FLEMING ISLAND – The Clay County School Board becomes the 15th Florida school district to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of House Bill 7069 that was passed in closing hours of the 2017 Florida Legislature.

Board Member Mary Bolla made the motion to join the suit with fellow board member Carol Studdard seconding her motion. The motion passed on a 3-2 vote with board members Betsy Condon and Ashley Gilhousen voting no.

In passing the vote, the majority of the board agree to spend $25,000 for legal fees to fight HB 7069. The motion was postponed from the board’s Aug. 3 meeting after a lengthy discussion ended with no motion for approval.

While he hardly spoke about the legal aspects of contesting HB 7069 at the Sept. 26 meeting, School Board Attorney David D’Agata said in August that the bill affected at least 70 different sections of the education code. Another section of bill that is under scrutiny is the creation of so-called “Schools of Hope,” which legal experts say creates an unlawful second Florida school system.

The bill has also been criticized for forcing local school districts to share local property tax dollars with charter schools.

Before the school board held a discussion on the issue, at least five speakers went to the podium to convince the board to join the lawsuit. Renna Lee Paiva, president of the Clay County Education Association teacher’s union, called HB 7069 a direct assault on public education.

“The Florida Constitution says a bill will address one thing – this bill addresses numerous things, so it’s in violation of that,” Paiva said. “All this bill does is funnel taxpayers’ money into charter schools and the charter school industry.”

She said the bill was really about politicians who have an interest in charter schools.

Prior to board members debating the merits of joining the lawsuit, Chairman Janice Kerekes said she wanted to clear up a perceived conflict of interest involving fellow board member Gilhousen. She asked Gilhousen if she would be recusing herself from the voting because her mother, Diane Hutchings, is the board president of the St. Johns Classical Academy, a new charter school that opened this school year.

“I don’t have a family member that is on the payroll of any charter school,” said Gilhousen, who went on to say that two of her children are attending the new charter school and a third is a student at Fleming Island Elementary.

“I’m not going to debate it with you; Mr. D’Agata, I’d like your legal opinion,” Kerekes said quickly.

At that point Gilhousen replied, “If it is questionable, I’m happy to recuse myself.”

After eight minutes of back and forth about conflict of interest, Kerekes said, “Ms. Gilhousen, it’s your call.”

“This honestly caught me off guard. I wasn’t prepared to make this decision,” Gilhousen said. “You’ve kind of put me in a tough spot here.”

Gilhousen went on to ask if the proposal could be postponed to the board’s Oct. 5 meeting, which was met with grumbling from teachers in the audience.

Two minutes later, Condon, who attended the meeting via Skype due to being in Washington, D.C. on behalf of a committee on which she sits for the Florida School Boards Association, offered a motion to postpone until October. Gilhousen seconded Condon’s motion, which failed in a 2-3 vote.

The Bolla motion to approve was then discussed with board members explaining their personal pros and cons of joining the lawsuit.

Studdard, twho has served the longest on the school board, said the suit needs to go forward because she was “fed up.” She offered to go first in the discussion.

“You’ve got to stand up for what’s right. We are here to be the advocates for public schools in Clay County. I am sick and tired every year of the legislature taking more and more away from public schools,” Studdard said.

While Gilhousen agreed that “there is some garbage in this bill,” she said her concerns are the same as they were in August. Last month she said instead of a lawsuit, this was an opportunity to hire a qualified lobbyist who will fight for district funding.

Last month, Condon said that in the past, when local entities have sued the state, lawmakers have been known to not take meetings with officials and went on to say that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.