Johnny Beach is currently a teacher at Schrade Middle School but will retire if elected to place 2 of the Garland ISD board of trustees. He was born and raised in Garland and is dedicated to the continued success of both the city and the school district. Beach was a coach and administrator at GISD in the 1970s and 1980s and is a former Garland City Council member. He has also served on various boards and is a past president of the Garland Chamber of Commerce.
This candidate feels that Garland ISD’s most valuable asset is its teachers and is concerned about recent surveys that reflect staff unhappiness due in part to increasing workloads.
“The morale is low because teachers are not able to go home and be with their families because of their workloads,” Beach said. “They are being overburdened with paperwork and that needs to be looked at. Teachers are hired to do one thing – that’s to teach and if they continue to be beaten down, they won’t want to continue teaching.”
Beach added that he sometimes feels that the administration does not consider how their decisions and actions impact the staff.
“I don’t care what job you are in,” Beach said. “You want to be motivated, excited about what you are doing.”
He is also aware that the family atmosphere that GISD enjoyed in the past is gone but believes that it can be restored.
“Some tough decisions would have to be made and there would have to be some rearranging of positions,” Beach said. “We will have to look at the whole picture and decide where to start to get it turned around.”
GISD’s vocational programs are expanding for students who may not want to go to college but need to learn a trade so they can make a living. Beach feels that these programs are great opportunities for students and the new tech center will increase those opportunities.
“If they want to go to college that’s great but if not, they need something like this available to them,” he said.
He would also like to add management training to the vocational programs.
For example, if a student goes through the auto body program and is taught management skills at the same time, then that student would be able to open and run a business.
Beach would also like to see more parental and family involvement and feels that this could be achieved through additional public visibility of the board members and administration.
“Garland is a great place to raise a family and it’s a place for kids to get a great education. It’s very family-oriented,” he said. “We want people to come here, raise their kids here, go to church here and Garland offers all that.”
Beach said that he has no problem asking questions and said that it is OK to disagree.
“I vote my convictions and what I feel is right. The way the process should run is that the board decides what the administration should do. Not the other way around,” he said. “And it is the board’s responsibility to represent the taxpayers.”
He questions whether a natatorium is the best thing for Garland and feels that there was too much “fluff” in the bond package.
“We’ve got to start using common sense,” he said.
He said that it looks like money is being spent like GISD has an open checkbook and that the district needs to have a rainy day fund to protect its taxpayers and its own interests.
“We are not doing that and I’m not real happy about it,” he said.
Beach said that if he is elected, he will look into matters like this and address them.
“A lot of questions need to be asked,” he said. “We’re dealing with taxpayers’ money and they have a right to know what is happening. They need to know how GISD is operating.”
“I’ve been involved in a lot of things in this community and I know this community,” Beach said. “I’m ready to serve and I’m ready to get the heartbeat of Garland ISD back.”