{"id":54357,"date":"2025-03-03T18:18:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T23:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=54357"},"modified":"2025-03-03T18:18:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T23:18:36","slug":"polk-supt-should-fire-chad-davis-and-get-serious-about-a-public-referendum-on-competitiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/03\/03\/polk-supt-should-fire-chad-davis-and-get-serious-about-a-public-referendum-on-competitiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk Supt. should fire Chad Davis and get serious about a public referendum on competitiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Fred Heid’s incompetent, self-indulgent, nepo-hire, wannabe-politician lawyer daily embarrasses his boss and the legal profession. He distracts from the stark reality Polk faces within Florida.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Billy Townsend<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The social, economic, political, and status \u201cleaders\u201d of Polk County do not care<\/strong><\/em> if our county\u2019s local education system \u2014 public or<\/strong><\/em> private \u2014 can remotely compete with peer and rival counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they did care, the map below would drive constant discussion and action by those social, economic, political and status \u201cleaders\u201d of Polk County. Instead, they walk around in self-congratulatory obliviousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The map shows which neighboring counties have taxed themselves<\/strong><\/em> at the local level<\/strong><\/em> to supplement school operations and teacher salaries beyond the nation-trailing pittance <\/a>that awful Florida\u2019s state legislators and bureaucrats provide. Polk is the big X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida is already the worst state level<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 public and<\/strong><\/em> private<\/a> \u2014 school system in America, by far, if test score \u201clearning rate\u201d<\/a> is how you evaluate it. You can imagine what that means for Polk. Access my map interactively here. <\/a>The data comes from the Florida School Board Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This map is the reason Polk County is bleeding teachers to much higher paying counties. It is also one structurally unavoidable reality that makes Polk\u2019s ongoing teacher contract negotiations miserable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are other<\/strong><\/em> reasons for that misery. And they are<\/strong><\/em> avoidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings us to Chad Davis, a district staff \u201clawyer\u201d representing Superintendent Fred Heid in his collective bargaining negotiations with Polk\u2019s teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supt. Heid: what did Chad do last week? Can he name five bullets?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In what appears to be an unsanctioned public<\/strong><\/em> \u201cnegotiating\u201d ploy, Chad Davis posted this on his Facebook page last week exactly concurrent<\/strong><\/em> to ongoing contract negotiations, which are supposed to happen behind closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This \u201clittle math problem\u201d was designed to denigrate the Polk County teachers who work for Supt. Fred Heid. I\u2019ll show you how Chad explained it in a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is my understanding that Heid in no way authorized this negotiating ploy; but he has not answered several detailed questions I sent him by text. He should answer them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not able to access Chad Davis\u2019 Facebook page. I assume he blocked me at some point. I am told he took down this post and the obnoxious \u201cclarification\u201d post that followed. But I can\u2019t personally verify that. And I\u2019m not sure that Chad, as a public officer with the Polk County School District, has the legal right to block anyone from public statements he makes about the job he is doing on my behalf, with my tax money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, theses posts run sooo counter to the interests of Chad\u2019s clients that it\u2019s worth exploring if they run afoul of Florida Bar professional expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA counter position to the popular argument that teachers are overpaid\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here is how Chad helpfully explained his math problem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Again, I do not know if Fred Heid shares his<\/strong><\/em> lawyer\u2019s \u201ccounter position\u201d that Polk teachers are not underpaid because of summer. He should clarify. It went on from there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did it graciously.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> LOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf my posting this offends you, that\u2019s your problem!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also LOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, Chad: your post isn\u2019t my problem; it\u2019s entirely Fred Heid\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> problem. He should deal with it and you. Free advice: I know this is your first real adult job. It is generally a bad idea to humiliate your boss in this way publicly and put him in a completely untenable position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, anyway, that\u2019s what Chad Davis did last week. Let\u2019s take a quick closer look at what might make him so entitled and professionally undisciplined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Kelli, Chad?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Start by noting the guffawing emoji from Chad\u2019s \u201cmentor\u201d Kelli Stargel, former GOP state senator from Lakeland \u2014 she of the fake $175,00 taxpayer-funded job at Florida Poly.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before she had a $175,000 fake job, Kelli was, of course, known mostly for the personal joy she took in keeping educators underpaid and helping state government torment them. Chad was her top aide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither of them were powerful. But they were gleefully malevolent in passing down the education enshittification <\/a>dictated by people with actual power. That guffawing emoji on that comment<\/strong><\/em> captures Kelli\u2019s personal character perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Chad Davis isn\u2019t just<\/strong><\/em> a Nepo baby \u2014 he\u2019s specifically the Nepo son of Charles Davis, the incompetent trial judge for the Leo Schofield wrongful c<\/a>onviction. All darkly absurd things come full circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chad desperately wants to be a player in Polk power\/status centers. Mocking\/hating teachers has always been one easy way to get cred in those lame circles. But even that<\/strong><\/em> has not been enough to convince any of my fellow GOPers to take Chad seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case-in-point: Chad ran for state house \u2014 while supposedly working for the taxpayers and Fred Heid \u2014 in last summer\u2019s GOP primary. I\u2019m sure he scrupulously avoided any campaigning on taxpayer time. Perhaps that\u2019s why he finished a distant<\/strong><\/em> third in six-person race. For good measure, he publicly cried about how big and mean the machine that rejected him is.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That means either: 1) Kelli has absolutely no power beyond her emojis. 2) Doesn\u2019t care at all about her supposed one-time protege. Actually, both can be true. And I think they are in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what now? That\u2019s all on Heid \u2014 and Polk\u2019s leaders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I said, \u201cserving\u201d as a school district lawyer is Chad\u2019s first real adult job, as near as I can tell. He\u2019s getting a nice $140K-ish pay check to publicly troll and\/or humiliate his clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His incompetence and indulgence on behalf of his client gives me some fodder \u2014 and \u2014 more importantly \u2014 a chance to jam this map in the faces of Polk\u2019s fake \u201cleaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But what Fred Heid and taxpayers are getting out of Chad, other than headaches and gratuitous pettiness, I have no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred Heid’s incompetent, self-indulgent, nepo-hire, wannabe-politician lawyer daily embarrasses his boss and the legal profession. He distracts from the stark reality Polk faces within Florida. By Billy Townsend The social,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyMVwvMDRcL0hlaWRfNHg2LmpwZz9maXQ9NjgzJTJDMTAyNCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgU3VwdC4gc2hvdWxkIGZpcmUgQ2hhZCBEYXZpcyBhbmQgZ2V0IHNlcmlvdXMgYWJvdXQgYSBwdWJsaWMgcmVmZXJlbmR1bSBvbiBjb21wZXRpdGl2ZW5lc3MiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.EX_YCgCNZW82RfA1nL5hg4Soz3pZ8l1oOzDaLY7cVpUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":10319,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Heid_4x6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[11023],"class_list":["post-54357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-polk-supt-should-fire-chad-davis-and-get-serious-about-a-public-referendum-on-competitiveness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54358,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54357\/revisions\/54358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}