In possibly the most embarrassing and cringeworthy meetings of a board that has not lacked for contemptible meetings over the last few years, the Flagler County School Board, after nine hours and 103 votes, elected Will Furry its vice chair, after Furry had been chair for two years, denying the position to Lauren Ramirez.
A divided board the previous day–in the same meeting–had elected Christy Chong chair.
For most of Tuesday night and early this morning, the board deadlocked in 2-2 votes over the vice chair nomination, with Chong and Furry voting for Furry, and Ramirez and Janie Ruddy voting for Ramirez. Chong had nominated Furry (who had nominated her for chair). Ramirez had nominated herself.
The departure of Derek Barrs from the school board two months ago for a position in the Trump administration left the board with a vacancy, and the potential for deadlocks, as tie votes mean motions fail. Gov. Ron DeSantis is due to make an appointment, but his decisions for local boards typically take months. He may rethink further delays after this debacle.
“This is getting ridiculous,” the conspicuously humorless Chong said on the approach of 3. “I mean, are we going to sit here till Thanksgiving?”
According to bylaws, the superintendent–LaShakia Moore–chaired the organizational meeting. She did so with the sort of controlled balance and firmness that likely made many people wish she were the permanent chair. She had to rein in the board members several times as tensions flared and piques stabbed.
It was only Ramirez’s concession 20 minutes later–this morning–that ended the deadlock, after Furry and Chong rejected a series of compromises, including a suggestion by the board attorney to “time-share” the position for six months, an approach Ramirez was willing to take.
“It’s not on me that we’re here this late,” Ramirez said as she was starting to relent. “It’s the two of us are here because we both feel that we would be the best fit.” Furry had disingenuously intimated that she was to blame for the marathon. “I didn’t say that you’re the reason. We are all the reason why we’re all here this late,” he said.
Not exactly.
What had unfolded over nine hours, briefly interrupted by regular board business, recesses and long silences, was an astounding display of entitlement and presumption by Furry. He’d held the chair of the board for the past two years and is running for a congressional seat in a campaign that, if he is to take it seriously, exacts time and effort that would inevitably diminish his focus on school board business. He claimed the congressional race is irrelevant to his role on the board and bristled at its repeated mention.
Ruddy and Ramirez had repeatedly made sharp, evidence- and precedent-based arguments justifying Ramirez’s nomination. But that sort of reasoning is like the seed that falls on barren land on this board.
Chong’s intransigent Furry fealty was more hypocritical than entitled: she refused to extend Ramirez the same opportunity Chong was given two years ago.
Chong’s nomination as vice chair in November 2023, after she’d been on the board one year, was supported unanimously even though she had no similar experience elsewhere, and on a board with two members–Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro–who’d either been in office or been chairing and participating in public boards (including state and federal boards) for most of Chong’s life.
Ramirez at this point in her tenure also has more extensive civic and business experience than Chong beyond the school board. Chong’s three years on the board have been unremarkable, with not a single signature initiative to her credit. Chong’s participation tends to be limited to generalities or polemical outbursts but little aptitude for analysis, strategic or imaginative thinking. Her self-justification for chair showed it.
Chong said it was her fourth year on the board, she wants the opportunity, and she is “really good at time management and keeping things on track.” Furry said nothing different, other than noting Chong’s two years as vice chair. Neither mentioned a substantial accomplishment other than running the trains on time, and that she was due.
Ramirez never voted for Furry. She ended up voting against herself, and withdrawing her nomination, her last act of collaboration in a meeting where she and Ruddy had offered repeated compromises and collaborative suggestions, and Chong and Furry offered none. Chong had repeatedly pressured Ramirez or Ruddy to flip their vote for Furry. She not once asked Furry to flip his vote for Ramirez.
Ramirez may have conceded, but only in the most technical sense of the term. She emerged more victorious in dignity, mettle and collegiality than either the chair or vice chair. One act among many showed how: after the end of the meeting, she shook hands with Furry and Chong and wished them a good year ahead, even though for many parts of the meeting, Furry had shifted his seat toward Ramirez, staring her down. Ruddy for her part showed beyond doubt that she is the board’s substantive center of gravity, even without the votes.
“Chong and Furry did not look good last night,’” Trevor Tucker, the former school board member–he lost to Chong three years ago–said this morning. He’d attended the meeting until close to 2 a.m. “I’m not sure how Will Furry expects to win as a congressman if you can’t win the vice chairmanship. Wow. It was crazy, that’s for sure.”
“The whole thing is astounding,” he said.
Tucker, who served three terms on the board, noted that Ramirez had lent her vote to Chong for chair, a gesture that should have by tradition and respect ensured Chong’s support in return.
But if the meeting underscored a controlling dynamic on this board, it is obstinacy on one side and cooperation on the other.
Initially, Ruddy and Ramirez had also nominated themselves for chair.
Ruddy cited several accomplishments such as prompting a contract review that could save $1 million, advocating for gifted students to increase enrollment–a dire need for a district bleeding students–fostering new communication methods between the transportation department and parents, and so on. “I’ve been an active voice and participant in our meetings in order to understand the modern challenges that public education has, and how to navigate them best and hold our students at the forefront of every decision.”
Ruddy underscored her strategic understanding of the district’s challenges. “Being the chair is not an attendance recognition or a tenure recognition,” she said. “It should be the member who can help us navigate these waters that we’re about to approach.” She later said that the choice was “more than a football team and choosing colors.”
Ramirez was equally expansive, citing the work she’s put in to prepare for the role, such as training through the School Board Association, where she’s accumulated 70 certified board credits. (Chong has attended training sessions.) She is one of just 16 newly elected school board members in the state to be named an “emerging leader” by the state association. She did not mention the leading role she took through the state Ethics Commission in broadening all elected officials’ right to run businesses or employ individuals that may in some innocuous regards draw customers from their own government.
For chair, Furry and Chong voted Chong. Ruddy voted for herself, with the other three opposed. Same result for Ramirez.
The second round was identical. In the third round, Ramirez conceded, giving her vote to Chong, and Chong was elected chair.
Chong then nominated Furry as vice chair. Ruddy nominated herself vice chair, and Ramirez did likewise for herself.
The votes–and the disconcerting tragicomedy–began.
Furry mustered only two votes (his and Chong’s), and Ruddy immediately switched to Ramirez, resulting in 2-2 for both Furry and Ramirez. So it began. So it went. Vote after vote. 2-2. At one early point, Ruddy tried to abstain, but the board attorney pressed for a vote. More 2-2 votes.
Along the way board members commented. Ruddy spoke of Furry’s misjudgment in releasing information from a closed board session in a media interview (Furry disputed the claim), and his interest in “running for other pursuits,” meaning his current run for a congressional seat.
Ruddy suggested to Furry that he might “perhaps give an opportunity for another board member so we can continue growing.” Furry responded with remarkable condescension: “It’s about experience, Ms. Ramirez. I believe you will build the experience to hold this position at some point in the future. But I don’t feel that it is right now.” He’d told her she still had three more years to grow, and “commended” her for her dedication. “I am the most qualified,” he said.
Furry’s condescension did not stop: “In time that you could fill that role. I do not believe that now is the time.” He made a distinction between his being nominated as opposed to Ramirez nominating herself. “ I believe I received that nomination because I am the most qualified person to fill the role,” he said.
Ruddy suggested to Chong that she revoke her nomination for Furry. Chong refused. Her insistence on Furry came down to this: “I would like him to back me up as the chair.”
Ruddy asked Furry to think beyond himself. “People don’t step down into a second-tier position after they hit the top. You would cultivate and work to help grow the next set of chairs or leaders in any organization,” she said. “ We’re not saying that. It means you’re out to pasture. You’re an active board member. What we’re saying is we’re putting the board’s health and readiness ahead of our own individual interests.”
Furry, defending himself, again said the time wasn’t right for Ramirez. Ramirez had seemed on the verge of conceding, but when the votes resumed, it was again 2-2, and when the members spoke, Furry condescended as if he were speaking to an underling: “this is your first year you’ve been learning,” “You have served diligently. You’re at every meeting. You contribute,” “but there’s a time for everybody, and your time will come at some point.” He also repeatedly boasted about his abilities.
When another vote failed, Moore suggested tabling the matter and moving on with other business. Furry refused, but the board agreed to carry out its other agenda items and return to the vice chair issue later in the meeting. That vote carried, finally enabling County Judge Andrea Totten, who’d been waiting for an hour and a half, to swear in Chong.
When the board returned voting for vice chair, the scenario didn’t change, nor did Furry’s “grasp,” as Ruddy described it, on the title. “Nothing was identified in terms of what made you qualified in the first place that Miss Ramirez doesn’t already have,” Ruddy told Furry. She implored him and Chong “to make the mature choice” of allowing for the development and mentorship of new leadership in the role.
“One has a preponderance of an argument that makes sense as founded in something that is beyond her own wish, whereas on the other side your position is, well, I was nominated,” Ruddy told Furry, reminding him that his term was “finite” by his own choice. Ruddy’s reasoning fell on deaf ears. Furry, who did not appear to understand the word “finite,” accused Ruddy of using “rude terms.” Ruddy motioned that he was disparaging her and out of order. Ramirez seconded, but the motion was bound to fail.
Moore had to intervene a few times to restore order.
“Mr. Furry, I know you feel you have the most experience,” Ramirez said. “I’m a business owner. I’m going to another country tomorrow to present at a conference that I was invited to. I have experience, okay? I have experience in this community and with the Florida School Board Association that our community is paying for us to attend and go to. And I did not miss one.”
There were more votes, recesses, votes, attempts by Moore to inspire a different outcome, attempts by Ramirez and Ruddy to table the issue to a future meeting.
“I would hope that tabling [for a] later date allows people to essentially have conversations outside of maybe their current mindset,” Ruddy said, nearing 11 p.m., “to be able to evaluate the position from a different angle, and also, if somebody were to wish to rescind their nomination, I think it’s difficult when to do so when, let’s say, you’re voting on something 50 times.”
Furry, misinterpreting the Sunshine Law, said “we can’t discuss this outside of this room because of sunshine.” The board members can’t discuss it among themselves outside of the meeting. But they can discuss it at will with anyone else, as the board attorney confirmed.
“In 28 years of representing school districts, this is the first time I’ve ever come across a board that was not able to complete the organizational meeting in one set time period and had to look into a continuance,” David Delaney, the school board attorney, said.
At 3 a.m. almost on the dot, Ramirez made her last move.
On whatever sleep she got, by 8 this morning, after leading an early morning administrative meeting at the Government Services Building, Moore was on the road, making the three-hour drive to Tallahassee for meetings there. She acknowledged the night’s difficulties, but looked at the positive beyond the chamber in answering a question about how the board could move forward after this.
“It’s been a pleasure working with this board, they have been very attentive, they attend things in the community,” Moore said. “Based on that, that is what I use when I assess or reflect on how they will move forward. I go on their past behavior over this last year as school board members.”
Concerned Community Member says
So ridiculous is Chong and Furry. They acted like children. They need to go! We need to vote them out. I really don’t feel they act on behalf of our students. I believe they act on behalf of themselves.
Pogo says
@In a word
… shameless.
Congratulations to Cheech and Chong — a couple of weeds well tended by the slobs who planted them.
Chandra k says
The lack of self awareness by Mrs. Chong and Mr. Furry is startling. She looked like an air head. I’m a staunch Republican who attends their church. I’m disgusted by your behavior. Mr. Furry your mansplaining was disgusting. Your hate of women showed. Mrs. Chong what’s wrong with you? This lady voted you to Chair. You don’t want to return the favor and show leadership and grace? We are taught grace. Maybe if you went to church for more than political reasons you would understand about having grace in these instances.
Republican women, let’s demand better leadership for our children this go around for this seat. Don’t let our preachers tell us who to vote for. I fell for it once, not again.
I never thought I could say this, but Will Furry you’re a bigger pig than Randy Fine. Gross!
That Liberal Floridian says
PLEASE sen this comment as an email to her!
chris conklin says
what joke and embarrassing school board. I find it funny he’s running for a higher office. for the students and community sake hopefully he just runs away.
Jim says
Will Furry and Christy Chong are two losers and repeatedly show all of us how petty and small they are. Lauren Ramirez and Janie Ruddy appear to be reasonable, responsible school board members. I think Chong needs to keep Furry close as she needs a support animal at all times. As the article stated, neither offered any “successes” they’ve been responsible for during their term. Now, that is real leadership… Furry needs the vice-chair so he can put that on his resume for Congress. (News flash: Furry has as much chance of winning Fine’s seat as the rest of us have of winning the lottery.)
I await the next election when Furry/Chong are up for re-election (assuming either or both run). I expect at that time, no matter how pitiful any other candidate might appear, they will easily beat both of them. I think these two have made this into the worst school board we’ve had.
And Ron, thanks for doing absolutely nothing to fill the open slot in our school board. For a guy who is so interested in what is taught, who is teaching it, what books are available, etc. this yet again shows that Ronny only does things that promote Ronny. The basics of government are not a priority otherwise.
Ray W. says
Speaking of education, Florida’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (FDOGE) just released its Florida State University System Efficiency Study.
The Washington Post covered the study in a story published earlier today.
Nearly three years ago, in the reporter’s words, Gov. DeSantis “vowed to overhaul a small, quirky liberal arts college in Sarasota that was part of the state education system.”
At times prior to the overhaul wrote the reporter, New College was producing more Fulbright Scholars per capita than any other college or university in the state.
The waterfront college sits on property once owned by Charles Ringling; his mansion is a centerpiece of the grounds on which the school stands. The college being designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, symbolically, during construction of the school loads of dirt were hauled in from Harvard University’s campus to be mixed into Florida soil.
A hallmark of the individualized “student directed” learning process at Florida’s only “designated residential honors college” was the fact that the school did not issue grades.
After those nearly three years of state-mandated educational overhaul, Ted Veerman, Gov. DeSantis’ deputy press secretary e-mailed the Post’s reporter this response to submitted questions:
“New College of Florida, under President Corcoran’s leadership and at the direction of Governor DeSantis, has structurally changed its mission from a liberal arts school rife with left-wing indoctrination into a classical liberal arts college with an emphasis on truth in academics, civic education, and academic freedom.”
In those less than three years of overhaul, wrote the reporter, Florida’s legislature first increased the annual outlay for the school by $52.7 million. Later, another funding increase of $20 million per year was approved.
Said Nathan Allen, vice president of strategy and special projects at New College up to October 2024, of the increases in school funding:
“I don’t think people appreciate how obscene the levels of spending are. … What New College needed wasn’t more money; it needed good management. … But it’s a wholly political project.”
Today, the cost to produce a degree at New College, according to the FDOGE study, is $494,715, “the highest among colleges in Florida and more than three times the $150,729 cost at the state’s flagship school, the University of Florida.”
And, “[o]perating expenses at New College are $83,207 per student, compared with $45,765 at UF. New College also has the largest number of administrators per student, or 33.3 per 100, compared with 26.9 at UF, …”
New College student enrollment is 732, up from the 600 range that the school traditionally accepted.
According to the reporter, after her listening to an audio recording of New College President Corcoran’s comments to a gathering of faculty, President Corcoran, who as one of the state’s most highly paid employees, with a combined $1.3 million per year in salary and benefits, characterized FDOGE’s audit as “ridiculous”, adding that “you can’t measure us until 2028.”
President Corcoran’s predecessor, Patricia Okker, was paid “about $353,000” per year.
President Corcoran defended spending on repairs to student dorms and to the mansion that had been damaged by mold as caused by “decades of catastrophic neglect.” Also he stated, “the school’s spirit … had become so dysfunctional that it was described as ‘toxic.'”
During those nearly three years of overhaul, New College’s U.S. News & World Report Rankings has the school dropping from 75th to 135th in the publications “national liberal arts colleges” rankings.
President Corcoran accused the news outlet of having been manipulated by outside educational interests:
“For decades, the same universities that built bloated bureaucracies and ideological echo chambers have graded each other on a curve — rewarding peers who protect the status quo and punishing any institution brave enough to change.”
Galen Rysdik, a recent New College graduate with a joint degree in applied math and quantitative economics and a separate degree in music experienced both versions of the school; he told the Post reporter that he thought the old New College had a vibrant study body and top-notch professors.
He added:
“I think the students thought, to a large degree, that their voices were not being heard and that the direction was changing in a way that they didn’t want. … For myself, I was a little bit frustrated that we had a public university that had a very political messaging.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I admit that I don’t know when FDOGE’s auditors should be permitted to review New College’s spending traits. I don’t know if 2029 is the first years that the auditors should be given New College’s books.
But is was State of Florida watchdogs who prepared the report. Their announced purpose for being is to promote government efficiencies. Suddenly, certain of their findings are “ridiculous.”
Yes, spending money to repair mold brought on by decades of neglect is a valid point to make about recent rises in costs of running a college.
Since Republicans have controlled Florida’s legislature for about 30 straight years now, and since Republicans have controlled the governor’s seat since 1998, at whose feet should the blame for the claimed neglect be laid?
And, if it is true that some $75 million extra per year has been given to the school by the legislature, just what percentage of the cumulative increase in funding after the passage of nearly three years does the cost of mold repair occasion?
Joe D says
Well said Ray W. ( I always love your backing up of statements and opinions with traceable FACTS).
Sad to see that a Public University which has produced a multitude of nationally recognized scholars, can in 3 short years be POLITICALLY destroyed ( in the name of “WOKENESS”) with it’s decorated President ousted, it’s board essentially replaced with DeSantis MAGA “syncopaths”…and experienced tenured professor censored, all at an outrageous increased cost,(essentially blamed on mold remediation). I visited the New College grounds with my then pre-college aged youngest son, and actually explored the possibility of him attending…but I was living out of state then and the price of out of state tuition combined with the distance stopped me.
How sad to see what a MAGA transformation can do to an excellent educational institution, when POLITICAL MOTIVATION is the reason for program changes.
Ray W. says
Hello Joe D:
I attended law school alongside a New College graduate.
After graduation, I became a prosecutor in Sarasota County. He obtained work in the Public Defender’s office in Sarasota County. For a short time, we were assigned to the same misdemeanor trial docket. I always planned to practice in my home county, but I started in Sarasota so that I could make the mistakes all young, dumb and reckless (arrogant?) lawyers make when they are starting out before coming home.
He was a smart, funny, hard-working and a zealous advocate. Free spirit, too.
We were never close personal friends. More like happy associates, but I made it a point to ask him questions about New College whenever I could. The idea of the college’s unique teaching method intrigued me and he seemed happy to talk of his time there.
He went on to become lead death penalty assistant public defender for the 12th Circuit.
I, too, ended up in the High Crimes Unit in Mr. Purdy’s Public Defender’s office in the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
I briefly talked with him each year at the annual statewide public defender’s death penalty seminar. When his boss retired, he ran for the position, but lost the election to a fellow assistant. He went into private practice.
The dude says
Removing my child from Flagler County schools was one of the best life choices I’ve ever made.
I weep for her friends and peers she left behind…
Joe D says
Lashaka Moore and the students and families of Flagler County Schools are the REAL LOSERS after the recent juvenile behavior of Chong and Fury in the School Board meeting! Imagine the School Superintendent has to rein in the bickering among supposedly competent adult school board members. At least her CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT skills came in handy…how ridiculous she had to intervene.
I had THOUGHT with the recent resignation of the PRIOR THEATRICAL ( in my opinion) School Board member, things would settle down to getting some school BUSINESS accomplished…my MISTAKE.
So now we have Will Fury and the current disaster ( again in my opinion) of a Federal Representative RANDY FINE coming up against a third candidate, I APPARENTLY need to get to know BEFORE the next local election, although a TRUMP endorsement almost ENSURES we will have more years of Randy Fine’s EMBARRASSING ANTICS (in my opinion), due to the MAGA “Sheeple” following whatever DONALD SAYS, when it come time for elections. I still have to regrettably admit to outside the area friends and family, that yes indeed THAT “RANDY FINE” in the news for outrageous and inflammatory comments, is MY area elected representative ( even though I PERSONALLY didn’t vote for him).
Republican or Democrat….are these the BEST Candidates Flagler County can muster?
Oil Change Required says
Two minions of the Great Minority Pastor, as she reminds everyone that she is a minority that everyone seems to hate her, the self proclaimed Pastor she is too don’t forget cause she won’tlet you forget.
Furry and Chong were hand picked by the Grand Order of Packyderms President Pastor J to run against two excellent candidates. She played Governor DeSantis and then Speaker Renner to endorse Furry and Chong. Those two must feel like jerks. Two unknowns got the seats of that endorsement.
Since then chaos. Furry is a bully evident from his behavior last night. Chong never says anything but when challenged by Ramirez Chong quickly didn’t want any blame. Chong fought back like it High School girls fighting. Chong has no ability to lead as she is now positioned to work for Furry and his sick management of the school board.
Here is his plan: he’ll fail to raise money for Congress since his actions last night. Money and support will dry up.
Furry will drop out and run for school board again because he can and believes in his entitlement.
Or that he has God’s endorsement.
Or, maybe it’s the will of the Great Pastor J..the other self-proclaimed woman of God……..or maybe she is God.
Tired of it says
As a Republican acquaintance said to me once, she qould rather vote for a bad republican than a good Democrat every time. Hence Flurry and Chong. What a disgrace for this community those two are.
Trumps says... says
Disgraceful for us Republicans.
I hope the Governor is watching.
Dennis says
As a lifelong Republican, last night’s fiasco was a new low for our School Board. Unfortunately, this has been at a consistent level for years.
Chong and Furry have been an incredible disappointment. They’ve wasted tens of thousands of dollars, polarized the Board and embarrassed the county.
Chong, as chair, is a terrible fit for the board. We get it, she’s running for re-election. But for someone who lacks personality and is way in over her head, this is not the best fit. For instance, she had no idea how to run the meeting or even close it. In the years she’s been Vice Chair, all she could do was scream “Don’t blame this on me!”. She also showed zero leadership, only favoritism. Thankfully, she will be voted out next year. Thanks for your service, Ms Chong, it’s been painful.
Then, there’s furry. I think it’s safe to say that no one loves furry, as much as he does. He behaved entitled, condescending and defined “mansplaining”. It was a horrible look. We know he can’t read the room and has difficulties grasping concepts but, to not understand that nothing is usual about a 4 person board was shocking. He touted his “experience” but, in his tenure as chair he, not once, ran a meeting properly and never sought training to be a better board member. He wanted to compare resumes with Ms Ramirez. That’s interesting coming from the least formally educated board member we’ve ever had. He’s not a good person and more of a very slimy loser.
The only good thing that came out of last night was that 2 political careers will be ending, for good, in a little over a years time. Chong and Furry, time for you to exit the stage. Bye Felecia’s!
Just me. says
Flagler County School Board hasn’t had it together for years and it continues to be unprofessional, unqualified individuals that aren’t in it for the students but just for themselves.
tulip says
To those who voted them in—shame on you and may it haunt you as long as they are in office. This schoolboard is nothing to be proud of or have any confidence in. You fit right in with the rest of our crummy government.
The dude says
The majority of the voters in PC literally have no skin in the game when it comes to schools and education, so they vote tribal every time. Slap a red hat on and promise you won’t do anything to help the kids, and you’re guaranteed to be voted in by the angry olds.
Kennan says
I can’t say enough about the logically thought out responses to these”DIM” wits.
Legends in their own minds, politically motivated “ I’m on a mission from God”EVANGELICAL narcissists.
Thank you all for the focused optics as we brace ourselves for the drama to come.