Four candidates are running for the District 5 seat on the Osceola County School Board. The seat had been vacant since January, when Erika Booth left it to run in a special State House of Representatives election. On July 19, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed candidate Scott Ramsey to fill the seat until the upcoming election.
Brian Bennett works in operations planning and inventory management for large companies. He decided to run for School Board after interfacing with the district on behalf of his handicapped son.
“I found that from almost every aspect, they were failing my son,” he said. “I looked at it and thought if they’re failing my son, they’re failing other people’s sons and daughters, as well.”
Bennett said his focus will be on making sure there are qualified teachers that are motivated and empowered to do their jobs correctly.
“I think that it starts with teachers that want to do the right thing and can,” he said. “So, we need to do a better job of teacher retention. We need to do a better job of supporting the teachers, making sure that the pay is good and that they have the tools and resources to be able to do their jobs effectively.
“I’ve managed over a billiondollar budget before and set up all of the criteria around that, and then monitored the results of the spendoff of it. So, for anybody else that’s running, I don’t know of anybody that’s got the breadth and the depth of business experience.”
In response to Ramsey’s appointment, Bennett said, “I am very disappointed that the governor let the position sit vacant for nine months, and then appointed a candidate weeks before the primary election. Some people have the feeling that there is no longer an election due to the appointment, and that simply isn’t true. I will continue to fight for real change within our school district. The district needs representation from someone who understands education, business, and has a motivation to do the right thing for our students and teachers.”
Paula Bronson grew up in Osceola County and is a product of the Osceola school system. She’s been an Osceola educator for more than 20 years.
“Parenting has changed. Education has changed. Technology has changed. Our demographics have changed. The growth around here is explosive. And I just feel like [the current board members] don’t have a pulse on what’s actually going on in our classrooms, or with education in general,” she said.
After years of feeling underrepresented, Bronson decided it was time to throw her hat in the ring for school board. “As an educator, I have not felt represented in I can’t tell you when. I feel like a lot of the decisions that we make are not driven by the staff,” she said. “I’m just putting myself out there. I’ve never run for anything before. But I have the background and the experience. I don’t have to be told what’s going on in the classroom. I know what’s going on,” she said.
Bronson said she would bring a collaborative spirit to the Board “I want to look at that school board and be proud, instead of what I look at now, where I just see a lot of eye rolling and heavy breathing and there’s no collaboration,” she said.
Ramsey is a fourthgeneration Osceola cattle rancher and is a small business owner, a past Silver Spurs Rodeo Big Boss and president of the Osceola County Cattlemen’s Association and current vice president of the Osceola County Farm Bureau.
He said he decided to run for school board because “the way things have been going, I feel like there needs to be some positive change on the board. If somebody good doesn’t step up to do it, then we can’t sit back and gripe about it.”
Ramsey said his main goal would be to work to improve school safety.
“If you don’t have safe schools, you can’t have a learning environment,” he said. “We have a problem in the school system, in my opinion, with discipline with kids. I would like to try to see that changed. I think kids need to be held more accountable for their actions.”
Dylan Reinsel is a teacher at St. Cloud High School and is on the bargaining team for instructional staff. If elected, his focus would be on teacher recruitment and retention.
“We have quite a lot of teacher vacancies across the district. That’s been something that’s been going on for quite a few years,” he said. “We have to acknowledge that Florida is now 50th in the [country] in average teacher pay, and that has an impact on our ability to attract staff. There are things we can do locally to try to mitigate that fact. I don’t think our district is doing enough right now to address that issue, which I see as our biggest issue, because that ultimately affects our ability to deliver quality education to our students.”
Reinsel said he believes his experience as not only a teacher, but also a member of the bargaining team will be valuable on the Board.
“I’m already helping negotiate contracts on our bargaining team. Our district has a $2.4 billion budget. There’s a lot of complexities and intricacies that need to be understood, and I’ve already been working pretty closely with that for a couple years now,” he said.
Regarding Ramsey’s appointment, Reinsel said, “I don’t think it will have that much of an impact on the race. I trust the voters to make the right choice, and they will be the ones to decide who sits in the District 5 seat, not the Governor. This just makes it more important for people to do their homework and turn out and vote.”
