After gaining conservative majorities across Florida, school board members supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are beginning to remove school superintendents.
New board members have decided to move quickly with reform, having only recently taken their seats. Several school districts have either voted to remove or have forced out their superintendents, in line with the “major reset” DeSantis-backed school board candidates Bridget Ziegler and April Carney described to Breitbart News after winning their elections.
“We had a wave in school districts that spit in parents’ faces,” state Rep. Randy Fine (R) said. “And now the people who did that are gone.”
The Sarasota County School Board, upon which Ziegler sits after winning reelection August 23, started the severance negotiation process with its superintendent, Brennan Asplen.
New board members were sworn in last week, and the move against Asplen is one of the first the new conservative majority has taken.
According to Politico, the board listened to about four hours of public comment about Asplen before calling into question his decision-making during his tenure that started in 2020 — almost entirely during the coronavirus pandemic.
Making his plea to the school board, Asplen accused the new board of injecting politics into the district.
“You have to get the politics out of this school district,” he said. “This school district could be No. 1, but we shoot ourselves in the foot every single time. We are getting in our own way all the time.”
Despite his argument, many see the overwhelming rejection of incumbent, mostly left-wing school board members as a rejection of the politics already injected into the districts.
Asplen, who was supported by the teachers’ unions, resigned Monday instead of leaving the decision to a school board vote, telling FOX 13 News, “Though my wife and I were highly disappointed and plummeted into emotional turmoil by last Tuesday’s motion, after much reflection over the Thanksgiving holiday, it is with a heavy heart that I have accepted the fact that I will soon be separated by the school board as a collaborative relationship does not appear to be attainable.”
Brevard County superintendent Mark Mullins was also ousted after two new conservative members were sworn in. Mullins resigned and entered severance negotiations.
The teachers’ union in Brevard, however, believes that Mullins’ ouster may be good for the district, as the Brevard Federation of Teachers contends that the schools under his leadership did not do enough to deal with student disciplinary issues, saying, “Students verbally and physically abuse teachers and staff.”
While Broward County initially had a DeSantis-appointed majority following the governor’s decision to suspend members following the finding of a grand jury investigation into the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, elections in August swung the district somewhat to the left.
The DeSantis-appointed board removed superintendent Vickie Cartwright, but the new one could easily vote to reinstate her.
Since conservative media has shined a spotlight on the indoctrination schemes of school boards across the country, including critical race theory and queer theory, many districts have not had the electoral opportunity to replace their boards.
Some board members have battled recall efforts in the meantime, but many districts that have had elections have chosen to remove the left-wing incumbents in favor or pro-parent, anti-indoctrination candidates.
Being one of the states that did have school board elections, Florida’s swing to conservative majorities may be the canary in the coal mine for districts across the country.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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