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CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Challengers vying for three Clay County School Board seats showed up to make their case to voters Monday night, while none of the current board members attended the forum.
The League of Women Voters hosted the standing-room-only candidate forum ahead of the August primary, where school board elections for Districts 1, 4, and 5 will all appear on the ballot. Those races could be decided in August without advancing to a general election.
District 1 Board Chair Erin Skipper and District 4 Board Member Michele Hanson each face one challenger. District 5 Board Member Ashley Gilhousen faces two challengers. The League of Women Voters said all candidates were invited.
Hanson told News4Jax she had a scheduling conflict. Skipper and Gilhousen did not respond to requests for comment.
Why they’re running
District 1 challenger Lara Libretto, a former school leader and teacher, said her background gives her the experience the board needs.
“I feel like we need to support our teachers, continue our student achievement and make sure our parents are engaged,” Libretto said. “As a former school leader and teacher, I felt like we need an experienced educator to be on the board to make these decisions that affect thousands of students every day.”
District 4 challenger Michael Rathjen, a parent of three daughters and a business professional, said he entered the race over concerns about school funding.
“Coming from the business world, all the budgetary shortfalls and the new change in the funding — I went, I need to put my hat in the ring and give the voters a choice,” Rathjen said. He added that his family homeschooled their daughters at various points before enrolling them in Clay County schools.
Two of the three District 5 challengers attended the forum — Veronica Powell-Faison and Gerald Beasley. Powell-Faison said she is running to advocate for students, families, and educators.
“I see that there is a clear need for someone who has the children’s best interests in mind — the community, the parents, and the teachers,” she said.
Beasley, who works on the operations side of the school district and said he visits schools and offices regularly, argued the district needs change from within.
“I talk to people and I feel there needs to be change,” Beasley said.
Candidates offer competing plans to boost teacher pay
Libretto pointed to administrative spending as a place to find savings.
“We need to look at the top administrative level — we’ve got bloat,” she said. “We need to ask ourselves with our money: is it essential? Is it tied to student success? Is it a redundant position? Because we’re always asked at a school level to do more with less.”
Rathjen proposed a longer-term financial strategy and made a personal pledge to voters.
“Once our education foundation becomes the direct support organization for our district, we start an endowment — that could help offset some of the costs in the future for teacher pay,” he said. Rathjen also committed to not accepting a pay raise if elected to the school board.
Powell-Faison said she would focus on newer educators.
“I would try to find common ground where the new teachers — anybody under, I guess, 10 years — would be able to see some type of pay increase,” she said.
Beasley echoed concerns about spending priorities, saying he has witnessed double standards in how raises are distributed.
“I think if we can stop the waste and change some other things that are going on, I think that there could be funds for raises,” Beasley said. “They turned around and created more upper-level positions and promoted people — they got raises. I see a lot of double standards in the school district.”
See full story and watch video interviews with all of the candidates present at News4Jax.com.
