Tampa Palms Resident Making School Board Bid

School Board candidate Jessica Vaughn

Tampa Palms resident Jessica Vaughn has spent much of her time the past few years as a community organizer and helping other candidates with various campaigns and elections.

Now, she wants to expand her horizons and run her own campaign, with the hopes of replacing Cindy Stuart in the Hillsborough County School Board’s District 3 seat. A crowded Primary Election is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18.

Stuart, who has served on the Hillsborough School Board since 2012, is running for Clerk of Circuit Court, leaving open her School Board seat, which represents the northern suburbs of the county, including New Tampa, Carrollwood, Lutz and Thonotosassa.

Vaughn, a substitute teacher who was elected to the Tampa Palms CDD in 2016, is hoping to parlay her desire to improve education throughout the District into a position where she can make a difference.

“I’ve been involved in helping other people get elected,” Vaughn says, “but I am very passionate about education, and it was a good time to put my money where my mouth was.”

Vaughn, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from USF in 2010, says she feels that many School Board members aren’t serving based on a passion for education, but rather to launch a political career.

She thinks it’s important to have experience managing a budget, being in the classroom and being a parent. “Those are the types of people we really need on the School Board,” she says. “That’s why I thought I’d be a good fit.”
With campaigning in person limited by Covid-19, Vaughn has been active on social media and has aggressively campaigned where she can. Her lengthy platform includes everything from clean water and safe buildings to catching those students falling through the cracks.

School safety in the age of coronavirus, however, has become most important.

She was in favor of students wearing masks before the county decided to make them mandatory, and says rigorous cleaning of schools has to be the top priority. Teachers and students, she says, must be taken care of, and virtual and e-learning options should be readily available.

Vaughn says she’s a strong believer in public education, and isn’t opposed to charter schools in theory, praising Pepin Academies and Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, but says many other charter schools have siphoned money from public schools and aren’t being held to the same standards as public schools.

Vaughn feels strongly that statewide testing is overutilized and far from adequate in determining a student’s academic achievement, and that the School District’s budget — which has again seen its reserves disappear and has created a $50 million deficit — is not being used wisely.

She think more money needs to be spent on evening the playing field for students who are at a disadvantage due to things many take for granted, like access to nutrition, walking to school in dangerous neighborhoods or even just having a jacket to wear to school in cold weather.

“If we’re not honestly talking about access to resources, supporting these communities and what that looks like when we’re talking about achievement, we’re not being realistic about the conversation,” she says.

Vaughn is running against five other candidates. She has endorsements from Tampa District 7 City Council member Luis Viera, and Hillsborough County commissioners Mariella Smith (countywide District 5) and Pat Kemp (countywide District 6). She received the endorsement from the Tampa Bay Times as well.

“Overall, my experience makes me the best person for this job, and I’m the person most preparing myself for it,” Vaughn says. “I’m the one watching the Board meetings and posting on social media about what’s happening
.I’m the only candidate talking about anything that’s happening educationally. If you need someone who is focusing on all of these important issues and will be ready to hit the ground running, I’m it.”

For more information, visit JessicaVaughn.us, or search for “Elect Jessica Vaughn” on Facebook.

Hagan Pushes For Kinnan Conclusion

This is the view from the end of Kinnan St., which runs north from Cross Creek Blvd. Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe is on the other side of the barrier, about 40 feet away. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has tried to get Kinnan St. in New Tampa connected with Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe II — the infamous Kinnan-Mansfield connection — for more than a decade, may finally get his wish.

Well, partially, anyway.

While Pasco County is firmly committed to not connecting the two roads to general traffic, it has expressed a willingness to connect them for fire rescue and other emergency vehicles. With no other options remaining, Hagan — who represents New Tampa as part of Hillsborough’s District 2 —thinks it’s time to make a deal.

At a Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting last month, Hagan introduced a motion to direct the county staff to meet with their Pasco counterparts to forge an interlocal agreement authorizing the Kinnan-Mansfield connection, for public safety purposes, to finally become a real thing.

The two sides were expected to meet last week.

Ken Hagan

“I basically introduced the item because I have been trying to make this connection for well over a decade now and, unfortunately, Pasco has steadfastly refused,” Hagan says. “While they have not completely seen the light, this is certainly a step in the right direction.”

If a deal is struck, the roads will be connected, and an entry-and-exit bar will be installed to keep vehicular traffic out. The two counties also will be connected at Kinnan-Mansfield by pathways for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Residents of Meadow Pointe II have fought the connection because they say it would add too much traffic to Mansfield Blvd., which is home to community entrances and area schools. 

Proponents of connecting the roads have argued that it would be good for local businesses and residents and would help ease traffic in the area, while also benefiting fire rescue and emergency medical services, as the two counties have a mutual aid agreement.

Currently, roughly 30 feet of overgrown grass and bushes — and a good deal of junk that has been dumped in the area — is all that separates the two roads, which were never connected when Kinnan St. was completed in 2007.

Since then, the counties have bickered on numerous occasions over whether or not the roads should be connected. 

In 2015, then-District 7 Tampa City Council member Lisa Montelione re-ignited the debate after K-Bar Ranch resident Otto Schloeter severely burned his arm and did not receive medical attention for 45 minutes, after his call was bounced between the two counties before a crew was finally dispatched. Because the roads weren’t connected, Montelione argued, it took emergency medical services twice as long as it should have to reach Schloeter.

Luis Viera, who replaced Montelione on the City Council, picked up the fight, but also to no avail. 

Pasco County commissioned an engineering firm to study potential connections between the K-Bar Ranch area and Pasco County. 

In June, Pasco’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted unanimously to recommend connections to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. in New Tampa’s K-Bar Ranch community at Meadow Pointe and Wyndfields Blvds., while also recommending the first responders connection at Kinnan-Mansfield.

Pasco County’s commissioners have yet to vote on it.

“Is it what we wanted in full? No,’ says Viera, who has been busy holding meetings hoping to resolve the impasse. “But, does it address our public safety concerns? Yes.”

Viera says he had conversations recently with residents of K-Bar Ranch, which is building 400 more homes but still only has one way, Kinnan St., to exit K-Bar to the west.

“They seem supportive,” Viera says.

Hagan said it is his understanding that Pasco will vote for the public safety connection.

Hagan secured $250,000 from the county in September of 2017 for what he hoped would be a connection open to everyone.

That money is still available to build the public safety connection.