Who’s next for Pasco schools superintendent? Veteran educators face off

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | September 24, 2024

Will voters pick a charter school operator or a district high school principal to run the system?

On the surface, the two candidates vying to become Pasco County’s first new superintendent in more than a decade appear remarkably similar.

Both Chris Dunning and John Legg have doctorates in education from the University of South Florida, consult nationally on education matters and have led successful local schools for more than two decades. They live less than a half-mile from each other in the same west Pasco subdivision. They each stress the importance of improving student outcomes as a top priority.

But in many ways, they could not be more different.

Dunning, a registered Democrat turned no-party affiliate shortly before announcing his bid to replace retiring superintendent Kurt Browning, has his feet firmly in the public school system as a teacher and administrator. Legg, a Republican backed by the party establishment, runs Dayspring Academy charter schools, serves on the board of voucher funding agency Step Up for Students and during 12 years in the state legislature led the charge to implement former Gov. Jeb Bush’s accountability and choice education agenda.

At the heart of that contrast lies a key question for voters: Is the county school district better served by an insider dedicated to the model, or by an outsider who has made a career of seeking to change it?

Dunning contends that, while the district could benefit from improved culture and added opportunities, it needs continuity.

“We need someone in that position that actually understands education, that actually understands how our system works,” said Dunning, the district’s 2024 principal of the year.

Charter schools have pushed the district to improve its game, he suggested. Without them, he said, places like Krinn Technical High, a magnet specialty school he opened as principal six years ago, probably wouldn’t exist.

But “it’s a whole different thing in our public schools,” Dunning said, citing the challenges of communities where not all parents have made affirmative choices to be there. “What you do in a charter school may not work in a traditional public school.”

Legg said it’s a fair issue to raise. He suggested that people who accuse him of having interests other than public education — some have inaccurately criticized him as benefiting from a school he “owns” — miss the point of his career.

“I’ve always been about public schools,” Legg said, pointing out that charter schools are defined in Florida law as public.

But he’s equally supportive of giving families education options, he added.

“Twenty-five years ago, when we started Dayspring, there was no school choice. It was one size fits all,” Legg said, noting magnet schools and career academies didn’t exist in Pasco at the time. “A lot of those options now can be applied to the public school system.”

He said a top priority for him would be to continue expanding options for students throughout Pasco County, particularly in the far east and west sides. And he dismissed the notion that he would give special treatment to Dayspring, likening it to the idea that Dunning would treat Krinn Technical differently than others.

The district recently spent millions of dollars building Dayspring Academy-Angeline, which opened in August. Some critics said they expected more of the same if Legg is superintendent, pointing out that Legg came under fire in 2011 for changing state law to benefit charters after the Pasco school board rejected his request for the change locally.

“We have to be a superintendent for all students,” Legg said. “Our education world, whether people like it or not, it’s changed. We now live in a public school choice environment. The question is, will that choice be quality?”

Legg acknowledged that he could face opposition for any number of ideas he advanced during his legislative tenure. He angered many teachers, for instance, with measures to eliminate continuing contracts and require student test scores be part of annual performance evaluations.

He also irked parents across Florida with his refusal in 2016 to allow a bill mandating daily recess to be heard.

“I support recess,” Legg said in a recent interview. “But I support it being a local decision. … Same as school start dates and times.”

At the same time, Legg took steps that won him more praise, such as the replacement of several general high school tests with end-of-course exams. He pushed against bills to allow teachers to carry guns in schools, and helped craft legislation to expand high school career and technical education programs.

Legg said his time in Tallahassee combined with his local education experience make him ready for the superintendent’s job.

Dunning admitted it’s not easy for a no-party candidate with limited resources to upend a well-funded dominant party aspirant. He said his years of experience at every level in the district make him the right choice.

His track record includes running Paul R. Smith Middle in Holiday, which earned mostly A’s and B’s from the state during his time there. He then led perennially A-rated Seven Springs Middle in Trinity until being transferred to long-struggling Ridgewood High, which rose from D to C as Dunning converted it to A-rated Krinn Technical High.

His time with the district hasn’t been perfect, though.

Dunning got an unrequested transfer from Seven Springs to Ridgewood in 2016 when he was viewed to be taking the side of his home neighborhood over representing his school in an attendance zone revision. During the process, his wife Jeannie accused two school board members of making decisions to line their pockets financially.

Dunning stood by his actions, saying he listened to his community and took their views to the table. And he didn’t regret the outcome, getting to turn around a double-D school and then create a technical school.

“I do what I think is right every time,” he said, adding that he likes to hear from all sides during debate.

Dunning also ran into trouble at the technical school. The school board intended Krinn to serve students who wanted career training and did not necessarily intend to go to college.

Dunning established the school with a 3.0 grade point requirement for several programs, leaving many students unable to enroll. Board members later deleted the GPA rule, which Dunning defended as initially necessary to give the school a successful start.

Both candidates said they know they can’t always make everyone happy. Neither ruled out having the other in his administration after the results come in.