October 29, 2024 • 11 mins
Lane faces candidate Page Lewis in the General Election. He joins us for a new interview post-primary.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm four WJ and O dot com. My
election spotlight is on the Palm Beach County school Board
runoff races. There are two of those. As a reminder,
District two was one outright by Virginia Savyetto. That was
an open seat. She ran unopposed. But we have one
in five. We're gonna focus on one right now. There
were two candidates in the August primary. There are or
(00:22):
there were three, I should say. Now there are two
in District one in a runoff, Matthew J. Lane and
Page Lewis. And we have Matthew J. Lane joining us.
Thank you for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I always say Matthew Jlane because that's how I pulled
it off the Supervisor Elections website. Well, how is this
going to show up on the ballot?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be Matthew J.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Lane. Okay, it will be like that, all right, because
I'm on your website. It just as Matthew Lanes. I'm like, oh,
I don't want to mess up, but that's fine. Just
don't call you late for dinner. Right, So we chatted earlier,
but you know, for folks that missed it, just give
us a brief overview of who you are. You know
your background, You're a little bit of a just a bio.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sure. I come from a family of teachers. My mother
was a teacher, My grandmother was a teacher. Her sister,
my great aunt, Elsie, was a teacher. My wife was
a teacher. When I was much younger, I taught math
and English in the public school system to underprivileged children.
So education is and has always been a core value
for our family. Now, our school district has an annual
(01:21):
budget of five point six billion dollars. We have twenty
three thousand employees, one hundred and seventy thousand students, and
one hundred and eighty two schools. We're the tenth largest
school district in the country. Before I started my law firm,
I was Vice President General Council for Financial Corporation for
over fifteen years. So I understand finance, I understand management,
and I understand law. And I've also served as a
(01:43):
city council member in the city of Palm Beach Gardens,
and it seems to me that someone on the school
board needs to have the financial acumen required to understand
the finances of an entity with a five point six
billion dollar annual budget, to have management experience, to understand
a legal issue is the confronted district every day, and
have experience as an elected public officials so that you
(02:04):
don't have to learn on the job.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
All right, So let's talk about some of the things
that may may come up while you're you know what,
what is a big topic right now that folks, you
know you're on the campaign trail are concerned about. I
know the grades were concerned. I think, well, we last
spoke and then Palm Beach ended up again getting an A.
I believe they dropped down I think to a B.
(02:27):
And then this past last year, this past school year,
I believe they got the grades back in and they
were an A if I remember correctly. So what are
your what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think that as a result of tremendous work on
behalf of the school board and the administration and the
teachers working very, very hard, they were able to raise
our grade from a B to an A school. But
there's still so much to be done. Overall, only fifty
four percent of the students in grades three through ten
(02:58):
are performing at grade level in English, only fifty six
percent of the students in grades three through eight are
performing at grade level in math. Now only forty nine
percent of the students in grade eight are performing at
grade level in science. So what you have in the situation,
we're almost fifty percent of the students aren't performing at
grade level in English, math or science, and thirty six
percent of the students in grade seven are performing at
(03:21):
grade level in math. And here's what we need to
do to fix it. First of all, we need to
focus on teaching the fundamentals reading, writing, math, science, and
the languages, and when the students are older, studying the
classical works of literature, history, philosophy, and the fine arts,
with an emphasis on developing cultural literacy, civic pride, civic literacy,
(03:42):
and critical thinking skills. Second of all, we need to
prioritize our spending so that we can retain and recruit
the best possible teachers. Studies have shown that the most
important in school determinant of a student's success is the
quality of the teacher, and two thirds of our teachers
(04:03):
earning sixty thousand dollars or less. Third, we need to
provide our teachers with extensive opportunities for professional development where
they have access to the latest research and the best practices. Fourth,
for the forty percent of the children in our school
district who aren't going to college, we need to maintain
excellent career and technical education programming so that when they graduate,
(04:24):
they will have the skills that they need that will
enable them to obtain high paying jobs when they enter
the workforce. Fifth, we need to have safe and secure schools.
We need to protect our students and teachers from external threats.
And we need to provide our principles and teachers with
(04:45):
the disciplinary tools that they need to protect themselves from
internal threats. And I'm proud to be able to say
that I've been endorsed by our police and sheriffs as
the person whom they trust to protect their own children
in our schools. Six, we need to foster health and
wellness through better nutrition, physical education, and sports. Seventh, we
(05:07):
need to have knowledgeable oversight over our five point six
billion dollar budget. How you spend your money as as
important as how much you spend. We need to be
responsible stewards of the public finances. And finally, for all
their differences, our founders John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George
Washington all believed that education played a critical role informing
(05:31):
a student's character. They talked about teaching the virtues honesty, truthfulness,
hard work, integrity, respecting others, and self discipline, and they
felt that this needed to be taught in our school system.
And so do I.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So you covered a lot of ground there, man, I
want to and I know you talked about retaining teachers.
I did you know? I caught that. We've seen the
state and the governor approve a few different races while
he's been governor for teacher pay, but obviously different districts
(06:12):
disperse it in different ways. Otherwise you'd have every district
paying exactly the same amounts, right, and I know we
don't have that. What do you do? What can be
done for teachers that are just not making what they
feel they should?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Here's what you need to do. There was a nationwide
survey of thousands of teachers by the National Education Association,
and here's how you retain and recruit the best possible teachers.
First of all, you need to provide them with a
living wage. Too many of our teachers are working multiple
jobs to make ends meet. I know my son had
a teacher at Dwyer High school and this man was
(06:52):
working two jobs, sometimes three jobs, just to support his family.
And what a wonderful man and an excellent teacher. We
need to have safe, secure schools. We need to provide
them with opportunities for professional development, which they want and
they need. We need to provide them with career paths
for professional growth into leadership positions. They deserve our respect,
(07:13):
and they deserve support from the administration, and they want
the opportunity to collaborate with their peers and share best practices.
The seventh thing that they want is they want less
paperwork that has little educational value. And the a thing
that they say will help us retain and recruit the
best possible teachers is having less non teaching duties and
(07:34):
more time to prepare for class. And that's how you
retain and recruit the best possible teachers. I do want
to point out, and I'm very proud of this, that
I have been endorsed for my school board position by
the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Council, BIZ PACK, our
Police and Sheriffs, the Associated Builders and Contractors, Conservative Watch USA,
(07:55):
the Conservative Voters Guide upon Beach Post State Representative Rick Roth,
former County Commissioner Hal Valichet, former Pond Beach Gardens mayors
Joe Russo and Mark Marciano, Former North Pont Beach mayor
Dave Norris, Siddynersty and Linda Stock said picks a former
school board chair Frank Barbieri, and the incumbent for the
(08:16):
seat that I hope to hold, school board vice chair
Barbara McQuinn.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
All right, what sets you apart? And in your opinion
above page lewis your only opponent in this runoff.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Let me just talk about myself. I don't want to
talk about my opponent too much, but I think that
what sets me apart is two things. First of all,
I come from a family of teachers, starting with my mother,
who was a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher, her sister,
my great aunt, Elsie, was a teacher. My wife was
a teacher. And when I was much younger, I taught
(08:56):
math and English in the public school system to underprivileged
showed so I come from a family of teachers. Teaching
is a core value for us. Additionally, the skills that
I bring that are somewhat unique, or the fact that
when you have an annual budget a five point six
billion dollars, twenty three thousand employees, one hundred and seventy
thousand students in one hundred and eighty two schools. You
need to have someone who can understand that budget. And
(09:20):
what I bring is the mind in the background of
someone with a background in law and in finance. And
it seems to me that someone on the school board
needs to have a financial acumen required to understand the
finances of an entity with a five point six billion
dollar annual budget, to understand the vast array of legal
issues to confront the district every day. To have management experience,
(09:42):
and also have experienced governing so that you don't have
to learn on the job. And those are the unique
things that I bring to this position.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
All right, anything else before I wrap up?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The last thing I want to say is my campaign
slogan that my wife came up with, and here it is.
When you're voting for school board, get on the.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Right lane with Matt Lane.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Thanks Jaell.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, I appreciate you taking the time to speak
with the voters. Now, this is a This race is
open to people living in District one only correct, That's correct,
Now we're in that area. I mean, no problems for
the north.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You can see it on their card, but sure, but
that's the north part of the county. It starts on
Blue Heron and goes all the way up to the
county line. That's north, south and east west. It's there's
parts of Singer Island. It goes all the way out
past ibis so it covers parts of Singer Island, all
of Lake Park, all of North poond Beach, all of
(10:39):
Pon Beach Gardens, all of Jupiter, and all of Tequesta.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Gotcha all right? Well again, appreciate it, and it's a
big race. We've got to focus on these school board races.
So again, pom Beach County school Board candidate for District one,
Matthew J. Lane on your ballot.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Thanks for taking in the time, nice to speak with you.
Be well.
Hey, Joel Malcolm four WJ and O dot com. My
election spotlight is on the Palm Beach County school Board
runoff races. There are two of those. As a reminder,
District two was one outright by Virginia Savyetto. That was
an open seat. She ran unopposed. But we have one
in five. We're gonna focus on one right now. There
were two candidates in the August primary. There are or
(00:22):
there were three, I should say. Now there are two
in District one in a runoff, Matthew J. Lane and
Page Lewis. And we have Matthew J. Lane joining us.
Thank you for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I always say Matthew Jlane because that's how I pulled
it off the Supervisor Elections website. Well, how is this
going to show up on the ballot?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be Matthew J.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Lane. Okay, it will be like that, all right, because
I'm on your website. It just as Matthew Lanes. I'm like, oh,
I don't want to mess up, but that's fine. Just
don't call you late for dinner. Right, So we chatted earlier,
but you know, for folks that missed it, just give
us a brief overview of who you are. You know
your background, You're a little bit of a just a bio.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sure. I come from a family of teachers. My mother
was a teacher, My grandmother was a teacher. Her sister,
my great aunt, Elsie, was a teacher. My wife was
a teacher. When I was much younger, I taught math
and English in the public school system to underprivileged children.
So education is and has always been a core value
for our family. Now, our school district has an annual
(01:21):
budget of five point six billion dollars. We have twenty
three thousand employees, one hundred and seventy thousand students, and
one hundred and eighty two schools. We're the tenth largest
school district in the country. Before I started my law firm,
I was Vice President General Council for Financial Corporation for
over fifteen years. So I understand finance, I understand management,
and I understand law. And I've also served as a
(01:43):
city council member in the city of Palm Beach Gardens,
and it seems to me that someone on the school
board needs to have the financial acumen required to understand
the finances of an entity with a five point six
billion dollar annual budget, to have management experience, to understand
a legal issue is the confronted district every day, and
have experience as an elected public officials so that you
(02:04):
don't have to learn on the job.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
All right, So let's talk about some of the things
that may may come up while you're you know what,
what is a big topic right now that folks, you
know you're on the campaign trail are concerned about. I
know the grades were concerned. I think, well, we last
spoke and then Palm Beach ended up again getting an A.
I believe they dropped down I think to a B.
(02:27):
And then this past last year, this past school year,
I believe they got the grades back in and they
were an A if I remember correctly. So what are
your what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think that as a result of tremendous work on
behalf of the school board and the administration and the
teachers working very, very hard, they were able to raise
our grade from a B to an A school. But
there's still so much to be done. Overall, only fifty
four percent of the students in grades three through ten
(02:58):
are performing at grade level in English, only fifty six
percent of the students in grades three through eight are
performing at grade level in math. Now only forty nine
percent of the students in grade eight are performing at
grade level in science. So what you have in the situation,
we're almost fifty percent of the students aren't performing at
grade level in English, math or science, and thirty six
percent of the students in grade seven are performing at
(03:21):
grade level in math. And here's what we need to
do to fix it. First of all, we need to
focus on teaching the fundamentals reading, writing, math, science, and
the languages, and when the students are older, studying the
classical works of literature, history, philosophy, and the fine arts,
with an emphasis on developing cultural literacy, civic pride, civic literacy,
(03:42):
and critical thinking skills. Second of all, we need to
prioritize our spending so that we can retain and recruit
the best possible teachers. Studies have shown that the most
important in school determinant of a student's success is the
quality of the teacher, and two thirds of our teachers
(04:03):
earning sixty thousand dollars or less. Third, we need to
provide our teachers with extensive opportunities for professional development where
they have access to the latest research and the best practices. Fourth,
for the forty percent of the children in our school
district who aren't going to college, we need to maintain
excellent career and technical education programming so that when they graduate,
(04:24):
they will have the skills that they need that will
enable them to obtain high paying jobs when they enter
the workforce. Fifth, we need to have safe and secure schools.
We need to protect our students and teachers from external threats.
And we need to provide our principles and teachers with
(04:45):
the disciplinary tools that they need to protect themselves from
internal threats. And I'm proud to be able to say
that I've been endorsed by our police and sheriffs as
the person whom they trust to protect their own children
in our schools. Six, we need to foster health and
wellness through better nutrition, physical education, and sports. Seventh, we
(05:07):
need to have knowledgeable oversight over our five point six
billion dollar budget. How you spend your money as as
important as how much you spend. We need to be
responsible stewards of the public finances. And finally, for all
their differences, our founders John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George
Washington all believed that education played a critical role informing
(05:31):
a student's character. They talked about teaching the virtues honesty, truthfulness,
hard work, integrity, respecting others, and self discipline, and they
felt that this needed to be taught in our school system.
And so do I.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So you covered a lot of ground there, man, I
want to and I know you talked about retaining teachers.
I did you know? I caught that. We've seen the
state and the governor approve a few different races while
he's been governor for teacher pay, but obviously different districts
(06:12):
disperse it in different ways. Otherwise you'd have every district
paying exactly the same amounts, right, and I know we
don't have that. What do you do? What can be
done for teachers that are just not making what they
feel they should?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Here's what you need to do. There was a nationwide
survey of thousands of teachers by the National Education Association,
and here's how you retain and recruit the best possible teachers.
First of all, you need to provide them with a
living wage. Too many of our teachers are working multiple
jobs to make ends meet. I know my son had
a teacher at Dwyer High school and this man was
(06:52):
working two jobs, sometimes three jobs, just to support his family.
And what a wonderful man and an excellent teacher. We
need to have safe, secure schools. We need to provide
them with opportunities for professional development, which they want and
they need. We need to provide them with career paths
for professional growth into leadership positions. They deserve our respect,
(07:13):
and they deserve support from the administration, and they want
the opportunity to collaborate with their peers and share best practices.
The seventh thing that they want is they want less
paperwork that has little educational value. And the a thing
that they say will help us retain and recruit the
best possible teachers is having less non teaching duties and
(07:34):
more time to prepare for class. And that's how you
retain and recruit the best possible teachers. I do want
to point out, and I'm very proud of this, that
I have been endorsed for my school board position by
the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Council, BIZ PACK, our
Police and Sheriffs, the Associated Builders and Contractors, Conservative Watch USA,
(07:55):
the Conservative Voters Guide upon Beach Post State Representative Rick Roth,
former County Commissioner Hal Valichet, former Pond Beach Gardens mayors
Joe Russo and Mark Marciano, Former North Pont Beach mayor
Dave Norris, Siddynersty and Linda Stock said picks a former
school board chair Frank Barbieri, and the incumbent for the
(08:16):
seat that I hope to hold, school board vice chair
Barbara McQuinn.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
All right, what sets you apart? And in your opinion
above page lewis your only opponent in this runoff.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Let me just talk about myself. I don't want to
talk about my opponent too much, but I think that
what sets me apart is two things. First of all,
I come from a family of teachers, starting with my mother,
who was a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher, her sister,
my great aunt, Elsie, was a teacher. My wife was
a teacher. And when I was much younger, I taught
(08:56):
math and English in the public school system to underprivileged
showed so I come from a family of teachers. Teaching
is a core value for us. Additionally, the skills that
I bring that are somewhat unique, or the fact that
when you have an annual budget a five point six
billion dollars, twenty three thousand employees, one hundred and seventy
thousand students in one hundred and eighty two schools. You
need to have someone who can understand that budget. And
(09:20):
what I bring is the mind in the background of
someone with a background in law and in finance. And
it seems to me that someone on the school board
needs to have a financial acumen required to understand the
finances of an entity with a five point six billion
dollar annual budget, to understand the vast array of legal
issues to confront the district every day. To have management experience,
(09:42):
and also have experienced governing so that you don't have
to learn on the job. And those are the unique
things that I bring to this position.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
All right, anything else before I wrap up?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The last thing I want to say is my campaign
slogan that my wife came up with, and here it is.
When you're voting for school board, get on the.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Right lane with Matt Lane.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Thanks Jaell.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, I appreciate you taking the time to speak
with the voters. Now, this is a This race is
open to people living in District one only correct, That's correct,
Now we're in that area. I mean, no problems for
the north.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You can see it on their card, but sure, but
that's the north part of the county. It starts on
Blue Heron and goes all the way up to the
county line. That's north, south and east west. It's there's
parts of Singer Island. It goes all the way out
past ibis so it covers parts of Singer Island, all
of Lake Park, all of North poond Beach, all of
(10:39):
Pon Beach Gardens, all of Jupiter, and all of Tequesta.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Gotcha all right? Well again, appreciate it, and it's a
big race. We've got to focus on these school board races.
So again, pom Beach County school Board candidate for District one,
Matthew J. Lane on your ballot.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Thanks for taking in the time, nice to speak with you.
Be well.
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