Who is
Andrew Markners?

Background

I grew up in Rock Hill and have lived in York County for over 30 years. After moving here in 1988, I never left... attending Rock Hill Schools, followed by Winthrop University, and then moving to Fort Mill in 2004. My wife, Kristy, and I moved to Fort Mill right after we married because we knew we wanted to start a family, and we also wanted the best educational future for our children.

When my children started Kindergarten I knew I wanted to be an active participant in their education and a supportive parent at their school. Subsequently, I've served as a member of either the School Improvement Council (SIC) or the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Board every year they have been in school – often times serving with both groups at the same time. From 2010 – 2014, I served on the Sugar Creek Elementary School SIC, and I was also the PTO Treasurer from 2011-2014. From 2014 – 2016, I was co-chair of the Doby's Bridge Elementary School SIC, and I was the PTO co-treasurer from 2016-2018. I am currently the Banks Trail Middle School PTO co-treasurer and started that position at the start of the 2017-2018 school year.

This past school year I also had the opportunity to serve the entire community during the most recent Fort Mill Schools Bond Referendum. Alongside two outstanding co-chairs, I served as a leader of the Keep our Schools Strong Bond Referendum Committee.

The past eight years as a Fort Mill School District volunteer has provided me with a wealth of diverse experiences, challenges, and motivation to advocate for our schools. Volunteering has also taught me a lot about the dedication needed to continue to the tradition of excellence in Fort Mill. I've been able to learn about how the district operates, how we plan for the future, and our financial and operation al challenges. Having learned so much about the district through educating the community on the referendum, I understand the strengths and potential challenges we face as a district. I've also been able to learn about our community members' feelings related to our schools, growth, and taxes. Having attended meetings with over 30 community groups, I feel I am uniquely positioned to represent not just the area of Fort Mill in which I live, but the entire district as a whole. I feel this global experience is very important for School Board Trustees that aren’t elected by regions or districts, but instead are elected to represent the ENTIRE community.

Upbringing & school
Education was a fundamental priority in my household growing up. I was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and my family moved to Rock Hill in 1988, where I entered first grade at York Road Elementary School. I went to Rawlinson Road Middle School and I became an active member of the band playing the trombone. I continued in band at Northwestern High School, participating in region band, marching band, jazz band, and pretty much every other band activity possible.

I was also an athletic child, playing soccer, basketball, baseball, and football both in organized leagues and with my friends. When I was 13 years old I shattered my elbow, which turned out to be a blessing because I focused all of my extra-curricular time into performing with the band. Regardless of my activities, they always took a back seat to my school work and homework. Through band and the Winthrop STARTS program, I met many students at Fort Mill High School and began to admire Fort Mill because of their commitment to their band programs and reputation for strong academics.

College
In 1999, I started my graduate work at Winthrop University with no intention of staying more than a year (I had the thought I would transfer to a larger state university). Once I became immersed in the Winthrop culture, I fell in love with the university and became very involved in various activities. I was the treasure and president of my fraternity, and was a delegate on the Inter-Fraternity Council, a leadership group of all fraternities at Winthrop. I also had the privilege of leading the transition of the student government from a traditional senate/president structure dealing with major apathy problems, to the Council of Student Leaders which is still in existence today. As the first chairperson of the Council of Student Leaders, I served as the official student body president and student representative to the Board of Trustees. I was able to observe and participate in a well-functioning Board at a time when South Carolina universities initially faced budget issues related to state funding.

I think this opportunity could provide great historical experience as a potential member of the Fort Mill School Board since our district continues to face budget challenges while having ever-growing needs. I graduated from Winthrop in 2003 with a degree in Computer Science and Accounting. Additionally, my experiences at Winthrop provided me with the foundation, challenge, and fulfillment you can feel from volunteering and getting involved in the process to make a community a better place.


Family
My wife and I got married in 2004, at the Springs Dairy Barn, and moved to the Steele Meadows community. In 2006, we had our son, Kaleb. When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, Makenzy, we moved into Regent Park where our children started school at Sugar Creek Elementary School. I served as the treasurer and president of the Regent Park Community Owners Association Board of Directors during my time in Regent Park. In 2014, we purchased a house in the Beckenham neighborhood and our children moved to Doby's Bridge Elementary School in its' inaugural year.

Our family is fortunate that Kristy is able to stay home with our children, which I am the first to admit is often more work, both mentally and physically, than my professional job. She is an amazing person and the best mother I know. She gives tirelessly of herself to make our lives better. When our children are in school, Kristy often finds herself there too. She is a dedicated school and classroom volunteer, room mom, PTO board member, and has also served the district as a substitute teacher.

Our son, Kaleb (12), is a 7th grader at Banks Trail Middle School. He likes to play sports, enjoys spending time in the water, plays the guitar, and probably most of all, loves reading. We often struggle to keep enough books on hand for him, and sometimes he finds himself re-reading many of the books he enjoys. In 2014, Kaleb was diagnosed with confusional migraines. We have been challenged as a family by the unpredictability and severity of his condition. Through the work of medical professionals and the diligence of his care, we have made great progress in helping to control his migraines. The Fort Mill School District has been an amazing partner in making sure Kaleb has the appropriate accommodations to help him succeed in school. However, we have also seen the resource challenges our district faces with the ever-growing and changing population of our schools.

Our daughter, Makenzy (10) is a 5th grader at Doby's Bridge Elementary School. She enjoys dance, lacrosse, basketball, playing the ukulele, singing, and spending time in the water. She keeps herself busy by playing with Legos or completing artsy projects from painting to beading. Makenzy also loves to spend time and teach tricks to our Havanese dogs, Minnie Pongo and Cruella De Vil. She also adores her brother even though she won't admit it.

Our future son is somewhere between 3 and 7 years old, and is in the country of Burkina Faso (Africa). We began the process of adopting internationally in December of 2017, and we are currently awaiting assignment of our new son. Once we are paired with a child we will travel to Burkina Faso for 4 weeks and the adoption will be final when we hit the ground back in the United States. The Markners family cannot wait to welcome and provide a loving home to our son/brother!

Professional life


When I graduated in 2004, I went to work for the Business Consulting group at Grant Thornton, the 5th largest accounting firm in the world. While there I worked on various projects, but spent the majority of time traveling to work with a client in Birmingham, Alabama. Once Kaleb was born in 2006, I felt terrible leaving him every week while traveling for work and quickly began to explore opportunities with little/no travel.

In 2006, I moved to Bank of America where I worked for 3 years in the Treasury department leading the Balance Sheet Management Technology group. In 2009, in the midst of the financial crisis, I moved into the Enterprise Stress Testing team where I lead the development of a process and platform to be able to measure the bank's risk in various economic scenarios. Prior to leaving Bank of America in 2015, I was the executive responsible for Technology, Data, and regulatory reporting around the banks CCAR (comprehensive capital analysis and review) process.

In 2015, I had the opportunity to join TD Bank and build out the stress testing platform from scratch. Today I lead a team of 50+ employees and contractors responsible for the Model Lifecycle Environment, the platform which automates and executes the process of running stress testing for TD's CCAR process. My team is primarily located in Ballantyne, North Carolina. Perhaps my favorite part of my job is the flexibility it provides for me to be involved with my family and my children's education.



For more information, email:
andrew@markners.com