{"id":65652,"date":"2026-05-13T21:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65652"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:25:34","slug":"florida-education-commissioner-picked-as-polk-state-college-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/13\/florida-education-commissioner-picked-as-polk-state-college-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida education commissioner picked as Polk State College president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Polk State College Presidential Search Committee officially recommended Anastasios \u201cStasi\u201d Kamoutsas<\/strong> as the sole finalist for the college’s sixth president on May 13, 2026.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Kamoutsas has served as Florida\u2019s Commissioner of Education since July 2025, succeeding Manny Diaz Jr.<\/sup> (who is now the president of the University of West Florida). Before becoming commissioner, Kamoutsas held high-level roles within the Florida Department of Education, including Chief of Staff and General Counsel, and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Ron DeSantis.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Transition:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Next Steps:<\/strong> Kamoutsas is scheduled to visit the college on June 3, 2026<\/strong>, for forums with students, faculty, and staff.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Final Decision:<\/strong> The District Board of Trustees will meet at 4 p.m. that same day at the Polk State Center for Public Safety to consider the committee’s recommendation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Search Process:<\/strong> The committee selected Kamoutsas from a pool of over 100 applicants. Notably, recent changes to board rules removed the requirement for the president to hold a doctorate, which cleared the way for his candidacy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This move follows a recent trend in Florida where high-ranking state officials and political allies have been appointed to leadership roles within the state’s college and university systems.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

    The Polk State College Presidential Search Committee officially recommended Anastasios \u201cStasi\u201d Kamoutsas as the sole finalist for the college’s sixth president on May 13, 2026. Kamoutsas has served as Florida\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65653,"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":"32","_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":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtNS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yMDQlMkMxOTImc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJGbG9yaWRhIGVkdWNhdGlvbiBjb21taXNzaW9uZXIgcGlja2VkIGFzIFBvbGsgU3RhdGUgQ29sbGVnZSBwcmVzaWRlbnQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.Oc1ao8aZ80L2SlKxX8C1GeUrhZxUQxHJVFpvFebbV2AMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLTUud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgZWR1Y2F0aW9uIGNvbW1pc3Npb25lciBwaWNrZWQgYXMgUG9sayBTdGF0ZSBDb2xsZWdlIHByZXNpZGVudCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.B4i6FUUDPynsflMoITIlaf-XkryYNkbBGzymCDBw7uIMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[14617],"class_list":["post-65652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polk-state-college-news","tag-florida-education-commissioner-picked-as-polk-state-college-president"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65652","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=65652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65654,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65652\/revisions\/65654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}