FLEMING ISLAND – Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr. entered the most recent superintendent debate with less ammunition than he has had during this election cycle.

The Florida Department of Education’s 2016 preliminary school grades released July 9 demoted the Clay County school district from an “A” to a “B” rating and lowered the district’s rating from 11th to 20th in the state.

Last Thursday’s superintendent debate gave Van Zant a chance to explain the district’s apparent decline to voters, teachers and parents who filled the Fleming Island High cafeteria.

Clay County schools have held its “A” rating since 2003. The rating changed to a “B” in 2012, the year Van Zant took office. St. Johns County kept its “A” and Duval County kept its “B” rating.

Perhaps due to an oversight on his part, Van Zant never got around to explaining what he would do to fix the district and instead spoke statistics.

“In the last four years our graduation rates have gone up nine-and-a-half percent,” Van Zant said. “Clay County students ranked in the Top 10 of the State of Florida in 10 of 22 measured areas…Duval County has been the top 10 of zero categories in Florida.”

Republican opponent Addison Davis – an Oakleaf resident and chief of schools in Duval County Public Schools – rebutted by including the numbers Van Zant left out when talking about the district’s condition.

“You’ve got to understand that 18 schools in Clay County decreased this year, 18 schools, lack of leadership,” Davis said. “Let’s talk about Duval County because you brought it up … we went from 39th to 32nd. You’ve moved in your leadership from 12th to 20th, that’s a decrease, that’s a spiral down.”

Van Zant – determined to continue a numerical fight – said Duval County leads the state in the “number of schools in the bottom 300.”

Many in the crowd held fans Van Zant and his supporters passed out at previous debates. The sign once read, “Clay is an ‘A’ school district.” The new signs had the “A” crossed out with a marker and replaced with the letter “B” to reflect the current grade.

Van Zant continued a trend of shifting the blame for his actions onto others when questioned about changing open house dates on the district website to run the same day as the Aug. 30 primary.

The change, he said, came from the instructional division and he had no part in the change.

The only school whose schedule was not changed was Keystone Heights Elementary and Keystone Heights Jr.-Sr. High School, which were to hold open house nights on Aug. 23. Van Zant lives in Keystone Heights.

“It is disrespectful to blame this on your employees,” Davis said during a rebuttal. “As superintendent, you own everything, so this is passing the buck to someone else. You own everything as a leader. This is just another example of disenfranchising our community.”

If open house dates overlapped with voting day for the primary, many parents who work on that Tuesday would have to choose between attending open house and voting. Currently, different schools will hold open house on different nights in August.

Both Van Zant and Davis broached the subject of low teacher morale, however, their differing views were obvious.

“I don’t think our morale is a real big problem either,” Van Zant said, prompting laughter from the audience. “I love our teachers. We have a very low attrition rate in Clay County. Only seven percent of teachers left the profession in Clay County.”

Davis acknowledged the low morale in the school district when he asked the teachers in the audience to stand up.

“The first thing you do is take care of these folks and show them some love,” Davis said.

Van Zant deflected questions regarding his alleged use of senior staff to meet with school administrators and principals via text, telephone call and in person to donate to his campaign.

“I would ask you to look at any previous school board member or any superintendent candidate campaign or anyone who runs for sheriff or any other organization and see if there are not other people who value their leadership in that organization they contribute in,” Van Zant said.

Van Zant pointed out Davis’s campaign contributions as an example. Van Zant said Davis received a $1,000 donation from Renna Lee Paiva, president of the Clay County Education Association teacher’s union, but neglected to say why it was noteworthy.

“Mr. Van Zant shouldn’t be focused on who’s giving me money and more importantly focused on a school system he continues to divide,” Davis said. “Who’s running the schools? You are politicizing principals. Administrators should be focused on improving teaching and learning.”

This election cycle marks the second time he allegedly asked staff to contribute to his campaign. In October 2012, while serving as a school board member and having defeated incumbent Ben Wortham by 1,590 votes in the August primary, Van Zant sent out a letter to administrators and principals asking for financial support. He requested the funds despite only having to face a sham write-in candidate in the November general election.

Van Zant used the contributions to pay off $13,000 of his campaign debt.

The Aug. 30 primary remains closed to only Republican voters. Those who are registered as non-party affiliated, Democrat or other party voters cannot cast a ballot in the Aug. 30 primary. The winner of the primary will face independent candidate Rebekah Shively in the November general election as Marion Keith Nichols is on the ballot as a write-in candidate.