OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Marion County Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Ben Whitestone’s presentation at the school board’s workshop on Nov. 6, 2025, resonated powerfully with the school board members, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Whitestone shared some updates and some thoughts that the team had discussed internally.

What had been shared with directors and principals, is that the school district needs to be prepared for challenging conversations, said Whitestone.

“Those challenging conversations are coming, change is coming, change always comes whether we like it or not,” said Whitestone. “What we can’t control what that change is, however, what we can always control is our response to that change. Understanding what’s coming, understanding the conversations we’re going to have and being armed with information helps us to be better prepared to meet those conversations.”

When the course must be altered 

It’s important that the school district stays grounded in its core values as they address those challenges, said Whitestone, who in his spare time teaches graduate school classes, and for the past several years has taught a course on change leadership and decision making for aspiring administrators. Whitestone starts out each term framing the idea of how change is led in schools.

“What I tell them is that rule number one about change, no one likes change,” said Whitestone. “Change challenges the very hardwiring of our brain. Our brains are wired to resist change. We crave consistency. We crave sustainability and predictability. These are survival skills that we’ve adapted since the dawn of humanity. When we think about consistency and predictability, they lead to feelings of safety and belonging. And if you’re familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy [of Needs], those two items are just above food, water and air in terms of psychological needs. So, any time that we propose change or ask people to change, we know that it’s going to be met with resistance, no matter how simple the change is.”

A proactive approach 

The second rule is, the only way to guarantee failure is inaction, said Whitestone.

“That’s a very tough conversation to have, but that is a reality to have as leaders,” said Whitestone. “We talked with the directors and the principals about what changes are coming, things we know we need to start preparing for as a group. One of the things we talked about was our 10-year growth projection for Marion County Public Schools.”

On a conservative level, the school district’s growth projection is about 600 students per year, said Whitestone. And although the number doesn’t sound like a lot for any single year, across 10 years, it’s a substantial amount. The two places that appear to be growing exponentially with an increase in student population are in southwest Marion County and Silver Springs Shores.

“We can project the 6,000 new students in two very localized areas,” said Whitestone. “We’re going to be dealing with localized overcrowding, very quickly, in areas that are already crowded in our community.”

The school district has to have conversations now about how they prepare themselves to be successful 10 years from now because of the type of growth the county is experiencing, said Whitestone.

The Schools of Hope charter program is another conversation the district has to have, as they pose a financial burden to school districts, and the school district has to begin making decisions and taking steps to avoid that going forward, said Whitestone.

The state’s financial outlook was also discussed, with the state having released their three-year financial outlook, and the financial outlook three years from now suggests it will be looking at a financial deficit in the State of Florida, said Whitestone. The state legislature will more than likely explore tightening their belt to prepare themselves for the future. It’s unknown how it’s going to impact public education, but the school district needs to be prepared for that conversation and begin taking steps to internally guard themselves.

Federal funding was also discussed. During the summer the federal government paused Title II, III and IV funding, which sent a number of districts into panic mode. The school district needs to be proactive in the decisions that they make and to make certain they’re responding appropriately, said Whitestone.

“It’s millions of dollars of funding, and we saw just recently the release for fiscal year 2026, the President and the House have both proposed eliminating Title II, Title III and Title IV funding, whether that holds true when everything is said and done, we don’t know,” said Whitestone. “The fact that two of those three groups proposed it, means we have to have real conversations as to what does that look like, if that funding goes away, so we’ve begun that internal dialogue.”

Losing to gain 

Rule no. 3 is that change equals loss, and any time people are asked to change, there will be an emotional response because we’re losing something that is consistent to one’s life, something that is predictable to one’s life, said Whitestone.

“As leaders, we need to make sure that we don’t meet an emotional response with an emotional response, that we are grounded in our values and we stand by the decision that we make because we know at the end of the day, it’s going to be in the best interest of our school district,” said Whitestone. “And so, preparing for those conversations, the question comes up: How do we lead through change? We have to make sure that the reason for change outweighs the discomfort the change is going to cause. Is the change important enough, responsible enough, meaningful enough, that it outweighs those discomforts that it’s going to cause, and to make sure that our change is grounded in our core values. We as a school district have established our core values, they’re part of our strategic plan and we stand beside those, our vision statement and mission statement… we must help every student succeed, that every student deserves to be educated in a safe and loving school environment, and we as leaders and fiscal agents in the school district we have a responsibility that we leave this school district in good financial standing to survive into the future.”