ORANGE PARK – Methods candidates use to advertise their campaigns vary wildly based on the availability of campaign funds. Some take the time to talk to every voter, while others throw the burden on countless signs strategically placed in parking lots, yards and county intersections.

One candidate, however, is using his administrators to campaign for him.

Charlie Van Zant Jr., Clay County school superintendent, is soliciting campaign support from district administrators and principals.

Since the 2016 campaign began, Van Zant’s senior support staff has been contacting administrators in person, over the phone and text messages giving them the option to “either volunteer their time or money.”

Because the superintendent is the final voice on reinstatement, administrators find themselves in a conundrum where cutting a check or handing out a flier is better than the possible consequences – the unemployment line.

The scare tactics work. Van Zant’s solicitations are manifest at every candidate debate, where principals and administrators line up to hand out Van Zant candidate campaign cards.

Van Zant made a similar request to Clay County administrators in October 2012 when he first ran for superintendent. At the time, he had already beat out incumbent Superintendent Ben Wortham in the August Primary by only 1,590 votes. In the November election, Van Zant only faced Republican write-in Fred Gottshalk, a Van Zant donor and self-professed sham candidate.

Gottshalk’s entry in the race closed the 2012 primary from Democrat and Independent voters and helped elect Van Zant. Gottshalk did the same this year before withdrawing during the week of qualifying.

Van Zant continued taking campaign contributions until November 2012 and used the money to help pay off $13,000 of his campaign debt.

“He’s learned his lesson after getting caught the first time,” said Janice Kerekes district one school board member. “He’s not the one doing the asking.”

Principals and district administrators are at-will employees, so the superintendent decides to renew or not-renew – essentially fire – employees who are poor performers or make unsatisfactory scores on their evaluations.

“The fear is out there, and people can sense it whenever they’re around those of us in the school district, we are fearful for our jobs and it really makes for a very tough working environment,” said Debra Gaynes, former vice principal of Lakeside Junior High.

Two years ago, the district pinballed Gaynes from her seven-year vice principal position at Coppergate Elementary to Fleming Island High School. From FIHS, the district moved her to Lakeside Junior High. Her evaluations were impeccable at the time.

Gaynes will spend the coming school year as a math teacher at Clay High School. Despite multiple emails, phone calls and letters requesting a meeting with Van Zant regarding the move, Gaynes never heard back from him. She said Van Zant did not reappoint her in part because she did not support Van Zant’s campaign.

“There were no blemishes on my record,” Gaynes said. “I had no professional development plan which is what they give administrators who are not performing their job correctly. I was totally blown away at that point.”

In a 37-minute interview with Clay Today, Van Zant maintained that administrators have the freedom to donate or not to donate to his campaign. He said his contribution list, riddled with administrators, is due to employees who are “genuinely excited” about the future “he’s cast for the school district and the progress they’re seeing us make.” He also cited Wortham’s 2012 campaigns in which administrators made contributions to his re-election bid.

One of those administrators – Oakleaf Junior High School Principal Anthony Williams – who donated $250 to Van Zant’s campaign, “respectfully declined” to comment when asked why he was handing out Van Zant leaflets at the June 2 superintendent debate.

He was later at the June 23 sheriff’s debate with several other principals doing the same thing. Van Zant appointed Williams to his current position in 2014.

When asked what made administrators like Williams willing to stand in 92-degree heat to advertise his campaign as they did at the sheriff’s candidate debate, Van Zant said “why wouldn’t you support your boss?”

Calls to RideOut Elementary Principal Joyce Orsi and Montclair Elementary Principal Bill Miller – who donated to Van Zant’s campaign – regarding their campaign contributions were not returned by deadline. “I’m kind of used to it, this is the way he does things,” said Carol Studdard, district two school board member.

Studdard said she witnessed administrators collecting petitions for Van Zant at Fleming Island Splash Park which functioned as a voting precinct during the March 15 presidential preference primary, a Tuesday. She watched them from seven in the morning to seven at night from her own petition booth.

Throughout the day, Kerekes received multiple telephone calls and text messages from concerned parents and educators saying administrators were seen at multiple other voting precincts from Keystone Heights to Orange Park.

A public records request asking which administrators had taken leave that day was not released by press time.

Van Zant said administrators do not donate to him out of self-preservation.

“Nobody lost their job when I became superintendent. They didn’t,” Van Zant said. “So not everybody is still there, there were a lot of retirements, there were people who have been moved for different reasons, but none of it had to do with anybody’s political contribution one way or another.”

When asked whether the district’s former public information officer, Darlene Mahla, was fired, Van Zant paused for six seconds during an interview. He then said school board policy prevented him from talking about actions taken by the district’s human resources department and said he was not “going to go down that road.”

In 2012, Mahla worked on Wortham’s campaign team. However, before Van Zant was sworn in in 2012, he had hired his friend and campaign donor Gavin Rollins, for a similar role. Calls to Mahla were not returned by deadline.

At the end of the fiscal year 2015, Van Zant did not renew Mahla’s contract

“Principals and leaders and teachers work so hard, so any additional time that they spend at events such as this is time they could spend with their families,” said Addison Davis, who will face Van Zant in the Aug. 30 closed primary. “From my standpoint, I don’t want an educator to be put in a bad position because they feel obligated to do it in fear of their job.”

Throughout his campaign, Davis and his family have been the main supporters advertising his candidacy, handing out candidate info cards and operating candidate booths to collect voter signatures. Since he started in October, he has raised more than $31,000. Van Zant’s campaign contributions trump his by nearly two fold at more than $59,000.

Many administrators are still reluctant to come forward with their experiences for fear of retribution.

“I don’t understand why things happen the way they do, but I know it hasn’t killed me yet,” Gaynes said. “But it sure has taken its toll on me, pride wise, the way I feel about myself and the goals I set for myself.”