Escambia School Board member vows to overturn appointed superintendent. What happens next?

Escambia County Public Schools has a divided house after District 1 Board Member Kevin Adams announced he plans to resurface a longtime debate over how the district’s superintendent is selected.

Adams said he plans to bring a resolution to next month’s school board meeting seeking a referendum that would decide whether the superintendent is elected or appointed. The school board would need to vote in favor of asking the Escambia County Board of Commissioners to put the question on a county ballot.

In 2018, voters approved a referendum to change to an appointed superintendent by less than a percentage point, with 62,263 yes votes and 61,372 no votes, according to the Supervisor of Elections results. It was the sixth time the issue had gone to the ballot, and in terms of percentages, it was the closest the vote had been since the first referendum of its kind failed by a single vote in 1967.

A big decision to makeEscambia County voters to decide future of elected vs. appointed superintendents

Appointed passesEscambia County votes yes to appointing superintendents

What led to elected superintendent discussion?

A handful of community members used Tuesday’s public comment forum to express their desire to go back to an elected superintendent position, criticizing Superintendent Tim Smith’s leadership.

The meeting came only a day after a heated special board meeting that resulted in three books being banned from the district.

The book review process has been questioned by some community members who don't like Smith’s hands-off approach, even though he reserves the power to make the decision alone. Instead, he opted for a democratic — but lengthy — decision process that relies heavily on board and community input.

This is not the first time that Smith has been challenged by the school board. In September, District 2 School Board Member Paul Fetsko added an agenda item to discuss Smith’s contract following controversy over a test question. The item was described in online records as a recommendation to “Approve Board to begin discussions on terminating Superintendent Smith's contract,” though the discussion never came to fruition.

Test question fuels criticismEscambia parents outraged over test question featuring talk of nude photos and suicide

Smith's contract called into questionSchool board may begin discussions of terminating Escambia County Superintendent tonight

Adams campaigned on the promise of presenting a referendum before the school board when the citizens ask him for one. Adams has been a vocal proponent for the elected superintendent model since the debate sparked in 2018.

“I always believed that the appointed superintendent model wasn’t good for Florida because we’re unique to the rest of the states,” Adams told the News Journal. “We don’t have thousands of school districts like Texas or some other community base.”

Adams will have an uphill climb to get the divided school board to approve the request to commissioners.

District 4 School Board Member Patty Hightower said that the appointed superintendent model gives the board options they did not have before. When the superintendent was elected, the only main criteria was that the person running lived in Escambia County. There was no requirement for education experience.

"I have always been a proponent of an appointed superintendent for the reason that you have the opportunity to look outside your own community. It doesn't mean you have to look outside your community, but it's an opportunity to find someone who has the knowledge and background to be able to lead your district," she said.

"In my time that I have been here, the elected person has always done a good job or been surrounded with people to help them do a good job. But I know in other areas, it's sometimes a popularity contest not about who's the best qualified, but who knows the most people," Hightower added.

Now that the school board appoints the superintendent, the responsibility falls under the board to ensure that they continue to have the right person in power, she said.

"Accountability now resides with the five school members. If citizens are saying they're not happy, if board members are saying that they don't believe the present superintendent is doing an adequate job, it is our responsibility as a board to have that conversation at the table to evaluate Dr. Smith who is presently there, but whoever the superintendent could be, and make a decision as to whether we want to extend the contract," Hightower said.

She said many people do not understand the challenges Smith was dealt with when walking into the district in 2020, including COVID-19 restrictions and unprecedented staff shortages. His plan for improving the district is strong, she said, but he needs more time to implement it.

The school board will need to have majority vote before taking the matter before the Escambia County Board of Commissioners, whose votes are the ultimate deciders.

If the school board approved referendum request — would county commissioners move forward?

District 1 Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who represents the same district as Adams, said that if the school board were to bring the request before him, he “would not stand in the way,” despite his support of the current appointed superintendent format.

“If they (the school board) do (pass the referendum), I’m certain that we would honor the will of whatever the school board chooses on that,” Bergosh said. “If a school board passes something that they want on the ballot, I’m not going to stand in the way of that. I would put it on the ballot and let the people decide, because the people are the ones who need to decide, setting aside my personal position on the issue…. I don’t believe this board of county commissioners would stand in the way of it because at the end of the day – it’s a decision up to the citizens.”

Serving on the school board for 10 years himself, Bergosh said the school board has more power right now than they ever have, regardless of whether the board members decide to exercise it.

The superintendent’s contract is drafted with language that allows the school board the right to vote the person out of the position at any given time, without cause, if there is a majority vote.

It is much easier to remove someone in power when they are appointed versus when they are elected by the people, Hightower said.

"I don't understand if the people are upset with the particular person sitting in the position why they think the only way to do it is to go back to an elected position, where you elect somebody and can't get rid of them for four years," she said.

Even if the board is not happy with the superintendent they selected, that does not mean they should throw the system away, according to Bergosh.

“The minute something goes wrong doesn’t mean the model, the governance model, is the fault of that…. Just because there is an issue doesn’t mean, ‘Well, it’s because we went to an appointed superintendent,'" he said.

Escambia County Supervisor of Election David Stafford said that depending on which election the referendum is potentially included, the deadline for getting the language solidified by the county commissioners and sent to Stafford’s office would range from December 2023 to August 2024.

The county commissioners can call a special election specifically for the superintendent referendum at their expense, however, it is uncommon. Stafford said he does not recall that happening at the county level since 2006.

Would the switch solve district problems?

Since taking over as district superintendent in 2020, Smith has committed to working through some of the district’s greatest challenges, such as high family poverty rates, low school attendance and increasing labor shortages, that all factor into the school experience, Smith said.

Smith is doubtful the district’s long-standing problems will be solved simply by going back to the old way of doing things. But he also does not plan to allow the debate to affect his competency in his current role.

“I heard clearly Mr. Adams’ statements relative to the whole issue of an elected versus appointed superintendent, but it won’t change the energy with which I approach this job,” Smith wrote in a statement. “I’m committed, more than ever, to the students, teachers, and support staff of Escambia County, because there is much work yet to be done. I won’t quit just because there is adversity.”

School staff shortages have been a common problem across the country magnified in the COVID-19 era, due to a variety of reasons such as low pay and morale, mounting political and academic pressures, health and safety concerns. Nearby Santa Rosa County is struggling with similar issues.

Across the United States, Florida ranked among the worst for shortages alongside Illinois and Arizona

Adams said he plans to discuss the topic for the first time with board members at the regular school board workshop at 1 p.m. on March 20 and at the regular school board meeting at 5:30 p.m. on March 21 where a vote will be taken. Public forum is permitted at both meetings on the topic.

Hightower encouraged people to come speak so the community can hear both sides.

"I do appreciate Mr. Adams putting it out there at the meeting so people have a month to come in and share their perspectives with the community. I mean, everybody that doesn't like him (Smith), there are probably two times as many that do," Hightower said. "I was speaking with someone the next morning that didn't even know this happened. He's a teacher in our system, and he said, 'What on Earth? He (Smith) is the best instructional leader we have had.'"