Jessica Vaughn & Karen Perez Named School Board Chair & Vice Chair, Respectively 

The Hillsborough County School Board includes (back row, l.-r.) Nadia Combs (Dist. 1), Lynn Gray (Dist. 7), Henry “Shake” Washington (Dist. 5), Stacy Hahn (Dist. 2), Patricia “Patti” Rendon (Dist. 4), new Board Chair Jessica Vaughn (Dist. 3; center) & vice-chair Karen Perez (Dist. 6; right). At the far left in the front row is Superintendent of Schools Van Ayres. (Photo: Hillsborough County Schools) 

Although the November elections didn’t go too well for other New Tampa residents — with Jim Davison (Hillsborough County Commission) and Rico Smith (State House of Representatives) both losing, Tampa Palms residents Jessica Vaughn (New Tampa’s District 3) and Karen Perez (countywide District 6) not only won reelection in their respective Hillsborough School Board races in August, they have now been named the Board’s chair and vice-chair, respectively. 

Vaughn says this is big news for our area, as New Tampa has never held the Board’s top two spots before. “Karen already has been a District-wide member, so she has had to have a more ‘global’ perspective and be more all over the county,” Vaughn says, “but now, as the chair, I also have to be more involved District-wide, even though I’m still the District 3 member. It means a lot more work, but I’m ready.” 

Vaughn and Perez were elected as the new leaders on Nov. 19, at the Board’s annual reorganization meeting. 

Vaughn says she already has been hard at work, “trying to put resources into schools which haven’t always had resources.” She says that among the schools she has been pushing for are Freedom High, Turner-Bartels K-8 School and upgrades for Benito and Liberty middle schools. “I have been working closely with Liberty principal Frank Diaz to get him the resources he needs,” Vaughn says. 

She says that a hot-button issue right now is the possible expansion of middle school sports programs. “Our residents want sports like lacrosse and tackle football with full equipment in middle schools,” she says. “But, these are expensive sports and there may not be enough money in our budget to make them work at the middle school level. I support the idea but I don’t know if the Board will support the funding for it.” 

Speaking of the budget, Vaughn says she is “so thankful” that Hillsborough County voters overwhelmingly (with more than 66% of voters voting “Yes”) passed the millage increase to increase salaries for teachers and staff members. “That was huge for us, so our teacher and staff salaries can become more competitive with other large districts,” she said. 

Although Vaughn didn’t know exactly when the additional funds would begin showing up in paychecks, because the District is currently without a Chief Financial Officer (former CFO Romaneir Johnson took the same position with Broward County Schools), “but we’re hoping to have a new CFO in place by Jan. 1.” 

Vaughn also was happy that Hillsborough voters decided to renew the half-cent Community Investment Tax (CIT), so the District also will continue to have funds for capital outlays like improvements at District schools. 

“I’m also thrilled that voters across Florida voted against making School Board races partisan,” she says. “It seems that people really want politics out of education.” 

Speaking of partisan politics, Vaughn says she was relieved to have won reelection following a negative campaign spearheaded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and her opponent, Myosha Powell, who accused Vaughn of being a “civil servant who thinks that we’re her subjects.” Vaughn was reelected with about 59% of ballots cast, as all four incumbents running for reelection ended up holding onto their seats. “I’m proud to have support across the aisle,” she says. 

Montessori & TOY News 

Another issue Vaughn is working on is converting Heritage Elementary on Cross Creek Blvd. into a Montessori school, beginning with one grade and adding an additional grade every year. 

“It’s working well at Essrig Elementary (near Citrus Park,” she says. “The community seems to like it and a lot of people are choosing private Montessoris over public schools these days. We’re losing families in New Tampa and Temple Terrace to it.” The only issue, she says, is that Montessori education doesn’t always translate well to standardized tests.” 

And, while the finalists weren’t announced until after we went to press with this issue, Vaughn says New Tampa and Dist. 3 have, “the most finalists” for Teacher of the Year and the other Hillsborough Education Foundation awards.