With deadline near, 7 seeking Duval schools’ superintendent job, with 2 from local schools
Florida Times-Union | By Steve Patterson | October 13, 2023
With a Friday deadline close at hand, only seven candidates have applied to be the next superintendent of Duval County’s school system, opening questions about finding the right leader.
But a homegrown contender, Chief of Schools Scott Schneider, is getting eager support from education voices in Jacksonville and beyond — and was previously endorsed by several Duval School Board members when he sought superintendent jobs outside of Jacksonville.
“While he will be missed in our school district, there is no doubt that he will do great things as a superintendent of schools in the years to come,” School Board Chair Kelly Coker wrote in a reference letter in March, when Schneider explored some of a string of openings for superintendents that occurred around the state.
He’s one of two school district administrators seeking the system’s top job.
Ponte Vedra Beach resident Marianne Simon, a former principal at four elementary schools who is now Duval schools’ elementary region superintendent, added her name to the applicant list this week.
Principal of Lee High School when this 2017 photo was taken, Scott Schneider (center) congratulated the school’s EVAC students on being named grand prize winner of a national kindness challenge hosted by The KIND Foundation and Harvard’s Making Caring Common. Bruce Lipsky/Florida Times-Union
Schneider, who was principal at Terry Parker High School and Robert E. Lee (now Riverside) High School before advancing into school district administration, was a finalist for superintendent jobs in Brevard and Manatee counties.
Schneider, who grew up in Duval County schools and graduated from the University of North Florida, was also named a finalist in Charlotte County but withdrew before interviews that happened days after former Superintendent Diana Greene negotiated her retirement in Duval County.
In addition to Coker’s endorsement, Schneider included reference letters from Duval School Board members Darryl Willie and Lori Hershey in his spring job applications.
His application for the Duval superintendent’s job contained a different set of references including former Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti (now in Detroit) and the head of the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of School Improvement.
“I recommend Mr. Scott Schneider to lead Duval County Schools as its next superintendent,” state School Improvement Executive Director Dustin Sims wrote in an undated letter that recounted Schneider’s role in raising 10 schools the state had graded D or F out of “turnaround status” in one year.
Scott Schneider (left) greets then-Superintendent Nikolai Vitti during a 2012 town hall meeting at Terry Parker High School. Will Dickey/Florida Times Union
In the same season he applied to other counties, Schneider wrote a reference letter for Simon, whom he supervises, praising “her heart for children and her passion for this profession” as she also sought an out-of-town superintendent’s job. Simon, another UNF graduate, applied in Brevard, Charlotte, Collier and Sarasota counties and was a finalist in Collier County’s search.
The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the school system and Schneider in 2021 on behalf of a teacher, Amy Donofrio, arguing she had faced “relentless retaliation” and violation of her free-speech rights for her role in forming and championing the youth-empowerment EVAC Movement at Lee. The school system agreed to pay $300,000 to settle the suit.
In contrast, former school district employee and former charter-school principal Rhodesia Butler said she thinks Schneider is genuinely invested in the development of students of all races and orientations. After praising him to the School Board, Butler told a reporter she had worked with him and trusted hs character, adding that a superintendent who spent his career in Jacksonville could start his tenure ready to hit the ground.
“I just think he should be given a shot,” she said.
Besides Schneider and Simon, other candidates for the superintendent’s job are:
∎Garrick Askew, assistant superintendent for operations at the Clarke County School District in Athens, Ga.;
∎Clifford R. Burns, superintendent of a pre-K to eighth grade regional school district in Andover, N.J.;
Florida School Boards Association CEO Andrea Messina (right) outlines options for a superintendent search during a June 14 Duval County School Board workshop. Steve Patterson/Florida Times-Union
∎Orange Park resident Annie Cruez-Samuels, an online professor and faculty advisor at Keiser University’s School of Business in Fort Lauderdale;
∎Corwin Robinson, a high school principal in Lake Charles, La. and former superintendent of Lake County schools in Tennessee;
∎Adam Taylor, consultant and former superintendent in Rutland, Vt.
Coker said Monday she hasn’t talked to other board members about any of the superintendent candidates and wasn’t concerned by the relatively small pool of applicants so far.
She noted that Florida School Boards Association officials, who were contracted to handle the superintendent search, had said early on that some candidates would deliberately wait until the last minute to put their names in the mix.
Florida’s public records laws mean candidates can’t apply in secret, so some publicity-shy contenders wait until the end in hopes of being lost in the herd, said Andrea Messina, the association’s CEO.
Messina said she expected a run of applications in the last two days before Friday’s midnight application deadline. She said staff at her organization would be compiling material over the weekend to forward to the school district.
The School Board has scheduled an Oct. 18 workshop to choose semifinalists, with the expectation that a final vote on the next superintendent would be taken Nov. 21. If some problem disrupts that schedule, Coker said the school district is still in good position because Superintendent Dana Kriznar, who had been Greene’s deputy and has led the district since Greene’s retirement is able to remain in the top role longer if needed.
