St. Johns County School Board Chairwoman Beverly Slough and community and school activist Kim Kendall submitted letters publicly this week about the issue of whether to elect School Board members by single member district, as is done now, or at-large, as was the case prior to 1986.
The County Commission has proposed shifting the county to a charter form of government. One of the changes being considered is to change how school board members are elected.
Slough prefers to keep things as they are. Kendall wants to see a change and is encouraging residents to e-mail their County Commissioners and recommend amending the proposed charter to include at-large elections for school board members.
The voters will decide on the proposal next year during the general election.
I interviewed both women via telephone this week and asked them the same questions. Those questions, and their answers are below. Both have seen each other's letters, and both knew I was asking the other the same questions. Neither knew the other's answers prior to publication.
Parent and activist Kim Kendall:
Q: Do school board members represent schools, or residents?
Kendall: Both. More so the residents but they also cover schools as well so they do both. The way the zoning is they've made it that way. At World Golf Village, Bev Slough represents the people, but their kids go to three different schools and they've assigned staff to different board members. If you go the school district's web-site you can see what schools fall under each representative.
Q: Are the people in the northwest better served by letting residents in other parts of the county help decide who will represent the district? How about people in the southwest/Hastings?
Kendall: I think so. I think it's very similar to the county commission. I think it's a matter of all five vote for school related activities all over the county so voters all over the county should have a say in who is elected. For example; Bill Fehling not meeting with us. He may be meeting with everyone in Ponte Vedra, but if he's not meeting with the other four districts then the people in Ponte Vedra need to hear from the rest of the county. Carla Wright and Bill Mignon have been really good about meeting with everyone and really responsive. I'd like to vote for them if they decide to run again.
Q: How do you ensure that the entire board doesn't just cater to the most populous area or the one with the most active voters?
Kendall: The voters need to get out and vote. If the northwest only has 100 people get out and vote and Hastings has 12,000 that vote, then good for them. It gives us accountability.
Q: There are 435 congressmen and 100 senators in Washington but you only get to vote for one representative and two senators. How is this different?
Kendall: That's a good point, but the difference is: population. We've got a CDD under the district and a county commission above the district.
Q: On a scale from one to 10 — with 10 being a perfect performance — how do you rate the job the school board is doing?
Kendall: As a whole? That's a hard question to answer out-and-out. I would give it an eight. A couple of years ago I'd have given it a five. And I mean the board and the staff. The staff has been really good about taking our input. Bev Slough has been great at meeting with us. She says she will do the same job whether she's elected at large or by the district. People need to remember that we are the employer. We're in charge of the school board. They're in charge of Dr. Joyner (the superintendent of schools). We have to make sure they know that we're the boss. If they won't meet with me, how can they know what I expect?
Q:Is there anything you'd like to add?
Kendall: Two things. Bev's e-mail mentioned the problem before was that Ponte Vedra people didn't feel like they knew their representative because he lived on the cusp of St. Augustine. It's still going to be the same whether it's the district or at large, with they way they've got the zoning you're still not going to know who's representing you. The school board is concerned because it will mean more work and they're afraid they’ll have to raise more money to run county-wide. But Sanchez, Manuel and Rich showed that $8,000 can beat $100,000. We've got an intelligent population that knows what's going on.
They're all St. Johns County schools, not just northwest schools or Ponte Vedra schools, and if someone from the southeast doesn't want me to vote for their representative, then their representative shouldn't get to vote on things affecting our schools. I'm not asking people to vote for this, just to put it on the ballot and let the people decide. Let's take it for a test drive. Why should anyone be afraid of what the people might want?
School Board Chairman Beverly Slough:
Q: Do school board members represent schools, or residents?
Slough: Neither one. We represent the children of St. Johns County. All of them. If I had to choose between schools or residents, then I guess I'd choose residents because they are the ones that vote for us, but we represent the children.
Q: Are the people in the northwest better served by letting residents in other parts of the county help decide who will represent the district? How about people in the southwest/Hastings?
Slough: I don't think so. I think I spell that out pretty plainly. The person who's closest knows better what's needed in the district. While I’m very accessible to somebody in south St. Augustine, I'm not as aware of the issues there as Bill Mignon – he lives there. It's my responsibility to respond to everyone in the county — I represent them all — but I can't know as much about that area as someone who lives there.
Q: How do you ensure that the entire board doesn't just cater to the most populous area or the one with the most active voters?
Slough: You couldn't ensure that. That's another drawback of electing at-large candidates.
Q: There are 435 congressmen and 100 senators in Washington but you only get to vote for one representative and two senators. How is this different?
Slough: This is exactly the same because of the balance between large states versus small states. In this case we're trying to make sure that the largest areas and the smallest areas are equally represented.
Q: On a scale from one to 10 — with 10 being a perfect performance — how do you rate the job the school board is doing?
Slough: That's a good question. We're not perfect, nobody is. I give us a nine, or a 9 1/2. All of us are new since 2001. When I was elected in 2002 we had a budget deficit, we were far behind on schools and growth was killing us. Now we have a balance for funds and with the K-8 I think we're going to be caught up on schools. We needed to hire a good CEO, which we did, so I think we're doing a good job, but as I said, we're not perfect.
Q: Is there anything you'd like to add?
Slough: The charter has been focused exclusively on the County Commission and that's where I think it should stay. The constitutional officers are excluded, and the school board members are constitutional officers. We have autonomy from the county — that's the way it should stay.
You can read the letters at:
www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081107/nes_190141375.shtml
