The Volusia County School Board will elect a new chair Tuesday after former Volusia County Board Chair Jessie Thompson stepped down at the start of the new year, a little over a month after she was elected to the position.
Fellow board members and the Deltona Mayor Santiago Avila, Jr. had called for her to resign, after controversial comments she had made about the district at a Moms for Liberty conference resurfaced last month.
In those comments made last summer, she called Board member Ruben Colón, who is Latino, a “tan man.” And said that she wouldn’t trust students at Title I school Deltona High to “fill up her gas tank.”
With Thompson stepping down, Colón said the board is prepared to elect a new chair Tuesday using the same process they did in November.
He hopes they can move forward from this incident, especially since Thompson did apologize for her comments.
Watch the organizational school board meeting scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday. This is when the board will elect a new chair:
“As a board, we are here for students. We are here for children. We're not here for individual gain. And even in the chair position, they're just like the rest of us. And so the reality is that anything that's going to detract from the good work that's happening in Volusia County is not positive,” said Colón.
He said part of that work is becoming one cohesive unit as a board. Volusia County residents elected two new board members in November: Krista Goodrich and Donna Brosemer.
“We're getting to know each other and getting to know not only what's important for our students, but what each other's priorities are. And so, we’re starting relationship building,” said Colón.
In a statement, Thompson said stepping down as chair was the right move, but she will continue on the board representing district 3 in order to “support our students and hear from teachers and parents who feel like they haven't been heard.”
The district confirmed Thompson’s resignation last week in a statement.
Watch the full school board meeting led by the new chair that starts at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The board will discuss a variety of topics on the agenda: