Candidate Profile: Scott Hopes

BRADENTON – Manatee School Board chair Scott Hopes, appointed to fill a vacancy by Governor Rick Scott last year, finished second in a four-way race on the August ballot, setting up a runoff election with former administrator Joe Stokes.

As chairman and CEO of CliniLinc, Hopes currently serves as a high-level consultant to interests in the healthcare industry, a field in which he's spent the bulk of his professional career. Beginning as a cancer epidemiologist with Tampa General in the mid-80s, Hopes moved into administration at just 26 years old. He's worked for and with a variety of Fortune 500 companies and also served as Florida's Director of Health Policy during former governor Jeb Bush's first term.

Hopes also has experience in the world of education, having served as a trustee at the University of South Florida–a slot for which he was appointed by Scott in 2013–though he had to resign due to his appointment to the school board. He also brings classroom experience, having taught science for several years in Hillsborough County.

As chair, Hopes helped promote a referendum for extra property tax revenues that passed narrowly, but only offered support on the condition that the board create a public advisory committee to make recommendations on spending, something he set about trying to achieve as soon as he was appointed.

With the board about to embark on finding its next superintendent and the district still trying to improve its education outcomes while engaged in building several new schools to accommodate growth, this year's elections could have a major impact on the shape of things to come. Hopes has a clear vision for what he thinks that should look like.

"We got the referendum passed and the revenue in place," said Hopes. "We're recruiting teachers. Now we are going to develop a strategic plan, a financial plan and then hire the right superintendent to take this district where we want it to go, which is to be an A district. I believe that's possible within a year if we have the right core focus in place."

Hopes says that the process of finding a permanent superintendent will take six months to a year, but he's certain as to what the board should be looking for.

"I think our next superintendent needs to be someone with a tremendous amount of experience and success already under their belt, someone who's proven that they can succeed in a challenged district," he said. "Perhaps someone with the last 10 years of their career in front of them who looks at our district and this community as a good place to finish."

Hopes says that it takes a very specific skill set to fit the bill.

"It's a vastly complex position," he said. "You're the CEO of a billion-dollar enterprise, so we need a person who has developed those skill sets and succeeded in running an institution of that size and scope. We also need someone who knows how to hire the very best people so that we can elevate our administration and ensure that we have people whose resumes align with their positions, that they're set up to succeed because you've hired them for a job they have the experience and talents to excel at."

Hopes doesn't think it necessarily takes a career educator to meet those criteria.

"You might have someone who's spent a long time in the classroom and rose through the ranks of administration and is ready for that sort of position, but it's the quality of experience they have at this level of leadership that matters most. I also think our next superintendent should obviously have a very strong understanding of the financial side of the equation. We've seen how important that is."

On school security, Hopes advocates a multi-pronged approach.

"We had a recent active shooter drill within the district that I had the chance to observe, and it was impressive to see these SROs just react," said Hopes. "It was all muscle memory, the result of having trained on it extensively. They were right where they needed to be immediately. You won't get that with security personnel that doesn't have that experience. You won't even get that with inexperienced deputies. We need to have experienced SROs in every school."

Hopes said the district dropped the ball in winning support from the county commission on increasing their cost sharing by not effectively building the partnership and says that steps are being taken to remediate that. He also said that there are other ways the schools can be hardened to increase security.

"The first thing we did was start looking at the campuses to see where there were weaknesses," said Hopes. "Schools had tempered glass that anyone could have shattered into a million pieces by throwing a hard object at it. Because we'd gotten our fiscal house in order, we were able to very quickly get bids on changing that out and get it taken care of. We had schools that you couldn't lock from the inside. You literally had to be standing outside and lock yourself out in order to secure the building. How much sense does that make? In the relatively short time I've been here, we've been making changes and improving. We've had accountability and action. I'm hoping voters see that and give me their support so we can continue to move forward."