HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. – Hernando County residents will decide in 2024 whether the county’s superintendent of schools should be elected or appointed, under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The county’s voters in 1992 approved having an appointed superintendent. But the bill (HB 773) will put a proposal on the 2024 primary ballot that, if approved, would lead to the county shifting to an elected superintendent in 2028.
Hernando County is one of 29 Florida school districts that have superintendents appointed by school boards.
John Stratton, the Hernando district’s superintendent since 2018, recently has faced a push by three Republican state lawmakers for his ouster.
In the news: Controversy Stirs As Florida Trans Teacher Talked About Wanting To “Shoot” Students
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, Rep. John Temple, R-Wildwood, and Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, issued a joint statement calling for Stratton’s resignation stemming from an investigation of a trans teacher talked about shooting students.
Hernando County Schools Superintendent John Stratton and some members of the School Board came under fire from parents as more details were released about a March 24 incident at Fox Chapel Middle School.
The parents succeeded in getting the Florida Department of Education involved in the case and getting the teacher removed from the school.
On April 14, Florida’s Department of Education posted on Twitter: “Earlier this week, the Department was informed of a situation regarding student safety at a school in Hernando County. Upon the Department bringing the concern to the Superintendent Wednesday evening, only then did the district remove the teacher from the school, effective yesterday, Thursday, April 13. Therefore, the teacher is no longer at the school.”
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