Last year, Lake County taxpayers elected former Florida Senator Anna Cowin on a platform of fiscal responsibility. However, by recently hiring some of her close political friends into some high paying positions, Anna Cowin has outraged Lake County residents. What makes this worse is that none of these political friends of Anna Cowin have ANY experience in education!
In fact, residents have voiced their anger to the Lake County School Board and swift actions will be taken, including eliminating two jobs that Anna Cowin filled with her prior staffers. Just take a look at who these two people are:
- Elaine Merrit, who has no college degree or prior experience in education, yet Anna Cowin hired her as the Deputy Superintendent, a position that pays $66,300 per year.
- Jeremiah "J.J." Whitson, who is paid $30,000 a year to apparently drive Anna Cowin around to different meetings in a Lake County owned SUV. Whitson has no prior experience in education.
Cowin has hired several other political cronies into Lake County jobs, paying them as much as $88,000 per year even though they don't have experience in education. The school board is also working to improve upon some mistakes Anna Cowin has made with the many school volunteers, such as canceling an expected recognition ceremony.
There are many, many issues with Anna Cowin. For a complete listing of complaints against Cowin, I recommend Lake County Property Appraiser Ed Havill's website, RemoveCowin.com. Havill has also collected dozens of news stories about Cowin. Cowin is still over 3 years away from re-election, but people like Ed Havill and many current Lake County educators may are trying to force Cowin to step down. At the same time, the Lake County School Board is doing their part by removing Cowin's inexperienced cronies from office one by one, making sure money is diverted to the schools where it belongs.
Thanks Lake County School Board for looking out for us!