Volusia rejects paying cheaper school board dues over ‘conservative’ name, member responds

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – School board member Jessie Thompson said an outlet published a “slanted” article after she asked the board to pay her dues for a conservative coalition – in lieu of a more expensive school board association’s membership.

Florida’s Voice discovered the move would have saved taxpayers thousands of dollars if approved by the board, however, board members denied the request to the non-partisan nonprofit, as some board members noted the group’s conservative title.

The article by the Daytona-Beach News Journal is titled “Volusia School Board member wants taxpayers to fund dues to conservative group she heads.”

The action item to approve the dues, discussed during an April 9 meeting, aimed at having the board pay Thompson’s $495 membership fee for the Florida Conservative Coalition of School Board Members.

Thompson, who started the conservative coalition, opted out of the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) which costs about $5,000 per board member.

The Florida Conservative Coalition of School Board, a nonprofit, is “the product of years of conservative school board members being elected, and then feeling isolated, and that their voices weren’t being heard,” according to their website.

“I thought the title was extremely slanted. I mean, you’re looking at $495 a year versus $5,000 a year and I think anyone who’s looking at fiscal responsibility would say, about $495 a year is way better than paying $5,000 a year,” Thompson explained.

Thompon said the title of the article “makes it seem like I’m trying to steal money and give it to myself,” but said she doesn’t make any profit from the group.

Florida’s Voice reached out to the FSBA and confirmed Volusia County’s total dues for 2023-2024 were $24,475, which averages about $5,000 per person.

The FSBA is “nonpartisan corporation representing the elected school boards in Florida,” according to their website.

“It didn’t seem like an unreasonable request, considering how much we pay FSBA right now,” Thompson told Florida’s Voice.

Thompson said she “found it comical” that other board member “brought up fiscal responsibility when there’s been so many decisions made that later we look back and they were terrible, and you’re talking about millions of dollars.”

Board Member Ruben Colón made a motion to deny paying the dues and it was seconded by Carl Persis. The board voted 4-1 for the motion to deny the dues with Thompson voting against.

Thompson told the board that her coalition is “non-partisan.”

“I guess I would vote ‘no’ and the reason why is because it seems like, to me, we’d be using taxpayers money to fund what is blatantly a conservative organization,” Board Member Carl Persis said.

Colón said he could not support it because “this is not a group that we are all welcome to.”

Thompson said she would welcome him to the group, and reiterated that it was non-partisan.

“We look for people that believe in God, family, country, and education. And I’d like to think everyone supports that, but obviously not,” Thompson told Florida’s Voice.

Florida’s Voice uncovered additional payments which were made to the FSBA by the Volusia County School District, totaling over $8,700.

The FSBA’S CEO Andrea Messina confirmed the additional payments by the Volusia County School District for “services provided that are not otherwise included in membership dues” since July 1, 2023.

Messina said the payments were for the FSBA’s Master Board Reinstatement Governance Team Training ($1,800), two CBM Forum trainings ($795), Annual Joint Conference ($3,210), Day in the Legislature Conference ($975), and the Annual Summer Conference ($1,925), which totals just over $8,700.

Thompson told Florida’s Voice about her experience with the FSBA.

“The first week of FSBA training, we went through so many things, but one of the main themes was, ‘Don’t rock the boat, don’t question your superintendent, you’re new here,'” Thompson explained.

“And a lot of people were endorsed by the governor, a lot of people ran because they wanted to see change, so they feel stifled in the very beginning, a lot of people did not continue with FSBA – they left,” she continued.

The FSBA provided Florida’s Voice the following response to Thompsons statements: “We don’t believe that membership in FSBA or other organizations is mutually exclusive as each organization provides unique benefit.”

Thompson, who has been on the school board since 2022, was endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Florida’s Speaker of the House Paul Renner. She said upon becoming a board member, her membership to the FSBA was “rolled over” from the last member who was in her seat.

Thompson said she withdrew because she would rather “have something that I feel like I’m getting more value out of, in a more succinct amount of time – for less money than we were spending.”

She said this issue of the board paying the dues to the conservative coalition is “uncharted territory” and has never been addressed before – since there’s never been another option other than FSBA.

Thompson said she saw a need for the coalition because individuals withdrawing from FSBA lacked avenues to “get their ethics training or to go to for legislative updates.”

Despite the board’s decision to deny her request for funding the dues, Thompson will continue to lead her coalition.

“I believe in this coalition, so whether or not my board wants to support it, they can deal with that. I’m not going to stand down because they don’t support it,” Thompson said.

Additionally, Thompson said she was “disappointed” that an entire article was devoted to this topic when there are “bigger issues” happening in Volusia.

Florida’s Voice reached out to the Daytona-Beach News Journal for comment and will update this story if a response is received.