Rocky Hanna slams ‘bully’ tactics as education commissioner puts School Board on notice

Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas attended the Leon County School Board meeting and promptly criticized the board and Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna.

“I am here this evening because Leon County Schools continues to demonstrate a need of improvement in leadership,” Kamoutsas told the board.

School Board chair Laurie Cox allowed the commissioner to take up six minutes, double the standard three minutes allowed for public speakers. He also spent a portion of his speaking time to condemn School Board member Darryl Jones for his comments on Charlie Kirk.

Jones wrote in a Facebook post after Kirk was slain at an event on a Utah college campus that the conservative commentator and activist was “a racist, misogynist, homophobic Klansman.”

Hanna, who has repeatedly butted heads with Gov. Ron DeSantis and his leadership team, called Kamoutsas’ surprise appearance an intimidation tactic.

“He’s young, he’s immature (and) he’s a bully,” Hanna said about the education commissioner, who was recommended for his current job by the governor after serving as one of his deputy chiefs of staff. Kamoutsas was unanimously approved by the State Board of Education in June 2025.

“He was here tonight to flex his muscles, to show a force,” Hanna told the Democrat. “He could have easily picked up the phone and called me if he wanted to talk. He could’ve asked to meet with me personally, but he didn’t.

“He wants to try and make a public spectacle out of things, and he exercised his First Amendment right – although misinformed.”

Hanna never acknowledged Kamoutsas or spoke to him during the meeting. Kamoutsas spoke mostly about the dramatics of ongoing negotiations between the school district and its teachers union and what he deemed to be “leadership failures” within the district.

“Despite Gov. DeSantis championing nearly $6 billion over (the) last six years, this district continues to hold up teacher pay increases,” Kamoutsas told the board. “Instead of Leon County learning from its past mistakes and making sure, at the beginning of the school year, it had a plan in place to be able to prioritize teacher pay, we’re in the same boat we’ve been in year after year.”

Teachers union, Leon district butting heads over pay raises

Negotiations between the Leon Classroom Teachers Association and the district almost came to a close Oct. 1 after union leadership tentatively agreed to accept the district’s minimal salary package offer of $1 million, which came from funds allocated from the state. The district maintained it did not have additional money to contribute.

But union members voted down the agreement, with many describing the offer as a “a slap in the face,” since it would mean a monthly raise of only $40.

Now both parties will restart negotiations, which prolongs the process and possibly opens the door for declaring an impasse as the district has continuously expressed it couldn’t add local dollars to the pot, citing an ongoing financial crisis.

Teachers have criticized Hanna for prioritizing raises for administrators and executives rather than increasing teacher salaries. Kamoutsas agreed, but he also said fault lies with LCTA President Scott Mazur, highlighting his six-figure salary.

“The president of the Leon County Teachers Association Scott Mazur has a compensation package of more than double what starting teachers make here in Leon County at over $100,000,” Kamoutsas said. “So, there’s no surprise to me why teachers in this district are frustrated.”

Teachers pay more than $700 for their annual dues, which also supports Mazur’s salary. Even if teachers don’t pay dues, they still reap the benefits of union bargaining. Kamoutsas urged Cox to call out Mazur’s salary to alert teachers.

Cox, the board’s only Republican member, was previously summoned to a State Board of Education meeting to speak about the holdup of the million-dollar state allotment for teacher salaries. She blamed the union and said the group of educators is “difficult to work with.”

She took advantage of Kamoutsas’ suggestion and spoke on Mazur’s salary and the union’s criticism of the board.

“I wish we could give (each of) our teachers a million dollars a year because I know they work that hard,” Cox said. “It is so disheartening and disingenuous for our union members to go back to the schools and talk about how we as a board do not support our teachers.”

No teachers attended the school board meeting to speak about the lackluster salary package or to defend the union. Mazur, who also wasn’t present, later told the Tallahassee Democrat that referring to his salary is irrelevant when discussing teacher pay.

“All that is a distraction,” Mazur said. “It just seems convenient to bring up age old tropes about union busting.”

“The idea of coming in and trying to talk about our union, which is basically their employees, their teachers, is disingenuous when the real issues that are impacting our educators are not being addressed by individuals that are in control.”

The next negotiation meeting between the teachers and the district is 5 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Aquilina Howell building.