In contentious organizational meeting, School Board selects Vu as Chair and McNealy as Vice Chair

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the annual organizational meeting on November 19, the School Board of Alachua County selected Thomas Vu as Chair and Leanetta McNealy as Vice Chair.

Two motions failed before Vu was selected

The organizational meeting was contentious, with two motions failing before Vu was selected as Chair. McNealy started by making a motion to nominate Member Janine Plavac as Chair, followed by silence; Board Attorney David Delaney finally told Plavac she could second the motion if she wanted discussion on the motion, so she seconded it.

Plavac, who was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to fill a vacancy after Kay Abbitt resigned, read a statement listing things about her that “many of you don’t know”: she said she applied for the position “not because I was a Republican or a woman with conservative values, but because I was a citizen of Alachua County for 33 years.” She said she educated two daughters in the public schools and a son in Catholic school, and she worked as a teacher and Director of the Academy of Health Professions at Gainesville High School for 17 years. She said she has served as Chairwoman of Florida HOSA and directed the CTSO for the entire state during that year, along with serving on the regional Board of Directors for over six years. She said she taught in the classroom during COVID, “not willing to go remote because I felt my students needed in-person instruction, especially our seniors. I never missed a day of work and always put my students front and center.”

Plavac said she has served on school and district committees, and she once donated $5,000 to Chanae Jackson “and told her to use it at her discretion — no questions asked, then or now. And even though Chanae can be abrasive and at odds with me, and we don’t agree on many things that have occurred in our county, I still recognize that she is passionate about her community, and I respect her for that.”

Plavac said she saved McNealy’s son “by diagnosing him with a medical condition when he was at GHS that required immediate intervention,” so she has a “special bond” with McNealy. She said she has led 20 medical mission trips to Haiti with other doctors and nurses “to perform life-saving surgeries on men and women that had been waiting for over 10 years to be treated. That… showed me why God directed me to be a nurse.”

Plavac: “We must elect a Chair and Vice Chair that are nonpartisan, committed to making decisions that are in the best interest of teachers, staff, parents, community, and has no baggage that will follow them.”

She continued, “Many of you don’t know that the decisions we are making now are going to affect Alachua County schools for many years to come,… [so] we can’t elect a Chair or Vice Chair because they were promised the position… We can’t elect a Chair or Vice Chair because it’s their turn. We must elect a Chair and Vice Chair that are nonpartisan, committed to making decisions that are in the best interest of teachers, staff, parents, community, and has no baggage that will follow them.” She said the Chair and Vice Chair must respect the community, “both in and out of the School Board… All of us on this board have to take this to heart, because if we do not, we will continue to lose all credibility, and I think we have taken a big hit in that department, as evidenced by having the State Board monitor our meetings for the next year.”

The motion failed 2-3, with only McNealy and Plavac voting for it.

Second motion

Member Sarah Rockwell made a motion to nominate Tina Certain as Chair, and Certain seconded the motion. The motion failed 2-3, with only Certain and Rockwell voting for it.

Third motion

Certain made a motion to nominate Vu as Chair, and Rockwell seconded the motion. 

Certain: “I would like to say, in response to the statement that was read by my colleague, whether I was allowed to respond to her with ‘quiet, piggy, piggy,’ or is that a level of insult and disrespect only reserved for the President of the United States?”

Certain said she “wasn’t planning to say anything, but after one of my colleagues said something, I think I want to say something… ‘If society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.’ That’s a quote by the late Barbara Jordan.” She said she thought the Chair should be “a School Board official chosen by the voters of Alachua County” and asked whether, “in response to the statement that was read by my colleague, whether I was allowed to respond to her with ‘quiet, piggy, piggy,’ or is that a level of insult and disrespect only reserved for the President of the United States? I would never do that because I was raised better than that, but it’s just a question of the hypocrisy that I hear and see going on in our community and nationwide.”

Certain: “I think it’s inappropriate, though, that a Tallahassee appointee, along with the appointed [Commissioner] of Education and appointed Board of Education, would want to take over this local board and think that they know what’s best for our local community.”

Certain continued, “You, the DeSantis appointee, wanted to remove Dr. Rockwell as Chair for her speech, and now you’ve expressed an opinion that you don’t want me to be Chair, and that’s fine. I think it’s inappropriate, though, that a Tallahassee appointee, along with the appointed [Commissioner] of Education and appointed Board of Education, would want to take over this local board and think that they know what’s best for our local community.”

Delaney: “I would recommend to the Board that we focus on the question at issue right now. There certainly, I think, would be a time for Ms. Certain to share her views, but I guess I’m not understanding how that is related to the motion on the floor, which is the nomination of Mr. Vu as Chair.”

Delaney interrupted her, saying, “I never want to be in the position of interrupting a Board Member; I apologize, Ms. Certain, but I would recommend to the Board that we focus on the question at issue right now. There certainly, I think, would be a time for Ms. Certain to share her views, but I guess I’m not understanding how that is related to the motion on the floor, which is the nomination of Mr. Vu as Chair. I’m not trying to limit Ms. Certain’s speech; I’m just wondering if this is the appropriate time for that information, so I put that for the Board’s consideration.”

Certain said. “Mr. Delaney, I will take your advice, and I will make my comments later.”

Plavac asked Delaney to “clarify that I have as much right here, as an appointed Member, as an elected official,” and Delaney said, “Yes, ma’am, you have the full powers and rights as any other Board Member on this Board.”

Certain said, “My challenge was not to your right to be here. The comment I made is that you are appointed, and I stand by that.”

The motion to make Vu the Chair passed unanimously. 

Vice Chair – first motion

Next, McNealy nominated Plavac as Vice Chair, and Plavac seconded the motion. 

Vu asked McNealy if she was willing to serve as Vice Chair, “just due to her experience… Because I would say, I will support Dr. McNealy for Vice Chair, as my first choice.”

The motion to nominate Plavac as Vice Chair failed 1-4, with only McNealy voting for it.

Vice Chair – second motion

Vu made a motion to nominate McNealy as Vice Chair, and Rockwell seconded the motion. 

Certain asked McNealy if she was willing to serve, and McNealy said she would “certainly serve in any capacity, but I nominated the person who I would prefer. Now that that vote failed, there is one person left.”

Superintendent Kamela Patton asked, “So that’s a yes, right? Just making sure.”

The motion passed unanimously.