Meet the candidates: Leon County School Board races give voters choices
Meet the candidates: Leon County School Board races give voters choices
Both school board races that are up for election this year each have two candidates on the ballot. Learn more about each candidate's experience, issues and motivation to run.
Two Leon County School Board seats are up for election this year — District 2 and District 4 — and both races have two candidates.
Only voters who live in the district that’s up for election may cast a ballot in that particular race.
A map of the districts shows that District 2 covers the southeastern part of the county and District 4 covers neighborhoods in the northwest.
Each race has a Democratic and Republican candidate, though the races are nonpartisan. That means all voters in the district, regardless of party affiliation, can cast a ballot for their preferred candidate in the upcoming August primary election.
Election Day is on Tuesday, Aug. 20. Early voting will take place Saturday, Aug. 10 - Sunday, Aug. 18.
Mail-in ballots may be returned to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections’ Office anytime by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
The deadline to register to vote is Monday, July 22.
Leon County School Board District 2
Two candidates are running for Leon County School Board District 2: School Board Chair Rosanne Wood, a Democrat, and Daniel Zeruto, a Republican.
Rosanne Wood
Leon County School Board Chair Rosanne Wood is seeking a third term in office after serving eight years on the board.
“I just believe so strongly in having a free, fair education for every child,” Wood said. “And I really feel like public education is somewhat under attack right now.”
Wood has more than four decades worth of experience working in Leon County Schools, serving as a principal for 32 years and a teacher for four years. “I really understand how things work, and I know how to get things done.”
In her view, the most important issues facing the district include recovering from “learning loss” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce education and early learning.
“Once a child gets behind, starting in kindergarten and in first grade, it's so much harder to catch up than if you come ready,” Wood said. “That's a big emphasis for us.”
Last fall, the district started a program called “Littles to Leaders,” which provides new parents with educational resources and guidance as soon as their children are born.
“We’re giving out what we call ‘brain bags’ to new mothers and fathers at the hospital, so that they’re supplied with some books and some tips.”
“We’ve reached out to every child care provider, every PreK provider with a curriculum to help them understand the things young children should be doing,” she said. “When they get to kindergarten, they’re ready to go.”
Another issue that the school board has worked to address is helping prepare students who don’t want to attend college for a job that pays a living wage, Wood said. “We have always had a really good college prep program — we have students going all over the country to Stanford and Yale and Harvard,” she said. “But there's some kids that want to do something more hands-on and practical.”
In the last eight years, the school district has created 22 new Career Technical Education programs, including practical nursing, welding and cybersecurity, Wood explained. “If they don't want to go to college or they just want to get a job, they can get a good job.”
Wood says they’re working on a three-part program that provides training to students throughout high school, starting their freshman year. By the time they’ve reached their senior year, they can get a paid internship locally. “There are a lot of industries in this town — and everywhere — that need skilled workers,” she said. “And they pay well.”
For instance, students who complete a nursing certificate “can go right to work at a doctor’s office right out of high school,” she said.
Wood says she’s proud of the work she’s done to get Hartsfield Elementary School certified as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, which promotes a “student-centered approach to education” and encourages students to “take ownership” of what they learn at school.
“This year is the first official year that Hartsfield got recognized and certified by the International Baccalaureate program,” she said. “I'm very proud of that.”
Another accomplishment she cites while in office is her work in helping make schools more sustainable and putting together a supportive guide for LGBTQ students. “And the guide was to just help inform administrators and teachers of the needs of these vulnerable children,” she said. “I'm always advocating for us to try to make sure we protect any students who might be bullied or harassed.”
She’s helped some schools become “eco-schools,” Wood said.
“That involves the students in learning about the environment and what they can do to help protect it from growing gardens to recycling, composting,” she said. “We have a number of schools that are adopting program.”
School grades from the past academic year haven’t yet been released by the Florida Department of Education, but she expects that parents, teachers and administrators “will be pleased with the results,” Wood said. “We’ve been working really hard to try and catch up our kids.”
Wood has received endorsements from the Leon Classroom Teachers Association, the local teachers’ union; Superintendent Rocky Hanna; and School Board Members Darryl Jones (District 3) and Marcus Nicolas (District 5).
Daniel Zeruto
Daniel Zeruto, a project manager for the state, is making his first run for elected office.
He says he’s running to bring a “parent’s perspective” to the school board.
Zeruto, who works for the Florida Department of Transportation, doesn’t have professional working experience in the field of education, but he and his wife have been involved with the schools. For instance, they have been a part of the Parent-Teacher Organization at their daughters’ schools, he explained. “It pushed me to see what’s really going on. What issues are we having? And how can we solve them?”
He’s also served on the School Advisory Council at Buck Lake Middle School and represented the school on the District Advisory Council.
“I’ve heard so many stories from parents of bullying and challenges they’re having,” he said. “It just felt like their voices weren’t being heard.”
Zeruto’s personal experience with his daughter getting bullied in school is what led him to get involved. “My daughter, my youngest was assaulted during the last few years,” he said. “There was constant behavior issues, and we weren't being heard as parents with concerns with what was going on.”
He made the decision to run for school board after he heard about another student who was considering dropping out of school because of bullying. “She only had one year left,” he said. “It was one of those things where it hit me: How many kids are we losing to this?”
In his view, the most important issues facing the district include improving learning outcomes, student behavioral problems and communication between the district and teachers, parents and administrators.
“If you ask administrators about communication with the district, they’ll just snicker and smirk,” he said. “We’re really not communicating well.”
While serving on the District Advisory Council, he felt that concerns from parents and teachers weren’t always taken seriously by district leaders, Zeruto said. “It just felt like decisions were already made,” he said. “They say they want to hear from us, but the actions show otherwise.”
If elected, he wants to bring his management experience communicating with employees to his work for the district, Zeruto said. “I want parents to be able to reach out and teachers to reach out and say ‘Hey, here’s my concern.’”
When it comes to behavioral issues, he’s seen school district polices not being enforced, Zeruto said. For instance, the district’s code of conduct bans cell phone use during class, but allows students to use their phones during the lunch period and outside of the classroom. “I’ve heard from some teachers saying that students are doing TikTok videos during class or FaceTiming.”
Zeruto says the district’s Code of Conduct needs more clarity. “When there's no clear guidance and expectations on how we're all supposed to be behaving, you're going to have the dysfunctions that we have in our system,” he said. “Parents need to do their job, but schools also need to do theirs to make sure that there's a code of conduct that we live by.”
To help improve learning outcomes in math, science and reading, he believes the district should embrace mentorship programs more. For instance, he says high school students should have opportunities to help younger students with their schoolwork.
“We have to come together and figure out how we can help each other take some burden off the teachers,” he said. “If you had an extra kid after hours helping a child read, the teacher can help another student instead of her feeling so stretched trying to help twenty kids.”
Though Zeruto is a registered Republican, he describes himself as “nonpartisan.” “My political view shouldn't be the driving force on why you would vote for someone or not vote for someone, it should be the content of the person's character and what they're saying they're trying to do.”
Daniel Zeruto hasn’t yet received any endorsements.
Leon County School Board District 4
Two candidates are running for Leon County School Board District 4. They include: School Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox, a Republican, and Jeremy Rogers, a Democrat.
Laurie Lawson Cox
School Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox is seeking reelection after serving for nearly two years.
Cox was elected in 2022 after former School Board Member Dee Dee Rasmussen stepped down. “She left after two years of her last four-year term,” Cox said. “I jumped in that race and was elected.”
Before Rasmussen’s departure, she had already planned on running in 2024, Cox said. “I’d love to continue for four more years.”
Cox has 36 years of experience as an elementary school physical education teacher, with most of that time spent teaching in Leon County Schools. Before she was elected to the school board, she had previous experience at the district-level as the county’s physical education and health coordinator.
“My voice needed to be heard on the school board, being a longtime teacher, but also being able to be in a lot of the schools,” she said.
In her view, the biggest issues facing the district are student mental health and behavioral issues, school safety and chronic absenteeism.
“We’ve got some processes in place and people in place at the district level that are following up with students that are chronically absent,” she said. “We've got to make sure our parents value education to make sure their kids are at school.”
Chronic absenteeism in the district is on the rise. During the school year before the COVID-19 pandemic, 23% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% or more of school days, department of education data shows. During the 2022-2023 school year, that number had risen to 36% of students — up a couple of percentage points from the previous school year.
When it comes to school safety, she explained that the district continues to strengthen security at the district’s schools. “In the last few years, we've even upped our game,” Cox said. “We've added a lot more cameras at our schools.”
Additionally, they’ve added two Leon County Sheriff’s deputies at every high school, Cox said. ‘‘That's something that I had been talking to our superintendent and our safety and security officer about.”
They’ve also incorporated AI technology to screen for weapons and ammunition. And safety and security monitors are constantly reviewing online activity on school devices, she said. “If a student's doing some kind of a search that could lead to them harming themselves or someone else, we're alerted to that.”
When it comes to mental health and behavioral issues, she says she’s spoken with the superintendent about putting a second assistant principal in elementary schools with 400-500 students.
“That helps with some behavior issues and academic support,” she said. “Not to mention, we've got reading and math coaches at all of our elementary schools and an extra guidance counselor at our elementary schools, social workers at our middle and high schools. We really have worked to pour our money back into the schools.”
That’s been especially important as the district works to improve learning outcomes and resolve behavioral issues, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cox said. “After COVID, we did see a lot of behavior issues escalate.”
Cox says she would also like the district to revisit its student cell phone policy to reduce behavioral issues and distractions. Right now, students are allowed to have their cell phones out during lunch and in-between classes, but not during the classroom instructional period. “I would love to see us have a little stricter cell phone policy.”
Cox has received endorsements from former School Board Member Dee Dee Rasmussen and state Sen. Corey Simon (R-Tallahassee).
Jeremy Rogers
Jeremy Rogers, a preschool and summer camp owner, is seeking elected office for the first time.
“I'm just a regular guy, a small business owner, a nonprofit founder, a dad, a husband, a veteran, a firefighter,” Rogers said. “I feel like I represent our community.”
Rogers owns Killearn Sunshine Academy, a preschool and summer camp program, and Tallahassee Adventure Club, an educational science and nature summer camp for children with special needs and who face challenges that could hinder their educational and social progress. Both organizations are located in District 4.
“I’ve been serving my district for a very long time,” he said.
About 6,000 children have gone through his programs, Rogers said. Last year, 38 families had children who went to summer camp for free. “We definitely give out scholarships to help the at-risk community,” he said. “That way, the whole community is represented in my school.”
Rogers has also worked as a firefighter for nearly two decades. Before that, he served in the United States Navy. “I’ve traveled the world and have climbed some of the world’s tallest mountains and have become really successful,” he said. “But I’ve never forgotten where I come from.”
In his view, the most important issues facing the district include student mental health, school safety and increasing teacher pay, Rogers said.
“Seeing how teachers are just really being left behind and not earning a livable wage was a huge factor” in motivating him to run for school board, he said.
“If you teach at Deer Lake [Elementary], then I don’t think it’s a stretch that you should be able to earn enough money to live in the neighborhood that you teach in,” Rogers said. “Incentivizing base pay immediately, rewarding teachers for creativity and ingenuity — I think that that's a good start.”
Rogers’ difficult experiences early in life motivated him to start a nonprofit educational program for children who’ve experienced challenges. Before he was born, his father died and his mother left him at the hospital for adoption, Rogers said. “I was fortunate enough to make it,” said Rogers, who credits his school teachers and coaches for his successes later in life. “The whole community kind of stepped in and helped raise me.”
Rogers says this has molded him into a “coalition-builder,” a quality that would serve as an asset to the school board if he’s elected.
“I started building these coalitions and the whole community participated in helping me with these kids,” he said.
Rogers says his hardships early in life prepared him to help children who need mentorship and guidance. “There's not too many situations that those kids have been in that I have not and have overcome. Sometimes, you just need to see that or hear that it’s possible.”
As a business owner, he understands how to manage a budget, Rogers said. “I’d bring that kind of skillset, that business acumen to the board.”
Rogers says he’s running a grassroots campaign and he and his volunteers have knocked on thousands of doors and listened to voters’ concerns.
“They want to see teachers paid more, and they want to see more rigorous curriculums and ways to keep the kids engaged.”
Rogers has received endorsements from the Leon County Classroom Teachers Association, the local teachers’ union; the Big Bend Labor Council and the Northwest Florida Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, which represent workers across a wide variety of industries; Equality Florida, which advocates for LGBTQ issues; the Leon County Democratic Environmental Caucus; the Leon County Democratic Party; the Southern Poverty Law Center; One Tallahassee, a political action committee started by City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow; the Tallahassee Professional Firefighters, the local firefighters’ union; and Former State of Florida Firefighter Union President Bob Carver.
This article has been updated to include endorsements for School Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox.