Judge to rule on Seminole lawsuit today

Hiring of school superintendent at issue

A judge Monday heard arguments in the legal effort to stop the Seminole County School Board from hiring its selected superintendent and said she would rule Tuesday on whether to grant a temporary injunction.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of a Seminole mother, and recently joined by a county teacher, seeks that order to prevent the school board from signing a contract with Serita Beamon, which it is slated to do at its Tuesday evening meeting.

Judge Michelle Naberhaus, who sits in Brevard Circuit Court, said she would issue her decision in an online hearing scheduled to start at noon Tuesday. She listened to about an hour of arguments Monday.

The picking of Seminole’s next school superintendent has divided the school board and roiled the county and its well-regarded school system. On a 3-2 vote, the school board tapped Beamon for its next superintendent on March 1 after first deciding, also on a 3-2 vote, to hire someone else but then rescinding that decision on another 3-2 ballot.

The lawsuit argues the school board violated its own policies when on Feb. 23 it rescinded its decision to hire Chad Farnsworth, picked Feb. 9 for the school district’s top job.

Beamon, who had been the school board’s attorney, and Farnsworth, an

assistant superintendent in Lake County, were the two finalists to replace Superintendent Walt Griffin, who is retiring this spring. Farnsworth has since said he no longer wants the job.

The lawsuit, initially filed on behalf of Brittany Walker, later was amended to include a Seminole teacher Sharon Swalina. She is a science teacher at Lake Mary High School, according to the school’s website.

The lawsuit argued Beamon’s selection violated Robert’s Rules of Order, the procedures that govern how board meetings are run. Those rules do not allow a school board to rescind a vote to hire someone after that person is notified of its decision, said Philip Kaprow, Walker’s attorney and a Seminole resident who spoke at two school board meetings urging the board to stick with Farnsworth as superintendent.

During Monday’s online hearing, Kaprow said much of the case hinged on a “technical” argument that the school board acted improperly.

But his clients also want to temporarily stop the school board from hiring Beamon so they can investigate further “what appears to be the unscrupulous behavior of the school board,” he said, suggesting the board was wrongly pressured to hire Beamon, who is Black, after first agreeing to hire a white man.

Some view it as a case of “reverse discrimination,” he added.

“Central Florida, if not the world, is watching to see if we as a community can do the right thing,” Kaprow said.

A temporary injunction, and then another court hearing, would allow all facts to be known and “not let the school board get ahead of itself,” he added.

The school board’s attorney, Robert Sniffen, agreed the superintendent search had become a “highly charged emotional issue” but he said there was no valid reason to stop the board from hiring Beamon.

Kaprow’s interpretation of school law and policy was “entirely wrong,” Sniffen said, adding there had been no “nefarious plan” and no violation of the rules.

The two women behind the lawsuit don’t like the decision the school board made, Sniffen said, and they can express that in comments to the board and in the next school board election.

“What they want this court to do is help them impose their will on the school board and get rid of the candidate they don’t want,” he said. “They don’t get to do that. Their duly elected school board members get to do that.”

“They want this court to embroil itself in the politics of Seminole County. That is an extremely dangerous place for this court to be.”

Kaprow argued that both Walker, whose child is not yet in public school, and Swalina would suffer “irreparable harm,” if Beamon became superintendent through an “unlawful contract.”

Sniffen said the pair could prove no harm if Beamon was hired.

The judge, who asked a few questions at the end of the hearing, focused on that issue, asking Kaprow, “Convey to me what the actual irreparable harm is to these specific individuals?”

Kaprow replied that all teachers and parents could suffer if someone with “zero educational experience” becomes superintendent.

Beamon has worked for the school district for 16 years and has been part of Griffin’s leadership team, but she is an attorney who has never been a classroom teacher. Farnsworth is a career educator who was a teacher, assistant principal and then superintendent in a small North Florida district before joining Lake County Schools three years ago.

Sniffen said if the lawsuit was successful, Beamon’s supporters could then file a lawsuit, too, upset their candidate didn’t get hired. But that isn’t the way superintendent selections work, he said, noting residents who do not like who the school board chooses can work to unseat those board members at their next election.

“What you don’t get to do is lawyer up, file a lawsuit and say we’re going to impose our will on you,” he added.

The case was filed in Seminole, but after several Seminole judges recused themselves, it was moved to Brevard, which is in the same judicial circuit.