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Pinellas School Board member Janet Clark will not run for a fourth term

 
Pinellas County School Board member Janet Clark will not seek re-election in the fall. [DIRK SHADD   |   Times (2015)] 
Pinellas County School Board member Janet Clark will not seek re-election in the fall. [DIRK SHADD | Times (2015)] 
Published May 25, 2016

When Janet Clark first ran for her at-large seat on the Pinellas County School Board 12 years ago, she was expecting to concede to the incumbent.

An exceptional student education teacher at Meadowlawn Middle School, she had barely campaigned against 14-year School Board veteran Lee Benjamin, but won anyway. Later on, when her opponents raised far more money in the 2008 and 2012 elections, it didn't matter. She kept winning.

But on Tuesday, Clark, who is 62, said she will not seek a fourth term this fall and would like to return to the classroom.

"I never intended to make a career out of the School Board," she said in an interview. "I figured I would serve two terms and would go back to the classroom. It's been three terms, and I'm ready to get back there."

Clark said her frustrations as a board member included recurring disagreements with legislators in Tallahassee. But a high point, she said, was the hiring of superintendent Mike Grego in 2012, a decision she described as "one of the best things we've done" as a school board.

"Janet Clark has, in my tenure, been a tremendous board member," Grego said Tuesday. She "always asked the right questions in terms of what's good for kids, what's good for employees and what's good for the community."

Asked about her reflections on "Failure Factories," the Tampa Bay Times investigation that detailed how five Pinellas elementary schools became some of the worst in the state after the school district abandoned integration in 2007, Clark noted she was one of two board members who voted against going in that direction.

"I was not comfortable with it at the time," she said. "I had a feeling that things were going to go the way they did. There was nothing I could do about it except vote."

Carol Cook, another School Board member who has already filed for re-election in the fall, said Clark spoke to her about her decision and how excited she was to return to teaching.

"If that's where her passion is, then I'm going to support her on that," Cook said. "I have enjoyed having her on the board. I'm sad for us but happy for her."

Board Chairwoman Peggy O'Shea said she enjoyed working with Clark, calling her an intelligent voice on the board who brought forth good points.

"The board right now has been really great to work with. There's all different opinions and ideas that come out," O'Shea said. "I just want that to continue with whoever comes onto the board and move on."

As far as endorsing a replacement for her seat, Clark said she would ask Grego which candidate he felt strongly about. Grego said he wouldn't give an endorsement.

"Those things tend to work themselves out," he said.

Four candidates have filed for Clark's District 1 at-large seat: Bill Dudley, a former St. Petersburg City Council member and Northeast High teacher; Joanne Lentino, a former first-grade teacher at Gulfport Elementary; Matt Stewart, deputy director for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and an adjunct ethics professor at St. Petersburg College; and Alex C. Powers, a Pinellas Park High social studies teacher and football coach.

Stewart, who has raised far more in campaign contributions than his opponents, said he would like to be more engaged than Clark was with the community.

"I think the citizens of Pinellas County are looking for a change," he said. "I don't believe any of the incumbents on the School Board at this point are necessarily looking at an easy election."

Dudley said he wasn't surprised by Clark's decision because he heard rumblings that she would not file for re-election.

"Everybody's going to reach that time where they're not going to do it again," he said. "And we should appreciate the fact that she stepped up to the table and did it for as long as she did."

Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8643. Follow @Colleen_Wright.