2020 Election – Hillsborough School Board District 7

This is a county-wide seat and the only school board race I vote in this round. Lynn Gray, the incumbent, is being opposed by Sally Harris who previously served on the board and was voted out.

Harris served in 2017 and 2018 as Chair of the Board of Education, but her entire tenure was pretty lack-lustier. Given the challenges that will be faced by the district in 2021 and into next year, that’s just not going to cut it. In addition, there is something on her website that really bothers me. In the footer of each page is the copyright notice that says, “Sally Harris, a U.S. Citizen, and resident of Hillsborough County.” Of course she’s a citizen. She couldn’t run that office if she weren’t…so her making it a point to bring that up says something to me about what kind of person she is, and how she thinks. It doesn’t cast her in a very good light. She also makes a strong point of supporting “a parent’s right to choose,” which is a dog-whistle for Charter Schools.

I talked to Lynn Gray this time and in her previous election. She has over 40 years of classroom and school administrative experience and is involved in the schools as more than just a member of the board. She still actively volunteers and substitutes. She shares my concerns with loss of funding to for-profit charter companies, and I believe has the backbone to actually take that on. Maybe most important, she was one of the few on the Board who basically voted to tell State Education Secretary Bob Corcoran to jump in a lake over telling the County when they could and couldn’t open schools.

So, for all those reasons, I’m going with Lynn Gray for Hillsborough School Board District 7.