School board pay question will return to Constitution Revision Commission

Erika Donalds barely saved her proposal to end Florida school board members' salaries when it came before the Constitution Revision Commission education committee in November.

Headed for defeat, Donalds moved to postpone action rather than cast what would have been a tying vote for the measure. Proposals must have a majority in support to win favorable recommendation; ties aren't good enough.

The Collier County School Board member said at the time she wasn't sure if she'd revive the item. Now she says that's the plan.

"Proposal 32 will come back to the education committee after the new year," Donalds told the Gradebook via email. "I have not decided whether to amend it."

Amendments might help ease the idea's passage from its first committee stop. Others on the panel raised strong doubts about the concept, particularly in concert with a second measure to limit board members' terms, saying the two moves together would limit the diversity of people willing and able to serve.

Similar views arose among sitting board members at the recent Florida School Boards Association conference in Tampa.

Two of Donalds' other proposals, to limit board member terms and to end superintendent elections, go to the CRC local government committee on Thursday. If approved, they still would require a majority vote by the full commission.