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Elected Or Appointed School Superintendent? Escambia Commission To Consider Ballot Referendum
September 15, 2025
The Escambia County Commission will take the next step this week in placing a referendum on the ballot in 2026 to again ask voters if they want an elected or appointed superintendent.
The school board voted 3-2 on February 18 to place a referendum on the general election ballot to send the question back to voters. The referendum was introduced by District 5 member Tom Harrell, with Harrell, Kevin Adams, and Paul Fesko voting in favor. Board members Carissa Bergosh and David Williams were opposed. The school board then sent the referendum to the county commission for approval.
“I feel very strongly about this,” Harrell, who campaigned on a return to an elected superintendent, said in February. “The county, I think, feels very strongly. There’s never anything wrong with letting the people decide. When you have a democracy, it’s all about people making decisions.”
“Deep down in my heart, having been here in this district for 60 years, that’s what the people of this district want,” Harrell added. “It’s the right time; it’s the right thing to do.”
On Tuesday, the county commission will vote on scheduling an October 16 public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance authorizing a countywide referendum on the statewide primary election on August 18, 2026, to determine if the school superintendent should be an elected position.
The Escambia County Commission will take the next step this week in placing a referendum on the ballot in 2026 to again ask voters if they want an elected or appointed superintendent.
Comments
11 Responses to “Elected Or Appointed School Superintendent? Escambia Commission To Consider Ballot Referendum”
We should NEVER give up our rights to vote….
It’s interesting that three of the five board members are ‘voluntarily’ giving up their power/authority to go to an ‘elected’ superintendent.
What are the trio getting in response? Who is paying them off and why?
How much time and money is going to be spent on this issue that instead could go into the paycheck of the teachers of the school district?
CONTEMPLATING:
“Noone should hold office who was not elected.”
There’s much to say in favor of that thought, but you don’t want every job filled by a general election. You don’t want a brain surgeon cutting on you if his only qualifications were popular vote. The one who establishes goals? Yes. The one who does the day to day grunt work? Probably not.
With that in mind, you ask yourself which the school superintendent is.
For the people, by the people . Term limits for the commissioners , and elected officials for the schools . No more political appointments in our schools . The school board also needs to be voted out after getting away with tax increase (mileage piggy bank ) with less students . We have county officials who want more power (BOC) as well as the tax collector doing taxes, licensing, and other state duties when they can not even process a vehicle title , registration and tagging in a timely manner . Commissioners, tax collector and others concentrate on your duties instead of trying to have more power without fulfilling your core duties . Political appointees out of our schools , parents and voters should decide who manages their children and tax payers should have a say by voting .
The County Commissioners do enough damage as it is, keep them out of the school system for goodness sakes, all they are trying to do is buy more votes along with other things .
Everytime this issue came up I voted to elect our superintendent…as a retired Civics teacher I always encouraged my students to register to vote,study the candidates that are running for office and vote accordingly..
by the way I would have voted for Mr. Keith Leonard of I had had the opportunity to do so.
No doubt about it. The superintendent should be elected. We tried appointments and we remember how that went. If the superintendent runs for the office, I feel he has the job at heart. Just saying.
Will it really matter if it’s an elected position? We switched to a hired position and the Board ran off the very man they hired and then put in the guy they didn’t select. Switch back to an elected position and the candidates will likely be the same, entrenched people who haven’t solved the problems of the previous 20-30 years. To be fair to the Leadership, the voters and parents aren’t likely to aggressively take on more responsibility for the education of our children.
Much of government these days is just a big machine that gets certain parts (i.e. people) replaced from time to time; continuing the same mediocre output.
Bottom line; elected or hired, the Escambia County School District Leadership isn’t likely to change much, in the foreseeable future.
All the school board needs is more taxpayer money ! To do less !
Noone should hold office who was not elected.