Amid a busy news day in Tampa Bay, 12-year Hillsborough County School Board veteran April Griffin had some news of her own Friday: she won't be seeking reelection later this year after all.
In short, she told CL before releasing a statement on her decision, "it's time."
Griffin is easily the most outspoken progressive on the board, and has done battle with evangelicals including one-time political rival Terry Kemple over the role of religion in schools and LGBTQ student rights. She was a vocal critic of former schools superintendent Mary Ellen Elia, who left her post in a blaze of controversy in 2015. Of late, she's also been a critic of the Florida legislature for, among other things, their efforts to siphon money from public schools in order to prop up less-than-accountable charter schools.
Here's the text of the statement she made Friday:
At the end of this term, I will have served for 12 years on the Hillsborough County School Board. During this time I have kept my promises, worked hard and accomplished much. Knowing that if I ran again I would win, I’ve decided to not run for reelection.
I have done my duty and feel it’s time to move on. Even when I accomplished my goals I always knew there is never an end to the battle to make our public schools great for all of our children.
I make my announcement now in order to give good candidates time to file and campaign for my seat.
I am blessed to have the support of my family, friends, colleagues and the voters over these many years. I can never thank them enough.
Among her latest battles is having had to "hold the line" on teacher salaries, she told CL. Hillsborough County Public School teachers are calling for raises and are even protesting over it, and Griffin has been steadfast in her rejection of their requests.
It's not because they don't deserve them, she said — she thinks they do — but with the dwindling resources available thanks to Florida lawmakers, she said the district can't afford to abide. If they were to do so, she continued, the district would have to pay for them with money it doesn't have. If the district's credit rating suffers a blow as a result, the district would have a hard time building schools in southern Hillsborough County, which is experiencing a population boom.
Still, she's seen a lot of criticism over her position.
Griffin said she announced her retirement from the board this month in order to give potential contenders for the seat time to organize their campaigns.
She cites among her accomplishments helping raise the county's graduation rate from 63.9 percent to 82.9 percent (a 19-point jump) as well as adding transgender protections to the district's anti-discrimination ordinance and leading the charge on creating a civil citation program to help deter youth from jail for nonviolent, low-level offenses.
It's unclear whether Griffin has sights on another elected office. After all, in 2014 she announced she would be leaving the school board to run for Hillsborough County Commission, but changed her mind and instead ran for reelection.
There are already quite a few people lining up to take her place on the board: Scott "Mr. H." Hottenstein, Robert A. Pechacek, William Henry Person, Kelso Tanner, Jessica Vaughan and Henry "Shake" Washington.
