Hillsborough Voters Decide Tuesday Whether to Elect Their School Superintendent or Keep Board Appointments
A referendum on Tuesday's ballot asks Hillsborough voters a structural question: should the school board keep appointing the superintendent, or should voters choose the district's leader in a partisan election?
NEW TAMPA - Between the statewide races on Tuesday's ballot sits a question about who runs Hillsborough County's schools. A referendum asks voters whether the superintendent should be elected in a partisan race, or whether the school board should keep appointing the district's top education leader, according to a Tampa Bay 28 report read in full by this desk.
Opponents who spoke to the station were blunt. Parent Ali Wilbur argued the board is itself elected, so voters already have a say, and warned that a partisan race would invite party money: it would become 'a lot more about what the Republican or the Democratic Party of the state of Florida thinks should happen in public education,' she said, adding that a bad choice would serve four years before voters could remove them. Rob Kriete, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, questioned the premise: 'We're an A school district. We have the highest rate of students that are graduating every year. I would say, what are we trying to fix?'
Supporters answer that direct election is direct accountability. State Representative Michael Owen, who championed the measure, told a legislative meeting last year: 'I believe that the parents and the voters of Hillsborough should determine who the CEO of their child's education is.' The voters he addressed get the final word on Tuesday, when polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. - the result decides whether the choice stays with the board or becomes the voters' own.
