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Elia supporters silent as Hillsborough School Board members vie for re-election

 
Bill Person, challenger for District 1 seat.
Bill Person, challenger for District 1 seat.
Published Aug. 28, 2016

TAMPA — When four Hillsborough County School Board members voted to fire former superintendent MaryEllen Elia last January, Tampa's politically powerful promised retribution once they faced election again.

For months, the School Board members were vilified by local businessmen, politicians and bloggers for firing Elia and paying her $1.1 million on her way out the door. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn called them "mean girls," and local radio host Al McCray dubbed them "a gang of four."

But now that election time is here, those threatening revenge are nowhere to be found.

In fact, if campaign contributions are any indication, the election Tuesday could prove to be an easy win for the two members of the "gang of four" up for election this year — Susan Valdes, 51, who was board chairwoman when Elia was fired, and Cindy Stuart, 49.

"I have not at all gotten support from the decision to get rid of MaryEllen," said Bill Person, 65, a retired Hillsborough County schools administrator and principal and the only candidate challenging Valdes for her District 1 seat.

Neither has Alicia Toler, 35, the sole challenger for Stuart's District 3 seat and an advocate for children with special needs.

"Nobody has said anything to me about supporting me just because the board got rid of Elia," Toler said.

Valdes has held the District 1 seat since 2004, winning two bids for re-election. She is third-highest among 17 School Board candidates in campaign contributions this cycle at $42,670 as of Thursday.

Challenger Person has just $11,530, $6,450 of it his own money.

Stuart, who is facing her first election since winning the District 3 seat in 2012, raised $23,432 as of Thursday in her campaign. Toler's $4,042 is all her own money, except for a $250 donation from her husband, Randy Toler, one of eight candidates for the District 7 School Board seat.

'Senseless' or right?

There's no sign today of the finger-wagging from last January, when Buckhorn wrote on his Facebook page: " 'Nuff said. School Board elections in 2 years. Just saying."

The mayor even attached a Washington Post article that lambasted the School Board's "senseless" decision to fire then-superintendent Elia, a candidate at the time for national superintendent of the year, amid complaints about her brusque management style and lack of transparency.

Challenger Toler doesn't fault her opponent for firing Elia. In fact, she says, it was the right decision.

"It hurts me to know that under her watch, not only were there budget issues, but kids died and the rest of the board didn't know about it," Toler said. "I have a special needs son who is profoundly autistic, so that really hit close to home for me."

Toler referred to the death of 7-year-old disabled student Isabella Herrera, who stopped breathing on a school bus ride in 2012. Two other students died under Elia's watch: Jennifer Caballero, an 11-year-old with Down syndrome who drowned in a pond behind Rodgers Middle School, and 6-year-old Keith Logan Coty, who died the day after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage at Seminole Heights Elementary School.

The Gates situation

Another cloud hangs over Elia's 10 years as superintendent. Elia helped secure a seven-year, $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but last year, her replacement, Jeff Eakins, revealed that programs created through the grant had drained reserve funds and put the district on track to spend $142 million more than it could.

"Elia, in my eyes, was terminated because she wasn't following the standard protocol I needed from her," board member Stuart said. "I wasn't getting the information I needed from her."

Stuart's chances at re-election seem solid, with backing from the district's teachers union and support professionals union, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Tampa Bay Times editorial board, the weekly La Gaceta, the local Teamsters union and the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors.

Valdes faces a tougher road against Person.

The challenger has picked up some key endorsements from the from the teachers and support staff unions, the AFL-CIO, the Times and the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, which serves a largely African-American audience.

Elia's firing has come up in debates, but Person, who worked with Elia as director of pupil administration and general director of administration, said it's impossible for him to evaluate the board's decision in the matter not having been in their shoes.

More important, he said, is how the school district has run without her.

"Everyone who worked with MaryEllen butted heads with MaryEllen, but the district generally ran and was one of very few urban school districts that was still functioning, partly due to her leadership," Person said. "I don't see the district as better off now than with MaryEllen at the helm. In some ways it's worse."

Time marches on

Back in January, more than 70 people spoke at the public hearing on Elia's firing, mainly in support of the superintendent.

State Rep. Dana Young of Tampa and Attorney General Pam Bondi, both Republicans, came to Elia's defense, and Kathleen Shanahan — CEO of Tampa's Urtek construction company, former chairwoman of the State Board of Education and former chief of staff to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — circulated an online petition to retain a "world-class superintendent" that garnered 1,100 signatures. The Tampa Port Authority approved a resolution supporting Elia.

Elia declined to comment for this story, as did five of the people who were outspoken in their support of her — Buckhorn; former Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe; CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership Rick Homans; Jan Platt, former Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission member; and Stephanie MacNeel, vice president of the Hillsborough School Employees Federation.

Other outspoken Elia supporters did not return requests for comment: Shanahan, Rep. Young, Pasco superintendent Kurt Browning, former School Board member Carolyn Bricklemeyer, Hillsborough teachers' union president Jean Clements and union executive director Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins.

Stuart said she isn't surprised. The new administration is "heading in the right direction" under Eakins, she said, with new leaders in key administrative positions and new procedures for tracking and improving graduation rates to 90 percent by 2020.

"I'm curious when we're going to stop having this conversation about the past, when can we talk about where we are now and where we're going," Stuart said.

"She's not coming back."

Contact Anastasia Dawson at adawson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3377. Follow @adawsonwrites.