Opinion
By Dave Scott, 8-2-24
Following a June 17 meeting featuring Nassau County School Superintendent candidates Kathy Burns and Curtis Gaus, I wrote that I could find no serious differences between the two candidates, and I’d probably be voting for Burns to continue as superintendent. I was wrong.
I should have done more investigating and given it more thought because it appears I was too hasty. I should have stuck with my original inclination to support Guas that I expressed here five months ago https://www.davescottblog.com/school-superintendent-burns-faces-suits-complaints-etc-school-boards-gaus-announces-hell-run-for-top-job/
I’ve talked with and received correspondence from a number of people who convinced me I was going wrong. These include current and former employees of the school district ranging from teachers to bus drivers and parents to home-owning tax payers without children. The overwhelming majority of those who contacted me are critics of Burns. Not one advocated for her.
Current and former district employees tell me morale is low and declining. They also paint Burns as fiscally irresponsible pointing to the district over-paying millions of dollars for land purchases and the weak justification for those purchases. This is all on top of the one mill tax increase she said was for teacher’s salaries. Critics at the time said it was a half mill too much and a burden on taxpayers. She arrogantly shrugged that off.
Bi-weekly News Leader newspaper columnist Steve Nicklas also detailed Burns’ lack of transparency in a February 21 column this year. Nicklas listed a variety of fiscal and management issues attributed to Burn and summed her tenure up writing: “Overall, Burns dislikes anyone questioning her decisions. Burns has reportedly removed popular principals and other supervisors who have not complied with her heavy-handed management style.”
Some of the most damning and detailed testimony came from Brent Lemond who was the Director of Career and Adult Education for the Nassau County School District for well over a decade and a candidate for Nassau County Commissioner District 3 in 2020. He left the district in 2022 to become Director of Career, Technical and Agricultural Education in Franklin County in Northeast Georgia.
Lemond calls Burns’ legacy one of “shady deals and controversy” including what he says are the “misleading millage campaign and overpaying for land next to Yulee Elementary School.” He says it’s important to take a close look at her past actions “particularly with the district set to bond for new schools and close others in the near future.”
He strongly supports current School Board member Curtis Gaus, a widely popular former principal of West Nassau High School.
Gaus, who has 27 years teaching and administrative experience, currently teaches at a school in Camden County, Georgia. He can’t teach in Nassau County and serve on the school board here at the same time. His wife teaches special education in Hilliard.
Gaus was singled out by well-respected County Tax Appraiser Mike Hickox for standing up to Burns on the controversial one mill tax increase. In a public letter Hickox said: “When we first saw the marketing piece over a year ago, we Curtis Gaus attempted to do the right thing in the meeting and was scolded by Burns for proposing a reduction without notice. No other member of the board talked to my office.”
Overseeing the Nassau School District is a formidable task as it commands a whopping $250 million budget, and it is the largest employer in the county. That it needs strong public oversight and trusted fiscal leadership is an understatement.
Hickox requested a meeting with Burns well in advance of the November 2022 ballot measure to explain that the property tax numbers she used were not accurate. He told her that the state millage illustration used in her marketing piece was misleading.
Burns ignored Hickox and proceeded with her misleading campaign to burden the county’s tax payers with a one mill increase rather than the .50 or .75 that would have done the job with money left over.
In her marketing material Burns clearly states most of the employee compensation would go to teachers. Only 50.5% went to teachers.
This the same Burns that approved the purchase of property in Yulee from a local group for $3,750,000.00 that a year earlier had been purchased for just $1,400,000.00.
Lemond summed up his opinion saying: “While we’re all proud of the district’s A-rating, anyone crediting Burns with this should consider a much larger picture. Burns inherited the high-performing district. And, despite the advantages of an increasingly affluent county, there are indicators of decline. For example, when comparing Nassau County’s Algebra scores among all 9th grade Florida students, nearly two thirds of the state out-performed Nassau. Only 28% of our freshman students had proficient scores. By contrast, 45% of Duval County 9th grade algebra students did. Similarly, among 9th grade Geometry students, Nassau tied for only 20th in the state, and these are mostly honors students.”
Lemond said: “Burns is not a competent CEO. She just inherited a strong company. Shareholders must demand new leadership.”
He praised Gaus adding: “Curtis Gaus was part of a team that made the Nassau County School District one of the top in the state. He did a great job running West Nassau High School for eight years, and before that contributed as a teacher and assistant principal at Fernandina Beach High School, as well as a couple years leading the Career and Adult Education Department. He will make a highly effective, and most importantly, honest, superintendent.”
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In Other August Races: My vote in the other August 20 primary races will go to the following candidates: U.S. State Senator, Rick Scott; Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, Mitch Keiter; Supervisor of Elections, Janet Adkins; Board of County Commissioners, District 3, Jeff Gray; Board of County Commissioners, District 5, Klynt Farmer; Ocean Highway & Port Authority Commissioner, District 3, Danny Fullwood; Ocean Highway & Port Authority Commissioner, District 2, Jimmy Dubberly; Circuit Judge 4th Judicial Circuit Group 34, Nancy Cleaveland; School Board Member, District 2, Gail Cook; School Board Member District 4, Cynthia “Cindy” Grooms.
The Primary voting dates are August 8, the deadline for a vote-by-mail ballot; August 7-17, 9 am – 6 pm; early voting; August 20, election day.
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Thanks Joe Biden: According to the USDA, consumers spent 11.3 percent of their disposable income on food in 2022, the highest in 30 years. According to Steve Chalillane, Chief Executive of snack food company Kellanova the high cost of food caused by inflation will not go down. He told they Wall Street Journal, “they tend to be sticky. Just like a gallon of gas, it becomes the new price and people get begrudgingly used to it.”
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Wait! What? Faculty members and university administrators who fail to prosecute those who break the law by harassing Jewish students are accomplices to this evil as much as those committing the crimes.
A protest that disrupts classes, drowns out speakers, destroys and defaces property, and bars or intimidates students from using the services isn’t a protest. It’s an out-of-control mob and its members should be arrested and prosecuted. Why aren’t they?
In early June protestors outside the White House cheered the mass slaughter of Jews, chanting: “Hezbollah, Hezbollah, kill another Zionist now.” Meanwhile the clueless folks in the Oval Office were busy ensuring that people using what they consider the wrong pronouns be fired but appear fine with calls for mass murder.
For example State Department employees were reportedly directed to avoid using terms like “mother, “father” and “manpower” according to a report on an internal memo from Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He reportedly told staff to use “gender-neutral language whenever possible” as making assumptions about someone’s gender “can be problematic” and send a “harmful, exclusionary message.”
Maybe he should look out of his office window once in a while if he wants to hear harmful, exclusionary messages.
Even worse are the Pro-Hamas dim keffiyeh-wearing leftists who defaced national monuments, attacked police, and painted: Death to Amerikkka” on statues and buildings during Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to D.C.
The cops were vastly outnumbered by rioters. Why?
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Ageism? National Review columnist Heather Wilhelm pointed out a fact that few folks probably know. She wrote that “America’s founding fathers were a rather young bunch. On July 4, 1776, James Monroe was 18, Alexander Hamilton was 21, James Madison was 25, and Thomas Jefferson was 33. John Adams clocked in at 40. She added, “ George Washington was an elderly 44, and the old man of the group was Benjamin Franklin, who was 70”.
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Olympics Get A Black Eye: Italian female boxer Angela Carini got in the ring with an Algerian guy in Paris and within 45 seconds threw in the towel. She said the blows from this guy were the most devastating she’s ever received. Well yeh! She was fighting a guy who says he’s a gal. The whack jobs at the Olympics think that’s just fine. What happened to feminist groups like NOW that are supposed to stand up for women’s rights? Apparently it now stands for National Organization of Whatevers.
Republished with the author’s permission. Read The Dave Scott Blog– subscribe Free
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
