Incumbent Leon Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna and primary challenger Star Swain, elementary school principal at Florida A&M University's Developmental Research School, staked out largely common ground in a Tallahassee Democrat candidate forum.
The forumwas sponsored by the Tallahassee Democrat,WFSUand the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee.
Hanna and Swain are both Democrats in the nonpartisan race. Another challenger, Chiles High School principal Joe Burgess, is running as a no-party-affiliated candidate; he will face the winner of the Democratic primary.
Hanna was first elected to the post in 2016. He's a product of Leon County Schools, and his first district job was as a hall monitor. He went on to become a classroom teacher, principal of Leon High School and a district administrator, before seeking public office.
Swain, who has 21 years of experience in education, from classroom teacher to school administrator, is seeking public office for the first time. She's hoping to become the first woman to serve as school superintendent in Leon County. She also is a well-known singing talent, who is known for herviral impromptu renditionof the Star-Spangled Banner at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in 2016.
There was hardly any discord between the two during the June 27 forum. They both agreed that school board races should be nonpartisan, the district doesn't need to close schools due to current enrollment issues and that academic regression due to the pandemic is the biggest issue in the district.
One rare division between the candidates was in their endorsem*nts. Hanna told forum moderators he is supporting Laurie Lawson Cox and Rosanne Wood, both incumbents for school board seats. Swain said her support was with their opponents, Jeremy Rogers, and Daniel Zeruto, respectfully.
Here's how the candidates responded to key issues on the mind of voters:
How should the district handle state-imposed book bans?
The hot button issue of book bans continues to be a storyline in Florida.
Leon County Schools has not banned any books and only faced one official challenge last year for the book "I am Billy Jean King," for defining sexual orientation on a page that addresses what it means to be gay.
The school board voted unanimously to keep the book on elementary school shelves. However, weeks later five books were removed from high schools by Hanna at the request of the local chapter of the conservative parents rights group, Moms for Liberty, which often posts books on social media to encourage parents to formally challenge.
"I believe a book should be removed from a school library if it is developmentally inappropriate," Swain said, adding that the books kids read should still be a decision left up to the parents.
No books have been removed from the district as a result of an official challenge, but it doesn't have to come to that. At the forum, Hanna acknowledged that some books have been pulled from elementary or middle school shelves – even without a formal challenge – as they were deemed age inappropriate by administrators.
"All I ask of Moms for Liberty is that if you have a list, don't make a political theater of this, send us the list" Hanna requested.
Here's what the candidates said about the $100,000 marketing campaign
Earlier this year, the district unveiled a new plan to boost enrollment numbers following an extensive marketing research project. It resulted in a new logo, a social media marketing campaign and research analysis.
The $100,000 continues to draw pushback from residents who questioned the expenditure.
"There's nothing wrong with rebranding your school district, I just feel like the cart was put before the horse," Swain said. She said the district should have focused its finances on improving academics to be more attractive to parents.
The rebrand was a result of the expansion of private school vouchers, a state initiative that has drawn parents away from public schools to private schools in hopes to receive better opportunities for their children. The result: Lower enrollment numbers in public schools, and in turn, a reduction in state money for students.
"For the first time in history, we're competing for public tax dollars, and it was incumbent upon us, like any other organization, to market and to tell our story," Hanna said. "If we can keep 12 kids from leaving or get 12 kids back, it will more than pay for itself."
But Swain said the story should have been told in the classroom, not with a logo. It's a similar theme among opponents, but characterized as a misinterpretation by supporters who note the logo was but one visual element of campaign.
"If you want to market and tell a story, first you have to fix the story, and then tell it," Swain said of the rollout process.
While he maintained confidence in the decision, Hanna admitted overlooking a few key steps that could have eased the worries of taxpayers.
"In hindsight we probably should have had a lot of other discussions on the focus groups and the research groups that went into the logo," Hanna said.
Is it a problem that the incumbent is running while on probation from DOE?
Hanna was placed on a two-year probation in 2023 following an investigation by the Florida Department of Education for allegedly infusing his "personal views" into his role as head of the district in 2022.
Those "views" were never specified in the investigation, however, the backlash from local Moms for Liberty members, Gov. Ron DeSantis and FDOE Commissioner Manny Diaz, was sparked by a feud with the district over mask mandates and advice from Hanna to LCS teachers.
"You Do You!," Hanna wrote in an email to teachers, telling them not to worry about political control over their professional capacity in classrooms. The email came months after Hanna publicly criticized the governor's war on masks and woke ideology.
Hanna agreed to a settlement with the state to receive a letter of reprimand, servetwo years probation, pay a $1,000 fine and fulfill a requirement to take college-level classes in education leadership and education ethics.
"We know that our teachers are not grooming and indoctrinating children, they simply wake up each and every day to make a difference in a child's life, and they will continue to do that and have my full support as superintendent," Hanna said during the forum.
"Me standing up and advocating on behalf of our students on the mask issue, or our teachers when they were under attack, that's the price I have to pay, then so be it," he continued. "I wouldn't have done it any differently."
Swain stood behind Hanna's stand and said the state discipline isn't an issue in the race.
"I think in that position I might have done the same thing," Swain said. "Although we do have a superintendent that's on probation, we have to look at the reasons why."
Background:Tallahassee Democrat, WFSU, League of Women Voters set slate of local candidate forums
You can rewatch the forum attallahassee.com,our Facebook Pageandon our YouTube Page.
Candidate forum schedule
(click on the link for replays)
- June 25:Tallahassee City Commission, Seat 1 (1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.)
- June 26:Leon County School Board District 2 (11 a.m. to noon)
- June 26:Leon County School Board District 4 (1 p.m. to 2 p.m.)
- June 27: Leon County Schools Superintendent Democratic Primary (11 a.m. to noon)
- June 27: Tallahassee City Commission, Seat 2 (1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.)
- July 16:Leon County Property Appraiser (11 a.m. to noon)
- July 16:Leon County Judge Seat 4 (1 p.m. to 2 p.m.)
- July 18:Florida Senate District 3 Democratic Primary (11 a.m.)
Have a question for the candidates in any upcoming forum? Email us atnews@tallahassee.com!
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