The Tortuous Thinking of Teri Barenborg

Over the last few months, board chair, Teri Barenborg, has deliberately played politics to set the agenda for the incoming school board.

Many times, Teri Barenborg professes the wildest of legal claims in an effort to politically gain the upper hand. The chairwoman of the board, who once suggested to Kevin McDonald that board members shouldn’t do their duty of making policy because “we don’t have law degrees,” indicted the board for not “following the process of the state legislature” in reviewing a library book. The alleged offense took place at the May meeting when the board voted 3 to 2 to remove the challenged library material, Ban This Book, by Alan Gratz. 

Mrs. Barenborg waited until the October 21st business meeting to make the unsubstantiated claim. She wants a new review which she knows is against the rules. She doesn’t care because she is placating the demands of the local group, Education Champions of IRC. In her response to Mrs. Barenborg, board member Jacqueline Rosario asked the board attorney, Amy Envall, about her view on the matter that was adjudicated in May. She said, “I see where it says in your policy that the board’s decision is final and is not subject to further review.”

The bellicose Mrs. Barenborg combatively continued. During her statement, she said, “The legislature specifically stated we need to choose what the petitioner checked [on the form].” 

The FL legislature doesn’t have oversight of school board committees and the construction of their complaint forms. Two days later, The Sunshine Journal filed a public records request based on Mrs. Barenborg’s statement. It specifically asked, “Please ask Mrs. Barenborg to produce any and all manner of legal research she used to surmise her findings in making the recommendation to the board…” 

The District office replied, “There are no documents or records responsive to this request.”

Only in Mrs. Barenborg’s imagination, the board didn’t adhere to the book petition. The petitioner was Moms for Liberty chair and student parent, Jennifer Pippin. Her petition was submitted with various excerpts from the challenged Ban This Book. Mr. Gratz’s fictional tale is about a student that manages to get ahold of “banned books” and creates a library inside of their locker at school. Friends stop by and secretly check them out.

Mrs. Pippin included pornographic artwork from a book that was recommended within the story. The main character noted the book was specifically about sex titled, It’s Perfectly Normal. The recommended book contains graphic nude animations of gay sex and sexually explicit heteronormative content. Furthermore, Ban This Book contains a list of “banned books” with websites where the alleged literary contraband can be accessed. According to the complaint, Ban This Book was located in three middle schools and Vero Beach Elementary. All of the photocopied evidence, including the animated pornography, was submitted with a thoroughly written complaint. 

Like one of the giddy friends of the main character in Ban This Book, Mrs. Barenborg cannot put the scintillatingly scandalous edition down. Mrs. Pippin recently sent an email reminding Dr. Moore, his executive team and board members about the content in the removed titled and what it promotes in its pages.

During her advocacy for the book at the May business meeting, Mrs. Barenborg falsely accused Mrs. Pippin of not reading the book. Mrs. Pippin was in the audience unable to respond. Reached by The Sunshine Journal, Mrs. Pippin said, “When I initially challenged it, I hadn’t read it cover to cover. When it went to committee, I was called to make a presentation. By then, I had read it cover to cover. Pornography and sexually explicit content doesn’t disappear if you read the entire book.”

Curating or not curating?

The book was removed in May by the board even though there was a majority recommendation to keep it in the libraries by the Book Review Committee. The board cited the reference links to pornographic and sexually explicit material that the District had removed previously. In his statement, board member Posca reminded everyone that the district doesn’t “ban” books but ‘curates’ library materials for educational purposes. His statement echoed previous points of citizens and other board members.

In response, the pugnacious Mrs. Barenborg commented, “The word ‘curate,’ it keeps coming up. I never heard the word ‘curated’ substituted for the word ‘ban.’ So, I wanted to know what that meant in regards to removing books.”

Not realizing the logical fallacy because nobody was using the term as a synonymous substitution, she then reads the definition of ‘curate’ which means to select and organize for a publication, a collection or presentation. She added, “It doesn’t say anything about removal. So that word ‘curate’ does not refer to what we are doing here. What we are doing here is being asked to remove a book from our shelves.”

LINK: Teri Barenborg’s lecture on the word, ‘curate.’

Immediately following her dubious critique that she prefaced was formulated by the Oxford English Dictionary, board member Kevin McDonald said, “I think everything we do in this school district is curation. We determine what we are going to spend our money on, what’s appropriate and what achieves our goals.” 

At the July business meeting, the quarrelsome Mrs. Barenborg doubled down on her ill-informed supposition when she said, “The word curate does not mean to remove, it means to organize and present, … So, that word, ‘curate,’ continues to be used by a board member, it does not mean that.” 

At the November workshop with new board member, David Dyer, Mrs. Barenborg will advocate against the district’s book review policy by asking the board to reconsider Ban This Book. The policy she ignores was required by the same legislature and was approved unanimously by the board she chaired in August of 2022.

It’s the Governor’s fault

Mrs. Barenborg is also asking for reconsideration on other board approved matters that were championed by Mrs. Rosario and Mr. McDonald. The first was Resolution 2025-6 concerning the future appointment to the Joint Equity Workgroup established by the federal court overseeing the Desegregation Order. The appointment had been overlooked for two years. Mrs. Rosario put it forth at the September 9th workshop. Dr. Peggy Jones championed it saying, “I think every board member should serve on this [workgroup], I really do. I think you get a little bit more of the history … from where we’ve come to where were are going to go.”

Ruthlessly, Teri Barenborg decided to play politics. She said, “We had a board member appointed by the Governor. Let’s face it, that changed the majority on the board. All of a sudden, we want to change things? I have a really hard time with that.”

Dr. Posca immediately responded, “I think it’s a big distortion of the facts and reality to say that another member coming on to the board is what changed when we forgot to follow our own policy.” 

Yet, by the subsequent business meeting when the vote was to be taken, Dr. Jones’s thinking and sentiment completely changed. 

Dr. Moore greets board member-elect, David Dyer for his orientation. He will be seated on Tuesday, November 19th.

Why?

One possible explanation was an email sent by board-elect, David Dyer. In the email he expressed the resolution violated “the Will of the Voter,” how he would vote, and threatened to sue the District. Lacking basic civic understanding, Mr. Dyer claimed the resolution vote “usurped his legal authority” though he was not seated yet. The incident has caused a complaint to be filed with the State’s Attorney office for violation of Sunshine Law. Read about it in the links below. The investigation is expected to conclude by the end of the month.

BREAKING: Board-Elect, David Dyer, Threatens Legal Action Against District Over Jackie Rosario’s Resolution

BREAKING: Did Dr. Moore Breach His Contract?

Playing the race card.

Unanimous support was corralled by Mrs. Barenborg at the September 23rd business meeting when she said,  “I would love for this board to have a 5-0 vote on the final of whatever we come up with.” 

Her unifying charge concerned the repeal of policy 2130 - The Achievement Gap Workgroup, that directly gave a political organization, the NAACP, the absolute control of 50% of it. It was originally passed in 2022. The policy would not go into effect until the district had achieved ‘unitary status’ according to the desegregation order, a federal case in its 60th year. 

Recognizing the delay in helping kids was already more than 2 years, in August, Kevin McDonald proposed an amendment to the Achievement Gap Workgroup policy to begin the work immediately. He amended the policy changing the workgroup to a committee appointed by the board and focused it on all students. With blatant political disdain, Teri Barenborg cross-examined his character. She said, “I also have a very hard time with putting lines through anything referencing the NAACP and all the work that’s been done on the [2018] Joint Plan. I think that sends a really bad message. Is that what you want for your legacy?”

Appointed by Governor DeSantis, Mr. McDonald had been on the board for 5 months. On the dais, he responded, “Well, the intent is to establish something now under the framework that exists …It’s using that idea, and that concept and that framework to proactively and immediately do some good things in the community.”

In the process of the debate, the Superintendent presented data that proved rising achievement across every student demographic and racial subgroup. Separately, Dr. Moore also wrote a new policy draft that expressed its devotion to the work of unitary status. With Dr. Moore’s new replacement policy framework and data proving the achievement gap was closing, 2130 became expendable. In a pivotal vote on September 23rd, the board voted 5-0 to begin the repeal of 2130. The board charged the superintendent to develop the new policy framework. Mrs. Barenborg was satisfied that the board was unified.

“I did not agree to that…”

At the following October 7th workshop, Mr. McDonald asked for a special meeting to finalize the vote on the repeal of policy 2130. Having brought forward the original proposal, Mr. McDonald wanted to see it through to its conclusion before his board term ended. It required a special meeting after a 28 day public hearing. Mr. McDonald proposed November 13 to finalize the vote which is the week before the new board would be seated. 

Dr. Jones spoke and asked the attorney to confirm that a super-majority was needed to change policy. Board attorney Molly Shaddock responded, “So in your policy 2130 it says you have to have a super-majority to amend it, but you are not looking to amend it now. You are looking to repeal it.”

Mr. McDonald followed with the comment that the board had unanimous agreement on it at their last business meeting. However, responding to Mr. McDonald’s comment, Mrs.Barenborg denied she voted for it. Though she previously led the charge for unanimous repeal, she declared, “I did not agree to that. It was not unanimous. I said I could not support that.” 

In her mind, her endorsement of repeal never happened. From there she began to look for ways to stop Mr. McDonald’s request for a special meeting to finish up his last bit of business.

The other board members began sharing availability from their calendars to schedule the meeting to repeal 2130. Mrs. Barenborg interrupted with a question. She asked if the chair or the vice chair needed to be there to run the meeting. She claimed, “Because, I’ve seen that in statute too.” 

After hearing the board lawyer who suggested the law said otherwise, Mrs. Rosario remarked, “Sunshine law requires that it is a quorum of the board. It does not say the named or current chair or vice chair have to be present.  It is a quorum of the board. There is no discussion in Sunshine law of who presides as chair. Any three of us can be present as a quorum of the board and at that point we can assign one of us to be the chair.”

The lawyer confirmed it from the district bylaws just before the meeting adjourned. The meeting will take place on Monday, November 18th.

In response to the impending repeal, Mrs. Barenborg has already decided her political opportunity is after Mr. McDonald leaves the board. At the first workshop of the new board, she is bringing all of these items for discussion. After all, the woman who sought re-election by disingenuously claiming she endorsed Governor DeSantis’s education agenda, will have a new majority support of those who stand against it.

UPDATE @ 10:47 AM - 11/18/24: Since the publishing of this article, the board chair has removed the items mentioned in it from tomorrow’s workshop.