On Tuesday, the Escambia County School Board approved by a 3-2 vote a resolution to put a referendum on the August 2026 midterm primary election, giving voters the option of choosing to elect or appoint the school superintendent.
District 5 School Board member Tom Harrell expressed his desire for a referendum on whether the school superintendent position should be elected again, stating that “the overwhelming majority of the community has asked me to do this.”
- “At that time when I was campaigning, this whole community seemed to be focused on this,” Harrell said. “It started when I was collecting petition cards and everywhere I went, that was the number one issue on people’s minds was elected superintendent. They had a not so good feeling about what had happened to us before.”
He noted that his motion had nothing to do with the performance of Superintendent Keith Leonard.
“Ladies and gentlemen of this board, this is one of those issues,” said Harrell. “I’ve been in this district for 50, 60 years, and I have never seen an issue that’s more prevalent than this out in the community. When you look at social media now, it’s run at about 75 to 77% in favor of an elected superintendent.”
He continued, “When you say that you want to do an appointed superintendent, so many of these, when they talk about the large numbers, so many of these districts are one school districts or they have a K eight school and then a high school or they have a middle school, elementary, middle, and high school. But the bottom line is our community’s different.”
OTHER DISTRICT FEEL DIFFERENTLY
District 4 School Board member Carissa Bergosh said she heard a different view while campaigning. “I’m unable to support this resolution. I spoke to many people in this district and in the community as well, and they are all for appointed. The appointment came through our voting in 2018. The county spoke 2018. The school board revisited it in 2023. It also did not pass, so the appointment is the way to go.”
Board members Harrell, Kevin Adams and Paul Fetsko voted for the referendum.Board Chairman David Williams and Bergosh opposed it.
BACKGROUND
The 2018 referendum vote was part of the November General Election, which typically has more than twice the voter turnout as an August primary. In 2018,
November election’s voter turnout was 130,885; August primary turnout was 64,436. REFERENDUM VOTE – Yes: 62,418 No: 61,508
In March 2023, the Escambia County School Board resisted putting superintendent back in the hands of the voters.
School board members voted 3-2 against a resolution to put superintendent on the election ballot during their meeting Tuesday in front of a standing-room only crowd at the Hall Center.
Three of the school board members balked at ousting Superintendent Tim Smith in September after then board chair Kevin Adams added discussing his termination to the meeting agenda. Those same three board members, Patty Hightower, Bill Slayton and David Williams, struck down the resolution brought forward by Adams.
“The people in my district are sending me emails or calling me and they’re in support of an appointed superintendent,” Hightower said. “I’m going to continue to support the appointed superintendent. What we have to do as a board is learn how to give direction to the person we have hired, and we have to know how to evaluate that person effectively, so we know the job is being done and our students are benefiting from that leadership model.” Read more.
