Seminole school board races: 4 candidates compete for two seats

Seminole County voters will select two new school board members Nov. 8 in historically low-key runoff races that this year are colored by Florida’s controversial education issues.

Though candidates run in a district, any registered voter can take part in these elections no matter where they live to decide who will represent District 2 and District 5 on the five-member school board.

Across Florida, school board elections have been notable for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unprecedented decision to endorse local school board candidates and for the influence of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group founded in Florida. The group is often in lock step with the Republican governor, backing his push for bills to boost parental rights, increase scrutiny of school libraries and place limits on discussions of race, sexual orientation and gender identity.

DeSantis did not endorse any Seminole school board candidates ahead of the August primary, however, and the Seminole chapter of Moms for Liberty supported candidates who were trounced at the polls on Aug. 23.

Critics said many Seminole residents care more about high-quality public schools than the culture-war issues the group and the governor pushed.

But two of the four Seminole school board candidates on the November ballot signed Moms for Liberty’s pledge, so those issues remain part of the campaigns.

In both races, incumbents chose not to seek another term, and four candidates competed for their seats. No one won outright in the primary, so the top two finishers are on the November ballot. Seminole school board members serve four-year terms, set policy for the district’s 67,000 students and earn $40,000 a year.

District 2

In the District 2 race, Sean Cooper, a former pastor, and Kelley Davis, an attorney and a former county teacher, are vying for the seat. In the primary, Davis was the top vote-getter, earning 38% of the vote, Cooper came in second with 23%.

Cooper, 49, served for more than two decades as a pastor at Northland Church in Longwood and now works for a youth organization that promotes non-violence and community reconciliation.

His children — the oldest now in college, the younger one in middle school — have benefited from Seminole schools and he wants to help Seminole County Public Schools improve, he said.

“Let’s celebrate the success, but let’s really double down on helping some of our kids who are struggling right now,” he said.

Cooper, who describes himself as a “bridge builder,” signed the Moms for Liberty pledge which says, among other points, that the signer will “honor the fundamental rights of parents” and “defend against government overreach.”

Its wording echoes that of Florida’s “parents’ bill of rights,” which DeSantis signed in 2021 and was used to end COVID face mask mandates in schools, and some of the 2022 “parental rights in education” law, which critics dubbed “don’t say gay” and lambasted as an anti-LGBTQ measure.

“I did sign the pledge because I do want to work toward greater engagement of our county parents, guardians, grandparents, and family members,” Cooper said in an email. “When I heard the pledge read aloud, I did not think of those values as partisan in nature.”

Cooper said, if elected, he would work on discipline issues, academic and mental health help for students and an ongoing teacher shortage.

“With parents, there’s definitely concern about our teachers and the turnover,” he said. “We just can’t bleed out that incredible resource.”

Teachers are the school system’s “biggest asset,” he said, and need the community to “rally around them” both with financial support but also by finding ways to make their jobs easier.

Schools need to focus more on “the basics” of math and reading, he said, and on paths for students who are not planning on college.

“Not everybody’s going to go onto college, nor should they,” Cooper added.

Davis, 55, a former Seminole High School math teacher, is an attorney who handles criminal and family law. Her children graduated from SCPS high schools and she has granddaughters in Seminole elementary schools.

To her, the bills DeSantis pushed that target how race, sexual orientation and gender identity are addressed in schools were unnecessary, made teachers anxious about classroom discussions and libraries and pulled attention away from public education’s real problems.

Those include a need for more mental health counseling as many children remain stressed by the pandemic’s upheaval. “If you’re not emotionally ready to learn, we don’t even get to the curriculum part,” Davis said. “And that is the focus of school — the curriculum part.”

As a teacher, Davis often worked with struggling students and as an attorney she works with “troubled juveniles.” Those experiences will help her improve school discipline, which was a problem when she taught and remains one now, she said.

Students who get into trouble are often the ones with academic problems. “They don’t feel proud of themselves, and now they’re causing trouble for other kids,” she said.

Those students need help — but so do the youngsters they’ve bullied.

One of her sons needed special education services and, as a parent, she found it sometimes hard to know what resources were available to help. Many parents face the same struggle. “I know we can do better,” she said. “Disabilities or not, those students can excel.”

Teachers are frustrated and need a better pay system, Davis said. Though state law has dictated most money be put toward boosting pay for new instructors Davis she would find ways to pay veterans more, too.

“We need to reward the teachers who have the experience,” she added.

Davis did not sign the Moms for Liberty pledge, saying the group and the governor’s efforts aim to exclude and to “bring adult issues into our children’s world.”

District 5

In the District 5 race, Dana Fernandez, a former New York City teacher, and Autumn Garick, a longtime school volunteer, face off. In the primary, Garick won 42% of the votes cast and Fernandez won 25%.

Fernandez, 47, did not respond to requests for an interview for this story. According to her Facebook profile, the mother of eight moved to Longwood in 2021 from New York. She worked as a teacher in New York City for more than 12 years, the profile said.

On her website, Fernandez, who according to social media posts also signed the Moms for Liberty pledge, said her other issues were expanding choice for students to enter “the workforce or pursue technical vocations,” ending COVID-19 protocols, though SCPS dropped most of them more than a year ago, and removing politics from education.

Prior to the primary, Fernandez sued Garick, claiming her opponent was not living in District 5 when she qualified to run in June. A judge ruled in Garick’s favor on Aug. 18. Fernandez appealed and that case is pending in the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.

State law requires school board candidates to live in the district they want to represent. Fernandez claimed that Garick was still living in her Oviedo house, which is in District 2, when she qualified for the campaign.

Garick, 56, who called the lawsuit “frivolous,” said she and her husband are building a house in downtown Sanford — which is in District 5 — but the pandemic delayed construction. So she is renting a home in District 5 until their new house is ready, she said, and properly qualified using the rental home address.

In an interview this summer with the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board, Fernandez said she decided to run after overhearing her 11-year-old son’s teacher, instructing students virtually at the start of the pandemic, discuss Black Lives Matter protests and mention “white privilege,” Fernandez said.

In her view, that was a sign there was “an agenda being pushed on our youngest and most vulnerable.”

In a video on her campaign website, Fernandez highlights a similar message: “I’m here to protect the children, keep them safe, protect parents’ rights and overall put an end to this crazy woke agenda that’s been indoctrinating instead of educating our students,” she said.

Garick said she decided to run a year ago worried about news out of Seminole school board meetings, where anger about COVID-19 safety rules prompted a raucous meeting punctuated by boos, cheers and the removal of one man by sheriff’s deputies. Clips from the meeting ended up on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.

“This does not reflect the schools I worked in for 16 years, that my kids went to,” said Garick, who for years owned an educational theater company that regularly performed in county schools.

She and her husband, like so many families, moved to Seminole more than 20 years ago to provide top-notch schools for their three children, all now graduates of SCPS, she said.

The school district has work to do to keep its schools excellent, but those tasks don’t involve hot-button political issues.

“We absolutely have challenges we need to address, but let’s not make it harder,” she said.

Garick said she wants to focus on campus safety, mental health services and making sure parents feel “part of the team.” Those are the issues most parents care about, she added, along with making schools places of “joy, exploration and celebration.”

Residents without children should feel valued, too, and be encouraged to volunteer. “If you pay taxes it’s your schools and you are welcome,” she said.

The shortage of teachers, which she called alarming, means the district must do more to retain “our excellent, qualified educators” and recruit new ones to its schools, as teachers are the key to student success, Garick said. That is particularly important as the schools help students who suffered academically during the pandemic, she said.

Garick did not sign the Moms for Liberty document and said she would not pledge her allegiance to any special interest group. If elected, she said, her pledge is to work for the students and residents of the county.

“Seminole County public schools have been a beacon of academic excellence for decades,” she said, and their success benefits everyone in the county. “They’re our brand.”

lpostal@orlandosentinel.com