BRADENTON – The League of Women Voters of Manatee County is observing the Manatee School District School Board meetings and providing feedback to board members. This report lists items of interest to the League and notes adherence, or lack of adherence, to good governance procedures and the Sunshine Law. The following are the major points from the School Board Meeting onDecember 13, 2022.
ITEMSOF INTEREST
After calling the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m., Chair Choate read the district’s vision statement as printed in the district’s strategic plan: "The School District of Manatee County will be an exemplary student-focused school system that develops lifelong learners to be globally competitive.“
Rick Starrett, Trinity United Methodist Church, provided the invocationfollowed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Board approvedthe amended agenda, including the superintendent’s recommendation to table acceptance of district attorney, Mitch Teitelbaum’s resignation. Cindy Spray made a motion to pull seven items from the Consent Agenda and add them to New Business. She explained the need to clarify the high expenditures in these items for herself and the public. A lengthy discussion followed and the board agreed 5-0.
Recognitions: Mr. Barber introduced Carol Ricks, Principal of Myakka City Elementary School as Principal of the Year for Manatee County, and Adrienne Vos, Elementary Assistant Principal at Louise R. Johnson K-8 School of International Studies, Assistant Principal of the Year.
A video of the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Anna Maria Island Elementary School’s Guy Harvey Academy, produced by MSTV, was shown. It is an example of what can be found under the GOOD NEWS tab on the district’s website. [LWV note: link to video -https://www.manateeschools.
net/goodnews ]
Public Comment.George McDermott, Manatee County Democratic Party, explained that he wants to see a school board workshop on the Government in the Sunshine Law as was proposed at the last meeting. He emphasized the Sunshine Law’s importance for good governance and ethical behavior.
Legislative Update.Kevin Chapman, Executive Director, Administration, introduced Shawn Foster and Andrew Kalel, Sunrise Consulting Group, via virtual media, and their role in connecting the school board and district to the legislature. Mr. Foster provided an update from Tallahassee and answered questions from board members. Board members were reminded that they were to respond to a working draft of legislative priorities for the district. Superintendent Saunders indicated the need for pre-kindergarten to be brought under the district’s K-12 system, indicating that would be a game changer for 3rd-gradeliteracy. The issue of the financial hardship on the district of funds following students who get voucher scholarships was discussed.
Palmetto High School Construction Update.Joe Ranaldi, Chief Operations Officer, introduced the architect and construction representatives, who showed floor plans of the new two-story classroom building that will replace four other classroom buildings, as well as the layout of the campus with a new bus loop on the east side of the campus. The existing classrooms will be demolished when the new building is ready. There will also be a new cafeteria. Athletic buildings on the corner of the baseball diamond will be razed and rebuilt with new signage for the school and a forward-facing and more secure administration building. The impact of hurricane Ian, inflation, and supply chain issues were discussed. Work is projected to be completed in the summer of 2024.
Mrs. Foreman provided a reporton her recent attendance at the Florida School Finance Officers Association conference.
Public Hearing.Chair Choate convened a public hearing regarding adoption and amendments to by-laws and school board policies. There were no public comments and he reconvened the meeting. The board passed the changes 5-0. [LWV note - Links to Board Policy Changes:2022-10-11_Policiesand2022-11-08_Policies]
New Business (Items Pulled from Consent)
Seven consent items were pulled for action. Each of these items was to authorize the district to expend funds that had been agreed upon in the budget. Explanations were given by the Superintendent and staff about the source of the funds and described the purchase. All seven items passed 5-0.
New Business(Superintendent Recommendations)
Approval of the Budget Amendments for October 2022 passed 5-0 after an explanation by Budget Director, Gina Malinicek.
Approval of Palmetto High School – Partial Replacement Project – Agreement between owner and Gilbane Building Company, Amendment 3. Guaranteed Maximum Price is the amount of $34,898,266.00 for a total Guaranteed Maximum Price of $35,172,768.00. Since already on campus, construction company repaired fencing due to hurricanes – added December 9, 2022. Passed 5-0.
Approval of Manatee Technical College – Florida Law Enforcement Academy agreement between owner and A.D. Morgan – Amendment 2 - Partial Guaranteed Maximum Price in the amount of $1,981,479.00 – Added December 9, 2022. Passed 5-0.
New Business (No Superintendent recommendations)
Acceptance of Resignation of Citizen’s Financial Oversight Committee Member, Cindy Spray. Passed 5-0.
Approval of 2022-2023 Board Committee Assignments. Chair Choate asked if all agreed to their assignments. Ms. Spray offered to be a back-up for Mrs. Foreman as liaison to IT/Cybersecurity. Passed 5-0.
Department Update
Legal. School Board Attorney Dye requested a shade meeting regarding litigation with the Board and Special Counsel Ms. Erin Jackson and was put on the calendar for December 16, 2022, at 10:00 a.m.
Operations. Deputy Superintendent, Doug Wagner announced that Project Digitize is ahead of schedule with 33 schools done. There have been nineteen in-person and five virtual job fairs since June with 1,074 participating.
There have been 1400 new hires and transfers since July 2022. The next job fair is scheduled for January 11, 2023, at Wakeland Support Center for operations and paraprofessionals.
Superintendent Remarks
Superintendent Saunders announced the Educators and Support Staff of the Year recipients:
Educator of the Year Finalists are:
¥ Tiffany Barrett-Greer, 2nd Grade Teacher at Braden River Elementary School
¥ Kendall Carrier, Director of Bands (Music Teacher) at Parrish Community High School
¥ Michelle Dowell, Biomedical Science Teacher at Palmetto High School
¥ Kelly Smith-Williams, Anatomy and Physiology Teacher at Lakewood Ranch High School
Support Employee of the Year Finalists are:
¥ Gena Case, Guidance Clerk at Myakka City Elementary School
¥ Brianna Hall, Clerical Assistant at Lincoln Memorial Middle School
¥ Marisol Hernandez, School Secretary at Braden River High School
¥ Latisha Jones, Guidance Clerk at Southeast High School
School Board Member Comments:
Ms. Foreman and Ms. Messenger wished everyone a Happy Holiday.
Mr. Tatem recognized the public’s trust in board members to oversee billions of dollars and wants to be able to justify to the public how the money is spent. He expressed safety first and wants all to be back in the new year.
Ms. Spray thanked Myakka Elementary for its community support. She described attending the Southeast High School groundbreaking ceremony. She expressed a focus on good learning and not just good buildings to learn in. She thanked everyone for their patience as she learns the process and wished all a Merry Christmas.
Mr. Choate thanked the teachers as they wind up the first semester and wished all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Adjourned meeting at 2:03 p.m.
GOVERNANCE/SUNSHINE
Mr. Choate ran his first meeting as Chair with precision insuring each board member’s participation in discussions. He might want to consider not using his chair position to make more comments than he would as a non-chair board member. The new protocol of not reading the Public Comment caution, but having public speakers check a box of acknowledgement, is appreciated. However, when speakers are allowed from the floor who did not "sign up“ there needs to be thought to how to reinforce expectations for public commenters. Times when this can happen are when new items are added or during a public hearing.
Reading the district’s vision statement stated in the current Strategic Plan at the beginning of each meeting will serve as a focus for decision making.
The split screen with a camera facing the public commenter and a camera on the board members as they hear the public comment was a positive addition to the meeting format.
Board members handled themselves professionally and treated each other with respect. Ms. Messenger and Ms. Foreman delivered their critique of Ms. Spray’s request to move consent items to new business fairly and with kindness.
Not only because of new board members’ learning needs, please remember to not use acronyms even when you might believe "everyone knows what we mean,“ e.g. ESSER = Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds. The public is best served when acronyms are not used.
Ms. Spray and Mr. Tatem each acknowledged they are on steep learning curves and we applaud their willingness to climb that curve aggressively. Veteran board members were patient and willingly shared their strategies about how they get their questions answered prior to board meetings and still bring pertinent information to the public during the meeting.
New Board members have much to learn about their roles and responsibilities, and it is understood that they will have questions as new issues come before them.However, the School Board business meeting is not a personal training session.Process questions like "how do I request a workshop“ and consent agenda items are best addressed during briefing sessions with the Superintendent.We suggest Ms. Spray inform her voters of her fulfilling her campaign promises through alternative communication means and not take up the time of the school board business meeting.
Longer meetings are not productive or beneficial to the Board, staff and public.We want to thank the veteran Board members and the staff for their patience.
In the interest of transparency, the public should know why the resignation of Mitch Teitelbaum was tabled.
The LWV joins in congratulating the Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year, as well as the teacher and support staff finalists.
School Board Workshop followed at 3:00 p.m.
A representative from the Florida School Board Association laid out the process for a superintendent search. She clearly identified the challenges including the difficulty they will likely encounter getting applicants in this current atmosphere. At this time, six other Florida school districts are seeking Superintendents. Board members asked critical questions and they seemed to agree that they need a search firm and that the process needs to start ASAP. They scheduled a special workshop for January 6 to discuss search firms and will try to make a decision on one at the January 10 School Board meeting.
Bob Gause, a former School Board member, spoke during public comment to share his experiences of hiring new superintendents when he served.
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