Rick Nolte ousts Sarah Fortney in Polk School Board race. Kay Fields retains seat

A challenger ousted Polk County School Board member Sarah Fortney on Tuesday, while another board member retained her seat and a third is headed for a runoff.

Rick Nolte, a conservative candidate running on an endorsement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, captured nearly 51% of the vote in unofficial results from the Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Fortney, who was seeking a second term, received just over 49%.

Nolte ran on a ticket of candidates endorsed and heavily promoted by the Polk County Republican Party, though the races are nonpartisan. One of the other candidates, Justin Sharpless, defeated Sara Jones for the open seat in District 6.

That made it a mixed outcome for the conservative candidates, also affiliated with County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative group that does not endorse or campaign for individual candidates.

Kay Fields, the longest-serving member of the School Board, withstood a challenge from Terry Clark in District 5 to earn a sixth term. Fields captured 52.9% of the vote to 47.1% for Clark.

Clark had campaigned on the theme of “educate, don’t indoctrinate,” echoing DeSantis’ claim that teachers are injecting unapproved ideas about race and sexuality into their instruction.

In the only race for an open seat, Sharpless edged Jones by a margin of 51.4% to 48.6%.

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More results: Results from other races around Polk County

In District 7, incumbent Lisa Miller prevailed over Jill Sessions and Dell Quary but didn't reach the majority she needed to avoid a runoff. Miller took 42.4% of the vote and will face Sessions in November after the challenger captured 37.4% to finish second. Quary received 20.1% of the vote.

Though members serve in geographically designated seats, voting is done on a countywide basis.

Nolte’s campaign mirrored those of many candidates throughout the state who responded to DeSantis’ persistent criticisms of school districts and teachers for promoting what he called “woke ideology.” The governor influenced the Florida Legislature this year to pass such bills as Parental Rights in Education, which forbids discussions of sexuality or gender identity in classrooms.

Nolte and the other three local conservative candidates all signed DeSantis’ “Education Agenda” pledge. The oath contained 10 priorities, such as avoiding school closures, rejecting Critical Race Theory and supporting the rights of parents to petition school boards over grievances.

Critical Race Theory, a college-level examination of how racism and discrimination affect law and policy, is not part of the approved curriculum in any of Florida’s public schools.

In an unprecedented move, DeSantis endorsed at least 30 candidates in school board races around the state. Nolte, the only Polk County candidate he endorsed, traveled to Sarasota last week to join the governor at a rally for candidates in that area.

Nolte, a retired physical education teacher, avoided talking to reporters during the campaign.

Fortney taught science for 33 years before leaving the classroom following her election to join the School Board.

She was the target of an attack ad paid for by Education for All, a political committee based in Tallahassee.

Another ad, accusing the Polk County School Board of supporting Critical Race Theory and “sexualizing our children,” promoted Clark, Nolte, Sessions and Sharpless as “the Parents’ Coalition.” It was paid for by the American Principles Project, a political action committee based in Arlington, Virginia.

The challengers criticized incumbents for Polk County Public Schools dropping to a state-issued C grade this year, from the previous B grade. The Florida Department of Education’s assessments are based on students’ scores on standardized tests, middle-school acceleration, graduation rates and other factors.

Fields and Fortney cited the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic as a major factor in the drop.

Nolte reported more than $44,000 in campaign contributions, compared to about $38,000 for Fortney. Nolte’s total included more than $20,000 of his own money.

The challenger had donations from Lakeland City Commissioner Bill Read; the Winter Haven 9-12 Project, a conservative political group; the Republican Club of Solivita; Highland Cassidy of Winter Haven and multiple related companies; and Education for All, a political committee based in Tallahassee.

Fields, a native of Mississippi, was first elected to the School Board in 2002. She is the wife of former Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields, who served as her campaign manager. Clark is a longtime pastor and business owner.

During the campaign, Fields rejected Clark’s suggestion that Polk County schools were indoctrinating students.

“I don't even know what that means as it relates to the school district,” Fields told a Ledger reporter in July. “What are we indoctrinating? We are teaching our kids the standards that's required by the state. We're teaching our kids to do the best that they can do, and math and reading and science. And we're teaching our kids about civics and social studies; everything that we're supposed to be doing is what we have in place. We're not teaching Critical Race Theory. That's a bunch of hogwash.”

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Fields is a registered Democrat and her husband is a Republican. At Fields’ request, the Polk County Democratic Party did not officially endorse her but described her as the better candidate in the race.

Fields reported nearly $31,000 in campaign contributions, while Clark collected about $29,000. Fields drew donations from Stephanie Yocum, president of the Polk Education Association; her predecessor, Marianne Capoziello; Terry Coney, president of the NAACP Lakeland Branch; and fellow School Board member William Allen.

Miller, seeking a second term, denounced the focus of some challengers on “indoctrination,” saying they were injecting national politics into the local, nonpartisan elections. Clark and Sessions shared a campaign manager, James Dunn Jr. of Texas, who spoke in an interview with CCDF of promoting “Judeo-Christian Republicans” in previous elections.

Miller led voting in District 7 despite seeing her two opponents endorsed by political parties — Sessions by the Polk County GOP and Quary by the Polk County Democratic Party. Sessions is director of solid waste for Plant City. Quary is retired from a long career in education.

Florida law requires that a school board candidate receive more than 50% of the vote to gain election. Because Miller came short of that threshold, she and Sessions will meet again in the Nov. 8 general election.

Miller received nearly $48,000 in campaign contributions, compared to about $24,000 for Quary. and about $23,000 for Sessions. Miller’s contributors included Yocum, Capoziello, former Florida Sen. Paula Dockery and former Lakeland City Commissioners Jim Verplanck and Justin Troller.

Sharpless and Jones were contending to succeed Lynn Wilson, who decided not to run for re-election in District 6. Both candidates are Lake Wales natives and come from families of teachers.

Sharpless, 38, is an agriculture professor at Warner University in Lake Wales. He is a graduate of the University of Florida. While he signed DeSantis’ pledge, Sharpless didn’t emphasize “culture war” issues in the campaign as much as the other GOP-endorsed candidates.

“I don’t believe indoctrination, ‘woke gender ideology,’ or CRT instruction is a systemic or pervasive problem in Polk County Public Schools,” Sharpless said during the campaign. “However, I registered my opposition to CRT on the pledge because it is not appropriate for the K-12 setting, nor is it included in Florida’s academic standards. Bottom line, I support public schools teaching to Florida standards, following Florida law, and teaching students how to think, not what to think.”

Jones, 33, received an endorsement from the Polk County Democratic Party. She is an attorney in Lake Wales and holds a law degree from Florida A&M law school.

Jones’ campaign might have been hurt by reports that she is facing an investigation from The Florida Bar after missing a hearing before Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals in June. Jones said the incident resulted from a series of communications errors within her office.

Sharpless collected more than $46,000 in campaign donations, compared to less than $11,000 for Jones. Sharpless’ donors included the Winter Haven 9-12 Project and its secretary, Glynnda White; Amilee Stuckey, Republican Party state committeewoman for Polk County; Kevin Respress, a CCDF board member; Publix heiress Julie Fancelli; and Business Voice, the political committee of the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce.

Yocum contributed to both candidates.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Nolte ousts Fortney from Polk School Board. Miller headed to runoff