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New School Board Chair Heather Kahoun
Last week the Osceola County School Board voted in new leadership positions — after heated discussions about all of it.
The board voted to name district 4 member Heather Kahoun the chairperson. District 1’s Terry Castillo, who had been the chair the past two years, was elected vice chair.
District 5’s Erika Booth, who announced a bid for the district 35 Florida House of Representatives seat vacated by Fred Hawkins, and who won the special election Republican primary earlier this month, said her final School Board meeting will be Jan. 9, and she will resign the seat on Jan. 15; her general election will be on Jan. 16.
During the process, district 3 board member Jon Arguello nominated himself, and did not receive a second. When Castillo nominated Kahoun and Kahoun seconded the motion herself, Arguello voiced his dissent.
“During the time since you came here (Kahoun was elected in 2022), there’s maybe been one time you’ve actually read the agenda. I think it’s a shame you would try for this position, it’s purely a matter of trying to promote the people who got you the position to begin with. I would strongly advise you to reconsider seconding yourself. This district needs to defend the families and students, not the people you serve.”
The vote to approve was 3-2, with Kahoun, Castillo and Booth voting to approve and Arguello and district 2’s Julius Melendez voting against.
The Board also approved the contract of new Board Attorney Sarah Koren, by the same 3-2 votes. This was the second meeting the contract came up for vote; in October, Arguello and Melendez took issue with clauses like the salary, amount of paid leave, the ability to hire in-house attorneys and a staff, and the ability for the Board to remove her with a 4-1 vote if there is no prior cause to do so. Kruppenbacher said he’d work with Koren on changes, and he brought those to this meeting.
Again, the 4-1 “supermajority vote” to remove was a sticking point.
“The high bar of supermajority “Does not serve the citizens of Osceola County,” Arguello said. “A supermajority to fire gives away that responsibility and puts it in the hands of the contract.”
Kruppenbacher reminded the board that Superintendent Mark Shanoff’s contract was approved earlier this year with the same supermajority vote needed to terminate him.
“Hiring a Superintendent (with a 4-1 clause) is very different than hiring an attorney,” Arguello said. “This is the Board’s attorney, not anybody else’s. If we have three members who don’t like the performance of the attorney, why shouldn’t we be able to fire them?”
When it became clear the vote would be 3-2, Melendez asked if it was legal for that to bind a 4-1 clause in the contract.
“A simple-majority vote is going to bind a supermajority clause?” he said. “I want an attorney general opinion that that is true."
Kruppenbacher said he’d get an attorney general opinion on that before reaching out to Koren about these conditions.
In other action, the Board voted to continue to meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, in order to avoid conflict with the Kissimmee City Commission’s first and third Tuesday meetings.
