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Escambia School Board To Consider Return To Elected Superintendent; Voters Would Make Final Decision
February 25, 2023
The question of whether the Escambia County school superintendent should be elected or appointed may be back headed back to the ballot.]
In 2018, Escambia County voters narrowly approved a ballot referendum for an appointed superintendent, with 50.36 voting yes and 49.64 percent voting now. This was the sixth time voters had considered the idea of an appointed superintendent in the county; all of the other attempts failed.
The term of then superintendent Malcolm Thomas ended in 2020, and Dr. Tim Smith was appointed as the new school district boss.
Now, District 1 member Kevin Adams intends to present a resolution to the school board on March 21 that, if approved, will officially request a referendum to switch superintendent back to an elected job. The Escambia County Commission would then have to pass a resolution asking the legislature to place the question on the ballot during the presidential preference primary on March 19, 2024.
Adams made a campaign promise to present referendums to the board for a vote when citizens ask.
“I think it is a good time for the citizens to look at where we are at and decide if we need to go back to an elected superintendent.,” he said. “And let them choose.”
Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who represents the same District 1 as Adams, said he would vote for placing the referendum on the ballot if it reaches the commission, but he does not necessarily support an elected superintendent.
“I believe the BCC will put this forward as we should,” Bergosh wrote on his blog. “Although I am not necessarily supportive of the Elected Superintendent model—I believe if the school board votes for it to be added to the ballot, the citizens have the right to once again vote on it.
Smith, the current appointed superintendent, told the school board this week that he does not support a return to an elected superintendent.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back to an elected superintendent,” Smith said. “I think it needs to be give a chance.”
He cited a declining graduation rate across the state and a labor shortage that have plagued the school district during his administration.
“This is not an easy school district. There are many, many challenges,” he said, citing hard work by schools toward the “herculean task” of trying to close the achievement gap.
“We’ve got the complaining down. We are really good as a community with the complaining; we’ve got it. But I don’t hear people talking about ‘what am I going to do’,” as he praised teachers and staff for their hard work.
“I just hope, somehow, some way, the easy out to kick the superintendent to the curb is not out answer. I think we are better than that,” Smith said. “It’s going to take time…It’s not easy work.”
Comments
28 Responses to “Escambia School Board To Consider Return To Elected Superintendent; Voters Would Make Final Decision”
Move the doctors office to Warrington Middle School .
maybe the taxpayers are tired of woke failures ?
Some of you are never going to be happy, and that’s a fact. A politician should not be over our education system, it should be an EXCELLENT EDUCATOR. This election around here will go to the ‘Good Ole Boy’ every single time. You can blame this guy, burn books, whatever you want to do – but just like any business You are only as good as your leader!! If the Governor would put as much energy into helping educate our children as he puts into running for office, we would not have a problem.. Kids are disruptive in class and instead of making kids follow the rules, the whole system is afraid of social media comments or posts.
And not one article on any of these news sites addresses the fact that teachers of special needs students are fighting a losing battle. The teachers cannot possibly be doing Anything positive for students when they have a class of hearing impaired, sight impaired, ADHD, autistic children all in the same class – and several grades- all together. THAT SHOULD BE ADDRESSED. I would love for the people that made that decision to spend one day in each special needs class for just one week.
Mr Smith has allowed pornographic books in the school libraries. The school board voted to have them removed but Mr Smiths review committee voted 5-0 to keep them. If you read excerpts from them, 90% of you would be appalled. The other 10% should be ashamed. If Gov DeSantis gets involved the books will be removed.
The problem with the appointed superintendent is that Gov DeSantis cannot remove him. If he was elected Gov DeSantis could remove him.
I encourage you to attend the special school board meeting on March 20 @ 5:30 that will address more despicable books. You will be shocked.
@ Joy – Stating the truth is not hate , sorry you took it that way.
@ Ronda M – My point exactly
@ Outlander – Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube but I appreciate your wit . Until probably the 80’s , it was good here & we had reasonably responsive local government here in Escambia County. I can’t address what it’s like now or then in Century having never lived there . But my family has been in Escambia or Santa Rosa counties since the 1840’s so we kind of consider ourselves locals.
Voting matters. Only about 61% of voters voted in the 2018 general election. Of those, more than 7,000 turned in a ballot but left the appointed school superintendent part of the ballot blank. It’s called an undervote. I figured it out by reviewing the vote statistics posted to the Supervisor of Elections’ website that even breaks down the vote on each issue or person by precinct. As a related issue, in November 2021 County Attorney Alison Rogers dropped a bombshell during a joint redistricting meeting. She said that an old federal court decision that stripped county voters of the right to vote in all commission and school board elections – like in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties, etc. – had expired decades ago. Both the commission and the school board voted to ignore her and gerrymandered their election districts to protect the incumbents, pack black voters into District 3 (moving some from District 1 at the request of Jeff Bergosh), and by design created four Republican and one Democrat majority district. They also violated the Florida Constitution’s requirement that districts be contiguous. Bergosh said that they had complied with the letter and spirit of the Florida Constitution. They did no such thing., If everyone could vote for all school board members, and if everyone could elect the board chairperson as is authorized by state law, then perhaps an appointed superintendent might be OK. Studer founded Studer Education in 2010 so he has a dog in this fight. In 2011, Studer Education began to work with the Santa Rosa County School District. Studer was never asked and never said why he did “not” also want an appointed school superintendent in Santa Rosa County. Studer Education also hired former Santa Rosa County Superintendent of Schools Tim Wyrosdick and he is praised on the website. That makes no sense if elected superintendents are so bad. On February 24, Studer repeated accusations to Channel 3 that he had also made in December 2019 in the PNJ. Studer said (without mentioning his name) that Superintendent Malcom Thomas had extorted campaign donations from school district employees who would lose their jobs if they did not give him money. That needs to be checked and I think disproven. It smells like defamation to me. Channel 3 redacted that comment from its online writeup of the interview. If you support the for-profit Blue Wahoos, then you are putting money in the pocket of Studer allowing him to push ihs political agendas. He has more than one political committee funded by him. Michelle Salzman is in his hip pocket. Studer even appointed her to the city’s 2019 mayoral transition team even though she does not live near the city and knows nothing about the city other than her constantly saying, “I am Pensacola.” She’s not. Jeff Bergosh is the other big advocate for an appointed superintendent. He had opinion pieces in the PNJ in 2015 and 2018. By the way, Salzman was part of Studer’s political committee in 2018. Only three people donated money to the political committee pushing for an appointed school superintendent in Escambia County: Studer, Michelle Salzman and Philip Salzman.
Dr Smith and his gang has NOT done anything
for continuing and future growth of the
Escambia school system…….
Why have someone who doesn’t think ahead ???????
ATTENTION ALL OUTLANDERS:
Immediately leave Escambia County.
And what will be left?
A whole county that functions just like Century!
Klondike kid – SHAME ON YOU that is the hate that is tearing this country apart—this state is going to hell in a hand basket—and your type of thinking and hate is the reason
Dr. Smith, you were appointed a political position and your statement about the community complaining is your solution, then you sir, are an egotistical individual who will perform wonderfully as a politician in a position not relating to education.
Of course Studer wants an outsider to be the Superintendent. He moved to Gulf Breeze *not even Escambia County* from 1995 to 2022 from OHIO! He has become wealthy since leaving Ohio and moving to Gulf Breeze. He has not even had kids in Escambia County Public Schools. Over stepping his boundaries AGAIN!!
I highly doubt it is going to matter if they are elected or appointed. One person does not a successful school district make. The problem with schools is a societal one.
I agree, it’s always better to have the ability to oust obviously bad apples. But, to think that it will all be better if we as a society can have our way is foolish. Some times the people in charge do truly know what’s best. The majority is not always what’s best. We have parents being prosecuted or shamed if they spank their toddler, it’s legal to have an abortion but yet a drunk driver who kills a pregnant lady is charged with 2 deaths (as they should) it seems that the majority of people on here would say it’s better to hit oncoming traffic or a tree just to keep from hitting a chicken or a pig that is allowed to roam free because pens and fences are cruel. We’re all agreeing that our world is severely messed up but what would happen if you tried to change things back the way they were 20 years ago? Giving the majority of the public the ability to decide something doesn’t mean it would be best. How many people have lost their livelihood and ostracized because they wouldn’t say ma’am to a person that was born with male genitalia? Just my opinion (which is fast becoming no longer relevant)
Sad
My father used to say eventually there’ll be enough northerners (I call them all outlanders now) here to vote in charter government in Escambia County & liquor in Santa Rosa. He was half right in his prediction . But I suspect the vote for an appointed school superintendent panned out along those same lines. Maybe another referendum is in order to get back to an elected school superintendent. I saw Studer on tv last night , he said (paraphrasing) “No qualified school superintendent is going to move here , establish residency & wait 2 years to run for the office”. Exactly Studer , your preferred outlanders can stay where they are.
Full disclosure first..I have voted against this everytime it came to the ballot box because as a retired Civics teacher I value my right to evaluate and choose my elective leaders..secondly you will never take POLITICS out of any election..from. dog catcher to president..this is a fact of life..and finally even though an appointed superintendent can be removed it is very costly..the taxpayers can be on the hook to pay double salaries..because the ousted person will have a contract clause to pay off as well as the salary of the newly appointed superintendent coming in.
I lived in Nashville for 13 yrs & had 3 grandchildren attend all 3 levels of grade, middle & high school. The School Board selected a person from Baltimore MD (1 of worse of schools in Country). They did not select a local, competent proven educator. This new Superintendent came in & within 3 yrs reigned chaos, favoritism, covered up sexual scandals, stopped highly successful reading programs, & cancelled courses for high achievers (college courses). Violence increased in schools that never had problems. He enjoyed being driven around in an Escalade w a personal driver!! Eventually he was forced to resign & it cost the County alot of money to get rid of him. I think the parents should make sure they research Superintendent candidates & given the opportunity to select the Leader of their children’s schools. Contrary to what Board Members think there are many citizens who can make intelligent choices in who they was want as Leaders.
1) With an elected position you’re not electing a qualified superintendent you’re electing a politician. 2) If only two candidates run and neither are technically qualified to be a superintendent you’re still getting stuck with one. 3) If the elected superintendent turns out to be a bad choice you’re stuck with them until the end of their term unless they screw up so badly they can be removed from office which is never quick. 4) We already have elected officials running the school system. We don’t need more. 5) The elected board can replace a bad superintendent fairly easily and if they don’t then they need to be the ones replaced. 6) Any elected official (especially in a second/subsequent term) is a politician. How many school board members go on to other elected positions to become career politicians? 7) Many people well qualified for a superintendent’s position don’t want to mess with all the legal requirements of running for office, running an election campaign, fundraising, etc…
Bottom Line: It’s not the position that’s a problem, it’s the politics.
I voted against the switch to the appointment model but I don’t think it really matters. Thomas and Smith both are strictly speaking too politically cautious to address what’s really destroying our schools. The problem, in a nutshell, is the students are comfortable constantly talking over their teachers. All other issues combined don’t even come close to cumulative destructiveness of the constant noise. Talking in class is considered a minor offense and students are almost never removed from class or suspended for non-stop talking day after day month after month and finally year after year. I know it’s unpalatable to suspend a student just for talking but if you want students to actually learn they need a calm and peaceful environment where they can think and the teacher can provide instruction. The current trend is to keep students in school at all costs and the pendulum has been swinging in that direction for years. Until we get a superintendent and principals and deans that insist on not allowing this seemingly small concern to destroy the learning environment our schools will continue to fail. As simple as this sounds, it’s not even remotely on the agenda from liberals or conservatives. We turn to one ridiculous fad after another instead of actually being quiet and doing your work.
I “totally” agree with these previous comments. If we’re going to pay more property taxes based on the School Boards recommendations that we need more teachers and resources, then we need to go back to voting for the School Superintendent. I want to know everything about the person who is controlling what our students are taught. If the Superintendent is appointed, we have NO IDEA what kind of person he or she is. I want to know their background, and what they believe our students should be learning. The dumbing down of our students needs to stop. This is the future of America they’re messing with. Let’s get back to reading, writing and arithmetic.
Smith’s major fatal flaw was not changing out personnel in management positions after taking over. Here was a huge missed opportunity to shift the good old boy network of hires, and put in place new professional managers. But, that didn’t happen. He keep the status quo, and we have the same dismal result. In his hiring, Smith must of had to make a deal with the devil selling his soul to the school board. His charge? Protect the board’s nepotism class of department heads and principals or get the axe.
The campaign was that they would bring someone in with innovative concepts and ideas to turn it all around. Not only did that not happen, but they brought someone in who is doing the complete opposite. You can’t narrow down the best person from looking at a paper application. The hiring process is flawed. Much better for the voters to see and know who they’re voting for.
Only a fool gives up their right to vote!
Tim Smith said in an interview that basically he did not feel has to answer to parents or the Elected School Board Members because he knows what is best for the children in OUR Schools.
Around our breakfast table it’s been felt Mr. Smith answers much more to an individual in the city/county who feels they have the answer to education and nearly anything else.
How the small bunch of downtown young people and their leader managed to sway the county’s vote is beyond our comprehension.
Mr. Adams, Thank You for bringing this issue to the table for a vote.
Hopefully, our County Commission will include this in the next election cycle.
ELECTED Representatives are at the Core of OUR Freedoms.
Amen! We are DONE with appointed bureaucrats that are able to make decisions over us. We should never have let this change in the first place.
Should never have been changed.
Never give up the opportunity to vote for political public servants (notice I didn’t say ‘leaders’).
Vote to return to elected school board superintendent.
I feel sorry for the children getting turned out of this county’s schools.This evil world is going to chew them up and spit them out.Get back to the basic fundementals of reading,writing and math.All the other nonsense and dumbing down of our youth is ridiculuous.A.W.Thompson.
It is foolish to give up your right to vote. I was floored, and greatly disappointed, when the motion to switch to an appointed superintendent passed. Hopefully we will soon change back to an elected superintendent.
Definitely needs to be an elected position.