{"id":811972,"date":"2026-08-13T06:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811972\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:34:08","slug":"a-st-johns-school-board-member-said-she-misspoke-when-talking-about-sharing-parents-emails-with-pac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811972\/","title":{"rendered":"A St. Johns school board member said she \u2018misspoke\u2019 when talking about sharing parents\u2019 emails with PAC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A longtime St. Johns County School Board member is facing questions about whether parents\u2019 contact information was shared with a political action committee (PAC) during a 2024 campaign for a school tax referendum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">District 1 incumbent Beverly Slough made the comments while answering a parent\u2019s question at a recent candidate forum. In a video of the exchange circulating on social media, Slough says a PAC that supported the 2024 millage referendum had access to parents\u2019 email addresses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A parent, Ami Demii, said she has wanted answers since receiving an email during the 2024 campaign that included voter registration information and the referendum\u2019s ballot language. The email did not explicitly tell recipients how to vote, but Demii said she questioned how her email address was obtained and why she felt it was a one-sided political message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">In the forum exchange, Slough told the parent, \u201cThere was a PAC that ran that campaign, that\u2019s how those emails were sent,\u201d prompting questions from some parents about whether private information was provided to an outside political group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Slough responded to News4JAX by email, saying she misspoke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cI misspoke at the event. We do not sell the contact information of our parents. I apologize for my misstatement,\u201d Slough wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The St. Johns County School District also issued a statement denying that parent information was provided to a PAC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWe emphatically deny parents\u2019 information was provided to a Political Action Committee,\u201d the district said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A district spokesperson told News4JAX that public records searches confirm parental information was never shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Some parents said they were unconvinced by Slough\u2019s explanation, including Rachel Hand, who questioned how a board member with decades of experience could be mistaken about a matter involving parent privacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Slough\u2019s opponent, Kevin Allen, also weighed in in the final days of the campaign. In a news release, Allen criticized the possibility of PAC involvement in school communications and Slough\u2019s initial statement, saying he would protect parents\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The email obtained from 2024 did not explicitly instruct parents how to vote, and it remains unclear who sent it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Slough and Allen face voters in the District 1 School Board primary next Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A longtime St. Johns County School Board member is facing questions about whether&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,526,451,3,3255,452,453],"class_list":["post-811972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-st-johns-county","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}