Joannides looks to address national issues with local school board campaign

Jun. 26—Editor's note: The Frederick News-Post is profiling candidates for various public offices in Frederick County leading up to the July 19 primary elections. Each school board profile will include an audio recording of the full interview.

Mark Joannides said he decided to run for the Frederick County Board of Education after becoming frustrated with U.S. politics.

A retired father of four from Middletown, Joannides said he's come to believe that public schools are producing "self-loathing" children who "don't like this country."

Though he's running for local office, Joannides' platform isn't confined to local issues, he said: His campaign is his attempt to address what he views as nationwide problems.

"I couldn't make an impact, really, other than voting ... on the president, the senators, the House of Representatives," he said. "But I realized we can make an incredible impact locally in Frederick County with the Board of Education."

Joannides is a member of the Education Not Indoctrination slate, a group of four conservative candidates who are raising and spending money as a group and say they have a shared mission. He is running alongside Nancy Allen, Olivia Angolia and Cindy Rose.

The group is hoping to secure a majority on the seven-member board. Members have taken issue with the district's health curriculum, the way it teaches about race and more, framing the upcoming school board elections as one piece of a broader national fight.

"[Y]ou must vote wisely," the slate's website says, "or our schools will remain the institutionalized training grounds for the progressive political activists of tomorrow."

Joannides, 56, retired two years ago. He made a living acquiring, running and then selling a series of businesses, he said, which included a coffee shop and a landscaping company.

His four children were homeschooled, according to the slate's website.

If elected, Joannides said he would work to draft a zero-baseline budget for Frederick County Public Schools. Rather than adjusting the budget from the previous fiscal year, Joannides said, the district should start from scratch, and the board should take a hard look at each expense.

"We are going to dissect that thoroughly," he said.

Joannides also said he'd challenge the unions representing FCPS employees.

All four slate candidates say their ultimate goal is to prioritize academics in FCPS, which Joannides and the others argue on their website is currently offering a "politicized, sexualized, emotionally driven education."

Joannides, a vocal critic at public forums on health curriculum updates earlier this year, repeatedly used the word "rape" to describe guidelines from the state education department outlining when and how elementary schoolers should be taught about gender identity and sexual orientation. The slate has argued the guidelines would lead to age-inappropriate lessons that would infringe on religious freedom.

"Our children are being emotionally raped," Joannides said. "Their innocence is being stolen."

Slate members have said they would vote to repeal the updated curriculum guidelines if they were all elected. Joannides said he would work to remove "political ideology" from the classroom in other ways, too, though he didn't outline specific plans.

He said his experience in business management, budgeting and hiring would be an asset on the school board.

Current board members are "unreasonable, irrational people," Joannides said.

"You can't negotiate with that," he said. "You need to vote them out."

The other candidates in the school board race are: Liz Barrett, Ysela Bravo, David Brooks, Heather Fletcher, Rae Gallagher, April Marie Montgomery, Ashley A. Nieves, Tiffany M. Noble, Rayna T. Remondini, Dean Rose, Justi Thomas and Karen Yoho.