Suspended Broward School board member loses seat to newcomer

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – School board races generally don’t get much attention. They’re mostly free of drama or controversy, or partisanship.

But certainly not in Broward County in the 2022 midterm election.

One of the four school board members suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of a scathing grand jury report ran for re-election.

Donna Korn served three terms on the board and was asking voters to give her back the seat that she lost after the suspension.. But newcomer Allen Zeman, a CEO of an executive coaching firm, who held civilian positions in the U.S. Navy and is a doctor of economics, is the winner with more than 51 percent of the vote to Korn’s 49 percent.

With two precincts left to report Wednesday afternoon, Korn posted what read like a concession on Facebook thanking her friends, family and supporters, wishing “the new Board Members great success. . .”

The removals of the four school board members, announced in August included Korn, and also Ann Murray, Laurie Rich Levinson and Patricia Good, and were based on a recommendation by a state grand jury.

DeSantis petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a statewide grand jury in 2019 to investigate the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Most of the accusations against the four, which included “deceit, malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty and incompetence,” were related to an $800 million school safety program that voters approved in 2014.

Korn’s response to the report while appearing on WPLG’s Sunday morning news program “This Week in South Florida” on Oct. 30, 2022, said she believed that the grand jury was given a very “clear directive” from the governor.

“He had made a campaign promise and the grand jury was used for that political purpose,” she said.

Recently, the governor’s appointed members came close to firing the new school superintendent Vickie Cartwright.

When asked about Cartwright’s future, Zeman’s response was: “Let’s kind of follow through with the 90-day performance plan she is on. Let’s try and support her. Let’s try and give her a great opportunity to be successful.”