Pinellas can improve by instilling the practices of fundamental schools into all schools, but creating more standalone fundamentals will create "an unfair playing field," school board candidate Brian Hawley said in a questionnaire for the St. Petersburg Times editorial board.

"I am a huge proponent of the fundamental model, but not necessarily separate fundamental schools," Hawley wrote. "To say we are going to implement proper, tested educational practices at a few select schools, to the exclusion of the others, is to admit that we are offering second hand education at all those schools not involved."

Hawley also said he wants the district to track at-risk students into programs "specifically designed to make up for the deficiencies in their personal lives." "Expanding the term 'school' to mean as much as possible to the lives of these children is key," he wrote. "Longer school days, community involvement and life skills, character development, mentoring, tutoring, and social/welfare support could all be combined at specialized locations in the county."

The questionnaire asks questions on more than a dozen subjects. We'll post others soon.

Hawley is running against Linda Lern for the District 6 seat.