Three candidates are vying for the District 3 seat, which represents areas along Pleasant Hill Road and Ham Brown Road and the Poinciana, on the Osceola County School Board. The election winner will replace Jon Arguello, who chose to run for the State Senate District 25 seat.
The three face off in the Aug. 20 primary; if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will meet in the Nov. 5 general election for the seat.
As an Army veteran and father of two boys, Angel Coba would like to help improve school safety.
“Time after time, bullying has gone up in schools and on the buses. There have been several high schools that have confiscated certain things that shouldn’t have been on campus that greatly endanger the student body, teachers, staff, SROs, whoever it may be,” Coba said. “As leaders, it’s important that we prioritize a safe learning environment for our children. That way they can learn, and the teachers can teach, and parents can go to work or do their day-to-day with a peace of mind.”
Coba said he would also like to see an increased focus on technical education.
“So many of our students are wired to go the traditional route,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But then there are those students that don’t want to go straight to college, but they feel forced because that’s what they’re told all their lives: to be successful, you have to go become a lawyer or whatever the career may be. But we don’t know that they’re interested in wanting to fix sinks or electricity or whatever it may be. So, I would love to allocate a lot of the budgeting towards funding those programs.”
Anthony Cook, a long-time career and continuing education counselor, considers his School Board run a natural progression of his career, which he says is focused on making sure every student is future ready.
“I look at it as an extension of the work that I’ve been doing in Osceola County,” Cook said. “Having opened up Bellalago, which is in District 3; having been a counselor at Poinciana High School, which is in District 3; and then being a district administrator for the last five years, I just look at this as a natural progression to continue doing that work that I’ve been doing. This is the most vulnerable district amongst all of our districts, and I just want to continue to make sure the work gets pushed forward and moved forward.”
Cook said he wants to make sure students are getting the education they need so that they are successful upon graduation. To do that, he said, “We want to make sure that we have high-quality educators that are giving them high-quality education. We want to make sure that those high-quality educators are getting paid competitively, because I know that that affects the way that education is being delivered to our students.”
Julia Tavarez is an Osceola County teacher who says her passion is the kids.
“I want to see them excel, What I’m doing is, I’m doing it to improve our future. They’re the future,” she said.
Tavarez said she has observed deficits in the educational system, with students not being on grade level being promoted to the next grade level. “That’s a problem,” she said. “There’s a lot of factors involved in that. I definitely want to bring everybody to actively work toward solving that problem.” Tavarez said she decided to run for School Board because she has been in the classroom and feels she can make a change. “The opportunity is there, and now is the time,” she said. “I care about my community. I care about the people. We need to come together to make it work. It’s not a one-person job.”
