From Linton Deck, Former Superintendent of Schools, Orange County Public Schools

The upcoming referendum regarding the creation of an elected chair of the School Board of Orange County has been brought to my attention by friends and former colleagues.

The proposal seems to me to be totally without merit.

I cannot imagine how an elected chair of the School Board, as proposed in the November 4 referendum, could have positive impact on the Orange County Public Schools.

Such an arrangement, in my opinion, would politicize the governance of the school system in very negative ways with no benefit to students in the schools of Orange County.

From Dennis Smith, Former Superintendent of Schools, Orange County

The election of a county-wide elected Orange County School Board Chairman adds unwanted and unneeded “back-room politics” to the school district. Let the elected school board do their elected job without interference from a “super” board member with double the votes of any other member.

As a former superintendent of the OCPS I see some very real dangers in giving one individual such disproportionate voting power over the children, schools and teachers of Orange County.

The backers of this proposal have obviously never been responsible for running a school district. This referendum is a bad idea and does nothing to improve the quality of education for our students.

From Wayne Blanton, Executive Director, Florida School Board Association

A district-wide elected chairman for the Orange County Schools will virtually eliminate the votes of those seven representatives elected by the people of Orange County. It will isolate large segments of the population, keeping them from having a voice in THEIR public education system.

From Jim Schott, Former Superintendent of Schools, Orange County

I oppose the referendum creating an elected Chair of the Orange County Public School Board. As a former superintendent, I studied firsthand the dynamics of board and superintendent relationships and their impact on schooling. I learned the more you reduce politics the better off the children are. This notion was supported by a report on school governance funded by the Kellogg Foundation. It found freeing school boards and superintendents from “political distractions” is essential to improving education.

Richard Foglesong, Professor of Political Science at Rollins College, opined a “school board chairman elected countywide would politicize school board governance in ways that are not supportive of educational quality.” The Orange County Blue Ribbon Panel on Education agreed and voted against even forming a board committee to study it.

Florida’s former Lieutenant Governor, Toni Jennings, said “the current organizational structure is the perfect one to serve the children of Orange County.” She’s right. We have a State rated “A” school district. Learning is improving along with school management. Seventy schools have been renovated or built over the past few years.

I think Florida’s former governor, Jeb Bush, cut right to the core of this issue. He said, “I don't see how this will help public education in Orange County. It seems to set up two masters rather than an efficient means to administer the schools.” He asked, “Why is this so important?” There is no compelling answer to his question. Save the salary for the new board position and hire a teacher. That will have a more positive impact.

Before you vote, please do your homework. Visit www.Noelectedchair.com and www.letusvoteorange.com, and then vote no.

From Daryl Flynn, Orange County School Board

Note: This is NOT an official communication from the Orange County School Board. This message contains the personal thoughts and opinions of Daryl Flynn.


Dear Friends,

Early voting starts today, Oct.20th. Several people have asked me for my opinion regarding the "Special Referendum" that's listed as the last item on the general election ballot. The special referendum calls for the Orange County School Board to be expanded to include an eighth board member that will be elected county-wide and serve as the chair for a four year term (the exact ballot language is below).

I, personally, do not support the elected chair proposal and will be voting no. This proposal has not originated from the parents, teachers or principals but rather by special interest groups. It's more government and I fear it'll politicize education in Orange County more than it already is.

An elected chair position could also eventually compete with the superintendent's position. Some say that school board members are afraid to lose their power, but it's also the power of the individual districts that is at risk, too. A position that gives two votes (in the event of a tie) to one board member has the potential to give three votes to one area of the county.

For a list of pros and cons go to the League of Women Voters website at www.lwvoc.org. Another site to review is www.noelectedchair.com. (For the "pro side" go to www.letusvoteorange.com.)

From Bill Robinson, Chairman of Orange County Democratic Party

"This is a school concurrency issue. You have to pay attention to who is supporting this; no educators, no child advocates, and no one who doesn't have a financial interest or doesn't have clients with such an interest is driving this proposal. It works for those who want one-stop shopping at the School Board on concurrency issues, saving the trouble of lobbying several School Board members directly."

"....not once have any of the proponents of this offensive plan articulated a valid reason for adding the position..."

For Bill Robinson's complete comments, click here.

From Anne Geiger, Orange County School Board

For Anne's comments, click here.

From Florence J. Owen:

Hello and this is my question: "Why are so many "LOBBYISTS" interested in controlling the Orange County School Board???? " What possible interest could US Sugar or Disney have???? Is this answerable????

Thank your for your input. Your question addresses the core of the problem. It is my opinion (and that of many others) that the state-mandated school concurrency legislation (April 2008) makes all developers and large landowners very nervous about their ability to develop subdivisions without the approval and support of school boards. For years, we had water concurrency, road concurrency, etc. but not school concurrency. What does that mean? It means that - finally - developments can't be approved without schools for the area being funding and in the plans. In the past, developers could build subdivisions with no school availability. It's a land use/growth issue. The developers don't want to be told NO, there is no money for a school in that rural area. As a parent, I think that schools to enable growth should be WAY DOWN the priority list, right after teachers and other basic funding for the schools we have. (Kit Pepper)

From Enrique Serrano Diaz, Educator

From Enrique Serrano Diaz, Educator

Just Vote No!

Jim Callahan, Board Member-at-Large, Orange County Democratic Executive Committee

The proposed office raises voting rights questions because of the combination of an at-large district and voting power equivalent to two votes.

Single member districts, as opposed to at-large districts, provide opportunities for minority votes to be counted and voices to be heard. Recently Osceola County and the City of Kissimmee have faced lawsuits that required them to go from at large representation to single member districts, as had Orange County a generation earlier.

Controversial issues often result in close votes, with the tie breaking vote, the proposed chair would have in effect two votes which would dilute the power of the existing board members who are elected from single member districts.

With our rapidly changing demographics, it is not clear, going forward, who will be in the majority and who will be in the minority, so minority voting rights should be important to everyone.

As one who has participated in many single member redistricting efforts since 1991, I am alarmed at the creation of an at large district with the equivalent of two votes.

From Ana Lavalle, Magnolia School:

No to more politics in Education!

From Jim Warford, FASA (Florida Association of School Administrators),
as appearing in the FASA's Friday Facts E-Newsletter

There seems to be no shortage of bad ideas coming out of the Florida legislature, so it takes a while to get around to covering all of them. Many of you may not know that last session they passed a bill providing for the election of an Orange County district-wide school board
chairman by countywide vote.

The referendum has now been placed on the November 4, 2008 ballot in Orlando. Currently, the Orange County Public School Board is comprised of seven members, each elected from single member districts and each year they elect a chairman from among their seven members. This new referendum would add an eighth "super" school board member, a powerful chair, with two votes in the event of a tie.

While school leaders in Orange County now face the potential problems created by the increased "politicalization" of their school system if this referendum passes we should all be concerned about the potential for this bad idea to spread throughout our state.

Just as NAESP came to our aid because they understood that if amendments 5, 7, and 9 passed in Florida, they were more likely to spread to other states; FASA believes we should help our colleagues in Orlando stop this bad idea now.

FASA believes this referendum is politically motivated and does not have the best interest of our students at heart. There is no demonstrated correlation between student achievement and any type of school board governance model.

The creation of a powerful, district-wide elected school board chairman could lead to conflict with an appointed superintendent and discourage future, qualified superintendent applicants from working in Orlando, or in Florida if the legislature votes to expand the model.

In these dangerous and difficult times, there are many threats for our public schools. If we are to overcome, we must stand together. We must understand that we are all in this together. From Orlando, to Tallahassee, to Washington, when one of us is threatened. We are all at risk.

From Judith Frank, President, Orange County Association of School Administrators

Please accept this donation on behalf of the Orange County Association of School Administrators. The purpose of OCASA is to promote the general welfare, encourage unity and establish communication between school-based administrators and executive leadership of Orange County Public Schools. Also, our purpose is to exercise leadership in forwarding the needs of the membership and of the OCPS system. It is in this spirit that we support the JUST VOTE NO initiative.

OCASA supports the findings of the community group that studied school board governance in Florida and around the country. The most compelling finding for OCASA was there is no demonstrated correlation between student achievement and any type of school board model. Student achievement, not political power, should be at the heart of all decisions that are made for our children.

We are pleased to support the efforts of JUST VOTE NO.

From Arlene Ginn, Orange County Teacher

To our officials and citizens:
As a teacher in Orange County, I must add my voice to former governor Jeb Bush and many other non-partisan leaders (both democratic and republican) who have expressed bewilderment and, in my case, suspicion, at why an elected Orange County school board chair is needed.

Under the present organization, Orange County Public Schools have reach unimaginable heights. We have been granted an A district status, we are frugal in our economic entities and allowing every district to be represented by one vote, every citizen can feel that his or her rights are being protected. However, to give one person superior status on the school board is synonymous to stifling the rights of every citizen that is represented by a single district. WE ARE DOING FINE!! I urge you - no, I implore you, to leave well enough alone. Indeed, the old cliché, "if it is not broke, don't fix it", certainly applies.

Francis Giblin, Principal, West Palm Beach Schools

Amendment 8 will add an additional political disruption to public schools in Florida and I have never heard of any committee chairperson getting two votes while the other members get one.

Sometimes you just have to wonder…

Joe McCoy, Past President, Orange County Association of School Administrators

Factions in Orange County became frustrated by their inability to influence seven independent (single district) school board members on such issues as impact fees and construction contracts, so they concocted this strategy to create a “mayor” of the school board. They pushed this as state-wide legislation, but when broad support crumbled in Tallahassee, they narrowed their sights on ballot language for Orange County alone. To enhance the “mayor’s” powers, it was proposed to give the individual two votes. Can you imagine how Robert’s Rules of Order will have to be re-written to accommodate this unique arrangement? If the un-empowered seven members vote 4-3 one way, the super powered mayor can reverse the vote by casting votes 8 and 9 the other way!

The voters in Orange County did not understand these nuances when proponents convinced 51,000 to place it on November’s ballot. They were told it was their patriotic duty to create an elected school board chair that would stand up to the school system bureaucrats who were wasting their tax dollars. Forget that OCPS is an “A” rated school district (only urban district) by the Florida Department of Education and its business practices are recognized nationally as exemplary. Those facts were not mentioned by signature gatherers at local malls and hardware stores. Signees were only asked if they wanted the right to elect their school board chairman. What idiot wouldn’t want that right? What they didn’t know was that their school board chairman was elected by constituents in their district and chosen by his/her peers to serve a one year term.

OCPS asked that an independent group examine the proposal, along with exemplary models in Florida and across the nation. A Citizen’s Stakeholders Committee was established, with representatives from a broad spectrum of our community. Civic organizations, chambers of commerce, universities, civil rights groups, teachers union, and school system employees were included. As president, I served as a representative for Orange County Association of School Administrators. The group was ably chaired by Fran Pignone, a well respected community leader well versed in local and state politics.

Throughout the spring, the committee heard from a wide variety of experts on Florida constitutional law, legislation, civil rights and best practices in Florida and the nation. It concluded unanimously that the proposed model would be detrimental to sound organizational practices and would have no positive impact on student achievement. Please help us stand up to special interest groups masquerading as patriots (Let Us Vote???...come on!), who have convinced unwitting voters to fix something that is not broken. While there is room for improvement in our local educational system and across Florida, the effort to inject more politics into our school board will not solve anything.

From Betty S. Burney, Chairman, Duval County School Board

Elected Board Chair: A Bad Idea

In 2006, the Legislature passed a law to permit the election of the Chair of the School Board who would also serve as an eighth member of the School Board.

Because of the possibility that the law could apply in Duval County, we have grave concerns regarding its potential impact on our school system.

First, the addition of an eighth member of the School Board, elected countywide, places a great deal of power in one person, by empowering this person with the ability to cast two votes in the event of a tie and to remove the present system of rotating the Chair. In many urban school systems, with diverse geographic regions, the ability of an economically and demographically challenged region to be heard and to have equal voting power is crucial. This law would reverse the progress that has been made to empower these diverse regions to be heard and dilutes their ability to represent the needs of the children in their communities and to hold a leadership position on the Board.

Secondly, the unnecessary addition of an eighth member of the Board creates the need to provide additional support from the district including staff, salary and benefits. This is wasteful considering the proponents’ inability to articulate any statewide necessity to pass a law narrowly defined to apply to only one or two districts.

From John Edwards, school administrator and former principal, former member of Orange County's Blue Ribbon Panel on Education

In my 31 years as a school administrator, this is the worst idea I have ever seen for a school system. It politicizes the whole process by putting everything up for sale. Everything we do should be educationally sound, and not done for political reasons. There is a reason why NO OTHER school system does this. Vote NO.

From Doug DeClue, Orlando

This elected school board chair issue has been forced upon us by a coalition of businesses and developers trying to pass itself off as a "grassroots" group called "Let Us Vote".

Anyone who reviews their $5,000 and $10,000 donations quickly will realize that this is big business special interest trying to hijack our school board away from the real grassroots and single member district voting. (Link to contributor list)

1) The first erroneous notion being spread by the proponents of an elected school board chair is the alleged claim of a "lack of accountability".

There ALREADY IS accountability for the school board.

It's called "election day".

You DO get to hold the school board members of those districts accountable on that day if you'd only go out and vote!


2) The next point I'd like to make to you about this "plan" is how it cynically attempts to put one county-wide person in charge.

Any decision that is merely 4-3 or 3-4 among the existing members can and will be reversed and decided in the favor of this one chairperson alone. In short it will require a 5-2 or 2-5 margin or better among the existing members in order to prevent the new chair from controlling the vote. That almost never happens on serious and controversial issues.

Why should we grant this much power to just ONE person?

We should NOT.

3) Why do the proponents of this measure want an at-large elected chair?

Because it is at least an order of magnitude more difficult and more expensive to win a countywide election than a single member district race.

At-large positions as a rule serve to dilute minority voting power and thereby serve to transfer power to the rich, to the white, and to the existing entrenched power structure.

Such an "at-large" position would become another county mayor's race requiring 300,000 to 500,000 dollars to be raised by the winning candidate as opposed to single member district school board races currently being run and won for 10 to 40 thousand dollars.

This "plan" is actually about neutralizing the power of the existing 7 board members that are elected by popular local grassroots efforts in favor of a countywide at-large "mayor" of schools with a vastly disproportionate power to act being elected by big money backers in the business community.

Such mega-money driven countywide races only serve to make local government LESS accountable to the actual voters and more accountable to wealthy special interests in the business community because they make the race all about who can raise the most money rather than being about grassroots campaigning, popular support, and good ideas.

From Nancy Shutts, past chair of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce Education committee, past member of the PTA county council and District Advisory Committee

Why would a candidate want to be involved in a countywide election when the rest of his board members are single member districts and they all get the same amount of salary and have to abide their votes under the same governing policies?

From Kit Pepper

A small group of people with a lot of money is trying to capitalize on the public's concern about education. They are promising leadership and accountability with a plan that delivers neither. If we support their political strategy on Nov. 4, we would be allowing them to concentrate the powers of the school board (re-zoning, land use/concurrency, construction contracts) in the hands of a single person, who is going to have to spend $250,000-$400,000 to get elected countywide. Our schools need a lot of things, but another special-interest financed politician is NOT one of them.

From Lennon Moore, Winter Park

As a citizen of Orange County I strongly object to having an elected chair for the school board for several reasons:

- It does nothing to improve education for the students of the county.
- It creates yet another layer of government in an already daunting pile of layers.
- It puts more distance between students, parents, teachers and the board.
- It politicizes education in an unhealthy way.
- It sets up a framework of competition rather than cooperation.
- It makes no sense or cents.