- March 11, 2025
After 20 years of service, School Board District 4 representative Judy Conte said her goodbyes to Volusia County schools at the board’s Tuesday, Nov. 13 meeting.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
School Board Vice-chairwoman Judy Conte was beat out by Linda Costello Nov. 6, to represent Ormond Beach and Holly Hill in the board’s District 4 seat.
She said the following at the board's Nov. 13 meeting.
“I have been grateful for being able to serve the last 20 years in this role. And anybody who gets the opportunity to give back to their community, it’s a very fortunate thing. And I feel very privileged. ... I was a widow for quite awhile, and so the people in this room and in this system have been my support, my family, on many occasions, for which I will be forever grateful.
“This is the best group, in my opinion, to ever set school policy. We have been recognized by the state. ... Even though we’ve disagreed, we’ve never been disagreeable. ... I respect everybody sitting here.”
Regarding looming budget cuts, she said:
“I don’t need to tell you ... but I’m hoping that the lion’s share of the cuts ... do not come primarily on the academically challenged, or those that don’t have active parents, parents with the capacity to make themselves heard. I hope you will be the advocate for children who don’t have an advocate.”
Conte closed with news of the Oxford Dictionary making “omnishambles” its word of the year, a term that means, she said, “everything is all screwed up.”
“I think it’s a wonderful word,” she told the board, “and I hope that the omnishambles that occur to the School Board in the future will be few.”
