Parker Destin was born and raised in Destin (named after his great-great-great grandfather Leonard Destin) and graduated from Fort Walton Beach High School.
He went to the University of Tampa and the Florida Coastal School of Law.
After becoming a partner at Anchors Smith and Grimsley, a local law practice in Fort Walton Beach, he decided that a legal life wasn’t what he wanted for himself and got into the family business—local restaurants on the Emerald Coast.
He’s also served in the public eye – he won election with a group of reformers to the Destin City Council, where he served a term. He sits on the Florida Historical Commission and is rolling off his appointment to the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority.
Parker bills himself as the ‘common sense policies’ candidate and answered our questions about what that means. In short, he
- Thinks he has the business experience that will give the school board more diversity of thought and help it to focus on its responsibilities to the taxpayer as well as the students, teachers and parents. (four of the five current school board members are former teachers or administrators)
- Believes extra revenues from the Half Cent Sales Tax need to catch up on the maintenance of county school district buildings that past boards have put off to keep taxes low.
- Wants to eliminate portable buildings on OCSD campuses and move forward with new construction where possible.
- Says he will develop a concrete plan to deal with the overcrowding taking place at Crestview High School right now (whether that means building a new campus or ‘building up’ more classroom space on the same campus footprint
- Wants to increase teacher pay by using money from reduced litigation costs (because the school district won’t get sued as often, he believes, going forward) and future state and grant money to build buildings (which will free up general revenue money).
- Says he will follow state law when it comes to removing books from the shelves of libraries and classrooms when they don’t meet state standards for morality or other issues.
- Believes that the school district should release information about teachers accused of wrongdoing to the public after an investigation by the school district finds allegations substantiated.
- Argues that middle school sports should be protected at all costs. That means everything is on the table to ensure they stay available. He believes there might be a future where the school district has some sort of pay-to-play fee associated with sports to ensure they can remain financially viable.
