums. The role of the school board is to represent the residents as their voice. The school board also approves the annual budget and its expenditures. The school board has a duty to approve funding for district staff, operations, facilities, new construction, transportation, food service, educational programs, salaries and benefits. The great recession created a lot of financial problems for the school district. businesses and families in America. The school boards long range goal should be reduce spending and operations costs. The Florida legislature has passed the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act without adequately funding the mandate. I agree that our schools need uniformed law enforcement officers in every school. They also need additional mental health and bulling counseling for students as required in the act. If elected I would continously work with legislators to adequately fund the act and provide services for all students. I would also work building community and governmental partnerships to provides law enforcement, counseling and secured campuses. The school is required each year to levy school tax which provides capital outlay funds for facilities, transportation, vehicles and the security needs of the campuses.I would also work to provide the resources needed for all school departments and support the needs of all employees. I would also work to offer innovative parent programs that will support teachers with student learning in class and home.The superintendent and staff reccommend the expenditures and the board approves the funding and expenditures.  I am a Florida native, born and raised in south Florida (Clewiston). I am the 12th child of Susie Murphy and have 5 older brothers and sisters. I have lived in Manatee County part time since 2001, and full time since 2014. I have 3 daughters one who resides in southen California, another in Lakeland and the youngest Crystal Murphy Centeno in Parrish Florida, who is the mother of my grandchildren. My grandchildren have began pre-school at the First United Methodist church with a good foundation provide by the church staff. My grandaughter is a 8th grade student at Buffalo Creek Middle School and grandson is a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School. While in high school I played all sports and worked part-time with my brothers in a gas station. I also worked with farmers loading watermelons and cropping tobacco in Newberry outside Gainesville during the summer. In my high school senior year I worked in the automotive service management and business management after graduation. I continued my education at night as business management student at Palm Beach Community College where I earned a business degree. At the same time I decided to get involve with my community volunteering in youth sports and civic groups including the  Florida Jaycee's working in many community service projects. Later my wife and I became the proud parents of two daughters. Having always worked in youth programs including livestock associations and  prior to being a parent I was involved with the local school district volunteering on parent advisory committees. My school experience motivated me to serve the county by running for the Hendry county school board and I was elected in 1994 and served until 2008. Working with the board and in the schools suppporting teachers and the employees I decided to change careers. I worked and returned to night school at Palm Beach Atlantic University for two years and graduated with my bachelors in Organizational Leadership and Management with a minor in education only because my schedule wouldn't allow me to take education classes during the day. I became a business education teacher after recieving my certificate in Lake Placid teaching 6th-8th grades with four different subjects daily. I taught at Lake Placid Middle from 2005-2008 and resigned to run for Superintendent of Hendry County Schools in 2008 and won the election. I served as Superintendent from 2008-2012 during the great recession in the highest unemployment county in the state. During my superintendency I was blessed to have a school board,  instructional and non-instructional union leaders and all district employees that worked together throung the tough times without cutting salaries. The entire district with committee members from all departments, union leaders and community advisors made consessions. After the recession eased up and regaining financial stability the school board provided bonuses and future raises to repay the concessions. During my superintendency I served as a board of director on the South West Florida Workforce Development Board, Alliance of Educational Leaders, Heartland Consortium and county United Way. In January 2013 I was recruited to be an assistant principal at South Tech Academy (southtechschools.org) an "A" rated Title 1 high school working with 1200 students and 13 career academies. While at South Tech, I assisted in the planning and opening of the new South Tech Preparatory middle school with STEAM programs which included career academies in business, medical and music. While in Palm Beach county I worked closely with the Palm Beach County School Police on school security and student discipline procedures. I continued my education with the Florida Atlantic University Educational Leadership K-12 Master's program. I came to Manatee County full-time in 2014 to be with my daughter and help support my grandchildren in school. After subsituting in different Manatee schools I taught full-time at King Middle in 2014-15 and at Harlee Middle in 2015-16. In 2016 I decided to substitute in many schools then focused on learning the elementary instruction and procedures. I worked full time at Tillman elementary as a paraprofessional assisting teachers with instruction and taught many classes. I am running for school because I have always been a servant leader and believe my experience in business, budgeting, transportation, facilities, teaching, school board and as a superintendent will contribute to supporting all district employees and provide cohesive leadership on the school board. I have a good understanding of the role of the school board, superintendent, administrators, teachers and the support all district employees need.