Tidings Media Endorses Danielle Marolf for County Wide Pinellas County School Board

Tidings Media is happy to join Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, State Representative Berny Jacques, Mayor David Will, Conservative DC Draino (Rogan O'Handley) and the Florida Faith Foundations pastoral group in endorsing Danielle Marolf for Pinellas County School Board.

Her platform includes four tenants :  

• Academic Rigor
• Parental Engagement
• Teacher Advocacy
• School Safety

After meeting Marolf, we would have supported her even if her opponent wasn't opposed to everything Tidings Media advocates for.  Marolf has the background, experience, expertise, and backbone to move Pinellas County Schools forward.  It's the reason that nearly every moderate and conservative leader in Pinellas County is supporting her candidacy for county-wide school board. 

When considering her opponent, incumbent Laura Hine, we evaluated not what Hine says, but what Hine has done in her tenure on the Pinellas County School Board :

Laura Hine on Academic Rigor :  according to the Florida Department of Education, Pinellas County has four schools with a D rating as of 2023, and roughly 1/3 of Pinellas County Schools are graded with a C rating against a statewide average rating of B.  If your child attends a C or D rated school, you should vote for anyone other than Laura Hine.  

The schools in orange are C rated, red are D rated. We're failing those kids.

Pinellas County graduation rates have declined under Hine's tenure, from 92% for the 2020-21 school year to 88.1% this past year.  Policies she has advocated for have accelerated an enrollment decline.  Statewide, enrollment has declined less than 1% since the start of the pandemic, but the toxic policies by Hine and an ideological voting block of her peers have forced a 5% decline in Pinellas during the same period, 4x higher than the statewide enrollment average decline (per a survey by the American Enterprise Institute and the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College.)  We have only 93,702 students enrolled in 2023, compared to 100,987 in 2019.

Laura Hine on Parental Engagement :  Laura Hine led the Pinellas County School Board in fighting against Parental Sovereignty in making medical decisions for their children.  Pinellas County School Board forced face masks on school children for 1,300 hours, long after it was deemed medically unnecessary.  Hine voted against parental determination over a dozen times, and only relented when the school year and related teacher contract expired.  Hine was featured in an editorial she voluntarily submitted to the Tampa Bay Times, ignoring the voice of parents when she penned "We must work for the common good, even when personally inconvenient" as over half of the school districts returned for the 2021/2022 year with no forced masking of children.  Hine was quoted in late 2023 stating she would do it again, because "she slept better knowing people were more comfortable with everyone wearing masks."  The mask issue is now codified against Hine and into state law, but her ignoring student health freedom for her own ideological (and donor) base speaks volumes about her judgment, and respect of the sovereign rights of parents.  She's not trustworthy on issues of parental engagement.

She made this diagram that Tidings Media received via a Freedom of Information Act.  Hine hand drew this, to explain to her peers why they should ignore what she called the 10% of parents (a made up statistic) who were opposed to her force masking their children, in favor of the 80% (her second made up statistic) who "trusted Laura" to tell them what was best for their kids. 

Laura Hine used her imaginary statistics to justify force masking children.

Teacher Advocacy :  Hine failed in teacher salary discussions during a time period where the teachers worked for the majority of the 2022 school year without a contract.  The end result was a contract where the teachers received roughly 1/3 of the raises that the Pinellas County Administration received, amounting to an average of 3%.  Tidings Media has advocated for substantial teacher raises.  Hine's voice has been silent in advocating for teachers, causing an opponent (Marolf) with extensive experience in advocating for teachers and traditional education to take on the ineffective Hine.  Danielle Marolf will be a strong advocate for teachers as one of the central tenants of her platform.

School Safety :  On September 10, 2022 I was fortunate enough to attend a conference on School Safety in Pinellas County that featured Marjorie Stoneman Douglas parent Andrew Pollack.  His daughter Meadow, senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was murdered in the February 14, 2018 school shooting.  Hine was personally invited to attend, but declined.  Since that time, there have been several instances in Pinellas County regarding similar threats to Parkland, FL.  Hine didn't have enough intellectual curiousity to attend this critical training that was held right in our back yard.  We need to take school safety seriously, and implement measures to prevent another Parkland massacre.  Unfortunately, Hine passed on the opportunity to learn from the experts.  Other Pinellas elected officials and school board members did attend, thank God.  Marolf has listed school safety as one of her top priorities.

We supported Hine's opponent in the 2020 election, and we were right.  Hine is not aligned with Pinellas on Academic Rigor, Parental Engagement, Teacher Advocacy or School Safety.  She had her chance.  She failed these kids almost across the boards, and it's time for someone new on the Pinellas County School Board.  Hine started her campaign last time at Allendale "Church" in St. Petersburg, didn't swear in on the bible, and attracted donors that betrayed who she said she was ideologically.  Those donors and their agenda have been fully advocated for by Hine, who ran as a moderate but governed like a radical.  We need someone else to fight for our kids, not for her special interests.  

Tidings Media is enthusistically endorsing Danielle Marolf for Pinellas County School Board.  This is a county-wide seat, so all Tidings readers will be able to vote for Marolf on August 20th.  If she takes more than 50% of the vote on August 20th, she will win the election in the primary and not face a general election in November.  Get involved, for the kids, and vote Marolf.

This endorsement and article was created independently of Marolf, using campaign information on her platform taken from https://votedaniellemarolf.com/

She was not consulted on the content of this article, nor was she appraised of the endorsement ahead of publication.  Tidings Media has not received a single dollar from any candidate, candidate committee or PAC.  She may not agree with all of our opinions above, but the facts are the facts.