Pretextual generally refers to a reason for an action which is false, and offered to cover up true motives or intentions.

The complainant, Shelton, alleged that School Board’s newly elected Superintendent, Rocky Hanna, discriminated against him by not renewing his employment contract based on age and in retaliation for his friendship and support of former Superintendent Jackie Pons. Mr. Shelton was Director of Maintenance.

The School Board denied the retaliation charge and the allegation was not addressed in the investigation due to the Commission’s lack of jurisdiction.

The School Board stated that Shelton’s contract was not renewed because he did not meet expectations as a leader and a manager.

However, Shelton rebutted these argument by stating that his performance evaluations during his 10-year employment met or exceeded expectations.

Records show that Shelton received an “Exceeded Expectations” for “supervisory behavior” for the 2015-16 school year.

Also, his  direct supervisor, Mr. Youngblood wrote that Shelton’s “knowledge, experience and professional commitment stands out” in providing the “best support service possible.”

Mr. Youngblood also stated he had not been consulted or advised about Shelton’s termination and that he had high regards for Shelton’s performance as the Director of Maintenance.

After an investigation, the Florida Commission on Human Relations notified the School Board and Mr. Shelton on August 24th, 2018 that  “there is reasonable cause to believe that an unlawful practice occurred.”

Mr. Shelton has 35 days from the date of the letter to request a hearing with the Division of Administrative Hearings and has one year to file a civil action in the court of law.

TR has contacted the Leon School Board and will update the story when warranted.

“The state is trying to destroy public education which is a cornerstone of our great nation. Without a productive education system, I fear for the future of, not just Leon County, but all the students in the state of Florida,” Hanna said in an interview with Tallahassee Reports.

HB 7069 was signed into law June 15 after it narrowly cleared the Florida legislature on the final day of session. It easily passed the Republican majority Florida House, 73-36, but only passed the more politically divided Senate with a 20-18 vote.

The legislation sends more public money to privately-run charter schools. It also requires recess in elementary schools, makes changes to the state’s standardized testing system, and includes millions of dollars for teacher bonuses, known as the Best and Brightest Teacher Program.

“The Best and Brightest Teacher Program is absolutely absurd,” Hanna said.

“We are rewarding teachers based on criteria of college entrance scores when they applied to go to college. It’s just crazy,” he said.

He explained that under the program there will be some first-year teachers that haven’t even been evaluated by their schools who will qualify for a $6,000 bonus while 80 percent of Leon County teachers, most of whom are more experienced will not qualify because they may have gone to a junior college or don’t have a qualifying college entrance score.

“A SAT or ACT score has no correlation to the effectiveness of a teacher. It is a morale buster,” Hanna said, “because nothing will split an organization faster than money.”

He continued, “When we have 200 of our teachers being rewarded and 2100 are not, it causes a lot of animosity.”

He said because of the colleges in Tallahassee, it’s not as hard to attract teachers.

“There’s really no need to incentivize a $6,000 bonus for a teacher with a high SAT score to attract her to Leon County where, in other counties, that might be an issue. That should be left up to local superintendents and boards to make those decisions as opposed to the legislature where it’s one size fits all,” he said.

“I would, honestly, rather not have the money,” he confessed.

He said the Florida Education Association (FEA), the school teachers’ union, is suing Leon County Schools and all the other school districts because they are implementing the Best and Brightest Teachers Program that the legislature is forcing on the districts.

“How ironic is that when even the teachers’ union realizes that it’s a bad program,” Hanna said.

But it really is not that surprising considering many have called HB 7069 an all-out attack on FEA by House Speaker Richard Corcoran (R).

During his remarks at the opening of the 2017 legislative session Corcoran called the union “downright evil” and accused it of trying to “destroy the lives of 100,000 children, mostly minority, and all of them poor.”

After Governor Rick Scott signed the legislation into law Corcoran said, “Today is a great day for Florida’s students, parents, and teachers. This bill is the most transformative pro-parent, pro-student, pro-teacher, and pro-public education bill in the history of the state of Florida.”

Hanna vehemently disagrees.

“The legislature is slowly and methodically taking away all local control from district superintendents. The state just wants to control all 67 school districts in Florida, for some reason. It’s disappointing. Our needs in Leon County are very different than in Okaloosa or Miami/Dade, and for us to lose control at the local level kinda handcuffs school district superintendents because they can’t make the decisions which best fit the needs of their school community,” he said.

He was particularly incensed with the charter school provisions within the legislation.

“They are sharing capital outlay dollars with charter schools, who’s schools are located on private property. So we are using public tax dollars to renovate and remodel private property. That to me seems completely unconstitutional,” Hanna said.

Several of the other larger districts think it’s unconstitutional, too, and have filed suit with the state.

On July 5, the Broward County School Board voted to sue the Florida Legislature over provisions of HB 7069, and Pinellas County joined the suit July 15. Others like Alachua county are considering joining too.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, lawyers for Broward County say HB 7069 violates the state’s constitutional requirement that bills focus on a single subject, by encompassing more than 60 separate measures. It circumvents the constitutional mandate that school boards operate, control and supervise all public schools in their district, with the creation of a separate “schools of hope” charter school system and it violates the constitutional rules regarding ad valorem taxes for schools, with the requirement that districts distribute a portion of their capital funding tax revenue to charter schools.

“We’re monitoring what they’re doing,” said Hanna. But he said Leon County would not, at this time commit taxpayer dollars to file a law suit.

“Now we may, if we don’t see any relief whatsoever, as a last alternative (join the suit),” Hanna said.

“(Before making that decision) I’ll talk to school board members about jumping in on the suit,” he said.

He explained the big districts are affected a lot more and have more resources with which to fight.

“We don’t have the resources these bigger districts had and even if we did I’m kinda reluctant to jump into a lawsuit to sue the state. I would hope common sense will prevail,” Hanna said.

He continued that he had spoken at a recent meeting of the Florida Board of Education about the lack of autonomy and lack of local control.

“I’ll keep screaming from the mountaintops and hopefully at some point they’ll listen,” he said.

Several sources also said the teacher told her students they were welcome to come to her classroom if they chose to walk out of a class showing the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

TR has been told that Superintendent Rocky Hanna is aware of the situation and is gathering information to determine how best to proceed.

TR is withholding the teachers name until an evaluation by the Leon County School District is complete.

The article distributed in the class was written by Rev Dr. Susan K. Smith and is titled Whites and the Fear Caused by White Supremacy. The article was published by Huffington Post on December 29, 2015.

The article is a summary of a presentation made by Joy DeGruy, Ph.D. about her book, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing.”

Dr. DeGruy’s theory, outlined in her book and the article, is about how slavery and white supremacy explains the conditions of black America.

A passage from the article reads:

White people do not want to admit that their racism, the reason people are taking to the streets, is because the power wielded by a racist government has been devastating to black people.

Another passage:

What would happen if this nation would admit that white supremacy exists and that it has traumatized an entire race of people? What would happen if America engaged in a process of truth and reconciliation, much like South Africa did? South Africa admitted its horrid racism; Germany admitted hers, but America has never admitted anything. And perhaps that is, at least, part of the reason that the malady affecting white America is fear.

A parent, who first appeared on the The Voice of Freedom Today morning show last week, told TR that her son was clearly uncomfortable about the article which was read in his language arts class.

The parent initially contacted the school, however administrators said they saw no problem with the discussion. Subsequently, the parent was told the teacher apologized for the incident.

TR’s discussion with people familiar with the situation said there are two issues.

First, why was such an article selected by the teacher for distribution in a language arts class?

And second, it appears there was no attempt by the language arts teacher to offer an opposing view, or at least a critique of the position discussed in the article.

A critique of the DeGruy’s theory was easily found by TR with a simple google search.

For example, Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars wrote, DeGruy’s  “theory stumbles in offing too wide an explanation. It is too wide because the vast majority of descendants of black slaves do not exhibit Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. They lead normal, healthy, and productive lives, and have no more depression and hopelessness than anyone else.”

TR will report on the findings by the Leon County School District when they become available.

However, sometimes promises are clear, verifiable, and have consequences when broken.

One of the most famous campaign promises was George H. Bush’s “read my lips no new taxes” pledge that went out the window after he was elected.

Bush’s promise was clear and easily fact-checked. He broke it. He lost the next election.

President Obama’s promise that you can “keep your doctor” under the Affordable Care Act did not cost him an election. But his broken promise caused his party a lot of problems during the recent elections. Once again, it was a promise that was clear and verifiable.

Here in Tallahassee, Mayor Andrew Gillum made a clear and verifiable promise with regards to how he would serve the citizens of Tallahassee when he was a candidate for the office he now holds.

When asked how he would meet the responsibilities of the Leadership Mayor position with his current 40 hour a week job that paid six figures, he told a reporter he would cut back on the job and reduce the salary in half if elected.

Due to Mayor Gillum’s unwillingness to address his pledge, we had to wait two years until tax filings with the IRS were made public to find out if he kept his promise.

He did not!

Instead, Mayor Gillum kept his 40-hour a week job that paid him $133,000 and he also collected his $76,000 salary as the Leadership Mayor. The Mayor had good year -he pulled down a cool $209,000 in 2015.

By the way, Gillum voted to raise taxes and the fire service fee and saw no problem with $175,000 salaries for top city staff.

Will Gillum’s broken promise have consequences? Only time will tell.

And so with TR’s mission of keeping voters informed, we look to two newly elected leaders who have made clear and verifiable promise during their campaigns.

First, there is Sheriff Walt McNeil. He made it clear that the increasing crime rate in Leon County was a major reason he should be elected. He held the incumbent Sheriff, Mike Wood, accountable through aggressive campaign advertisements even though the crime rate was driven by City of Tallahassee incidents.

McNeil’s response was, as Sheriff, he could lower the crime rate throughout Leon County.

This is a verifiable and easily measured  promise. McNeil has four  years to get the crime rate under control.

Second there is Superintendent Rocky Hanna. In a controversial campaign devoid of much talk about the issues, Hanna made two significant promises that are verifiable.

First, Hanna took the position that  a new high school was not needed on the southside. Instead, he promised significant renovations to southside facilities.

Second, he campaigned to move more money from administrative expenses into the classroom.

Hanna’s promises can easily be verified.

Both of these elected officials have been given the trust of the voters based in part on what they said they would do if elected. It is our job at Tallahassee Reports to keep you informed about the progress, or lack of progress, in keeping their campaign promises.

“I expect I’ll be putting out fires and working toward the future,” he said.

He won’t be sworn in until November 22, but life is already hectic.

“With 33,000 students and around 66,000 parents, there is a lot to be done,” Hanna said, “but that’s why I ran. I’m not scared to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”

“It’s important to me that when people look back at my time as superintendent, they say ‘Rocky did a good job.’” he said.

Hanna ran on a platform of eliminating wasteful spending, increasing teacher morale and autonomy and reducing testing, especially in the lower school. Those remain his priority as he looks forward to his first days as superintendent.

“I will evaluate different positions, departments and programs and I have some good ideas of where to find wasteful spending, but I really don’t want to elaborate until I get in there,” he said.

He wants to push the funding away from the wasteful areas and back into the classrooms.

He also wants to improve teacher morale by giving teachers more control over their classrooms. “I want to let our teachers be the professionals they were trained to be,” Hanna said.

Lower school children are under too much stress at too young of an age, according to Hanna.

“There is undue stress on our six and seven year-olds,” Hanna said. He explained that, yes, a lot of the testing was mandated by the state but the children are evaluated locally and given grades A through F based on the test assessment.

He said he will discuss eliminating letter grades and perhaps changing to a “pass/fail” format, possibly to as high as second grade.

“I want to have a conversation with our teachers and parents and figure out how we ended up here and determine if there is some middle ground we can reach (where children aren’t over tested but progress can be evaluated),” Hanna said.

Hanna won election Nov. 8 as Leon County Superintendent, unseating incumbent Jackie Pons.

TALLAHASSEE – Candidates for Leon County School Superintendent pulled no punches Tuesday during the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates (NEBA) candidate forum.

Candidates Rocky Hanna, Woody Hildebrandt, Patricia Ann Sunday, and Forrest Van Camp squared off against incumbent superintendent Jackie Pons at the Capital City Country Club with Tallahassee Reports editor Steve Stewart moderating.

Two candidates, Hildebrandt and Hanna, described themselves as whistleblowers against the incumbent superintendent. Both contend the district skirted state law in its awarding of no bid construction contracts. Both hammered the incumbent on the issue, even though no charges have been brought in the two years since the investigation began.

“There is no doubt in my mind that for years non-bidded construction projects were handed out in return for political donations and campaigns, no doubt,” said Hanna, a former Leon School principal who is running with no political affiliation (NPA). He said he had to do what he felt was right which was to hand over documents to the federal government.

He said whether charges are filed or not, he “doesn’t care anymore.” He said that last summer, 11 new construction policies where passed by the school board which resulted in the county “doing what was right by the taxpayers, right by the teachers and most importantly right by our students.”

Hildebrandt, running as a Democrat, is the former principal at Lively Technical School. He took credit as the “man responsible for cleaning up the construction (bidding policy) in Leon County.”

He said, “I discovered illegal activity…including overspending … paying contractors for substandard work, and multi-million dollars being purposely excluded for political reasons. In many, many years nothing has been bid or selected appropriately. Jackie Pons said give this contract to contractors A, B and C.”

Pons, who is running against Hildebrandt in the August Democrat primary, vehemently denied the charges, inferring they were politically motivated. “Every one of those projects were bid and were bid in the Tallahassee Democrat. Two individuals running for office put together a notebook full of wild allegations against me and my family,” he said. “I have had to deal with this for three years. I have never been interviewed by anyone for any wrong doing while I have served as your superintendent. After 40 some stories (in the Tallahassee Democrat) and what do we have today? False allegations and they’re both running for superintendent.”

Hildebrandt, who was arrested last year and faces felony charges for allegedly using Lively Tech’s welding materials to complete projects at his home was asked by Stewart about the charges against him.

Hildebrandt responded, “Jackie Pons is damn afraid. (These charges) will have no impact on my campaign. I am honest as the day is long. I’m gonna run against him and beat his ass.”

Van Camp, running as a Republican, said of the controversy, “It hurts to see what’s happened.”

Van Camp, a 36 year veteran of the school board, who served on the administrative staff for all superintendents since 1978 and six years on the Leon County School Board, referred to himself as an experienced granddaddy.

He said that kind of experience is what is needed in the superintendent’s office, “There has got to be some healing and we need someone with experience and patience.”

Van Camp was asked by Stewart to respond to accusations that he entered the contest to take votes from Hanna in the general election which could help Pons win.

“I got in the race because I am concerned with the lack of leadership,” he said.

He said even though he and Pons are personal friends, politically Van Camp is Pons’ “worse enemy.” Van Camp said he is very conservative and doesn’t agree with Pons’ more liberal ideas.

He continued, “I had to use $8,000 of my own money (to get in this race.) I assure you, I don’t like Jackie Pons that much.”

Patricia Ann Sunday (NPA) Former School Board member and retired state employee was asked about criticism that she is not a serious contender for superintendent because she is way behind in fund raising. “Since when does money mean someone is qualified for superintendent? Each of the other candidates have been connected for 20 to 40 years. Are schools any better? Who has stood up for our children?” she asked.

“No one,” she yelled, “No one.”

Hanna won a straw poll of the 120 NEBA members attending the forum. Pons finished second.

Hanna was followed by Superintendent Jackie Pons and former Leon County school board member Forrest Van Camp. Over 120 people attended the forum held at Capital City Country Club. Only NEBA members were allowed to vote in the straw poll.

TR will have a full write-up on the forum later today.

In an exclusive interview, Van Camp told TR why he is running and addressed each of his opponents. Van Camp said:

I have decided to come out of retirement and run for Superintendent of Schools for Leon County. I cannot sit by and watch the possibility that this great school district may be turned over to a political maverick like Scott Maddox, or a non-experienced showboat, Rocky Hanna. I am also concerned that my friend, Jackie Pons, may have waited too late to show leadership in dealing with problem employees and current issues.

Van Camp highlighted his 36 years with the Leon County school district as qualifications for the position. He has served on the administrative staff for all superintendents since 1978 and served 6 years on the Leon County School Board.

In 2014 Van Camp lost his bid for re-election to current Leon School Board member Alva Striplin as the investigation into the awarding of construction contracts at the school board was unfolding.

Van Camp detailed specific policy positions he will support as superintendent.

He wants to remove common core from Leon County schools, reduce staff at the district level, and make sure Leon County Schools are run by local decisions.

Also, Van Camp staked out a position that promises to garner attention and appears to be in direct opposition to current school district policy. Van Camp stated  “that all students will use the bathroom/shower facilities based on gender at birth. Accommodations can and will be made for special needs.”

TR recently reported on the the School Board’s position on this issue here.

A list of Van Camp’s policy positions are provided at the end of this story.

The Race

The entrance of Van Camp is bound to add political intrigue and uncertainty to the already controversial race which featured former Leon High School principal Rocky Hanna and current City Commissioner Scott Maddox challenging incumbent Superintendent Jackie Pons.

City Commissioner Scott Maddox was first to enter the race, criticizing Pons’ leadership and referencing the ongoing FBI investigation. At their first debate, Maddox continued the critique.

Maddox is also advocating for redirecting more funds to the classroom and addressing the low school grades on the southside.

Pons, who was under constant attack in local media with regards to the construction contract issue, decided to run for re-election when an in-house report found no wrong doing and it appeared no action from the authorities was imminent. He announced his intentions in July, 2015

Pons argues that the construction contract issue was overblown and that he and his staff deserve credit for the district’s A rating.

Maddox and Pons are running as Democrats in the partisan race scheduled to be decided in the primary on August 3oth.

Former Leon School principal Rocky Hanna announced his intentions to run in August, 2015. He chose to run with no party affiliation and will not appear on the ballot until November.  Hanna made news when he filed for whistle blower protection during the investigation into school board construction contracts.  Hanna recently resigned his position with the school board, as is required by state law.

Hanna believes the school district has been mismanaged under Pons’ leadership and has criticized highly paid administrators and the diversion of money for school supplies to other purposes.

Together, the three candidates have raised over $600,000.

There are some who have been following the politics of this race who believe Van Camp entered the contest to take votes from Hanna in the general election which could help Pons win.

When asked about this theory, Van Camp said “I believe I am more qualified than anyone in this race and my commitment to education is beyond reproach. I am in it to win it.”

By entering the race Van Camp, a Republican and currently without a primary opponent, ensures that the November race will feature a Republican, a Democrat, and at this point, at least three candidates with no party affiliation. The no party affiliation candidates included Hanna, Michael Wynn, and Patricia Sunday.

Van Camp’s Campaign Positions

• Treat all students as if they are my grandchildren. I plan to adopt all of them.
• Return Leon County Schools to the basics, both academically and financially.
• Empower principals and school staff to make decisions at the school level. I will hire the best principals, and they will report directly to me.
• Reduce staff at the district level.
• Redirect dollars to the classroom.
• Redirect the use of federal dollars to serve all students and not just selected sites.
• Remove Common Core from Leon County Schools.
• Stand firm that all students will use the bathroom/shower facilities based on gender at birth. Accommodations can and will be made for special needs.
• Hire the best teachers to better ensure that all students receive the BEST educational experiences possible.
• Make sure USDOE and FDOE will not run Leon County Schools.
• Listen to parents and community leaders and work with the Leon County School Board to ensure that a great educational community exists in Leon County

Previoulsy, the complaints have been about the number of stories, 40-50, dedicated to the coverage of the investigations into the awarding of construction contracts to Pons’ donors and the inclusion of wild accusations in articles about activities at the School Board without any independent evidence.

However, the issue of bias has been raised again with two stories written by Mr. Burlew that appeared on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat on Sunday, February 28th.

The charges of bias centers around the timing, the lack of “new” news in the content of the articles, and the inclusion of the writer’s assessment of a political campaign.

In addition, Tallahassee Reports, through a public records request, has received documents that show Mr. Burlew failed to publish information in his possession that would have discredited allegations in a lawsuit filed against the Leon County School Board and Superintendent Jackie Pons.

First, today’s articles.

The story above the fold in Sunday’s paper, titled “The right turn that rocked district”,  is about the arrest of School Board employee Paul Byrd. The story seems to have been written simply because it has been two years since the arrest of Mr. Byrd.

However, on the front page is a paragraph that sets the political context of the article and raises serious questions about bias.

Mr. Burlew writes, “the fallout from the arrest ultimately would cast doubt on the political future of Byrd’s former boss and one-time friend, Superintendent Jackie Pons, in the run up to his 2016 re-election.”

Burlew’s assessment of Pons’ political future comes during a campaign for Leon County School Suprintendent that is well under way. Three candidates, Rocky Hanna, Scott Maddox, and Jackie Pons have each raised over $150,000 each.

Burlew’s view would seem to be best provided in an opinion column.

Below the Byrd arrest story on the front page is another article penned by Burlew which is entitled “FDLE probe into Leon schools is active, ongoing.”

This story appears to have been constructed around a single phone call to  FDLE to inquire about the status of the investigation into Leon County Schools. The response by the FDLE spokeswoman was it is “active” and no other details were provided.

After this revelation, Burlew begins to site “news” from June of last year and spends the second half of the article on facts already reported about the investigation into Leon Schools. Also in the article, is a large picture of Superintendent Jackie Pons next to a picture of an FDLE emblem.

The fairness of writing such a story given the ongoing campaign raises questions about future stories and the criteria used by the Executive Editor at the Tallahassee Democrat.

A Boat Purchase and a DUI

Two of the wilder accusations that have originated from the local reporting surrounding the Leon County School District over the last two years includes a $30,000 boat the district supposedly paid for and a Jackie Pons DUI.

Like most rumors, it is hard to tell exactly where they get started.

On June 18, 2014 Tallahassee Democrat Reporter Jeff Burlew submitted a public records request to the Leon County School Board that asked for “copies of any emails, memos, receipts, purchase orders and any and all other documentation involving the purchase of a boat by the school district.”

On June 19, 2014,  at 8:30 AM the Tallahassee Democrat published an article that reported accusations made in a lawsuit against the Leon County School Board and Superintendent Jackie Pons.

The following section was published in the Democrat:

The lawsuit says Nichols also was asked about whether she knew anything about a boat or beach house or rumors of a DUI crash involving Pons and a district vehicle. Nichols responded by saying she’d heard about a purchase by the district of a boat for $30,000 but that it wasn’t properly authorized. She also said her daughter’s best friend worked at a body shop where Pons had taken a district vehicle and that he’d paid for the repairs out of his own pocket to avoid an invoice to the district.

Through public record requests, Tallahassee Reports has learned that Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeff Burlew had in his possession, on June 19 at 4:56 pm,  information that did not substantiate accusations about a boat purchase in the article made against Leon County School Superintendent Jackie Pons.

The information provided by the school district is provided in an email below. Click image to enlarge.

The information in the above email clearly shows the accusation about the boat purchase was not supported by any public documents.

However, for whatever reason, Mr. Burlew did not wait for the information from the School Board before publishing the accusation about the boat.

In fact, Mr. Burlew has yet to publish the findings provided in the above public records request.

In addition, the accusation that Pons had a DUI in a School District vehicle could have been easily verified by checking with local law enforcement officials.

Was it Mr. Burlew’s responsibility to provide the information?

Was it the responsibility of the Tallahassee Democrat to ensure fairness and address omissions of facts.

The American Society of News Editors states that:

Every effort must be made to assure that the news content is accurate, free from bias and in context, and that all sides are presented fairly. Editorials, analytical articles and commentary should be held to the same standards of accuracy with respect to facts as news reports. Significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and prominently.

Tallahassee Reports will continue to provide information that holds elected officials and the local media accountable.

Candidate Scott Maddox reported $22,590 in donations for August to go with the $93,000 he has previously raised.

Maddox said “I’m proud of the support our campaign has received from folks who want to restore the public trust in our school district.”

Given the fundraising history of Pons and Maddox, it will be interesting to see how much is eventually raised in the race and if political newcomer Rocky Hanna will be able to raise enough to compete with the political veterans.

The current tally shows Maddox has raised $116,329, Pons has raised $108,479 and Hanna has raised $105,062.

Pons told Tallahassee Reports that ” I am proud and thankful for our supporters which include teachers, administrators, and others who believe in what we have been doing in the schools. I plan on making sure everyone in this district knows about the positive outcomes we have worked hard to achieve.”

Pons’ report reveals that he made a $3,000 loan to his account. Accounting for that loan, Pons reported 340 donations for a total of $105,000. That is approximately $308 per donation. The maximum donation allowed is $1,000.

Earlier today we published a story on Rocky Hanna’s first report as a candidate, it can be viewed here. Hanna raised $80,000 from donors and loaned his campaign $25,000. City Commissioner Scott Maddox has yet to file his report, but has raised $93,000 since he announced.

“You knew Jackie and Scott would raise a lot of money. This means that all three will be well armed to get their message out,” said one source.

A closer look at Hanna’s report reveals that Hanna loaned his campaign $25,000. Removing that amount means he raised approximately $80,000 from 201 donations. The average donation for Hanna was approximately $400.

Campaign manager, Nick Quinton said, “We are ecstatic about where we are one month into the campaign.  Our fundraising numbers show Rocky’s supporters are energized and ready for him to be superintendent of our school system.”

Notably absent from Hanna’s donor list are contractors who have done work for the Leon County School Board. Hanna, who has been in the news for over a year with his concerns over the process of awarding contracts at the Leon County School Board, only lists one donation from a construction business.

The report also lists over $40,000 in donations from people and businesses in Georgia and Nevada. Hanna told TR that this money is from friends and family and not from any businesses that would do work for the School Board.

“The best part of this is that retired teachers, retired administrators, and my family are helping us for the right reasons”, said Hanna.

The most famous donor on the list is US Congresswoman Gwen Graham who is a former Leon County School Board employee. She donated $1,000.