Beth Clark Speaks Out About Robert Alvero
"You Can't Fix Stupid"
A press conference was held on December 31st at Saint James AME Church in Orange Park to renew calls for the resignation of School Board Member Robvert Alvero in the aftermath of his racially charged comments that surfaced last week.
After the press conference, Board Member Beth Clark spoke to the media. Clark spoke about Alvero, the local Republican party, and an unnamed group she says is taking a hypocritical stance on freedom of speech.
Clark began her remarks by noting that School Board members are elected by and accountable to all citizens of Clay County.
“Alvero doesn’t work for just district two. We’re not like the Clay County Commission. We get voted in by every citizen in this community. We have to live each in a separate district, but we work for the entire county. That’s all the schools and we don’t know the effect that it may have had on many of our children.”
While local community and religious leaders renewed calls for Alvero’s resignation, Clark took an opportunity to speak her mind about Alvero, stating, “He needs to grow up, and he needs to really, if he’s going to stay here, he needs to become a good American.” She also added, “You can’t fix stupid.”
Clark also spoke about the local Republican party, stating that Alvero should have been vetted more thoroughly. She then clarified that the only action the school board can take is to issue a public “vote of no confidence” against Alvero.
Only the Governor can remove an elected school board member from office. Clark went on to say that she hopes Alvero resigns, but if not, she hopes the Governor takes action.
Lastly, Clark mentioned an unnamed group that had previously sought to have a music teacher fired over online comments that Clark believes were taken out of context:
There are people in one group that a couple of months ago they were trying to fire, wanted us to fire a music teacher for something they took out of context, in my opinion, on a Facebook post. But now they seem to think that it’s acceptable for this man to stay. And I’m going, as a group, you’re irrelevant. You know, this is ridiculous.
The music teacher in question made a comment in September of 2025 wishing all unvaccinated people would “die quickly.” The comment was a point of contention after another local teacher faced scrutiny for comments made in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The school board will meet on January 8th, 2026, at 6 pm at Fleming Island High School.
I’d like to clarify that the comments made by the music teacher, Evan Gould of Lake Asbury Junior High, were made on 9/9/2025, the day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, on the Clay County Education Association’s public Facebook page. CCEA posted about the State vaccine mandates for students and Mr. Gould commented on this post about student vaccine mandates being lifted, that he “just hopes the unvaccinated die quickly”. These comments were not made during COVID, rather much more recently.
That aside, Mr. Alvero’s comments were disappointing and unbecoming of an elected official. I do not support or condone his conduct as he represents all students and families. In a world that promotes “this is my truth” mantras, Mr. Alvero should have used better discernment on sharing his own personal testimony, according to him, publicly.
Just as there were consequences for the local teachers celebrating and rejoicing over the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, and as there SHOULD be for Mr. Gould’s call for the death of individuals whose vaccination status he disagrees, Mr. Alvero may have to face consequences for his words as well.
Brings up a good point. Nobody who is serving a community (as in ALL of us) in an official function should be associated officially with a political party. Not law enforcement, not school board members, not commission members,...It should be like it is for members of the military.