Aranibar and Cantrell Meet for One Last Debate

BRADENTON — Manatee County School Board District 5 candidates Mary Cantrell and Julie Aranibar met for one final debate on Friday, less than 24 hours before polls opened for early voting. Hosted by the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club, the debate was in a forum style format with members asking questions and no formal time limit on responses.

Julie Aranibar

Mary Cantrell

The engagement offered little in terms of new territory, with both candidates sticking to familial themes. Cantrell is running on her academic background and decades as a teacher and administrator. Aranibar, the incumbent who was elected in 2010, is running on her record as a reformer and the district's academic and financial improvements during her term.

Aranibar was part of a vocal minority in the first half of her term, eventually helping to expose what ended up being more than $25 million in financial losses the district had been hiding or had been incurred through the misuse of funding that later had to be restored. In the following two years, the district administration was replaced, the shortfalls were recovered and student performance improved. 

Cantrell was the Director of MTI, the district's vocational and adult education campus. She was non-renewed earlier this year and announced her candidacy shortly after. When asked to make a case as to why her opponent should essentially be fired by voters in favor of her as a replacement, she declined to discuss her opponent and reiterated her academic credentials.

The biggest philosophical difference between the candidates seems to be that Cantrell favors school-based management in which teachers and principals have greater autonomy. Aranibar argues that a lack of centralized policy and uniformed standards was a major part of what led to the vast problems the district has suffered in recent years. 

Aranibar won the three-way August race, but failed to earn a majority of votes cast, sending her and Cantrell, who had second most votes, into a run-off on the November 4 ballot. School board races are non-partisan and are contested countywide, meaning that all registered voters in Manatee County will have the race on their ballot, regardless of which district they live in.