Mark Broklawski says he takes pride in the fact that he is the product of the public school system.
The IT professional has lived in Stafford for 17 years. His wife, Amanda, is a public school teacher, and his children attend Stafford public schools. Broklawski also has other family members that work in public schools reaching back at least three generations.
Broklawski wants to put his experiences and knowledge to use by running for the Hartwood District seat of the Stafford County School Board. He wants to continue improving taxpayer value for their dollar and making the biggest impact possible while, as he puts it, "we reimagine education to ensure our schools, kids, and community meet the challenges of our technological era."
Broklawski already has some experience with the school board in helping to build broad coalitions of stakeholders to improve efficiency and ensure that resources can be deployed where they're needed most, as he has done with the Capital Improvement Planning and Multicultural committees created by the Stafford County School Board.
Potomac Local News talked to Mr. Broklawski about his campaign for the School Board as well as his perspective on events and how they've affected the way Stafford schools will run moving forward.
What inspired you to run for the school board?
After years of underfunding and mismanagement, the Stafford County public school system is in disarray. We are 35.3% below the state average in funding while being the 17th wealthiest county in the country. This is unacceptable. I'm running for Stafford County Schoolboard because our community deserves better.
Strong schools make strong economic sense for our community. Even if you don't have children in school now, strong schools protect your home value and increase our ability to attract businesses that pay well and grow our commercial base.
As we return to in-person instruction, we need to reimagine the way we do things. In this age of advanced technology our education system has been left in the dark. That needs to change. We need to invest in our teachers and our students. We need more classrooms not trailers. We need to empower all students to prepare for life after high school. We need more teachers per student and they need to be competitively compensated.
If I'm elected I will work tirelessly with our community members, parents and teachers. I will do everything I can because I believe that education is at the core of our community's health. It's time for our schools to be brought into a future we can be proud of, and if I'm elected I won't stop until we get there.
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