Letter to the Editor: Administrator rebuffs Van Zant campaign story

First of all, contrary to the front page article by Jesse Hollett in the July 7 edition of the Clay Today, I am a member of the senior support staff for Clay County schools and have never been asked by Mr. VanZant to contribute to his campaign, to work for his campaign, or encourage others to do so. I try to stay apolitical and keep my thoughts and opinions to myself as it pertains to the upcoming election.

So why am I writing this now? Maybe it’s out of a sense of fairness. It’s not uncommon to read Mr. Cravey’s rants against Mr. VanZant on the Editorial page, and that’s fine, that’s his soapbox, and his opinion – and you know what they say about opinions.

What I find hard to take is an opinion piece – some might say hit piece – disguised as a front page news story. Mr. Hollett makes an assertion that Mr. VanZant is using the senior staff to contact administrators in person, by phone, or through text to “either volunteer their time or money.”

The quote given in the article is not attributed to anyone, and although he tries in the next several paragraphs of his article to confirm his allegation, Mr. Hollett fails to produce any hard evidence that it’s true. Undeterred, since he’s unable to demonstrate to us that what he believes to be true is in fact true, he leaves the unproven allegation as it stands and assumes that the Superintendent’s “scare tactics work.” Really? Is this what serious objective journalism has become? You can’t prove to the reader that your premise is accurate and correct but you leave it out there as fact anyway? Show me some hard facts and I’ll believe you.

Mr. Hollett takes a good portion of the rest of his article to try and find, and interview, Clay County School District employees, or ex-employees, who Mr. VanZant has let go, or reassigned. What I didn’t see is any interviews by Mr. Hollett of people Mr. Davis may have had to let go during his tenure as principal, Cluster Chief of Middle Schools, or Chief of Schools in Duval County. When Mr. Davis took over as Cluster Chief of Middle Schools, and then later as Chief of Schools, did he replace any of the existing staff members and bring in people he was comfortable working with and trusted? Will we see any Clay County principals replaced with Duval County principals if he’s elected?

There you go Mr. Hollett, I’ve given you a couple of good questions to pose to Mr. Davis – since gradually changing/reassigning staff members was such a horrible thing for Mr. VanZant to do when he became Superintendent, can you get a commitment from Mr. Davis that, should he become Superintendent, he will keep everyone in their current jobs until they decide to retire or leave?

If Mr. Davis is half the administrator I think he is, I doubt you’ll get that commitment.

Fair and honest reporting is all we ask. Provide the readers with just the facts, be honest, balanced and fair and let the chips fall where they may. Keep the opinions, biases and innuendos for the Editorial page.

Once again, Mr. VanZant has never asked me for a contribution, to campaign for him, ask others to campaign for him, or write this letter. If he had, I probably wouldn’t have done it.

John Merrill

Assistant Superintendent for Support Services

Orange Park