News
By Michael Hernandez, 8-22-24
FERNANDINA BEACH, FL—Citizen activist Richard Lamken of Citizens Defending Freedom addressed the board three times at the Aug. 22 Nassau County School Board meeting asking for copies of agenda to be posted on the county board website with hard copies available at meetings. “Why is the litigation workshop minutes not available?” said Lamken. He also questioned an item on the agenda that originally had $2.5 million listed and then was changed to $48,000. “What is that item referring to? said Lamken. He said if an insurance carrier was no longer with the district, then the district needs to do a distribution to each employee. He also encouraged the district to live-stream all school board workshops and not only school board meetings. Lamken has made numerous criticisms and cited examples of lack of Board/District transparency in recent years.
Yulee Middle School Approved For D.C. Trip March 28-31, 2025
The Nassau County School Board approved 4-0, a March 28-31 Washington D.C. field-trip by Yulee Middle School. Making the presentation of the action item (Agenda F: 3 which was added to the agenda at the start of the board meeting) was Nassau County Assistant Superintendent Mark Durham because he said sponsors wanted to move ahead for travel preparations.
District Approves $173,528 Contract For Computer Consultation Services
Nassau County School Board approved, 4-0 (Agenda F-1), a Gateway Educational Computing Consultants Services contract to The Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC) for $173,528 that includes: $32,000 for Gateway support services, $81,000 for Skyward License Fee, $21,000 for IS Corp Hosting Fee (through Skyward) and $38,000 for Student Data Support Services.
District Pre-Qualifies Six Contractors For Project $2 Million And Under
The six contractors approved, 4-0 (Agenda F-2) by the Nassau County School Board for projects $2 million and under include: Scorpio, Thomas May Construction Company, KBT Contracting Corporation, Auld & White Contractors Group, Inc., STG Contracting Group, Inc., and E. Vaughan Rivers, Inc.
Citizen Seeks Alleviation of Traffic Concerns In Yulee
Peter Leo Procko addressed Nassau County School Board members about the first week of school traffic by Yulee Elementary School that he claimed increased by 350 percent.
Live Stream Recording Of Workshops Discussed
Nassau County School Board members discussed live recording of school board workshops as well as the regular school board meetings. The Swagit contract is for $25,000 and can include up to 50 meetings (25 regular school board meetings and 25 school board workshops). The item will be placed on the agenda for the Sept. 12 school board meeting.
Other Nassau County Board Actions
- Approved request to waive fees for Nassau Baseball Club to use the baseball fields and cages at Yulee High School.
- Approved a donation of $1,500 made from the Women of Nassau, Inc. to the Families In Transition program director Mollie Cressey.
- Authorized funding of nearly $141,000 for the Dual Enrollment Articulation Agreement between Florida State College at Jacksonville and Nassau County School District for 2024-2025.
Nassau County School Election Results (Preliminary Results include all early votes, all election day votes and all votes by mail, 18 of 18 Precincts Reporting)
Nassau County School Superintendent Kathy Burns won re-election with 11,128 votes (50.45 percent of the vote) against Nassau County School Board member Curtis Gaus with 10,596 votes (48.77 percent of the vote).
Gail Cook won the District 2 race with 12,057 votes (57.52 percent) over Roody Jonville with 8,903 votes (42.48 percent). Kristi Loyd Simpkins beat the incumbent in District 4 with 10,173 votes (50.18 percent) over Cynthia “Cindy” Grooms with 10,099 votes (49.82 percent).
More ELECTION RESULTS
School Board Members Comments
- Shannon Hogue: District 1 ([email protected])
“A shout-out to Yulee Middle School for (their) number one ranking in the state in science. Kudos to them.”
- Gail Cook (Vice-Chair): District 2 ([email protected])
“The floors look amazing at Fernandina High School. The agreement between us and the Nassau County Board of Commissioners is working well with our fields being used. I wish everybody a smooth start (to school). I have heard it has been a smooth start.”
- Curtis Gaus: District 3 ([email protected])
“We need to have an update on our capital projects for September.”
- Cynthia Grooms (Chair): District 4 ([email protected])/Absent
- Lissa Braddock: District 5 ([email protected])
“So much depends on the teacher. If you have good teachers, you will be happy and love school. If you love school when you start, this is the insurance you will love school all the way through.”
- Supt. Katherine Burns ([email protected])/Absent
Agenda:
https://go.boarddocs.com/fl/nassau/Board.nsf/Public#
Watch:
https://nassaucountysd.new.swagit.com/views/569/live
Michael Hernandez, from California is co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted at [email protected] and is editor of the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and “Nov. 5 Election Day Countdown.”
