A bill of rights for Florida school board members is quickly moving through both the House and Senate, after getting bipartisan support.
The proposed legislation, S.B. 1620, among other things, would make it easier for board members to get access to documents they need to do their jobs.
Volusia Republican State Senator Tom Leek’s bill would require board members to have free and timely access to school documents, including those not in the public record.
It would also allow board members to directly ask staff for data, to consult their district's CFO about the budget, and would require free access to budget documents.
Leek said another important part of the bill would put a system of checks and balances in place for school districts that want staff to sign nondisclosure agreements: school board members would have to sign off on the plan first.
Inspired by his own district
He says this last part of the bill is inspired by something that happened in his local school district in Volusia. In August, about 110 district employees were required to sign NDAs that prohibited them from talking about the school budget.
“When I heard about public employees being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements about the public business that they're doing, I thought, that can't be right. And then when I heard about board members requesting documents and having to pay as if it were a public record like that cannot be right,” Leek said.
Most of the Volusia County School Board traveled to Tallahassee to speak out against the bill at a recent committee hearing. They said they felt personally targeted by the bill. Chair Ruben Colón said NDAs were necessary in his district to prevent information leaks.
“It's something we never had to face as a board, until all of the sudden, board conversations start getting leaked, conversations that were in process, conversations that were had with the board in its appropriate manner, all of the sudden community members, and it's on social media,” Colón said. “That's why we've had to do that in Volusia County.”
Long-time Volusia School board member and former school board chair Jamie Haynes also spoke out against the bill. Haynes says there’s a reason certain information isn’t readily accessible, even to school board members.
“This could give them access to employee health records. They could ask who's been to see the employee assistance program. They could ask to see how a person distributes their check,” Haynes said.
She’s worried board members could use this new power to get any data set, at any time, and use it to target school leaders they have a vendetta against.
What's at stake?
But two-year Volusia County school board member Donna Brosemer says she’s grateful for the bill. When she was investigating how the NDA process was handled in her district, she had to pay out of pocket for copies of the NDAs staff were made to sign.
She said that’s not right.
“I asked for copies of the 110 signed NDAs, and I was charged $76.10 to receive them, even though I am a sitting board member,” Brosemer said. “They were emailed, they weren’t even printed.”
She called the district’s move to require staff to sign the NDAs unconstitutional, and hired an attorney with her own money to offer a second opinion on the NDAs. Those NDAs sunsetted in December 2025.
Leek made it clear the bill does not target Volusia County Schools, but he hopes it will make it easier for any school board member to get the information they need to alert families and students to issues in their district, including financial ones.
The Florida Sunshine Law requires any records made or received by any public agency to be available to the public.
Read the full bill here:
