Osceola school district seeks to restrict board member charged with kissing teen

Orlando Sentinel | By Natalia Jaramillo | October 12, 2023

The School District of Osceola has directed its attorney to draft a letter to the governor asking him to remove school board member Julius Melendez from his post after he was charged last week with battery and serving alcohol to someone underage.

In an unscheduled discussion during Tuesday’s board meeting, Jon Arguello accused fellow board members of being slow to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove Melendez compared to when Arguello himself was accused of wrongdoing.

This comes after school board attorney Frank Kruppenbacher sent a letter dated Oct. 5 to the Florida Department of Education seeking advice on whether the school board has the authority to suspend Melendez’s pay.

Melendez was charged with two misdemeanors after a months-long investigation by the Osceola Sheriff’s Office found that he had forcibly kissed an 18-year-old and gave her alcohol.

Melendez entered a written plea of not guilty last week ahead of his arraignment, which is set for Nov. 14, court records show.

“Since the nature of these charges are raising a significant concern among parents and the community, I would ask for your immediate guidance on addressing the issue of his salary,” Kruppenbacher wrote in the letter. “I recognize that only the Governor can act to suspend him from office, but I am being repeatedly asked the question regarding his salary and want to ensure that the correct decision is made.”

Osceola school board members’ salary, which is based on county population, was $46,327 in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Florida Department of Education. Melendez has been serving as a school board member since 2020 and represents District 2. His term ends in 2024.

District 1 school board Member Teresa “Terry” Castillo said the board wanted to restrict Melendez’s access to schools within the county but, based on the advice from the school board’s attorney, it cannot.

Melendez attended Tuesday’s school board meeting. Kruppenbacher told the members at the meeting they have no authority to suspend Melendez or ban him from attending other school functions.

“There is no authority for this board to do anything regarding another board member other than say we are censuring you, which I’m not recommending you do at this time,” Kruppenbacher said. “I would ask the board member if they were going to go to a school event that they make sure they have an escort with them so nobody can say anything.”

A censure is a formal statement of disapproval in the form of a resolution that is adopted by a majority vote.

Castillo said the matter is “out of their hands.”

Arguello, who represents communities in District 3, said his fellow school board members had not been quick to ask about removing Melendez, only focusing on his pay.

“It’s up to the voters, and it’s up to the governor,” Arguello said. “If the voters wanted to come down to a school board meeting and they had like 150 people there, the way that the 150 parents came to fight against mask mandates, then I guarantee you they would have sent a letter that would have barred him from campus.”

Arguello said he considers it hypocritical because, when he was accused of abusing his position, school board members asked the governor to remove him.

The Osceola County School Board in February investigated  Arguello and found that he likely abused his position by harassing and intimidating the school district’s lobbyist. The board asked DeSantis to determine if Arguello should face sanctions or suspension from office.

“When you insult a school board member, they’re willing to write a letter asking the governor to remove that school board member,” Arguello said. “But you have this kind of battery charge or something that’s really ugly like this [then] they just pretend that it didn’t happen.”

The Department of Education has not responded to a request for comment. It has also not responded to the Osceola County school board’s letter regarding Melendez’s salary, the school board’s spokesperson Dana Schafer said in an email.

The school board on Thursday did not confirm whether the letter to the governor’s office had been sent.