Candidate: Bill Person

Bill Person for Hillsborough County School Board

Published by Bill Person · May 15 at 12:05 PM · 

Candidate's Statement

William Henry (Bill) Person:

William Henry (Bill) Person is a retired educator residing in Tampa (Hillsborough County), Florida. Born in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, in 1951, Bill is an U.S. Air Force veteran serving on active duty from 1969 to 1973 and on inactive reserve duty from 1973 until 1975. While on active duty, he was stationed at MacDill AFB beginning in 1971 as an Avionics Weapons System Technician on the F4E fighter. Bill received the USAF Commendation Medal along with the Vietnam Service Medal and Vietnam Campaign Medal for his service in the Vietnam War. Honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant in 1973, Bill attended the University of South Florida receiving a B.A. in 1976 and a M.Ed. from the University of Tampa in 1979 while using his G.I. Bill benefits. His wife, Laurie J. Rodriguez, graduated from Leto High School and from the University of South Florida as an exceptional education teacher. Her career with the school district began in 1989. Bill's daughter, Shannon Noelle Person, graduated from Chamberlain High School and she attended Florida State University after which she received her degree from the University of Central Florida. Bill started his career in 1976 at East Bay High School as an English teacher and he retired 35 years later as a General Director in the Division of Administration. He served as an assistant principal for 15 years before becoming the principal at Dowdell Middle-Magnet School 1996 and principal at Tampa Bay Technical Magnet High School in 2003. While serving as the district's Director of Pupil Administrative Services in1999, he authored the district's Controlled Choice Student Assignment Plan. A local federal judge declared the district unitary in 2001, thereby ending court supervision under the original 1971 United States Desegregation Order. Bill was appointed General Director of Student Planning, Placement and Support Programs in 2006. In this position he supervised the management of Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, School Choice, Student Records, Class Size Reduction Requirements, Student Attendance Zones, Magnet Schools, and district Emergency Shelter Operations in addition to serving as the district education liaison to MacDill AFB . Upon retirement in 2011, he was appointed Chairman of the Florida School Choice Parent Advisory Council under the Florida Department of Education, Office of Independent Education. Bill has been a member of Los Caballeros del Centro Asturiano de Tampa, the Hillsborough Association of School Administrators (HASA), the Hillsborough League of Women Voters, the American Legion Post 111 and other community service and special interest organizations. As an educator, Bill was a member of Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and as a teacher, he was a member of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, (CTA). Bill Person was a candidate for Hillsborough School Board, District 1, in both the 2016 and 2018 local elections.