Candidate Profile: Mary Foreman

Mary Foreman is running for the Manatee County School Board District 3 seat. She faces incumbent Dave Miner in a runoff on the November ballot in this non-partisan race.

Foreman and her family have lived in Bradenton since 2001. She has a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Florida Atlantic University and worked as a CPA until her retirement in 2019. Foreman has also served as a member of the Manatee County School District’s Audit Committee since its inception in 2013 and was its recent chair.

Foreman has volunteered countless hours reviewing the work of the district’s auditors and making recommendations to the school board over her seven years on the committee, helping to increase accountability. Foreman was a member of the Manatee County High School School Advisory Committee from 2001 through 2005 and served as its treasurer for three years. She boasts deep familiarity with the school district’s budget and operations and has obvious strengths in terms of much-needed financial oversight in a district where it has been sorely lacking for more than a decade.

After the 2012 financial scandal, in which former superintendent Tim McGonegal resigned following his admission that the administration had been deliberately hiding a multi-million dollar financial deficit from the board and public, Foreman was among the voices pointing out that the deficit was many times larger than acknowledged, which led to her appointment to the audit committee.

"The board was blindsided because no one on the board knew how to look at the information they were being given and ask the right questions," said Foreman in adebateduring the primary.

If elected, Foreman has promised she would bring financial experience and attention to detail to the District’s $851 million budget, as well as a parent’s concern for the success and well-being of our students.

"Currently, our board has two teachers on it," said Foreman. "What they don't have is a CPA. I've been a CPA for 40 plus years and a member of the audit committee for seven years. I know that district's finances. I have the ability to analyze the data and demand accountability and transparency. You can pay your taxes every year to a school district that makes headlines for bad decisions or you can put me on the board so that it never gets blindsided again."