Hart district board President Joe Messina is officially throwing his hat in the ring for the November 2013 school board race.

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Messina is seeking his second term on the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board, which oversees the education for approximately 23,000 junior high and high school students.

Career technical education and Castaic High School are the two main reasons that Messina will be running again, he said.

Those were the two platforms he was elected on in 2009, and he wants an opportunity to further the progress the district’s made in those areas.

“I haven’t finished the job I went in to do,” Messina said, noting the he felt the district has made great strides in career tech education, but there was a little more work to do.

The district’s Regional Occupation Program has advanced and now, in addition to work experience, the district allows students to acquire certification in some fields by the time they graduate.

“It has been a consistent message that’s never changed,” Messina said. “That message is that career technical education is important.”

Messina said while he recognized the value of a college education, “48 percent of those kids are going into the workforce, so if all we do is prepare them for a college education, then we’re not servicing all of the students.”

Messina owns a technology-consulting company called the Wildcat Business Group, and hosts a show on KHTS called “The Real Side with Joe Messina,” where he discusses hot button topics of the day.

He is also involved in a Christian business organization known as the Dunamis Group that hosts the Mayors Prayer Breakfast every year, and is the chairman of the 38th District Republican Assembly for California. 

Messina ran three times before he was successful in the 2009 election.

This time, as an incumbent Messina was able to raise about $5,000 in the last two weeks, which he hoped let people know that he was very serious about his run and his intentions.

Chris Fall, a Santa Clarita Parks and Recreation commissioner, small-business owner and community volunteer, was appointed to the Hart district board in May, and announced that he would run again after he was nominated.

Hart board member Bob Jensen said he was “absolutely, 100 percent, definitely running for re-election.”

The other two Hart board members, Gloria Mercado-Fortine and Steve Sturgeon, are both up for election in 2015.

Mercado-Fortine is currently running for Santa Clarita City Council, which has its election next April.

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