BROOKSVILLE — The year 2024 was the year of big changes in the Hernando County School District, with book battles, the departure of a superintendent, changes on the School Board and the debate over local effort school taxes dominating the news.
Shannon Rodriguez ran for the School Board on conservative issues, and chief among them was the issue of books in the schools, in their libraries and in the classroom.
While she also worked on issues surrounding the removal of “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives and gender identification, Rodriguez and activists from groups like Moms for Liberty made it clear that books would be a target.
Throughout the year, committees at the schools dealt with challenges, most filed by Moms for Liberty’s Kara Floyd and Julia Thomas, and most of the books challenged were removed.
Even so, in a December meeting Rodriguez expressed frustration with the committees, which she said were too focused on concepts like “literary merit” and not concerned about what she kept describing as “smut,” filth,” “pornography” and the supposed threat that reading books aimed at children – and even “classics” of youth literature – posed to their mental health and psychological development.
On May 24, in a marathon session, 23 book challenges led to 22 removals, and the one book kept barely survived on a 3-2 vote, with Rodriguez and fellow conservative Board Member Mark Johnson dissenting.
Books should advance the educational agenda, Johnson said, and several people said parents who want their children to read popular novels and other works that have objectionable passages and subject matter can buy them from Amazon or borrow them from the county libraries.
In any case, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other activists claim the book “ban” is just an invention of the media.
Activists and Rodriguez vow that even more books will be on the block, with Rodriguez wanting to change the composition of review committees which, she said in December, lack “common sense.”
Superintendent battle
John Stratton’s time as the leader of Hernando County’s schools finally came to an end when he announced his retirement near the end of a School Board meeting on April 9.
He barely survived two no-confidence votes, with then-members Gus Guadagnino and Linda Prescott, and current member Susan Duval voting yes while Rodriguez and Johnson voted no.
The anti-Stratton forces often took their complaints about him to County Commission meetings, and blamed him for lower test scores, communication failures, staff misconduct and past decisions on response to the COVID pandemic.
Stratton had supporters among students, staff, teachers and parents but as it became obvious that a new conservative majority would take over the board after the November elections it was clear that his days as a leader in Hernando County were numbered.
A botched response to a teacher’s unauthorized presentation of a Disney movie with a gay character wounded Stratton’s status, and his effort to land a job in Brevard County was futile. He was a finalist but when word reached the School Board there that he was under a cloud in Hernando over the movie incident, the board there decided to go in a different direction.
The search for a permanent replacement for Stratton is supposed to begin soon, and the search for an interim leader also split the School Board.
Assistant Superintendent Ray Pinder was among those in line for the job.
Former Moton Elementary School principal Brent Gaustad was the choice of Rodriguez and Johnson but they were the only yes votes at the April 23 meeting.
After mistakes were made in the process, the board pushed the “reset button” and planned a May 28 workshop where Gaustad and Pinder could make their cases.
Gaustad withdrew at the beginning of the workshop and – again – Pinder prevailed in a 3-1 vote.
His approval on June 25 came amid Rodriguez’s vocal opposition. (Johnson was ill and not present).
Election changes
The 2024 election cycle promised changes, with conservatives warning that they expected to take over the School Board.
At one point, a parent warned Duval to expect to be on the short end of a lot of 4-1 votes.
With Guadagnino and Prescott not running, the race for their board seats pitted Kayce Michelle Hawkins against Jennifer Sullivan in District 2, but the latter failed to qualify.
District 4 garnered six candidates but Anthony Arenz withdrew before the primary, as did Daniel Brijbag and Gina Phillips, leaving a three-way primary race between Michelle Bonczek, Mark Cioffi and Gregg Laskoski.
Laskoski finished third in the primary and the race between Bonczek and Cioffi went to the general election. Cioffi seemed to be the favored candidate, with the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis, but when the voting ended it was Bonczek who prevailed.
Mill, sales tax renewals
The school district had fought the county and lost because the latter wanted to delay renewal votes on the 1 mil property tax and half-cent renewals until the November 2024 elections.
On numerous occasions, the County Commission would meet on a Tuesday morning and the School Board would meet the same evening, so it became common for opponents of the schools to appear before both panels on the same day, and with the same message: reject the renewals.
The 1 mil is to “recruit and retain quality teachers, keep students safe, add mental health resources and enhance successful academic and career and technical programs, while the half-cent sales tax was for capital projects: “construction, reconstruction, renovation, remodeling, improvement of school facilities and the purchase of technology.”
“Since 2020, when 62% of voters approved the 1 mil tax, $32 million has been collected and used to increase salaries vital for the district to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce. Millage dollars also allowed the district to add certified school guardians for campus safety and mental health experts at schools, improve technology tools and enhance a wide variety of school programs,” the district said in an information sheet for the 2024 election.
“Since 2015, when 62% of voters approved the half-cent sales tax to repair schools, the district has collected $107 million. The money was used to complete 1,161 projects that included new HVAC systems for most schools, roofs for multiple campuses and many other high priority repairs,” the district said on the same sheet.
While the county’s effort to increase the sales tax by a “whole cent” failed, the school district got renewals for both of its tax initiatives.