Roseanne Wood is the newest member of the Leon County School Board and Chairwoman Dee Dee Rasmussen gets to keep her seat. Both women are already outlining their priorities.
Leon County’s School Board will add a new member after Roseanne Wood won her bid for the job. The former Sail High School Principal defeated another former Leon principal, Rodger Pinholster, for a seat on the board.
“Everything is positive," Wood says of the race between her and Pinholster. "Rodger and I have run a good race. He’s a fine man and we’ve stuck to the issues. And we’ve not had one negative word between us….I hope he’ll work with me because he has lots of great ideas.”
Wood has a lot of ideas of her own, including scaling back on local tests for elementary schoolers, getting rid of letter-grades for the youngsters and advocating for decreasing performance pressure on teachers. Incumbent board chairwoman Dee Dee Rasmussen agrees.
Rasmussen spoke highly of her opponents, Patrick Cannon and Tallie Gainer. Both men challenged Rasmussen's role on the board as the district came under scrutiny for its construction and contracting practices. Cannon says he's pleased with the race he won and is hopeful the district has heard the criticism.
"Unfortunately I know I was fighting an uphill battle," he says. "But I hope its a wakeup call and that she'll be more scrutinizing and bring more oversight on the superintendent's proposals."
Rasmussen calls the race a referendum on both her and the board.
"I’m honored that the voters saw how hard we worked to restore voter confidence," she said.
