The resignation of former Alachua County Schools Superintendent Owen Roberts last month?has raised the long-standing discussion?above the positives and negatives of appointing versus electing an institution district’s?chief executive officer.
The Alachua County School Board dicated to accept Roberts’ resignation?June 21.?Roberts, who had been appointed to his position in 2014, was really the only school superintendent in North Central Florida not elected by county voters. In the 11 counties in the area, 10 have elected superintendents.?Forty-one of your state’s 67 counties elect their respective superintendent of colleges.
“It is definitely the will of the person,” said Bobby James, the prevailing chair on the Marion County School Board, with regards to the election steps involved in finding a superintendent.?
Alachua County’s school superintendent is instead appointed through the school board. Once the position is appointed, the institution board is capable of conduct a nationwide search for eligible candidates, James said. The board can set education requirements for applicants, along with offer more compensation than state law makes for elected officials.
Marion County voters while in the 2008 election were asked once they were going to switch the signal from an appointed superintendent. Sixty-two percent of voters voted no.
Marion County is the state’s second most populated county to elect its superintendent of colleges – behind only Pasco County.
Three within the state’s 20 most populated counties elect their superintendent of colleges: Pasco, Marion and Escambia counties.
Thomas Valesky, a professor of educational leadership at Florida Gulf Coast University, said you’ll find major limitations as soon as the position is elected as opposed to appointed.
“You will never manage to attract talent from round the country,” he explained.
Individuals that run for elected superintendent positions really need to live in the county where they may be picking out the position. An established background in education isn’t required.?Kurt Browning, superintendent of faculties of Pasco County, served as Florida’s secretary of state before being elected school superintendent in 2012.
Valesky said elected superintendents aren’t required to “please the teachers board,” which often can strain relationship with the school board. But appointed superintendents also often have complications with keeping their boards content.
The main benefit for?elected superintendents can be a a higher level independence from your school board, Valesky said. This may be whether positive or negative, but elected superintendents are usually more free to speak against policies they think really don’t conserve the district.
Advocates a great appointed superintendent of faculties indicate Florida Department of Education district grades. Over 90 percent of districts with an appointed superintendent received a b or B with the department in 2015, whereas 14 within the 41 districts with elected superintendents received C or D grades. Not one of the districts with appointed superintendents received?a D from?the department.
In North Central Florida, Alachua County received a b – on the department, as did Gilchrist and Union counties. Four counties received a b-, three a C and a second – Hamilton County – a D.
Gilchrist County Superintendent of Schools Rob Rankin, who had been elected next year, said he’s not sure there’s a among an appointed as well as an?elected superintendent. He stated he retains to maintain an effective relationship with his board, as board members are “who keep your livelihood.”
Rankin said the visible difference could be to whom the superintendent ultimately answers. Appointed superintendents might be fired?by their boards. Rankin was in the past a teacher, administrator and college board member in Gilchrist County.
“If you have three board members [of five] that don’t think you’re performing a satisfactory job, they’ll eliminate you,” Rankin said.
He known as?the fact of former Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, whose board permit her to go about each year after she was named Florida’s Superintendent of the year because of the Florida Association of District Superintendents.
In North Central Florida, the ten elected superintendents have got all served longer terms than Roberts, though each makes less annually than he did during his tenure.
Alachua County Education Association President Karen McCann boiled the difference down to trust.
“There are folks that sense that they just don’t want to entrust the university board to make the decision,” said McCann, adding?that we now have other individuals who believe that by electing the school board members, one entrusts these for careful analysis choose who the superintendent are going to be.
McCann said arguments about precisely how the superintendent is chosen often come when individuals aren’t very pleased with the superintendent, whether that each is elected or appointed.
The earnings of elected school superintendents is calculated according to the population of your county. Lafayette County pays its superintendent the smallest amount on the North Central Florida counties?- $93,479 annually, just $9 over Liberty County’s superintendent, the smallest while in the state.?
Alachua County paid Roberts $160,000 annually – a lot more than the common $103,966 that elected superintendents in the region receive, in accordance with the Florida Legislature’s Office of monetary and Demographic Research.
Marion County, by far the most populated in the 11 counties in North Central Florida, pays its elected school superintendent $137,823 annually. However, this?is lower than Alachua County, which contains about?10,000 fewer students.
