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Mark Broklawski says he takes pride in the fact that he is the product of the public school system.

The IT professional has lived in Stafford for 17 years. His wife, Amanda, is a public school teacher, and his children attend Stafford public schools. Broklawski also has other family members that work in public schools reaching back at least three generations.

Broklawski wants to put his experiences and knowledge to use by running for the Hartwood District seat of the Stafford County School Board. He wants to continue improving taxpayer value for their dollar and making the biggest impact possible while, as he puts it, "we reimagine education to ensure our schools, kids, and community meet the challenges of our technological era."

Broklawski already has some experience with the school board in helping to build broad coalitions of stakeholders to improve efficiency and ensure that resources can be deployed where they're needed most, as he has done with the Capital Improvement Planning and Multicultural committees created by the Stafford County School Board.

Potomac Local News talked to Mr. Broklawski about his campaign for the School Board as well as his perspective on events and how they've affected the way Stafford schools will run moving forward.

What inspired you to run for the school board?

After years of underfunding and mismanagement, the Stafford County public school system is in disarray. We are 35.3% below the state average in funding while being the 17th wealthiest county in the country. This is unacceptable. I'm running for Stafford County Schoolboard because our community deserves better.

Strong schools make strong economic sense for our community. Even if you don't have children in school now, strong schools protect your home value and increase our ability to attract businesses that pay well and grow our commercial base.

As we return to in-person instruction, we need to reimagine the way we do things. In this age of advanced technology our education system has been left in the dark. That needs to change. We need to invest in our teachers and our students. We need more classrooms not trailers. We need to empower all students to prepare for life after high school. We need more teachers per student and they need to be competitively compensated.

If I'm elected I will work tirelessly with our community members, parents and teachers. I will do everything I can because I believe that education is at the core of our community's health. It's time for our schools to be brought into a future we can be proud of, and if I'm elected I won't stop until we get there.

What do you think that Stafford Schools have done that's encouraging and what could be improved?

We need to prepare students for life after high school, whether that means attending a community college, pursuing a four-year degree, entering an apprenticeship program, or going right into the job market. It's time to move beyond the "bachelor's degree or bust" mentality. Not every child wants to go to college, in today's economy, they shouldn't have to in order to build a great life - if our schools help set them up for success from the start.

Stafford Schools has done a great job with their Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, which is very encouraging; however, I see huge opportunities to further expand career path opportunities for students by building additional partnerships with businesses, community colleges, and building trades. This will allow students to concurrently earn credentials, learn apprentice-level content, and have long-term prospects for good-paying jobs with health and retirement benefits they can rely on.

CTE programs offer students marketable, real-world skills. But too many kids either don't know about or can't access these programs. This needs to change.

We must provide more staffing and space in buildings for high-demand programs, so that students can access these programs. CTE was ranked 5th on the 2020-2021 Top Ten Critical Shortage Teaching Endorsement Areas in Virginia.

Last year students missed a lot of school time due to the pandemic. Do you think it was necessary to shut down the schools?

My wife, a public school teacher, worked incredibly hard and put in countless hours whether teaching virtually or concurrently throughout the year, as did all of our teachers, admins and support staff. Let's also not forget about our special education teachers who continued to teach in-person throughout the school year.

So, to say that schools shut down last academic year is a false premise.

As a parent of two children in the public school system, the instructional models offered were far from perfect. The struggle was real for many families, including ours. Working families, especially women, have made deep career sacrifices to help oversee their children's education. Teaching children is not easy. My respect has only deepend for our incredible educators and all that they do.

In this coming year we need to make sure our teachers and families have the support in place to make sure that we are bridging the learning gap for our children.

Another struggle was the lack of affordable access to high-speed Internet in Hartwood.

We cannot have two types of education: one on paper and one on the Internet. But the pandemic has highlighted the digital divide within our district. The lack of affordable high-speed internet has deepened inequities in access to education for our children, as well as inequities in parents' employment.

I will work with local, state, and federal partners to increase Internet access by bringing in more competition into our community and advocating for community broadband networks, which will have the net effect of greater accessibility, lower prices, and more options.

Do I believe if COVID-19-relief funds were prioritized to implement proven risk mitigation strategies that we could have returned to in-person instruction sooner? Absolutely.

Children and school staff are now required to wear masks throughout the school day. What are your thoughts? 

It's critical that children return safely to in-person instruction and can stay there.

State law requires that all schools offer in-person instruction and adhere to currently applicable mitigation strategies to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC guidance continues to evolve, as the virus evolves, and as we learn more about the science surrounding the virus and subsequent variants. In fact, the CDC guidance changed again last week.

We must follow the science and the law when it comes to any required mitigation strategies, so children can safely return and remain in the classroom.

Broklawski is running against Alyssa Halstead for the Hartwood District seat on the Stafford County School Board on Tuesday, November 2. Early voting starts at the Stafford County Government Center on Friday, September 17.