Three incumbents whose Volusia County School Board terms expire in November plan to run again, saying they have unfinished business they want to see through to completion.
The leader of the local Republican Party has some unfinished business, too. Tony Ledbetter is actively recruiting candidates to run for the School Board, partly in response to the board’s recent decision to continue using a world history textbook he and other critics believe promotes Islam to the detriment of other religions like Christianity.
“I’m confident the textbook issue will be an issue in the campaign along with many other things,” said Ledbetter, the leader of the textbook protest. “It will probably be March or April before people step up and say they’re running. It’s a little early for people to make those decisions.”
Incumbents Candace Lankford, Stan Schmidt and Diane Smith all plan to seek new, four-year terms on the board. And Don Sarro Jr., a political newcomer who teaches social studies at River Springs Middle School in Orange City, has filed preliminary paperwork to run in West Volusia’s District 1 that Lankford has represented since 2002.
Other candidates have plenty of time to make their decisions, with qualifying not scheduled until mid-June. School Board members are elected to four-year terms in the districts where they live and earn $34,010 annually. If two or more candidates qualify in a district, they will meet in an Aug. 26 primary with a runoff Nov. 4 if no one garners more than half the votes in the first round.
While School Board races are nonpartisan, Volusia Republicans under Ledbetter’s leadership made party affiliation an issue in local races in 2012 and have vowed to do the same this year, even though Schmidt is a registered Republican.
Schmidt represents Southeast Volusia’s District 3 and Smith, a registered Democrat, represents Southwest Volusia’s District 5. Both are in their second terms on the School Board.
The incumbents aren’t as sure as Ledbetter that the textbook controversy will be a campaign issue based on the feedback they’ve heard from the community.
“I’m sure it could be a campaign issue, but I don’t think it will be a major one,” said Smith, who’s 55 and lives in Deltona. “I believe we answered those questions and concerns.”
A November School Board meeting was canceled because of security concerns when conservatives rallied to protest the use of the 10th-grade world history textbook they called pro-Islam because it had a chapter about the rise of Muslim civilizations without a corresponding chapter on Christianity. There was no trouble when the board later decided to continue using the book, noting that the rise of Christianity was covered with two chapters in a sixth-grade textbook that deals with an earlier historical period.
Ledbetter — who last month apologized after inadvertently passing along a hoax email to more than 1,000 people that claimed President Barack Obama had launched a Muslim outreach program for American schools — has vowed to keep up the fight against the textbook.
The incumbents, though, are more into talking about improving Volusia’s academic performance, seeing a proposed extension of the school district’s half-cent sales tax approved by voters in November and making sure students are prepared for the 21st century demands of college and careers.
Sarro, 49, is a registered Democrat and a DeLand father of four. He wants to bring parents’ and teachers’ voices to board discussions and push for ways to reduce the amount of testing Volusia students face in a school year.
“I feel our children deserve better than what we’re giving them” by testing them so much and letting the tests drive instruction, he said. “We don’t have a great deal of conclusive evidence this is a sound instructional strategy.”
Testing is also an issue for Smith who, like Sarro, would like to see the amount of testing required at the school district level reduced. “I think our children are being tested to the limit,” she said.
Lankford, 66, is a DeLand Democrat who said she brings an “institutional knowledge” to the board as its longest serving member that would be important in making decisions about the district’s future. “Years and years of (budget) cuts have taken a toll,” she said. “I want to make sure we continue on a good track.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of work on getting the academic performance up,” said Schmidt, 59, of Port Orange and “that’s going to be a continuing challenge” if he’s re-elected.