League of Women Voters of Seminole County History
EDUCATION
“We have learned to make a lot of noise”
As its first official act, the newborn Seminole County League of Women Voters took a hard look at the county’s public school district. The League called its findings “Up the Down Staircase in Seminole County,” a reference to Bel Kaufman’s 1964 novel about an idealistic teacher’s adventures at a laughably crowded, underfunded public school.
The League study found lopsided, inadequate funding for many of the district’s existing schools, and a desperate need for new schools, particularly in Oviedo, Winter Springs and Casselberry. So, the League threw itself behind a $10.3 million bond issue to build seven new elementary schools, a new high school, a new junior/senior high school and additions to 14 other schools. It passed 7,492 to 2,833 on May 7, 1968. Just two-years-old, with a membership of around 70, the Seminole League is widely credited with the referendum’s success. Suddenly, the new League had clout.
“They were really flying high after the referendum passed,” longtime member Pat Burkett remembers.
When, in 1969, the League complained that taxpayers’ representation on the school board was skewed in favor of northern Seminole County, the school board accepted its offer to help redraw the boundary lines, redistributing representation and power to voters in the south. “Small, but active League of Women Voters gets things done in Seminole,” the Orlando Sentinel proclaimed.
Accreditation
In 1976, the League infuriated Supt. William Layer and some school board members by urging the school district to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges.
The League surveyed about 50 different colleges and universities of varying sizes, in-and out–of-state to find out whether regional accreditation figured into their admissions decisions. Most said, “Yes, it might.”
“The League thought it was important, because if you didn’t come from a high school that was accredited your ability to get into college was downgraded,” past League president Marilyn Crotty said. Supt. Layer grumbled that accreditation was “meaningless” and called the effort a waste of time and money. The League, however, won over the school board and in 1976 it voted to seek accreditation for the district’s six high schools. To meet the SASC’s standards, however, the district needed thousands of library books that would cost an estimated $262,000. Board members balked. But the League suggested that the district propose buying paperback -- rather than the standard hardcover -- books for the libraries. Once the SASC agreed to paperbacks, the League organized a book drive. The 34,000 books it donated sealed accreditation for the district’s high schools.
“In a few quick and well-planned moves,” the Orlando Sentinel opined, … “the League plowed its high school accreditation plan over Layer’s opposition and a majority of apprehensive school board members.”
“Beholden to No One”: An Appointed Superintendent
But many battles were harder and longer. At the same time it was involved in the accreditation effort, the League began calling for an appointed, versus an elected, school superintendent. It would take 16 years to achieve.
“The Seminole County school system ran like a family business,” Seminole League past president Pat Southward said. “It really was an incestuous web.”
Any registered voter older than 18 was eligible to run for superintendent in Seminole County. Also, the job was partisan.
“So, of course who ran? It was people from the school system,” Ms. Southward said. “A popular principal or a good coach. I can’t say these men were bad. But the candidate field was extremely narrow.”
It seemed to League members that this popularity contest bred the kind of tribalism that created disparities between the schools. And from a political science perspective, Ms. Southward said, having an elected superintendent report to an elected school board muddied accountability. “The board sets policy, the administrator implements policy. But when you have a superintendent who is elected just like board members, you can and do have two competing policies. Sometimes the policy set by the school board can be undermined by a superintendent who disagrees with the policy,” she said.
The proposal first appeared on the ballot in a 1974 referendum. Then-Supt. William Layer was among the most active and vocal opponents. The measure failed. But when Supt. Robert Hughes announced in 1988 he wouldn’t run for another term, the League was determined he would be the county’s last elected superintendent. In 1990, a slim majority of Seminole County’s voters delegated the responsibility for choosing the superintendent to the board of education.
“Paul Hagerty was our first appointed superintendent,” longtime League member Dede Schaffner said. Ms. Schaffner served on Seminole County’s school board for 16 years. “He came to us from Missouri and he was beholden to no one.”
It seemed to Supt. Hagerty that Seminole County’s was a system of schools, instead of a school system, and he set out to change that.
“He said, ‘They get their funding through the county. We do everything district-wide,’” Ms. Schaffner said. “He brought with him some great ideas and he totally transformed the Seminole County public schools.”
A Non-Partisan School Board
The Seminole League’s campaign to keep partisanship out of local board races was even more tumultuous.
In 1975, the Florida legislature passed a bill eliminating partisan labels on school board candidates.
“According to Sen. John Vogt, D-Merritt Island,” the Orlando Sentinel reported, “the bill passed in virtually the same form it was written by the Seminole County League of Woman Voters.” Such was the Seminole League’s reputation for competence. But the legislation didn’t stick and twice the League would have to try to convince voters that school board elections should be apolitical. It only succeeded once.
A pair of Florida Supreme Court rulings in 1989, then 1990, first ruled nonpartisan school boards unconstitutional, then constitutional, as long as the county’s charter says which. Seminole County’s charter specified nonpartisan board of education elections. Both the Democratic and Republican parties were dismayed and began urging the county to amend its charter. The question was on the ballot in November, 1994, with the League in staunch opposition.
“We believe there is little evidence to support the argument that nonpartisan election of School Board members gives inordinate power to special interest groups such as school unions. Instead, candidates are often parents of school children or business owners employing the graduates of county schools,” then-president Debra Carswell wrote in a letter to the Orlando Sentinel’s editors.
The Republican state committeeman for Seminole County, James Stelling, countered in a guest column that the League’s position was outrageous, and argued that party labels gave voters important information about candidates’ inclinations. The county’s voters apparently agreed with him and opted to change the charter to provide for partisan school board races.
Four years later, the question went to all of the state’s voters in a constitutional amendment that resulted in nonpartisan school boards in all 67 counties. The League had campaigned vigorously for passage.
League member Dede Schaffner served on Seminole County’s board of education when it was partisan and when it was nonpartisan. She never observed any party politicking in the board’s deliberations when members ran as Republicans or Democrats. Still, she believes nonpartisan representation is more inclusive. “Everybody is affected by school board members, even if you don’t have children in school, your property values are affected by the schools,” Ms. Schaffner said.
An Orlando Sentinel reporter once asked past president Judy Knudson how the Seminole League had managed to win battles like the accreditation tussle.
“We have learned how to make a lot of noise,” Ms. Knudson said.
Today, the Seminole County schools are consistently ranked among the best in Florida. The League of Women Voters Seminole County is proud to have worked beside voters, parents, students, elected officials and educators to achieve that end.