Sen. Tom Leek presents his bill on his school board member “Bill of Rights” on Feb. 3, 2026. In the background is Volusia County board member Jamie Haynes. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
A bill designed to make official records more accessible to school board members unanimously cleared committees in each legislative chamber Tuesday, coming a few steps closer to addressing concerns from a member of the Volusia County School Board.
HB 1073 and SB 1620 would give school board members access to all school district documents, including those not considered public records, such as “notes, invoices, correspondences, memoranda, and internal legal opinion,” for free.
The bill would also give the right to school board members to consult with a district’s chief financial officer on budget matters, a provision that opponents argued would put at risk a “chain of command” in education governance.
Every Volusia board member traveled to Tallahassee to speak about the measure. One, Donna Brosemer, was in support. The rest, in opposition.
Sen. Don Gaetz, one of the Senate bill sponsors, said the bill would help board members who find themselves in an ideological minority — a position he said he found himself in when he served on the Okaloosa County School Board in the early 1990s before eventually becoming chair.
“This bill addresses all of the challenges that I’ve encountered in trying to do my job as oversight in Volusia County, and I know that there are other districts, other board members, that have had similar challenges,” Brosemer said.
The Senate bill would go further, allowing board members to use district computers without the district monitoring that use and to keep confidential union contract discussions.
Members of the public, including journalists, are sometimes required to pay for public records from the government if they take a considerable time to retrieve and compile.
Brosemer was particularly concerned with her access to budget information, saying she is unable to see some specific line items.
The House bill is sponsored by Rep. Traci Koster, a Republican from Tampa. The Senate bill is sponsored by Sens. Tom Leek, a Republican from Ormond Beach, and Gaetz, a Republican from Crestview.
“Throughout the state, it is happening where school board members are requesting documents from the superintendent’s office and from the school district staff and are being told that they need to go file public record requests as public citizens and pay for those documents, so that was the genesis of the bill,” Koster said last week during the House bill’s first committee stop.
Koster said the problem at hand is “probably more pervasive” in districts with elected superintendents as opposed to appointed superintendents.
Leek said he is trying to “strike a balance” between school board members and a superintendent.
“The whole intent is the school board is elected to handle the business of our public schools within the district. They can’t effectively do that if they’re blocked from access to information that they need to vote on the things they need to vote on. This is not supposed to be a ‘gotcha,’ this is not supposed to be an end-run around either an elected or an appointed superintendent,” Koster said.
Rep. Susan Valdes, a Republican from Tampa and former Hillsborough County School Board member, supported the bill.
“Very often are school board members criticized for not doing their due diligence. Well, if they don’t have the tools available to do their due diligence, then you can’t have it both ways,” Valdes said, adding that the bill is “a step in the right direction.”
Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale and former Broward County School Board member, said she was concerned that the bill could complicate school district relations but eventually supported it.
“It could open a door that you’re not intending to open,” Osgood said, calling the wording “ambiguous.”
The House bill is ready for the full House, while the Senate version has two more committees to pass before it is placed in front of the whole body.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Volusia County
The legislation, while not mentioning Volusia, is of particular interest to officials there. Leek said he’s sorry that “Volusia County has internalized” the bill, designed to govern statewide.
Brosemer said the bill likely would not apply to most school board members in the state. But there are instances in which the law will make a difference, especially for her — who claims to have been ignored, denied, or charged for public records.
School employees would be prohibited from being required or incentivized to sign a nondisclosure agreement under the bill, too.
Volusia County had more than 100 employees sign NDAs. Shane Story, a former teacher in Volusia, told the House Education Administration subcommittee Tuesday that he was pushed out of his job after refusing to sign.
Volusia board chair Ruben Colón insisted that he has not struggled to access public records. Giving school board members access to superintendent staff would “blur accountability,” he said.
“The bill also authorizes individual members to go to district staff without superintendent’s permission. Let that sink in. That creates parallel lines into the organization and weakens consistently the management, strains staff capacity, and blurs accountability,” Colón said.
Rep. Alex Rizo, a Republican from Hialeah, said he believes the bill should pass regardless of how many counties it could touch, even if it’s just one.