A Florida school board candidate who lost his race in a county south of Jacksonville will get a seat on the board anyway, after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped him to fill a vacancy.
Derek Barrs will take an open seat on the Flagler County School Board in northeast Florida, succeeding a member who resigned in September, allowing DeSantis to appoint a replacement rather than the seat going on the ballot for voters to decide.
It’s not at all unusual to have to replace resigning school board members. But they must be taking advantage of a loophole to have the Governor do the appointment directly.
According to the article, the election was just held in August. This tells me that the school board term must only be 2 years, if there is less tha 28 months left to it 3 months in. So, anyone who resigns from any school board whose term is that short will have their successor picked by the Govenor? It seems like a law that is only in place as a power grab for the governor.
I can understand not wanting to run a board short one member or paying for a special election in a school district for a short period of time. But that law should be limited to a much shorter period, like 8 or 10 months left in the term.