COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS/MARK SCHUMANN

Following is our assessment of the candidates for the two School Board races and our endorsements:

District 1 candidates: Karen Disney-Brombach and Shawn Frost

Karen Disney-Brombach has served two terms on the Indian River County School Board. She has displayed leadership and an ability to work with people. She is currently president of the Florida School Boards Association which is significant in several ways. To represent the local school board with this association seven out of the last eight years demonstrates her ability to work with the other board members. To become president of the association, comprised of elected school board members from all over Florida, demonstrates her ability to work with her peers around the state. Karen relates well with teachers and administrators in the county. In her appearances at the school board candidate forums, she answered questions without histrionics, giving factual, straightforward answers. Her defense of the new administration building should have proved embarrassing to the candidates who are opposed to it.

Her opponent, Shawn Frost, is a political newcomer receiving financial backing through a statewide conservative electioneering organization, Florida Federation for Children. On its website, the FFC says, “We identify election circumstances in which there is a discernible difference between the candidates on the issues of parental choice and education reform, regardless of any other factor, especially party affiliation.” (Emphasis ours)  However, in a slick mailer sent to discredit Karen Disney-Brombach, the headline reads, “Karen Disney-Brombach is recommended by the Democratic Party.”

Frost appears to be a decent, intelligent man, but the cloud of doubt that hangs over whether he met residency requirements to run in this election against Disney-Brombach may well end up determining his fate as has been reported extensively in InsideVero.

According to the Property Appraiser’s office, Frost and his wife own two homes, both in District 3. His father owns a home in District 1 and candidate Frost says he is living on the second floor of his father’s barn. He admits his wife and children still live in District 3. Election regulations specify a candidate must maintain legal residency in the district for which he is running as of June 20. Before entering the race, Frost had filed as a candidate in the District 2 County Commission race against Commissioner Joe Flescher, then suddenly backed out when apparently Flescher offered his support to Frost if he ran for school board. As it turned out, he would have also been legally ineligible to run in Flescher’s District 2 as well.

With Disney-Bromnbach’s excellent record working with the school board, administration, teachers and parents over the first two terms, and the questions that hang over Frost’s residency and his out-of-county backers, InsideVero endorses Brombach.

District 4 candidates: Charles Searcy and Randy Heimler

In the District 4 race, long time board member and chairman, Carol Johnson, is retiring and two candidates are vying for her seat.

Charles Searcy served on the school board one term in 1996-2000. A long-time resident of Indian River County, his entire working career has been in banking and credit management, skills that are helpful in executing his responsibilities on the school board. However, during his term, Searcy’s folksy demeanor proved to belie his reputation as a lightning rod of divisiveness. He has stated to people, including this reporter, that he enjoys a role of “stirring the pot.” But stirring the pot is not a strategy for working together with other board members, administrators and teachers. When he lost his bid for re-election in 2000, most of those constituencies endorsed his opposition candidate.

Randy Heimler is relatively new to the community (seven years) and in his previous community he was well known and liked as a volunteer with hundreds of hours in the schools and community. There are some questions about legal actions he may have initiated unrelated to the schools, but those questions all seem to come from his opponent’s camp. He proved to be articulate in his candidate forum appearances and we at InsideVero feel he deserves the opportunity to serve.

Therefore, we endorse Randy Heimler for the District 4 school board.

On a final note, we have seen how dysfunctional and divisive our Congress has been due to elected officials with ideological driven agendas unwilling to compromise for the good of the country. We don’t need that in our local school board race, where the school board and administration must deal with a wide range of political issues that come with the responsibility for educating the next generation of Americans. That diversity of political views is currently represented on the board, yet, the board has acted professionally and supported whatever decisions made by the majority, which almost always involve compromise. We already know the Disney-Brombach record for working with her fellow board members. We also know Searcy’s poor record working with other board members. Let’s elect a board that can work together to deal with the many issues that must be addressed in the near future, beginning with the selection of a new superintendent to replace the retiring Fran Adams.