{"id":199649,"date":"2026-03-20T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199649\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:49:08","slug":"hillsborough-county-school-board-candidates-oppose-superintendent-as-an-elected-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199649\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsborough County School board candidates oppose superintendent as an elected role"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrom Left: Ken Gay, Chris Taylor, Daniela Simic, Sally Harris Williamson, Karen Perez at Cuban Club in Ybor \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 3\/20\/26<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n

Candidates running for the Hillsborough County School Board gathered at the political forum Tampa Tiger Bay Club Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Candidates running for Districts 2 and 6 seats discussed issues such as book removals, safety, and teacher pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were also asked about their stance on making the Hillsborough superintendent an elected position rather than appointed by the school board.<\/p>\n

A bill, which has passed the legislature and awaits DeSantis\u2019 signature, would put the question on the November ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsor says it would create added accountability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when asked, all candidates disagreed with the idea<\/p>\n

Chris Taylor is a candidate for District 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you think it was ridiculous if we decided that the CEO of Tampa General had to be elected and be a politician? No. But can you imagine, if we said, now you\u2019ve got to go and spend 60% of your time, every fourth year, and you can\u2019t be running your hospital, and you\u2019re going to have to go and raise money.\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Daniela Simic, candidate for District 2, held the same stance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need someone who understands what it\u2019s like to go through that, to be an educator, to be a school leader, to be a district leader. And having a politician \u2013 someone that may not have experienced that \u2013 would likely not be a good decision for the school district.\u201d Simic said.<\/p>\n

District 2 candidate Brittany Lyssy was not in attendance.<\/p>\n

Karen Perez is the current chair of the school board, running for District 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you elect a superintendent, put that on the ballot, the superintendent will be more focused on getting re-elected than he is on the students, on the district, on the progress of the schools,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

Sally Harris Williamson is a candidate for District 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a superintendent, who should be running our schools, is out there trying to run for office, at least one year of his time in the position, will be trying to get re-elected.\u201d Williamson said.<\/p>\n

Ken Gay, a candidate for District 6, also spoke against the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our buildings \u2013 there\u2019s too much of a mix of politics in the buildings, we need more professionalism, and that comes with a wise superintendent that has a background in education.\u201d Gay said.<\/p>\n

The election is in November. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Left: Ken Gay, Chris Taylor, Daniela Simic, Sally Harris Williamson, Karen Perez at Cuban Club in Ybor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4431,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-199649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-hillsborough-county-school-board","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}