Peterson: Simons says: No conflicts in school board race | Savannahnow.com Mobile

Dave Simons has been running election campaigns in and around Chatham County for two decades.

Most of his candidates have won. And some of the few folks who’ve beaten them are now among his clients.

The Savannah strategist is now his own client; he’s running for local school board president.

Although he’s a first-time candidate, his interest in Chatham schools isn’t spur-of-the-moment. He briefly sought appointment to a board vacancy in 2011.

The 52-year-old Georgia Air National Guard lieutenant colonel is stressing three issues.

The first: Local schools’ top priority should be to provide skills and knowledge students need to get and hold good jobs.

Simons doesn’t fault current president Joe Buck — barred by term limits from running again — on that score.

“I think he’s done a good job,” he said. “I want to build and improve on that.”

Next, Simons wants to let parents decide where their children go to school.

Among the options, he says, should be community schools, magnet schools, and — more likely to be controversial — charter schools, which are semi-autonomous, but tax-funded.

Finally, Simons vows, “I will never, ever vote to raise property taxes. Ever.”

via Peterson: Simons says: No conflicts in school board race | Savannahnow.com Mobile.