Wes Wolfe
Jamie Deonas loaned his campaign $15,000 in January in his reelection effort to the Nassau County School Board, but the prospect of competing against that money didn’t deter Shannon Hogue or Rick Pavelock from filing and qualifying for the race before Friday’s noon deadline.
Deonas, the current District 3 member, is running in District 1. He won election and reelection the previous times without opposition.
Deonas has been one of the more-vocal members of the Board regarding the need for a 1 mill property tax increase to help deal with the pressure put on the school district and its staff by the county’s extraordinary growth and high standard of living.
“I’ve had the pleasure of sitting here for the past two terms, and I’ve watched this district save, cut, do more with less, and it’s everywhere,” Deonas said at the last Board meeting. “It not just affects teachers, it affects everybody for our district.”
He has around $13,170 on hand compared to Hogue’s nearly $2,500. Pavlock has no reported campaign finance activity.
An educator for more than 20 years, Hogue is currently the reading coach at Emma Love Hardee Elementary.
“Our schools are A Rated, and I want us to maintain this level of success,” Hogue said in her campaign announcement. “To do this, we must think of ways to retain our teachers and also attract new staff. You may already know, the district has a high teacher turnover rate.
“If this continues, maintaining our A Rating will be more difficult. When schools’ ratings begin to drop, so do our property values. We must be proactive for our community.”
