Jeff Bergosh Blog: Voters Have Reconstituted the Same School Board

Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Voters Have Reconstituted the Same School Board

I was proud to swear-in for another term on the School Board last night, and I was proud to have my family with me for the event. Thank you district 1 for sending me back unopposed!

At this meeting, the installation meeting, all three board members that were up for re-election were returned to their seats by the voters and sworn in. In this age of a very fickle electorate, this speaks volumes for the work of every employee in the Escambia County School District.

An additional point that deserves mention is the fact that of the last 5 board member district elections, 4 of those elections resulted in the incumbent being returned to office unopposed. Again--that speaks volumes about the hard work the district employees have put in, which has resulted in the electorate returning us unopposed; if the public thought we were not doing our jobs they would turn us out, it's as simple as that. To have the same board and Superintendent in place for six years running, with at least two more years guaranteed after this installation, it is somewhat of an historic event on the board.

Superintendent Thomas mentioned during the meeting that to the best of his knowledge, this would be the longest period of time in the recent history of the board that such stability had occurred with a consistent board and superintendent combination remaining in place for an extended period.

With the consistency that comes from the same team being in place for many years running, many aspects of our work become easier. Not that we all agree all the time----we don't. However, we all know each other by now, and we've reached a certain level of maturity as a group that facilitates and allows for the completion of what can, at times, be difficult and divisive work. But we all recognize we have challenges to overcome and much work to do over the next few years-so we work through all the turbulence. I know we'll continue to do so, and I look forward to the challenges ahead.

Watch each installation and speech here