Last Updated: 2:20 p.m.
The College Board, the organization that offers college-entrance exams such as the SAT and Advanced Placement tests, is offering SAT retakes at no costs to students who took the test at Matanzas High School on Dec. 4.
The re-take offer, which is voluntary, is a direct consequence of Flagler County School Board member Janet McDonald interfering with the process last Saturday, when she went to the school and urged students not to wear protective face masks, in direct violation of College Board rules. The College Board requires face-masking at its testing sites. It was using Matanzas High School (as well as Flagler Palm Coast High School) as a private non-profit organization, in agreement with the school district, making the testing site a private venue for the duration of the tests. McDonald had no jurisdiction there, and was not authorized to be there.
“We are offering an optional makeup test for students who feel their performance was affected by the disruption at the test center on December 4,” the College Board’s communications office confirmed to FlaglerLive this morning, in response to questions prompted by emails students were receiving. “Students are not required to participate and may call in to opt out of retesting.
“When you took the SAT® on December 4, 2021, there was a problem that may have affected some students,” the College Board wrote students who’d taken the test that day. It did so in a December 8 email, an original copy of which was provided FlaglerLive. “Because of this, you may choose to either release your score (if you believe your performance wasn’t affected) or retest at no additional charge. You can’t view your score to determine which option you prefer.”
Students are given options. “If you don’t think your performance was affected, we’ll release your score from the December 4, 2021, test, and you don’t have to take any action. We’ll report your score about three weeks after December 18, 2021. If you’d like to take the test again, a makeup test will be scheduled for December 18, 2021,” at Matanzas High School. Students interested in the retake are then directed to sign up at collegeboard.org/mysat and print their admission ticket, then show up at the test center at 7:45 a.m. “If you can’t test on this date, you can ask us to transfer your registration to another test date for free,” the College Board states, by contacting the board (866-756-7346 or 212-713-7789).
The school district was not aware of the development. “They’re trying to figure out what’s going on and what the word is that got out,” District spokesman Jason Wheeler said. The district had become aware of a posting on Flagler Parent, the Facebook page focused on district issues, that posted this morning and showed a make-up test date for a particular student on Dec. 18 at Matanzas. The student had acquired a registration number (which was redacted). Bobby Bossardet, the district’s assistant superintendent, contacted a College Board official about it but had not gotten confirmation about the retakes. “We rely on that particular individual, that contact, and they’ve not indicated anything to us, the district,” Wheeler said. “Nothing has been decided, nothing has been told to us by the college board.”
Wheeler was not at the time aware of whether Matanzas High School had been reserved for the re-takes, though another person familiar with the scheduled re-takes said that the College Board had, in fact, reserved the space. Several people directly involved in the matter are reluctant to speak on the record about it for fear of retaliation from the district.
McDonald showed up at Matanzas last Saturday, stood by the registration table, and told students not to wear mask, claiming it interfered with their oxygen intake and would be unhealthy–claims long discredited by innumerable studies, and discredited again by Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler Health Department, who called McDonald’s claims “absurd” and with “no scientific credibility.”
It isn’t clear what measures the College Board will take to prevent further interference from McDonald. Asked about such measures, the board said: “We are continuing to work closely with the test center to ensure that students have a positive experience.”
The school board member has a history of making bogus claims about Covid-related public health matters, and a pattern of flouting rules and directives: at an Aug. 17 school board meeting, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies had asked the board members after a recess was called to retreat to a back room for their own safety, as the audience had become unruly and unpredictable. McDonald ignored the deputies, standing at the dais and engaging with the crowd. Speaking of the SAT testing site, she inaccurately said that district policies or state law prevailed over College Board rules as far as mask-wearing, when in fact the College Board’s rules do, being a private organization contracting to use the district’s facilities.
McDonald had herself approved the district’s rolling agreement with the College Board, which states: “The SAT will be administered under standard College Board test administration and security protocols as specified in the [Test center Master Form] and Test Center Supervisor training and instructional materials… In accordance with College Board policies, any test irregularity, including mis-administrations or security breaches, will be thoroughly investigated and may result in score cancellations.”
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Please seek help, Janet. says
The cost of the re-take must be the responsibility of Janet McDonald.
How is she allowed to continue this bizarre, disruptive behavior without repercussions? Who is running this town anyway? Apparently nobody
Ld says
Janet should be billed with the cost incurred for re-administration of the test she disrupted, at minimum.
Mark says
Great 4 more hours of life per student wasted because of this elected lunatic . She is dillusional and disruptive beyond any other person in the district, student ,teacher or otherwise!
Shirl says
Re-taking the SAT test because she screwed up is not acceptable. These students have worked hard for the test and it is not fair at all that they have to retake it. She should be penalized not the students. I will not let this situation slide.
mark101 says
It amazes me that she still is on the board. Have her removed. She is nothing more than a cancer impacting our school system.
Lorraine says
Both McDonald and Woolbright need to be removed from the School Board! The sooner the better!!
Percy's mother says
You cannot “remove” a duly elected school board member. They are not employees who can be fired at will.
DP says
Time we as voters remove these sums who represent only themselves. She is a disgrace, and a libity to the school board, and the students. She needs to step down immediately, and the board needs to take action of censure.
OnlyMe says
McDonald rides again disgracing Palm Coast and Flagler County. What’s going to be her next trick? Nothing will happen to her and that is why she will continue to disgrace our county.
Robjr says
I believe this woman would do an excellent job herding cats.
Not so good a job being an elected leader of the school system.
Pissed in PC says
Hey I herd cats and she couldn’t even handle that. She needs to resign and go hang out with her Q friends in Dallas waiting on Kennedy to come back from the dead.
Justbob says
With her conspiracy theories and bad behavior, Janet McDonald has become a clear and present danger to students education.
Bill C says
Exactly which degrees does McDonald hold that qualify her as a health expert: Microbiology, Virology, Public Health; Masters or PhD? Anything?
FlaglerLive says
McDonald’s resume is here.
Anonymous says
In which of these degrees does she show competence as a school board member? This is a disgrace to our county. It’s embarrassing & unacceptable! She needs to be removed on account of her actions.
Pat says
I call upon the school board to find Janet McDonald in contempt for superimposing her wacky ideas at the College Boards last week.
Censure with dismissal from the Board with disgrace is the only option. A fine should also be assessed.
If the school board can’t make Janet McDonald disappear, perhaps theFlorida Department of Education will take a stand against this women who means harm to our children.
Luci says
We have looked into having her removed. The only person that can do that is the governor.
tulip says
Voters Approved Nonpartisan School Boards 23 Years Ago. GOP Lawmakers Want That to Change.
Scroll to the above titled article right here on Flagler Live and really read it. If the school board races go partisan, the Republicans will always win because there is more of them then Democrats and I doubt if Independents would go to the bother of temporarily changing to a Democrat in order to vote for a school board member. Think about that. I think most of the current ones now are all Republican, but not sure.
Totallydisgusted!! says
When are they going to REMOVE this ignorant self serving idiot off of the school board?? If I was a parent of a student who was taking this very high-stakes test, I would sue her and in addition file a criminal complaint against her! I am also wondering what the hell the proctors who are hired to supervise the testing were doing at the time? Problem: they usually hire grad school students to proctor the tests and they may have felt intimidated by a school board person and not wanting to challenge her. They should have stopped each and every student at the door and showed them the requirement for masking. And if any argued, tell them to step aside and let officials deal with them. Now we really have a problem set up for any future testing at other Flagler County locations. I can just see the anti-masker/anti-vaxers in combat fatigues showing up trying to intimidate and harass students during what is an incredibly stressful situation to begin with. Fire this crazy woman!!!! She needs to be removed ASAP!!!
Alexander says
Please McDonald do the children of Flagler County a favor and resign from the school board. Aren’t you tired of people wanting you removed? Or are you that arrogant?
Donald your hero must have something for you to do at his club, like polishing his golf clubs or shining his shoes. Or you can write some more fake theories he loves to promote about election fraud.
Maybe his side kick DeathSantis can squeeze you in somewhere, just get out of the Flagler County School Board, you over stayed your welcome.
David S. says
Fire this witch she needs to be out on a farm shoveling cow Manure.
Julian Bergman says
She should be removed and disciplined. I personally would consider taking legal action against her had one of my children been taking the test. She is a menace
Deirdre Rutledge says
I agree with everything in the above comments, she absolutely should have to pay some price for this kind of behavior because anybody else would, but what’s going to stop her from doing this again at the retake? If she can’t go you can bet that others will show up in her place, I truly believe her lunacy inspires others as well, which is what she’s going for – desperate for attention at any cost to others.
No one can blame the proctors, she’s on the school board and they don’t want to call the police and possibly hurt their own careers, which is probably the only option they would’ve had.
The police probably wouldn’t have been able to remove her anyway, due to her position. If they don’t have laws against this kind of thing they need to develop them, but who knew we would need them?
If I did the exact same thing while wearing a Burka I bet it wouldn’t be tolerated for one single second, and I’d be thinking about it behind bars. What if a obviously homeless person did it? It’s the politics around these issues that keeps her empowered. Obviously she’s delighted to get even negative attention or she wouldn’t keep doing these things. There’s just no consequences.
It’s heartless when kids are taking such a high stakes test, which has obviously more impact on their future than any other test they will ever take, just steal attention for their own selfish reasons. ANYONE involved in education should know better than to bring the spotlight on themselves and their beliefs to the detriment of the students.
Regardless of the cost I’m so glad they’re allowing kids to do retakes, I just dread what’s going to happen at the retakes too if she can’t be stopped.
Someone from the college board needs to be there to remove her from the premises if necessary, and anyone else that thinks this is the right time to pressure kids about masking or not. I can guarantee the retakes will have even more masking ‘politics’ if we can’t keep people like this away. What if the retakes have a huge crowd with signs and chanting on both sides of the masking issue? Distracting? These poor kids deserve better.
Perhaps a lawsuit against her would be a way to best handle this kind of situation, because it’s not the first time and it certainly won’t be the last.
🙄 says
The day we start publicly executing conspiracy theorists is the day everything levels back out.
Elbee says
Let’s keep it simple. This woman is nuts.
peter wentworth says
Assuming parents start to sue because their child’s performance was hindered by this crazy woman, who gets sued? This lady or the city of Palm Coast?
FlaglerLive says
The city is not involved.
LB2KOOL says
When will someone get rid of this delusional witch. She continues to put children at risk with her actions. The board does nothing.
Deborah Coffey says
At this point, I think it is incumbent on all of us to write or call the Governor’s office demanding that Janet McDonald be removed from the School Board. Her continual chaos and the damage she is doing to students and to the entire community is worthy of an indictment!
Office of Governor Ron DeSantis. State of Florida The Capitol 400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001. (850) 717-9337
Michael Cocchiola says
This is what you get when there are no consequences to egregious behavior.
Skibum says
She seems to be competing against her hubby for the “most despicable person living in Flagler County” award. Between the two of them, I have never seen anything positive about them in the news or anywhere else for that matter. It appears their entire purpose and intent is to be as destructive and obnoxious as possible, and I wonder how anyone in their right mind could elect either of them to a public office. Have we not yet had enough of that clan of fools?
Bill C says
Thanks FlaglerLive. She has no training or degree in Virology, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Public Health or anything remotely related that would qualify her to give medical advice regarding Covid.
Palm Coast Friend says
Wow you guy’s are a little harsh. Give her a break she has the best interest of our children at heart. She was trying to do the right thing by telling our children they didn’t have to suffer with wearing a mask during a very important test. She talked for maybe 30 seconds. that’s it get over it. Do you know how many kids fart on purpose just for a laugh during these test’s. The laughs go on for 10-15 minutes, and the smell lingers forever. Everyone here on this site is overreacting like a typical democrat. Yeah that’s right I’m calling out you followers always complaining just to complain. How sad your life must be, always in a bad mood, because life doesn’t run as smoothly as your democratic heart would like. It’s not like she walked into the testing site, started screaming in Swahili, and then pulled the fire alarm. Stop complaining so much people. Disconnect from social media, and your laptops, get out and contribute something meaningful to life. Anyone can just sit around complaining about someone, and rip into them. You all should take that time, and do something loving in your life, if not for yourself then do it for your spouse or children that have to put up with your angry opinions, and bitter heart. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
Pissed in PC says
Typical repuglican language. I guess allowing students to break the rules of which they signed a paper and acknowledged that masks were required to take the SAT is acceptable to you. Oh I forgot, your kind doesn’t think rules and laws apply to your entitled selves.
Joan says
So, you prefer that Ms. MacDonald be allowed to invalidate SAT’s and/ or disrupt and confuse test takers, perhaps requiring them to do it again? For what? Rules are rules. If the College Board says masks must be worn, Janet has no business stating anything otherwise. She had no need to be there. Her so called “good intentions” are not to benefit others. She’s only striving to make herself feel good. A hero complex. Go home Janet. And please do us all a favor and stay there.
Whathehck? says
France had la Pucelle d’Orleans, we have Janet.
Jeanne claimed that the voices she had heard all her life were divine in nature.
What does our Janet hears? Could be that she hears the same things Edgar Maddison Welch heard?