Seminole School Board member Bauer dies at 65
Diane Bauer, a longtime member of the Seminole County School Board, has died, the school district reported Wednesday.
Bauer, 65, had been on the board since 1998 and had also been a longtime member of the Seminole County PTA.
The cause of death is not certain but may have been a series of strokes, said Mike Lawrence, district spokesman. Bauer is survived by her husband, five children and a granddaughter
“She was very compassionate in all of her convictions,” said Tina Calderone, a colleague on the school board.
Yet she was also “gracious” and “generous with her time,” mentoring newly elected board members as they learned their duties, Calderone added. “It was an honor to serve with her.”
Whenshe first ran for school board, Bauer had been a PTA member for more than 20 years and frequent appointee to school district committees. TheCasselberry area resident ran on a campaign to encourage more parental involvement in education, eager to make parents feel welcome on Seminole’s campuses.
“The more involved the parent is, the better the chances are for that child’s success,” she said in 1998.
Calderone said Bauer’s family was “very, very close,” and she kept a photo of her granddaughter onthe dais in the board’s meeting room. “That was her favorite job in the world — being a mother, a wife, and a grandmother.”
On the board, Bauer represented the entire school district but was a champion of Lake Howell High — her children’s alma mater. She also was a conservative and sometimes the lone dissenter on school board votes, voting against a recent property tax increase, for example.
“All of us here at Seminole County Public Schools are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of School Board memberDianeBauer” said Superintendent Walt Griffin in a statement.
It falls to Gov. Rick Scott to appoint someone to serve out her term, which runs until November 2014.