Dr. Vogel says he did not violate the law.

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Seminole Union questions Vogel's end run for Race to Top touch down

Gay Parker, president of the Seminole Education Association, is trying to sort out the sudden shift that now has the school district participating in the state's application for federal Race to the Top school improvement funds.

"Friday was a shock," said Parker, referring to Superintendent Bill Vogel's end run around two earlier school board decisions against participating. The union has been wary of RTTT, argued against it before the School Board, and thought the issue was settled.

But in case you missed news stories and earlier blog posts, Vogel got School Board Chairman Sandy Robinson to change her vote Friday and sign off on a Memo of Understanding saying Seminole will participate. This after the board voted 3-2 only the previous Tuesday against participating. And that reaffirming a similar "no" vote in December.

"When the vote was "no" on Tuesday, I thought that was the final decision," Parker said.

That's what I thought, too.

But ignoring the vote, Vogel persisted in his drive to have the school district apply for the federal dough, got Robinson's backing and will bring the whole thing back to the school board for a revote to make official what he already has told the state Seminole intends to do. It's agendaed for Tuesday's meeting under the heading of "Unfinished Business," although "Unfinished Business That We Thought Was Finished" might have been more appropriate.

Parker says the whole process smells, and she has asked the Florida Education Association's legal department to look into possible "Sunshine Law" open government violations.

"We are researching the law," she said.

Vogel says he did not violate the law. His defense may be that the state Department of Education did not specify that school boards vote on whether to participate. The department simply asked that the superintendent and School Board chairman sign off on the memo.

But since the Seminole School Board twice decided the issue was important enough for a lengthy discussion and twice voted against taking part, that might take the issue into a different realm.