76^th Annual FSBA Conference, Training, Board of Director and Assembly Meetings

During an impactful week, FSBA unanimously votes to leave NSBA

Last week nearly 400 Florida school board members and superintendence gathered in Tampa at the 76th annual joint Florida School Board Association and Florida Association of District School Superintendents Conference that includes extensive professional development, organization committee meetings, Board of Directors, and General Assembly meetings. Speakers included Award-winning motivational speaker and author Simon Bailey, 2022 Florida Teacher of the Year, Sarah Painter, and award-winning documentary filmmaker and speaker Brett Culp. The conference also featured three separate panel discussions with superintendents, principals and assistant principals, and student leaders. These panels included important conversations about how all stakeholders can work together to improve student achievement.

Florida’s public education system continues to excel nationally. Florida is outperforming the nation in 15 of 18 K-12 Achievement measures as reported by Education Week and the Florida Department of Education. (Source: https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/latest-news/florida-continues-to-shine-with-its-national-ranking-for-k-12-achievement.stml).  Just some of the highlights show: Florida is ranked 2nd for improving the high school graduation rate, Florida is ranked 3rd for improvement in grade 4 mathematics, Florida is ranked 4th for improvement in grade 8 reading, and Florida is ranked 4th for improving the grade 4 poverty gap.

I am most proud of the role Citrus continues to have in these important and influential organizations. Superintendent Sandra “Sam” Himmel is the current president of FADSS, and I am the president-elect of FSBA and will be sworn in as president of FSBA in June 2022. To have Sam Himmel and me chose to serve in these roles at the same time, from the same district, for the state’s most recognizable educational organizations is a testament to our Citrus county, our school district, our educators & teachers, our parents, and most especially our students.

During the week, one of the most newsworthy events that happened this year was FSBA formally leaving the National School Board Association, after months and years of issues. It was not an easy decision for the organization, but it was the right thing to do. As FSBA President-Elect I serve as Chairman of the Long-Range Planning Committee and on behave of the committee I made the motion to the FSBA Board of Directors for FSBA to leave the NSBA. This motion followed extended evidence and testimony from our members involved in NSBA, most notably Beverly Slough of St. Johns County who sits on the NSBA Board of Directors, and Dr. Steve Gallon III of Miami Dade County who sits on both the NSBA Board of Directors and is Chairman of the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE). As chairman of the NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education, Dr. Steve Gallon may have the most to lose from the FSBA’s decision to leave the National School Boards Association, presented a substantial argument, driving home point after point as he read a letter he wrote to the NSBA that received no response from any of its members. During FSBA’s discussion of the motion Dr. Gallon stated, “Based on deep personal convictions, I cannot support the continued membership in an organization whose core leadership had willfully and knowingly undercut long established partnerships in their choosing of divisive partisan politics.”

The Board of Directors unanimously and non-partisan approved my motion for FSBA to leave NSBA. In addition, the Board of Directors unanimously passed three policy/by-laws revisions untying FSBA to NSBA. Since June 2021 the FSBA Executive Board, which as President-Elect I am a director, had withheld our current year’s due to NSBA dues which were due July 1, 2021. FSBA has been clear about reassessing the value of our affiliation with NSBA due to concerns surrounding NSBA’s governance, leadership, transparency, and failure to embrace non-partisanship. FSBA’s decision to leave NSBA was necessary, but not made lightly. The decision to leave NSBA was made in response to several years of persistent patterns of dysfunction within the NSBA organization and among those charged with its governance. Until this year, all 49 state school boards associations have maintained NSBA memberships, now to date, over fourteen (14) states have officially withdrawn from NSBA, and more are meeting this month to consider whether to stay or not. The FSBA board of directors no longer had faith in NSBA’s ability to effectively represent the interests of our state association and its members. For several years FSBA and many other state associations have repeatedly asked for corrective actions with governance and finances and received little to no action from NSBA that meets FSBA expectations.

The FSBA board of directors has directed the FSBA Executive Director to work with other state associations to ensure that national training opportunities, advocacy at the federal level, and urban, and rural, programming continue, all within a non-partisan framework. The goal of the FSBA is a strong and unified national member-driven association, with local control of public education at the core.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve FSBA and share the examples and influence of our local district to the state and national levels. Next year’s FSBA/FADSS Conference, in my role then as President, I have the honor to highlight our Citrus County students and Citrus County Schools. We are looking forward to sharing our students’ successes and talents with the state of Florida.

More details on FSBA leaving NSBA

Here is FSBA‘s official release:

Governor DeSantis tweets about FSBA leaving NSBA:

Dr. Gallon’s letter to NSBA and more on FSBA leaving NSBA

https://www.pineapplereport.com/miami-dade-schools-vice-chair-brings-down-the-house-during-scorching-speech-on-nsba/

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