Name: Jessie Bastos

Campaign website: jessiebastos.vote

Date and place of birth: March 11, 1979; West Lafayette, Indiana

On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 the highest), rate the job performance of Superintendent Howard Hepburn, emphasizing his strengths and weaknesses.
Overall, I rate Superintendent Hepburn a 2/5. I believe Broward’s Superintendent should be evaluated primarily on measurable student outcomes, organizational leadership, fiscal stewardship, and the ability to build public trust. In the area of measurable student outcomes, I rate Hepburn a 4/5- our district received an “A” rating for the 3rd consecutive year with no “D” or “F” rated schools, and our graduation rate reached an all-time high in 2025 at 91.4%. When it comes to organizational leadership, specifically how he drives a strong vision and culture within the district through the roughly 26k employees he oversees, I rate Hepburn a 2/5. Culture and morale within our schools is at an all-time low, and the district has been plagued by countless missteps- from referendum bonuses being diverted from educators and handed to our highest-paid administrators, to inaccurate information being provided to the board for the HANDY lease fiasco which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by the district for litigation, to the fumbling of graduation venues and improper municipal SRO termination letters. All have gone without proper accountability and strong corrective action by the leader who is ultimately in charge of district staff- Superintendent Hepburn.

When it comes to fiscal stewardship, I rate Hepburn a 2/5. 3 years into his tenure with BCPS as a Deputy Superintendent and Superintendent, our district is in a financial crisis with the possibility of receivership looming on the horizon. The recent reorganization plan failed to focus on bloated district staff, opportunities to sell vacant district property and vacate the K.C. Wright building have moved at a snail’s pace, and our teachers have the lowest pay in the country. In terms of building public trust, due to all those reasons listed, I rate Hepburn a 2/5.

The Broward school district received an “A” grade for the third straight year for student academic performance. Who deserves the most credit for this?
Our teachers, students, school-based leaders and staff, school volunteers and the families supporting our public school system deserve the most credit for our third consecutive “A” rating. Despite enormous challenges, they’ve stepped up to ensure Broward County Public Schools continues to deliver strong educational outcomes.

Voters will decide whether to extend a school property tax increase. If it passes, the School Board will allocate 90 percent of the money for raises for teachers and school-based staff. Do you agree or disagree with this decision and why?
I agree with this decision and also agree that the remaining 10% should be allocated to school safety and mental health resources. With that said, taxpayers are extremely tired of temporarily supplementing incomes for teachers- paying teachers what they deserve should be a core, fundamental part of our annual budget. As a school board member, I will prioritize teacher pay within our budget without the need to ask the public for supplemental raises.

Will you vote for or against the tax extension and why? 
I will vote for the tax extension because our teachers, school-based staff, school safety and mental health support staff are depending on it to make ends meet amidst an affordability crisis in South Florida. At the same time, we need to prioritize budgeting a permanent increase in pay so that we don’t have to ask voters to do it again in four years.

A series of fiscal missteps in the past year has placed the school board and the administration on the defensive. How well has the district responded to these controversies?
In a word, poorly. The public doesn’t have confidence that appropriate corrective measures have taken place, and the consequences have been measured in more and more students un-enrolling from Broward Public Schools. We need to do better in preventing missteps and take swifter action in holding those at fault accountable in order to regain public confidence.

There also needs to be a broader conversation about what a comprehensive, long-term strategic plan for managing the district’s finances actually looks like. The district has made attempts through the Redefining initiative, cuts in several areas, and recent changes to the organizational chart, but there is still no clear larger vision for moving forward. Too often, the response has been to put out one financial fire at a time instead of confronting decades of mismanagement with a unified plan. Enrollment is declining, Broward’s population is changing, and state resources remain limited. The board and superintendent need to agree on a long-term strategy and move together in one direction.

One such controversy involved using past referendum money to pay large bonuses to highly-paid administrators. Should those who received bonuses have been required to refund the money? Why or why not?
Those who received bonuses absolutely should have been required to refund the money as the voters intended for it to be provided for teachers. Superintendent Hepburn was offered a referendum bonus and turned it down. He should have demanded the same from his senior staff.

To reduce a financial deficit, the board approved a reorganization plan that critics say is unfair because it eliminates front-line positions while leaving bureaucratic jobs largely untouched.  Do you agree or disagree with this criticism and why? 
I agree with the criticism- student enrollment has declined by nearly 40k students in the past decade, while bureaucratic jobs have not kept pace with the decline. The recent reorganization plan does not reflect the adjustments that need to be made at the district level in order to maintain a healthy and sustainable organization.

There are more effective ways to structure the district bureaucracy. In my line of work, efficiency is essential, and I look forward to closely reviewing the administration to identify duplicative roles, overlapping responsibilities, and areas where resources can be better used. Any necessary reductions should begin at the KC Wright Administration Building—not in the schools and classrooms that directly serve our students.

The school board has voted to close six underenrolled schools to save money. Do you think the district should close more schools or not, and why? 
Unfortunately, with an anticipated decline in enrollment to the tune of 25k students over the next 5 years, maintaining the same number of schools is not sustainable or financially viable. The reality is that unless we see substantial change in the number of students enrolled in our schools, additional school closures will need to be considered to maintain financial solvency.

With that said, any future closures must be handled with full transparency. Families, teachers, staff, and the surrounding community deserve to be part of the conversation and guided through every step, including how a closure will affect students and what will be done to keep the community strong. Reducing the number of schools should not mean reducing the quality of education. The savings should be reinvested into the remaining schools so they have stronger programs, better resources, and more support for students and teachers.

List in reverse chronological order each college or university attended, with years of attendance.
Florida State University, 1997-2001. Dual degrees- B.S. Communication Disorders, B.A. Music

List in reverse chronological order your work history for the past 15 years.
Samsung Electronics America: Sr. Business Sales Executive 2017-present

T-Mobile, USA: Sr. Business Sales Manager 2004-2017

Detailed info on linkedin.com/in/jessiebastos

Why should voters elect you instead of your opponent(s)?
The #1 issue facing Broward County Public Schools is that we are in a financial crisis. I have the business acumen, leadership experience, and fresh perspective from outside of the organization needed to balance out the board, get our teachers paid what they deserve, and instill the cultural change we need to see within Broward County Public Schools.

In my current role, I am constantly looking for ways to grow revenue while reducing unnecessary costs, and that is exactly the mindset the School Board needs. We have phenomenal programs provided in our schools that private schools and charter schools don’t offer, and our students are winning state and national awards, being awarded hundreds of thousands in scholarships to prestigious colleges and universities, earning technical certifications to fast-track their careers, and giving back to their communities in ways that inspire hope for our future. We need to do a far better job of promoting these programs and driving awareness through community engagement and marketing. We must bring more families back into our public schools while cutting duplicative contracts and an oversized bureaucracy. I have also been part of this community my entire life. I attended our local schools and raised my three sons here, so I understand both what this district has been and what it can become again. A district representative should know the community not only through reports and meetings, but through lived experience and a direct connection to the families and schools they serve. With that perspective and my business experience, I will cut waste, reinvest in our schools, and make sure every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

What in your life experience best qualifies you to serve as a school board member?
I am the only candidate in this race who brings 9 years as a District 6 student, 15 years as a volunteer and mom of 3 students in District 6, and 22 years of private sector leadership experience needed to bring a fresh perspective to this board. I graduated from Silver Ridge Elementary School, Tequesta Trace Middle School, and Western High School when 2 of those schools were first built. I understand the enormous potential we have to bring our district back to what it was, and I have the passion and skill set from over two decades working for Fortune 500 companies to be an instrument of change on the school board.

Have you ever been a party to a lawsuit, including bankruptcy or foreclosure? If so, provide details of the case and disposition.
No.

Have you ever been charged or convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, including an adjudication of guilt withheld? If so, provide charges, dates and terms of sentence.
No.