Citizen Group to Call for Replacing MCSD Superintendent and Attorney at 4:30 Press Conference

BRADENTON – An ad hoc group calling themselves the Committee for Improving the Education of Children in Manatee County (CIEC), whose members include at least two who have served on the district's budget committee, have announced a press conference to be held in front of the school district building, prior to tonight's anticipated school board meeting, which takes place at 5:30 p.m.

The full release is featured below:

The Committee for Improving the Education of Children in Manatee County (CIEC) is an ad hoc and recently formed group of local business leaders and concerned citizens focused on the improvement of local education. Several CIEC members have served on the Budget Committee for Manatee County School District (MCSD) including founding members Tom Garland and Richard Greene.  

CIEC members are not employed by MCSD, and do not represent or have any obligation to any group or interested party and do not seek any financial or other benefit from their efforts.  The goal of CIEC is to see the quality of education provided to the children of Manatee County improved and specifically to see steady annual improvement in test scores until MCSD is in the top quarter of all Florida communities within 10 years.

CIEC will announce today its call for the following:

• The board to immediately terminate board attorney John Bowen for cause and initiate an outside investigation including of recent lawsuits and specifically including a suit against the parents of an autistic child which have cost MCSD hundreds of thousands of dollars that could otherwise gone into the classroom.

 

• The parents of an autistic child who recently won their case in court after more than 3 years of being sued by MCSD for simply wanting their child to be evaluated as is specifically allowed by Federal and State law, will bravely come forward today to tell their story of the damage caused to them and their child by Bowen and MCSD.

• The board to initiate a nationwide search for a new superintendent with a proven track record of improving student results.

• The board to initiate an investigation of emails and communications between board members and the extent to which, by intent or otherwise, any board members feel they are being constrained from voicing and bringing to light problems within MCSD and otherwise limited from doing the job they were elected to do. All board members should be interviewed on this subject by the press.

• The board to initiate an outside investigation into why MCSD has the highest per student administrative costs of any Florida community and an implementation of responsible cuts, reductions, and efficiencies.

   

• The board to initiate an outside investigation of the Manatee Education Foundation and to what extent it provides a benefit or cost to MCSD.

CIEC will provide to the press written and/or electronic documentation, direction to publicly available documents, and other pertinent information pertaining to the above issues.