What to Expect if Radicals Flip Your School Board.

Examples from Florida

Election Day is Tuesday. This is a reminder that, while presidential politics and state politics dominate the airways, local school board races can have immediate impact on your community. In 2022, when far right radical groups like Moms For Liberty were actively endorsing school board candidates with rallying cries of parental rights and culture wars, 17 school board nationwide were “flipped” and nine of those went on to fire or push out their superintendents, often in the first hours of their first school board meeting.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis and Moms For Liberty took responsibility for flipping seven school boards in November 2022, four of which went on to dump their superintendents — Brevard, Duval,Sarasota and Martin counties.

For some Florida districts, the “havoc wreaking” was immediate:

• In Sarasota, conservatives Robyn Marinelli and Tim Enos joined Bridget Ziegler (now infamous for a sex scandal) and fellow conservative Karen Rose to create a solid 4-1 majority on their school board and, immediately after the board was sworn in, moved to schedule a special meeting the following week to consider firing the superintendent (despite his local popularity, he was ultimately let go and even local Republicans began expressing having “buyers remorse” for supporting the conservative slate).
• Brevard’s new School Board elected Moms For Liberty aligned officers, ousted their superintendent (he was ultimately allowed to resign) AND approved a requirement to segregate school bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex, all within their first meeting.

This year, Florida’s Governor and Moms For Liberty joined forces to both targeted incumbents and endorsed school board members across the state but saw much less success than in 2022. Sarasota’s DeSantis-endorsed Karen Rose lost her reelection bid (and immediately stopped attending school board meetings) and DeSantis-targeted incumbents went on to win re-election in Duval, Sarasota, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Indian River, and Pinellas.

On Tuesday, run-off elections will determine the make-up of school boards in Brevard (DeSantis endorsed Matt Susin), Duval (Moms for Liberty-endorsed Reginal Blount) and Volusia (DeSantis-targeted Carl Persis against a DeSantis-endorsed challenger).

Question: Will your superintendent’s Job be at risk following Tuesday’s election?

Recently, superintendent turnover has become common place, with 45 of Florida’s 67 school district leaving their positions between 2020 an 2023. One in five of the nation’s 500 largest school districts replaced their superintendent during the 2023-24 academic year.

There are many reasons for superintendent turnover, of course, but some newly elected school board members move to fire their superintendent because they have been specifically trained to do so.

Last November, in Colorado Springs, Leadership Institute conducted a training for conservative school board candidates. Leadership Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton C. Blackwell. The Institute teaches conservatives of all ages “how to succeed in politics, government, and the media.” Funded by the Charles Koch Foundation and other conservative organizations, you can learn more about the Leadership Institute here. In 2022, Leadership Institute hired newly re-elected Sarasota school board member and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, Bridget Ziegler as their National Director of School Board Programs. In August 2023, the Institute opened its first satellite location in Sarasota, FL, which was to serve as their headquarters for School Board Programs. By December 2023, due a salacious sex scandal, Ms. Ziegler resigned from Leadership Institute but their work training conservative school board candidates continues.

At the November 2023 Colorado Springs training, Ted Mische, the trainer for the Truth and Liberty Coalition’s Candidate Academy, provided attendees a list of priorities to enact once a conservative majority was achieved a school district:

• Step 1: Replace the superintendent and hire a new ideologically-aligned superintendent. Having a background in education is not as important as their “mindset.”
• Step 2. Replace the district’s legal counsel. “Most school district attorneys are very progressive. They will not help you. They will stop you from doing the things you need to do. You can have a majority board, but if you don’t have a superintendent and a [school] district attorney who is on your side you will get nothing done.”
• Step 3: Work to weaken the local union. Defund them. Stop payroll deductions for union dues. Propose an alternative group, like the Professional Association of Colorado Educators, which has been pushed by education conspiracist Deborah Flora, and Christian Educators.

School board candidates were advised if steps 1-3 make you “unpopular,” control the message.

“Once you flip that board, the left is coming at you like you would not believe,” he said. ”You have to have somebody who is exceptional with communications, somebody who has experience in it and hiring full time because you’re going to need it and person is going to push back on all the negativity that comes towards the district and they’re going to present positive things and things that you as a board are accomplishing on a regular basis, at least twice a week, sending out information either through social media or through the regular media as well. But make sure that information is getting out there. Oftentimes what I see in school boards, conservatives get elected, they do fantastic work, and the public has no idea what they’re doing.”

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/11/leadership-institute-training-action-items-for-newly-conservative-school-boards/57888/

More advice for new board members: use informants. Attendees were encouraged to “cultivate a network of conservative informants amongst the district faculty.” Work with conservative teachers who are willing to “report what’s happening in the classrooms and in the hallways and what other teachers are doing.”

If all of this results in contentious public comment sessions during board meetings, not to worry. Angry public commenters are “not really the public. These are paid activists.”

Mische encouraged participants to collaborate privately and agree on decisions before sunshine laws kick in, even suggesting newly elected board members who will have a conservative majority, delay being sworn in so they have more time to speak in private. (Note: in Florida, sunshine laws kick in once elected, so delaying swearing in ceremonies will not provide any advantage.)

Advice from the Trenches in Florida

Research school board candidates carefully. Vote411.org, the League of Women Voters “‘one-stop-shop’ for election related information,” is a good place to start. You can find Moms for Liberty candidates here and DeSantis-endorsed candidates here. Share your concerns with friends and neighbors.

If your school board candidate is not showing up to politcal forums, that is a red flag. Also, be leery of candidates campaigning on “parental rights” and “back to basics.”

If your school board is “flipped” on Tuesday, start attending meetings and pay attention. Newly installed boards have fired popular superintendents, without notice and within minutes of taking office.

Most importantly, choose wisely on Tuesday.