BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Alan Bhajan, the nonpartisan candidate for the superintendent of schools in Bradford County, has outlined a strong critique of the current educational administration, expressing concern over school closures and a lack of leadership.
Despite incumbent Superintendent Will Hartley’s landslide win in the Republican primary last month, Bhajan remains confident about his campaign and the message he’s bringing to all voters.
In a recent interview, Bhajan emphasized the importance of addressing what he sees as significant issues in the local education system. Central to his message is his opposition to the closure and consolidation of schools, which he argues is causing unnecessary hardship for young students.
“We’re seeing the closing of elementary schools without public consultation,” Bhajan said, noting the difficulties that long commutes pose for younger children, including increased exposure to bullying and other safety issues.
Bhajan also criticized the current superintendent’s plan to build a new junior-senior high school, a move he believes is a thinly veiled attempt to close an academically failing middle school to avert state intervention.
“This will force 11- and 12-year-olds into the same environment as 17- and 18-year-olds, which will bring a host of new problems,” Bhajan argued, pointing to potential safety concerns and the academic struggles that could arise from such a decision.
Drawing on his background in education, including his experience as a principal and education officer in Guyana, Bhajan highlighted the importance of transformational leadership in turning around struggling schools. He cited his own success in raising the performance of his middle school science students as the reason the school’s grade improved from a D to a C. It’s proof of his ability to inspire academic improvement, he said. Without it, the school would have received another D and entered the state’s turnaround process.
According to Bhajan, his efforts have not been without personal cost. After his success with the science class, he said he was let go from the middle school and faced obstacles in securing a position at the high school — a move he believes is politically motivated, given his opposition to the current administration.
Bhajan’s campaign is set to ramp up in the coming weeks, with the launch of a new website and the deployment of volunteers to knock on doors. His primary message to voters is clear: “The education of our children should be the top priority, not maintaining the status quo or benefiting the powerful at the expense of our kids.”
Bhajan is urging Bradford County residents to consider the future of their children’s education when casting their votes, rather than simply voting based on popularity or tradition. “It’s time for a change in leadership,” he said, “one that prioritizes the well-being and academic success of all students.”
Alan Bhajan in his own words
Challenges
“Well, we’re looking at the immediate challenges that are facing education in Bradford. One of the things we’re seeing is the closing of schools. They started with the closing of elementary schools, and then they’re trying to centralize elementary education in Starke. What that does, it creates hardship for our most vulnerable, our five-year-old, six-year-old kids who have to travel long distances now. And so, we find a lot of parents are choosing to have their student seek education in alternative ways, whether online or in charter schools and stuff like that.”
“It’s really a hardship for those young ones to travel, and then they’re exposed to bullying and other sort of violence in the buses and in school. And now the superintendent is saying that he’s building a junior and senior high school, sort of a composite. What He isn’t saying is that that means he’s closing down the middle school, and the middle school students are now going to go to high school. Now that’s a whole other issue, because he has failed to solve the problems in middle school and the school was supposed to go to turnaround by the state intervention. But if you don’t have a middle school and you can’t have a turnaround, and he escapes accountability there. Now we’re going to move our 11- and 12-year-olds into the same facility with 17- and 18-year-olds, and that’s going to bring a whole different basket of problems.”
The middle school
“Well, for the last couple of decades, the middle school has not been performing academically well. It also has disciplinary problems, bullying, truency. It has substance abuse problems. But the main issue is the academic performance of the students.”
“For the last couple of years, the middle school has been rating on a D, and last year, we had officials from the state that came in and tried to get the school to perform better, and the threat was, if the school maintained a D, they would have been what they call a turnaround intervention by the state, where the state comes in and takes control of school and dictates what has to be done.”
“But what happened this year was that one particular class, the science eighth grade class, did so exceptionally well that it shifted the entire grade of the school from a D to a C, just one class. I was teaching that class.”
Leadership
“This guy says his leadership model is to employ people and let them do their best. Now, what is that? You know, in terms of leadership, that’s called a laissez-faire approach. We basically don’t offer any leadership, and that’s what we have.”
“I have proven that the students can perform. I’ve worked with some of the best teachers in my career right here in Bradford. But what’s missing is leadership and transformational leadership because our head teachers, our principals, as we call them here, our principals mean well, but they need guidance. They need training. They need to become transformational leaders, to motivate and support their staff to get the kids where they need to. And that’s lacking. All you need to do in Bradford is to be friends with the superintendent and your job is secure.”
“Most of my career was in Guyana, that’s in South America, but I’ve been principal of a teacher’s training college. I’ve been an education officer, which is above a superintendent of schools, because I worked directly with the government of Guyana, to get into schools and make these interventions, to turn around schools and have better student performances.”
Bullying and safety
“It’s an easy fix, but what our people are saying here is that, oh, we’re going to use established protocols to deal with bullying. No, that’s after the fact. You’re not stopping bullying by using protocols to deal with bullying. Okay, you had that you have to be, take an initiative, make an immediate intervention to stop it. Something drastic has to be done. And I know what to do because I’ve done it before.
Message to voters
“Their loyalty should be to their kids, to their children. Right now, what is being pushed around is an appeal to loyalty of personality, somebody that’s popular and who’s saying, ‘Oh, you need to reelect me because it hasn’t been done in decades.”
“No, that’s not a good reason. You haven’t shown any vision. You’re not showing any initiative that you’re going to take. You know, no reason how you’re going to improve education in the students. So, I would like Bradford parents — and even other voters who are not parents — to think of what’s more important, and that is the education of their students and the safety of their students. And that’s where their loyalty should be, and that’s how they should think, you know, critically and make their vote not based on feelings, not based on who’s popular.’
“Another thing I’d like to say is that our incumbent superintendent has identified a number of problems with the school, such as safety, such as student performance. But after four years, that’s on him. He’s responsible for that.”
“That’s not on the students. I demonstrated that. That’s not on the students. The students can do it and do it like really well. That’s on leadership or lack thereof.”
