After soundly winning the District 8 seat for the Alabama school board Nov. 6, Republican Wayne Reynolds looks toward his Jan. 14 inauguration and his first days as a member of public education’s highest governing board.

Reynolds, a former Athens City Schools superintendent and Vietnam War veteran, said he believes he beat his opponent, Democrat Jessica Fortune Baker, by 135,171 votes to 86,175 because “voters liked my message.”

That message included three key issues — getting away from Common Core curriculum, returning control to local school boards, and making the state board more proactive in guiding education.

Addressing the state’s Common Core mandates, which have been in place since 2009, Reynolds said Common Core “is a flawed curriculum that was mandated by the state school board in a controversial 5-4 vote.”

The District 8 member on the Alabama school board represents residents in Limestone, DeKalb, Etowah, Jackson and Madison counties. During his campaign, Reynolds said he met with the superintendents and most of the school boards from each of those counties to better understand the challenges they are facing in their districts.

“They were saying Common Core is oppressive. For example, the curriculum has taken out the multiplication tables and how to handle money,” he said. “We are working on a proposal that would put those two things back into the curriculum.”

Limestone County math teacher Jessica Kent said Common Core standards for math still include “old school” multiplication tables, but most teachers focus less on drills and more on strategies to solve math problems.

Returning more control to local boards of education is also high on Reynolds’ to-do list once he takes his place on the state board.

“Local control for education is essential in order to model education in the community,” he said. “Each of our school systems are unique and interesting and they are better suited to direct curriculum and budgets.”

Reynolds emphasized that although he considers himself a team player, he will push the board to be more proactive in making policies that will benefit Alabama’s students.

“For example, the state school board should be active in appointing committees and assuring equity of funding in school systems,” Reynolds said. “The reality is the state school board is a directing group and should act that way.”

Once sworn in, Reynolds said reviewing the new proposed state math curriculum and addressing distance learning will be the first issues he tackles.