McCall files to run against Campbell for school board

File photo: Beth McCall [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.

Beth McCall is no stranger to the Marion County School Board, but now after taking a few years away, she has entered the race to run against incumbent Chair Allison Campbell for the District 1 seat in 2024.

Since resigning from the school board in June 2021, she has worked as the director of talent development at the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership and served on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Marion County Children’s Alliance.

“My strategic skills are needed on the board. That is a forte of mine, as well as being able to bring people together to solve problems,” McCall said.

McCall earned a master’s degree in management and leadership from Webster University. She received a bachelor’s degree in education and music from Eastern New Mexico University.

The school board election is a nonpartisan race. School board members earn a salary of $48,774 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

McCall is running to unseat Campbell, who was first elected in 2020. Campbell earned a doctorate in strategic communication and a master’s degree in communication studies from Regent University, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications and sports broadcasting from Lee University.

McCall was first elected to the board’s District 2 seat in 2016 and was reelected in 2020. She resigned after concerns about her eligibility for office arose after moving out of her district, citing family health concerns as her reason for moving.

“The statute is clear; I must reside in the district I serve. I will not compromise my values or integrity to find a loophole such as placing a camper in a campground in District 2 or finding other avenues to claim my residency. That is not the example I want to set for my grandchildren or the students I serve,” McCall wrote in her 2021 resignation letter.

McCall said that if elected, she would prioritize giving students more opportunities to find work when they leave the public school system.

“I was with the CEP as their talent development director, and what that entailed was working with the business community and our career technical education program at the school district to give students opportunities to interact with the business community,” McCall said. “I really want to continue that (career and technical education) lane because not all of our students are going to go to college, and we want to be sure that they’re prepared to go into the workforce.”

McCall said that she was working with the CEP in partnership with the Marion County Building Industry Association to apply to bring the Academy of Construction Technology to Lake Weir High School. The academy trains high school students in their chosen trade, with options of building construction technology; carpentry; electrical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning; masonry; plumbing and pipe fitting.

McCall mentioned that people had asked her to run to rejoin the school board, but when asked which members of the community encouraged her, she declined to answer.

“In April, when you have the opportunity to look at my first financial report, you’ll know who some of these people are, but I’m not going to name them out today,” she said.

McCall said she believes mental health is going to continue to be a prevalent issue in schools, and said she hopes to encourage mentorship as a solution.

“I think the isolation from COVID-19 is still lingering on some of our children,” she said. “I really want to focus on making sure that we have the resources and the staff and available to help these children because if we can help them and their parents or their guardians make school a priority and get them through some of their mental health challenges, then we’ll all be better off for that.”

One of the school board’s most pressing concerns has been managing the high amounts of population growth in Marion County and the overcrowding it causes in schools. The board has been working with the Marion County Board of County Commissioners and the Ocala City Council to reinstate impact fees—one-time fees for home builders that generate the revenue to build new schools.

“I truly believe that impact fees are a part of what we need to do for the infrastructure to help build new schools,” she said. “I don’t think that there was anybody who really feels that instituting impact fees again is a bad thing. I think they understand that with growth, the school district is part of the infrastructure.”

McCall said as for other opportunities to generate revenue for the district to build new schools, she’d be attending the next school board workshop to hear what other options the board is considering.

While McCall is no longer working for the CEP, she said she has every intention of continuing her advocacy for the community and for public education through her other commitments, even if elected.

“With the Children’s Alliance and Hospice of Marion County, which is another organization that’s very dear to my heart, I plan on continuing my work with both of those, which I did the first time I was on the school board,” she said.