Polk State College president Angela Garcia Falconetti came under fire from a school trustee Monday after a state Department of Government Efficiency report showed the school had the largest decline in enrollment among Florida’s public colleges.
In a letter submitted to the board Monday, trustee Ashley Bell Barnett raised concerns over the school’s up to 14% decline in enrollment and alleged that Falconetti had not been forthcoming with enrollment data.
“With the DOGE directive from Governor (Ron) DeSantis, I am gravely concerned that we have been noncompliant in wasteful spending and budget overages,” Bell Barnett wrote.
Bell Barnett, a DeSantis donor, was appointed by the governor to the PSC board of trustees in 2018. In 2023, she was appointed to the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system.
She said her concerns over the school’s performance were not politically motivated and that her interest is “to protect this institution that is at the heart of our community.”
The letter alleges that Falconetti only shared the school’s poor enrollment performance with board chairpersonCindy Hartley Ross, wife of former U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, and vice chairperson Ann Barnhart.
“What authority allows you and/or (Ross) to withhold information from the full board? What other information has been withheld in the same manner?” Bell Barnett wrote in a four-page list of questions for Falconetti.
At just 32%, the Winter Haven school also has the lowest graduation rate among the state’s 28 public colleges, according to federal data.
“To learn about this from community colleagues and not our president, when the information was known by others on the board months in advance, is a direct act of insubordination,” Bell Barnett wrote.
Falconetti, the school’s fifth president, has served in the role since May 2017. In 2022, DeSantis appointed her to the Education Commission of the States, a national organization that provides policy guidance on education.
Neither Falconetti nor Polk State spokesperson Madison Fantozzi immediatelyresponded to requests for comment.
The move — questioning enrollment performance and alleging a lack of transparency from the school president — mirrorsthe events leading up to the controversial resignation of Pasco-Hernando State College president Jesse Pisors earlier this month.
Bell Barnett wrote that “a colleague at our sister institution (Pasco-Hernando State College)” had shared a report from the Florida Department of Government Efficiency, a watchdog organization established by DeSantis. The report indicated that Pasco-Hernando’s enrollment had declined by 0.6% last year.
“What was alarming to me was that the same data showed that Polk State College had a decline of -13.6% (full-time equivalent enrollments), the worst among the 28 state colleges,” Bell Barnett wrote.
On Tuesday, Pasco-Hernando’s board of trustees appointed DeSantis ally Eric Hall as the school’s president in an interim role. The college’s board will vote to make Hall the permanent president in its June meeting.