Sally Hunt Is Again a No Show, Raising Questions Among Her School Board Colleagues and Her Seat

Sally Hunt was a no-show today. Again.

The Flagler County School Board member was due at a 10:30 workshop–dubbed a “retreat” by the board–to discuss board procedures, the continuation of a meeting started two weeks ago. There was no explanation about her absence. She has missed numerous board functions, including graduations and last months’ event honoring the district’s top teachers and employees, and some board meetings in the 15 months since she was sworn-in. Anyone writing her at her school board email gets an automated response. Two weeks ago she revealed that she would be resigning her seat. She did not say when.




Hunt’s absences drew criticism from fellow-Board member Cheryl Massaro at today’s meeting, concerns about the functioning of a board that, without a majority, could see many of its actions fail (a 2-2 vote is equivalent to the death of a motion) and questions about her seat when she resigns.

“Who’s responsible for policing the school board?” Massaro asked. “We have responsibilities which we just went through. Sometimes, often, we have individuals who do not participate or are not attending.” She was referring to Hunt. “So whose responsibility is that? They have the same statutory responsibilities as everybody here. We’ve gone through that. You know what they are. I’ve never seen so many absences in a year plus. I’ve never had a school board person utilize automated responses, ever, on their email. So that’s directly affecting our constituents.”

David Delaney, the interim board attorney, was at the table. Massaro’s questions were for him. He said only the governor has the power to remove an elected official, though in his experience the sort of things Massaro was describing “has not risen to the level” that would draw a governor’s intervention. (A serious crime or misconduct would have to be involved to warrant that intervention, though, ironically, Hunt herself interprets the word “misconduct” very liberally, as she did in her allegations about Kristy Gavin, the former board attorney she maneuvered to fire.)




“So that leaves potentially censure by other board members, you could have a motion to censure,” Delaney said. “I’ve seen some districts use that as a tool. It could be obviously very divisive. So it really comes down to–Florida law puts a lot of authority and trust in the judgment of the voters to pick their elected representatives, and the typical way of issues like that if the voters aren’t happy, it gets resolved at the ballot box. It’s more of an election issue than as a board members policing each other.” (See: “Sally Hunt Wanted to Censure School Board Chair For Going Off Script in Talk Over Segregated Assembly.”)

Massaro described it as a chronic problem if that leaves the board with four votes. “A lot of situations are going to end in a dead vote, which is going to hurt moving the district, and that concerns me,” Massaro said, though a number of those “dead votes,” had they happened, would have ensured that the 3-2 majority Hunt has been a part of, with Will Furry and Christy Chong, would not have prevailed–not when it pushed out former Superintendent Cathy Mittlestadt, for example, and not when it fired Gavin, though last April, when Chong and Furry sought to censure Massaro, Hunt joined Massaro and Colleen Conklin to thwart that attempt. (See: “Furry and Chong, Who’d Slandered Opponents During Campaign, Seek to ‘Censure’ School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro. They Fail.”

Conklin would prefer everyone got along. “You want to get to a place where you’re a healthy board and respectful of each other,” she said. “It may be simply obviously, this is a known issue. Why isn’t somebody here? Why are they not comfortable being here? Trying to get to the root cause of some of those things and then dealing with those so everybody feels welcome at the table.” Last May, Hunt told her colleagues that she did not feel “safe” at workshops when held in the third-floor conference room of the Government Services Building, where the “retreat” was being held, and where a 1 p.m. workshop was scheduled. But that appeared to have more to do with the public, and members of the public sitting across the table from her when addressing the board. Hunt, generally, has not been comfortable in her public role, as the various obstacles she’s put up suggest–like the automated email reply, or her absences from board functions. (See: “School Board’s Sally Hunt Feels Unsafe in Workshops and Asks for Permanent Deputy Security.”)




She has also not explained why, if she intends to resign, she has not done so, potentially giving others the opportunity to run to complete the more than two years left on her term.

Furry, who had only moments before told Massaro not to “call out” board members by name, did so now, referring to Hunt’s revelation that she would not be completing her term. “We don’t know when that might be. But in the event that that happens and whether it is an election or a governor appointment,” Furry said, “which I’ve read the statutes, it clearly says governor appointments, I assume that’s how it will be filled. But there may be time for that to happen.”

Furry was not entirely accurate. Several years ago, then-School Board member Andy Dance resigned his seat with ample time to give candidates a chance to prepare and run for the seat. There was an election, and Jill Woolbright was elected to a two-year term, losing to Hunt in 2022.

Two laws address the issue. One states clearly, as Furry said, that “All vacancies on the district school board shall be filled by appointment by the Governor.” But another states just as clearly that the governor will make that appointment only “if there is less than 28 months remaining in the term; otherwise, until the first Tuesday after the first Monday following the next general election.” That is: with 28 months or more left in a vacated seat, that seat would be up for election at the next general election. Hunt has 33 months left in her term.




Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart said today it isn’t clear, with conflicting laws on the matter, whether the governor would appoint a replacement or whether there would be an election. The Dance precedent suggests that, if Hunt were to resign soon, the governor could appoint someone, but only until the November election. Governor appointments–and this governor in particular–can take many months.

The school board did not resolve the matter. “You can see where I’m going with this,” Massaro said. “We’ve been dealing with this for a year. So that’s my concern.” Clearly, it hasn’t been Hunt’s.

Hunt was at the 1 p.m. workshop and at the 6 p.m. meeting.