Bill would put Hillsborough school superintendent up for a vote

Tampa Bay Times | By Divya Kumar | October 22, 2025

A state representative is pushing for partisan elections to determine the role held by Van Ayres.

A bill could make the Hillsborough County Public Schools superintendent position a partisan elected position up for a vote every four years.

Amid tension between the state Board of Education and the school district, Rep. Michael Owen, R-Apollo Beach, introduced a bill at the Hillsborough County state legislative delegation meeting Tuesday that he said would make the county’s school superintendent more accountable to voters.

“I believe that the parents and the voters of Hillsborough County should determine who the CEO of their child’s education is,” Owen said.

Owen said the bill had nothing to do with superintendent Van Ayres, whom he called “a good man, a man I’ve known for a while,” but was instead about the future.

Currently, the superintendent is selected by the school board, whose members are elected.

If the bill becomes law, Hillsborough would be the 39th county in the state to have an elected superintendent position, Owen said. Voters would still need to approve the measure through a referendum.

“The problem, I feel, is that a superintendent is not necessarily accountable to the voters, but they’re accountable to those board members that are sitting there,” Owen said. “I believe that having a more independent superintendent will allow them not to necessarily do the wishes of the majority of the board, but the wishes of the parents of Hillsborough County.”

Critics pushed back, saying the bill would only further politicize public education.

School board member Lynn Gray pointed to low voter turnout in Tampa’s last mayoral race. What would happen if a small group turned out to pick the leader of the seventh-largest school district in the nation, she asked?

Damaris Allen, a parent and executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools, said the amount of time superintendents spent running a campaign could be better spent on working on issues within the district.

“Our kids do not need more politics in their schools,” she said. “They need less. They need the focus to be on them, and not on getting elected.”

Ellen Lyons, a graduate and parent of alumni from Hillsborough County schools, said the board played an important role in ensuring qualified candidates were selected.

“Typically, that means that we’re going to get an educator as our superintendent, not a politician,” she said.

Gianny Hunt, a parent and member of Magnified Voices, an education advocacy group, said the existing process is transparent and “free from campaign donors or party platforms.”

The job of superintendent, she said, is to lead a system of more than 200,000 students, 25,000 staff members and a $4 billion budget.

“That is a role that requires deep knowledge of education, finances and organizational leadership,” she said. “Our students deserve leadership that is grounded in expertise and not in political distractions.”

The majority of school districts in Florida have elected superintendents, with Lee County switching in recent years from appointed to elected. Most states do not elect district-level superintendents. A proposal to transition all counties to elected did not leave committee at the most recent constitution revision commission.

Julie Gebhards, who has been vocal about book content she believes is objectionable at Hillsborough County school board meetings, expressed support for the bill.

“Our superintendent now is in a position where he is bound to retain his job because he’s hired by the board,” she said. “It seems like he has to satisfy those people.”

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said she intended to do her “best to push back against this proposal when it is in Tallahassee, because I think that we need less politics in our education, not more.”

“Education should be about expertise and not about politics,” she said.

Driskell said the bill would also make it cumbersome to remove a superintendent if they were found unfit for the job, compared to a board that could act more swiftly.

State Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, said she was “old enough to remember” when state officials were creating laws to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives based on their argument that it weakened meritocracy.

“If we were to move forward with this, this would be the ultimate ‘DEI move,’ because what we would find, more likely than not, is someone who may not be qualified and may not understand what is important to the people, and most importantly, the children of Hillsborough County when it comes to education,” she said.

Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, who said he supports the bill, had previously introduced another bill to make the state education commissioner an elected role instead of one appointed by the governor. He said he agreed politics should remain out of education, but it had become increasingly difficult to separate the two.

“The reality is, folks, that ship sailed a long time ago,” he said. “We are constantly fighting battles across the state in the country to ensure that schools are, in fact, houses of learning and teaching you how to learn, not what to think, how to feel, but how to understand.

“We have to grapple with that, and if everybody in this room wants to go forth and return education to what its roots really are, and get the politics and the ideology out of it, sign me up,” he said. “I’ll march with you.”