Daytona Beach, FL – She hasn’t filed her paperwork yet, but the head of the Volusia County School Board says she’s going to run for re-election.
Linda Costello – the wife of District 25 State Representative Fred Costello and the current Chairwoman of the VCSB – told WNDB’s Marc Bernier her intentions during a phone interview on Monday, saying that there’s much she still wants to get done.
“We’ve started some things and I need to follow through and finish up with them,” Costello added. “There’s so many exciting things that we are doing right now.”
Costello will have some stiff competition as she tries to hold onto her District 4 seat during neat year’s elections.
Former School Board member Carl Persis has filed with the Volusia County Supervisor of Elections office to run for Costello’s seat, doing so soon after a May 31st speech Costello gave to Seabreeze High School graduates where she said that most of those graduates underperformed. (Click here for that story.)
Costello told Bernier she wasn’t surprised Persis decided to run against her because of rumors she had already heard saying as much.
“The bottom line is everybody who wants to can run and the voters decide,” Costello said. “That’s just the way it is. I’ll run my campaign and he’ll run his and, in the end, we do whatever the voters say.”
Persis – who lost to Jason Davis for Volusia County Council Chair in 2012 – will be interviewed on Bernier’s show this Thursday at 5pm. (Click here for more information.)
Other than Persis, there are no other candidates for Costello’s seat.
Among her priorities moving forward will be the restructuring of Campbell Middle School in Daytona Beach. The school has received 2 “D” grades in a row and Volusia County Schools has since responded to it by replacing all of the school’s top administrators and many of the school’s teachers.
Linda Costello (photo courtesy Volusia County School Board)
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