Bright blue ink from Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature Sharpie dries on the paper. The flourishing stroke derails Principal Burt Clark’s plans for a brand-new building with additional classrooms, an up-to-date science lab, a state-of-the-art robotics lab and a specialized chorus room. By employing his gubernatorial line-item veto powers, DeSantis removed the $5 million appropriation that would have funded the building’s construction.

The story of the building-that-could-have-been started as little more than a figment of Clark’s imagination. Clark said ideas surrounding a new building began to form last school year.

“Obviously, we do need some facility upgrades,” Clark said. “There are two major issues that I have. One is the portable classrooms. I don’t think they’re really conducive to a positive learning environment. The other part that frustrates me is that we are capped in our enrollment. We can’t take many more than about 950 kids. If we were to have more classroom space, we could add seats and have more kids be a part of what we do here.”

Clark said recurring issues such as A/C problems and general leakage due to the portables’ old age (up to 60 years) created a need for new classrooms. Additionally, he said he wishes to expand the enrollment cap from 950 to 1,200.

So, Clark devised a building with classrooms to replace the eight portables, including a new science lab, robotics lab and chorus room. They calculated a preliminary cost of $15 million, which included a “cushion” that could also be used for athletic facility upgrades.

It was with this number in hand that Clark approached then-Florida State Senator Randy Fine about bringing the proposition into state legislature. Clark had met Fine on his first day being introduced to West Shore in 2024.

“I had a conversation with Mr. Fine,” Clark said. “He said, ‘State appropriations money is a way to try [funding a new building]. It’s a Hail Mary. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we can at least try. The worst they could say is no.’”

With Fine, a Republican, as his Senate sponsor, Clark then filled out a Local Funding Initiative Request form for $15 million titled “Brevard County School District West Shore Jr./Sr. High School Expansion.” It was submitted to the Florida State Senate on Feb. 7. The request states, “West Shore Jr./Sr. High School is annually one of the top-performing schools across the state and nation in virtually every metric. The school, originally constructed in 1957, is grossly outdated … If we added a permanent building on campus, we could increase enrollment, enhance our science research program and choral program, and add a state-of-the-art engineering and robotics lab.”

“I didn’t hear anything for a while,” Clark said. “Then I got some calls that it had made it past the Senate, went on to the [House of Representatives], and then it got slashed. It went from $15 [million] to $12 [million]. Then it went to the next level, and that’s when it got cut to five. That was a bummer, because we couldn’t have done the building that I wanted with $5 million, but I had been in contact with the district, and they said, ‘If you secure that, we could probably add in and get to $10 million.’”

But after passing both chambers of the Florida legislature and being added to the budget bill, the allocation arrived at its moment of reckoning: the governor’s desk. DeSantis vetoed the $5 million school expansion when he signed the 2025-2026 Florida budget on June 30.

“The last hurdle was the hardest one to get over, because Governor DeSantis does have that last line-item veto authority,” Clark said. “I’m not taking it personally. A lot of very worthy causes got vetoed, and there’s only so much money to go around. My hope was that proponents of school choice, like the governor and his constituents, would give more kids the opportunity to participate in the school choice program.”

“A lot of times the governor is vetoing stuff, and he doesn’t even know what he’s vetoing,” Jenkins said. “In this case, I do truly believe anything Randy Fine wanted was on the top of the list to get rid of.”

Fine and DeSantis were once close allies as Florida Republicans who collaborated to get elected and achieve policy goals. Fine was the Jewish outreach chair of DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign and helped him file a controversial bill in the Florida House that dissolved Disney’s special district after disputes between the corporation and the governor. Fine also endorsed DeSantis for president of the United States. Eventually, though, tension in their political alliance began to form.

In 2023, Fine applied for the job of Florida Atlantic University president and later said the governor’s office assured him that he would secure the position. However, Fine was not named as a finalist for the position that summer.

The rift in the politicians’ relationship became public on Oct. 24, 2023, when Fine switched his endorsement for U.S. President to Donald Trump. DeSantis would later lose the Republican presidential primary to Trump. In November 2024, Trump endorsed Fine for U.S. House, further exacerbating the rivalry.

The feud erupted in April 2025, when Fine won his election by less than expected against Democrat Josh Weil in Florida’s 6th congressional district. In a press conference, DeSantis reacted by saying, “When people see that, our base voters don’t get excited about that. You’re not giving them a reason to go out and vote.” He called Fine a “squish,” then added, “Just the way he conducts himself — he repels people. … They wanted to get him out of the Legislature, so they asked me to put him up for Florida Atlantic president, and I did, and the whole board would have resigned rather than make him president.”

Fine responded in a social media post: “A dying star burns hottest before it fades into oblivion.” He also implied DeSantis’ actions were anti-Semitic, saying in another post, “I do find it troubling the two politicians in Florida that he has chosen to take issue with in a very vitriolic way in the last few weeks are both Jewish — and that’s a small number — so I don’t understand it.”

“Ron DeSantis holds grudges, and I think this was payback,” Fine said.

Fine said the governor’s veto was a petty move without valid public policy reasoning.

“At the third-best public school in Florida, and one of the top 50 in the nation, students should not be going to class in trailers,” Fine said. “I’m 51 years old, and there are portable classrooms at West Shore that are older than me. That should not be the case.”

According to Jenkins, the feud between Fine and DeSantis only partially explains the funding veto.

“Part of his attack on public education is that he’s not going to invest $5 million into a public school,” Jenkins said. “[If he was] actually paying attention, he would realize he probably should not destroy that opportunity. I think it’s a little bit of both. I think [DeSantis] wanted to cause some heartache for [Fine]. Politics is gross, and these people are very vindictive.”

Brevard Public Schools board member Katye Campbell said she would not pin down a specific reason for the funding’s veto.

“The governor has a lot of components to his decision-making, so I would hesitate to make such a simplistic explanation,” Campbell said in an email.

Campbell said that while the school board is always grateful for any help the state can provide, Brevard Public Schools always has a process and plan for facility improvement, and that state appropriations can be subject to “the whims of politicians.”

“Wanting to spend tax dollars wisely and efficiently, we start with things that are at failure or in poor condition and work our way up,” Campbell said.

Jenkins said she had an explanation as to why Campbell may have opted not to comment on DeSantis’ decision to veto the funding.

“She’s going to be running for the state House seat, and she doesn’t want to be in Randy Fine’s crosshairs,” Jenkins said. “None of those people would ever step up and say what was happening between him and me was wrong. They wouldn’t even say it to my face. But they know damn well they don’t want it to happen to them. That’s why Katye Campbell won’t comment on it. She doesn’t have the guts.”

Fine and Jenkins have publicly feuded since Jenkins’ election to school board in 2020, first trading comments on Facebook due to policy differences. Jenkins said that Fine doxxed her phone number, had hundreds of people harass her, created a website that claimed she was having an affair, hired private investigators to follow her and sent protesters to her house. Now, Jenkins is running to be the Democratic bid for U.S. Senate from Florida in 2026.

“In a weird way, I feel like it’s my obligation to [run for Senate] because I’ve already been through the wringer,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said funding and supporting public schools is a key issue in her Senate campaign.

“I truly believe it’s the foundation of our democracy, and I believe that every child has a right to access a quality education,” Jenkins said. “I’m the first person to admit that it’s not perfect by any means. But in what sector of the world do you say, ‘This isn’t working; let’s completely take away all of the money and resources that’ll help.’”

Clark said he will regroup and look for advice on submitting a new appropriations request for a new building.

“I don’t know if doing it every year and staying relevant in everybody’s mind adds value, or slow-playing it a bit and waiting a year or two till the conditions are better,” Clark said. “I’ll definitely be asking those questions from some people that might know better than me.”

Jenkins said she thinks another request without Fine’s name attached would have a better chance of being passed in the budget.

“There has to be a very intentional strategy to [get it approved],” Jenkins said. “If it gets sold to them appropriately, referring to [West Shore] as a choice school, I think there’s a world in which it could get approved.”

Campbell said the West Shore community should continue to hold fast in waiting for improvements to school facilities.

“West Shore is part of the big picture, and that picture includes all of the students in the district from Mims to Malabar, pre-K through 12th grade,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t sound fun to say, ‘Be patient,’ but that is what I can say right now.”