Okaloosa County School District Superintendent Marcus Chambers addressed allegations of misconduct made against him and the district in a Facebook post Friday.
This is the first time Chambers directly addressed an anonymous complaint submitted to Florida’s Department of Education (DoE) in 2025, which alleged improper favorable treatment for his fiancée (now wife), Tracey Lamb. Lamb was hired as the Director of Curriculum I for OCSD in 2021. The complaint additionally alleges Chambers helped cover up financial malfeasance and sexual impropriety amongst subordinates. The DoE’s investigation found nothing to support the claims; but the complaint has remained prominent as residents and local advocacy groups question whether the investigation was thorough, and whether OCSD violated government transparency laws during the process.
“I have not created any position for any employee for personal gain,” Chambers said. “Every single hiring decision made in the school district during my tenure has complied with the school district’s policies. Every single pay raise associated with those hiring decisions went through the Board-approved procedures.”
The same anonymous allegation indicts Chambers for “protect[ing] employees during investigations, fail[ure] to conduct investigations, and that [he] failed to report a sexual encounter between two administrators on an OCSD campus witnessed by a minor.
Chambers did not address these allegations directly, but instead referenced an outside investigation by Tallahassee attorneys whom the school district hired in July 2025 to look into the anonymous complaint to the Florida DEA.
“The outside investigation concluded that the allegations were unfounded,” Chambers said. “Just because the outside investigation did not produce the result some of my accusers wanted does not make the process or the conclusions invalid.”
Chambers claimed his opponents doxxed his address and continued to invade his family’s privacy.
“They have parked in front of our home while taking pictures of not only where my wife and I live, but where our kids live as well.”
Chambers concluded his open letter with a message to his accusers, whom he says are primarily “candidates running for School Board and their supporters.”
“As my accusers read this message, I have no doubt they will now regroup and double down on their accusations,” he said. “With that said, I will remain fully focused on the privilege of serving as Superintendent of Okaloosa Schools and on the important work I was elected to do.”
Chambers is in the middle of his second four-year term and eighth year in command of the district’s day-to-day operations. He won a powerful mandate in his last contested election in 2020 by a two-to-one margin in a brutal campaign against Ray Sansom, the former Speaker of the Florida House. He began his time as superintendent after Governor Ron DeSantis suspended former Superintendent of Schools Mary Beth Jackson in the wake of a special needs student abuse scandal. Jackson was later cleared of wrongdoing and resigned from her office after a long fight to clear her name.
Three school board seats are up for election in this cycle. You can learn more about the candidates here.
