My Vision for AACPS includes…

• Safe School Experiences and Improved Opportunities for ALL of our students
• To build the best teacher corps and faculty in the country through recruitment, retention, and professional development
• A school system responsive to the needs of everyday students, parents, and teachers
• Better financial and operational oversight of our public schools to put more money into the classrooms for smaller class sizes and better instructional tools

 

My name is Vincent Goldsmith and I’m running for the Board of Education. I’m the only challenger in our district that is uniquely qualified to bring oversight and sound judgment to the Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

I’m a lifelong Marylander and a product of Maryland public schools. I first moved to Anne Arundel County 30 years ago.

My older kids attended Broadneck Elementary, Crofton Elementary, Crofton Middle and Arundel High School. And over the next 6 years which is the length of the term I’m running for, my two younger kids will attend Shipley’s Choice Elementary and Severna Park Middle School.

I’ve had over two decades of interactions with the Anne Arundel County public school system. I’ve seen the best it has to offer and its shortcomings, and I know we can do better.

Professionally, I have a degree in Business from the University of Maryland system. I hold professional certifications in Project Management and Software Development.

I spent the first part of my career in construction, where I supervised building projects, and managed the permitting process. More recently I’ve been involved with Information Technology, where I work with Fortune 500 companies around the globe helping them improve their systems and manage their money. This combination of construction and IT skills gives me a breadth of experience that makes me uniquely qualified to understand some of the complexities of an ever expanding school system in the 21st century.

Currently, I work as a public sector consultant where I work with the government to define solutions in terms of both organization and systems for how they can better meet their objectives. I specialize in bringing private sector solutions
to bear on big government problems in order to break up the stalemates sometimes found in large government institutions. I’m responsible for managing huge parts of a billion dollar a year financial plan and to make sure both my company and the government are getting the most out of their money.

Locally, I was involved with the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council for 10 years. It is the only organization in the county that offers free one-on-one tutoring to adults who read English at or below a 5th grade level. I started as a volunteer tutor at Second Genesis in Crownsville. The organization was struggling to maintain the program and I volunteered for the executive board where they elected me President. During my 10 year term I led a number of initiatives that expanded the program and improved the systems for how the organization worked with both its tutors and students.

I’m running for the Board of Education because I know I can help get the best out of our public schools.

We are one of the richest counties in the country, in the richest state in the country and yet our teachers are constrained and struggling. I believe our teachers are professionals, the same as lawyers and accountants and engineers. Most of our teachers have an advanced education the same as lawyers and accountants and engineers, yet we don’t pay them or treat them the same way as lawyers and accountants and engineers. I’m aiming to put a stop to that.

I’m running for the Board of Education because I know we can’t get the best out of our schools unless we have a partnership, a real partnership between the school system and the community. We can’t continue with an out of touch school board who doesn’t feel accountable to the community they serve. We can’t continue with parents not feeling a sense of connection with the schools their kids attend. Parents, I should mention, that are already burdened with working and trying to raise their families. And we can’t continue with substandard communications between the schools and the parents in both context and methodology. We need a truly collaborative platform accessible to every teacher and every parent in the county. A platform and a system that isn’t just a way of sharing information, but one that brings us together as a community in the best interests of our children.

I’m running for the Board of education because I believe we need to have high standards for all of our schools and all of our students and then we need to give them the tools and support they need so all of our schools and all of our students can meet those standards. And when they do, we need to give them even higher standards to reach for until our public schools are among the best schools in the country, if not the world.

My name is Vincent Goldsmith and I need your vote.