Rev. Lutimothy May picked up this afternoon a packet from the Supervisor of Elections office to file for the Superintendent of Schools. May ran unsuccessfully for the Escambia County School Board in 2006.
In 2009 and 2010, his church, Friendship Missionary Baptist, tried to purchase the closed Brownsville Middle School, but was rebuffed by the current superintendent who refused to take his church’s last offer to the board. Since then, the school has been vandalized several times and its A/C units have been stripped of all copper. The word we have received is that Thomas plans to demolish the school after the general election, since it has lost so much value since 2009.
In August 2011, Rev. May put together a new board to keep alive the A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence, after the original company approved by Superintendent Thomas and the School Board failed to reach pass the FCAT and had financial difficulties. A recent federal audit cited the School District for not giving Dixon its Title 1 funds during its first school year.
Here is the finding from the federal audit:
The A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence, a District-sponsored charter school, opened for the first time in August 2010 and, based on the charter school’s actual enrollment, the school was entitled to $62,658 of Title I program funds. However, due to an oversight by District Title I program personnel, the District did not allocate the funds to the school during the 2010-11 fiscal year. Failure to allocate the Title I program funds to the charter school resulted in eligible students at the charter school not receiving program services to which they were entitled.
May would not commit to when he will turn in his paperwork, but he said that several people in the community–black and white– have asked him to file.