Boca school board race: Barbieri's endorsement seeks to thwart ex-superintendent's daughter

Outgoing Palm Beach County school board member Frank Barbieri has endorsed the once-suspended leader of the county's Democratic Party in hopes that she will defeat the daughter of Art Johnson, a former, highly criticized superintendent, in this year's election for the Boca Raton-area school board seat.

Barbieri said he's concerned that Johnson's daughter Gloria Branch, 57, would undermine Superintendent Mike Burke and share sensitive information only available to a school board member with her father, who now represents school administrators and principals.

"I’m so concerned about her having confidential information," he said. "If (Superintendent Mike Burke) tells her everything, there’s nothing stopping her from telling her dad, who wants to be superintendent. She can undermine the superintendent because of the fact that she will be in all those closed meetings, unless she’s going to recuse herself every time there’s a principal matter or a salary issue."

Branch called Barbieri's claims "ridiculous" and accused him of spreading information about her out of an act of "desperation."

"I would never do that," Branch said of passing information to her father. "I’m unaffected but not surprised by the incorrect information that Frank Barbieri says about me."

"I absolutely support Mike Burke," Branch said, adding that her father, now 79, does not want to be the district's superintendent.

More: Who is running for school board in Boca Raton? A look at the candidates and their finances

Mindy Koch resigns as Democratic Party chair, accuses opponents of 'MAGA' tactics

The spat comes after Barbieri, who is not seeking re-election after 16 years on the board, announced that he has endorsed Mindy Koch, 71, who was removed at one point as Palm Beach County Democratic Party chair and then reinstated in March after state party leaders said she failed to prepare a budget or make plans for the upcoming election.

Koch resigned from the party that month after accusing her opponents of "MAGA tactics" by not recognizing her election to chair.

Heard on a hot microphone at July 17's school board meeting, Barbieri told fellow board member Erica Whitfield in a side conversation that he endorsed Koch to avoid "handing (the election) to Art Johnson’s daughter."

Branch's father is a former principal of both Boca Raton High and Spanish River High and served on the school board from 1998 to 2000. He held the district's top job for 10 years starting in 2001.

Art Johnson suggested principals read 'The Art of War'

As superintendent, Johnson relished the politics embedded in the job and claimed to use military strategy to succeed. He assigned principals a reading list that included military manuals and "The Art Of War," a Chinese military treatise that described different attack methods for armies.

He was known for giving principals autonomy until 2009, when he and Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Hernandez instituted a testing-heavy standardized curriculum that reached into the classroom. It proscribed the pace and order of teacher lesson plans and dispatched classroom monitors to report on everything from how students' desks were arranged to what kind of words teachers were writing on their whiteboards.

The plan infuriated teachers and parents and led to Johnson's ouster in 2011.

Johnson, now 79, has worked as the executive director of the Palm Beach County School Administrators Association since 2013. The association represents school administrators and principals in disputes with the district. He declined to comment on Barbieri's statements about his daughter's candidacy.

Barbieri and Johnson have feuded publicly for decades, and Barbieri was key in forcing Johnson out of his job in 2011.

From 2011: School board to negotiate exit for Art Johnson

Koch, now running for school board, was suspended and then re-appointed as chair of PBC Dems in March

Although Koch is better known for her work in politics, she worked as a teacher in Broward and Palm Beach counties from 1986 to 2016.

Koch taught gifted students at S.D. Spady Elementary and then worked as an ESE specialist at Western Pines Middle School, Boca Raton Middle and Boynton Beach High. She has a doctorate degree in education.

Barbieri said that background makes her the most qualified candidate in the District 5 race. Koch has picked up endorsements from a flurry of Palm Beach County Democrats, including state Sens. Tina Polsky and Lori Berman, state Reps. Kelly Skidmore and Katherine Waldron and Tax Collector Anne Gannon. The Classroom Teachers Association, the union representing Palm Beach County teachers, also endorsed Koch.

But it wasn't long ago that Koch was on the fritz with her own party.

In March, Koch was suspended by state party Chair Nikki Fried , accusing Koch of failing to create a budget for the party in a crucial election year. Fried also said Koch failed to make plans for the upcoming election, did not meet deadlines for important document submissions and could not properly maintain the party's membership lists.

Koch, who won the leadership position in 2022 by just one vote, was also publicly criticized for failing to bring the party together after her election and appease both progressive and more moderate Democrats.

Koch was then reinstated by a state party committee after some Democrats wrote a scathing letter to Fried condemning her suspension of the party chair just months before the general election. Koch then stepped down that same month and announced her run for school board.

Frank Barbieri says former opponents of Koch back her campaign

In her resignation letter, Koch claimed that her opponents in the party used "MAGA tactics" torn from the playbook of Donald Trump by refusing to recognize her election to party leadership as legitimate.

Barbieri said he spoke with several Democrats who previously opposed her in party leadership but who are now backing Koch's campaign for school board before selecting her as his own endorsement. He declined to say which Democrats he spoke to.

Asked of Koch's handling of the county party and its budget, he said no single school board member is responsible for the budget or the finances of the district, adding that she would be "one of seven" board members. Barbieri said Koch's other strengths would likely play more a role in her term on the board if elected.

"Since her strong background is in education, I think the board would defer to her for those matters," he said. "Her squabbles with the Democratic Party are insignificant at this point."

School board elections: One candidate wins outright, while 8 aim for seats in Jupiter, Boca

Barbieri was a longtime Democrat before changing his voter registration to independent after a falling out of his own with the Democratic Party in 2021. Barbieri and three other board members were censured by the party at the time because they voted to remove a reference to "white advantage" and systemic racism from the school district's equity statement.

Known for shepherding the school board through the politically explosive years of the pandemic, Barbieri has long said that parents' confidence in the school system is strengthened by a unified school board that supports the superintendent. Barbieri said he wants a "stable" school board in which members do not posture or taunt each other.

Outgoing Jupiter school board member endorses candidate Francesca Wernisch

In the other school board race, outgoing Jupiter-area representative Barbara McQuinn has endorsed Francesca Wernisch, who is running against two others for McQuinn's seat.

“I am endorsing Francesca because she shares my passion for public education," McQuinn wrote in a news release. "She is actively involved with her children's elementary school and believes that Palm Beach County public schools are students' 'best choice.' She also wants to be a voice in ensuring that all Palm Beach County students are afforded an equitable opportunity to graduate from high school prepared for higher education and/or entering the workforce."

Wernisch, 39, lives in North Palm Beach, where her two children attend middle school. She's raised about a quarter of the funds that her two competitors have as of June 28.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca school board race: Barbieri's endorsement seeks to thwart ex-superintendent's daughter