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Hooper: MaryEllen Elia ouster was decided on Nov. 4

 
[EVE EDELHEIT   |   Times]
Hillsborough County school superintendent MaryEllen Elia listens to a supporter at the meeting Tuesday, Jan. 20. The board voted to fire Elia.
[EVE EDELHEIT | Times] Hillsborough County school superintendent MaryEllen Elia listens to a supporter at the meeting Tuesday, Jan. 20. The board voted to fire Elia.
Published Jan. 22, 2015

The Hillsborough County School Board taught a civics lesson with its dismissal of superintendent MaryEllen Elia.

The vote to terminate Elia occurred Tuesday, but the decision actually came on Election Day.

When Sally Harris pulled off one of the more stunning victories in the history of county politics by knocking off well-funded Michelle Shimberg in the District 2 school board race, Elia's fate was sealed.

Although Shimberg never said Elia would have her full support, we can assume that she would have voted against terminating Elia's contract without cause. In fact, if Shimberg had concluded that Elia's tenure needed to end, I think she would have worked to negotiate a more dignified exit.

Shimberg, however, insisted she would be an "independent voice." She never framed the race as a mandate on Elia. Maybe if she had, the results would have been different.

Still, the election outcome sends a message to all of the Elia supporters who challenged the board not to terminate the superintendent: You should have spoken up sooner.

Some of the supporters, including Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, did lend financial support to Shimberg, but she needed more vocal support, more grass roots support and more of her base to turn out for the general election.

I'll always wonder if big voices like Buckhorn, Bondi, state Rep. Dana Young and former Florida Board of Education chairwoman Kathleen Shanahan could have helped produce a different outcome if they had openly made the election about Elia's job.

Of course, they probably concluded, as I did, that Shimberg would easily win. Shimberg raised more than $130,000 while Harris raised just over $20,000. Shimberg held significant popularity in the South Tampa precincts that comprised a sizable portion of District 2, and pundits widely held the belief that South Tampa decides elections because of higher turnout.

And Shimberg did carry a number of South Tampa precincts. She lost everywhere else, however, including all but one small precinct in the SouthShore area.

Perhaps Shimberg would have lost no matter how the campaign was framed. I'm sure Harris' supporters will say Harris won because the citizens wanted a new leader for the school district. I'm sure they will argue that parents, district employees and even some students had grown weary of Elia's style.

The phrase "air of intimidation" continues to be used by Elia's detractors. Maybe that air polluted her chances of keeping the job, and the board simply hastened an inevitable outcome.

But the point is that elections matter. I'm not blaming Shimberg's effort or undermining Harris' hard-fought win. I'm just pointing out that what some may have considered a fairly inconsequential school board race involving only a portion of the county has now impacted 200,000 students and 25,000 employees.

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The largest employer in Hillsborough County now needs a new leader and that outcome is directly tied to how 76,188 voters cast their ballots in November. How students will be educated, how teachers will be evaluated, how high-stakes testing will be adjusted, how the achievement gap will be narrowed, how the superintendent will guide the nation's eighth-largest school district — all were greatly affected by how those people voted.

I wonder how all the people in that district who didn't vote feel about their decision to stay home Nov. 4.

That's all I'm saying.