Hernando County residents will decide in 2024 whether the county’s superintendent of schools should be elected or appointed, under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The county’s voters in 1992 approved having an appointed superintendent. But the bill (HB 773) will put a proposal on the 2024 primary ballot that, if approved, would lead to the county shifting to an elected superintendent in 2028.
Hernando County is one of 29 Florida school districts that have superintendents appointed by school boards.
John Stratton, the Hernando district’s superintendent since 2018, recently has faced a push by three Republican state lawmakers for his ouster. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, Rep. John Temple, R-Wildwood, and Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, issued a joint statement calling for Stratton’s resignation.
But a majority of the Hernando County School Board last week rejected a proposed vote of no confidence in Stratton’s leadership.
