Schools and Education School Board Votes to Accept Superintendent's Retirement

BRADENTON — Following Superintendent Rick Mills' announcement of his intent to retire from the district as of July 31, the school board effectively placed an item on Tuesday night's agenda to accept the superintendent's decision and passed it unanimously.

The board had originally planned to discuss the superintendent's retirement in May. Mills, it was advised at the board's workshop Tuesday afternoon, had a family emergency and so could not attend the Tuesday evening meeting.

But Board Chair Bob Gause advised he had talked with Mills prior to the meeting, and had asked the superintendent if he wanted to instead have the board go ahead and vote on acceptance of his retirement that night. "He said, 'let's go ahead and get closure' ... he is not unaware of (a decision to vote at the meeting)," said the board chair.

In responding to some citizens' urging of the board to still discuss a list of misconduct allegations regarding Mills that had been given to them at their April 14 meeting, board members disagreed that doing so would be necessary.

Talking about putting criticisms of Mills to bed in the wake of his resignation, board member Mary Cantrell said, "When someone chooses to retire, and we're going to respect that wish, there's nothing in me that would want to bash or say (negative things) about that person."

Karen Carpenter agreed, and compared the situation with Mills with his predecessor, Tim McGonegal, revealing that the district had a multimillion dollar deficit before immediately resigning. "This is a very different situation from the September 2012 meeting where there was chaos, and the superintendent stepped out the side door," she said.

Prior to Mills' announcement, the board had planned to discuss how it should address allegations such as those made at its April 14 meeting. The board ultimately decided to postpone discussion on said issue to its May 12 workshop.

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