School board reorganization could affect campaign for tax hike

It’s perhaps not up to the nail-biting anticipation of a TV episode of “Game of Thrones” or “Empire,” but Tuesday’s School Board of Manatee County reorganization meeting should present plenty of drama.

Every year, the five-person board must elevate a new chairman and vice chairman from its ranks whose leadership will, for a full year, run the board, which affects about 6,800 full- and part-time employees and 49,000 students of the School District of Manatee County.

Although the entire board makes the decisions that impact so many lives and pocketbooks, the chairman of the board works with Superintendent Diana Greene to set the agendas for board meetings, and the vice chair supervises the all-important public comment period during meetings.

Currently, Charlie Kennedy is board chairman, and John Colon is vice chairman.

The new chairman and vice chair will immediately take over their duties.

The drama actually began Monday when Colon said he will not seek to be chairman.

“My firm does not want me to be chairman because of possible conflicts of interest that could arise,” said Colon, who is a registered investment adviser for Wells Fargo.

By stepping back, Colon opens the door for either David Miner, Scott Hopes, Gina Messenger or Kennedy for another year, Colon said.

“Anyone who feels their tax dollars are important should watch this meeting online or be present,” Colon said Monday. “There will be public comment.”

The candidates

Whoever is elected chairman takes over at a time when the school board has major financial matters on its plate, including a special election March 20 on whether to increase school property taxes by one mill.

A longtime Bradenton practicing attorney, Miner may be the most recognizable face among all the board members since he is very active in the community and was a regular at school board meetings as a citizen long before he was a board member.

“He is very passionate,” Colon said of Miner, his colleague on the board.

If nominated and voted in, Miner would no doubt be a chairman who is staunchly behind the special election. He believes the taxpayers agree with him and want Manatee schools to be able to recruit and keep quality teachers and staff members.

“We want to be the best school district in the state,” Miner said.

Messenger, a Manatee County native, had been an educator for six years in Title I, low-income, public schools in Marion County and Orange County before joining the board.

When she campaigned for the school board, Messenger said her focus included emphasizing low-income schools and early childhood education, “ensuring that the maximum amount of money is spent on our students and classrooms by being budget conscious and advocating for teachers, students and families in the Manatee County area.”

She and her husband, Matt, have a home in Parrish and a daughter who will one day be a student in the district, she proudly says. Messenger says her daughter is a major part of why she ran for the school board.

A Bradenton resident and former Manatee High School teacher, Kennedy has been an educator for more than 10 years. Prior to working at Manatee High, he was on the faculty at The Pendleton School in Bradenton and YouthBuild Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.

When he campaigned for the school board, Kennedy’s points of emphasis were a renewed focus on early childhood education, a common sense approach to district properties and their proposed sale, a more hands-on role for school board members in supporting classroom teachers, and ensuring that school spending is spent directly on students and classrooms.

Hopes, who along with Colon voted against having the special election, said he would love to be chairman and that he has come up with a proposal to get the referendum passed.

“I am the best hope to getting the referendum passed by the voters, because I think I can best articulate the plan,” Hopes said. “I will be making a proposal of how to structure the district’s finances with citizen buy-in.”

Hopes, 57, has a doctorate in business administration from the University of South Florida and started his first company in Houston when he was 16, with a payroll of 10 employees.

At age 26, he was an administrator at Tampa General Hospital. He acquired his first hospital in Destin at age 33. He was director of health policy for the state of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration and managed a budget exceeding $17 billion. He was a school teacher and department chairman for Hillsborough County public schools in Brandon. He was also on the board of trustees of the University of South Florida system and oversaw a budget of $2.1 billion.

“I am the most experienced and most qualified,” Hopes said. “At a time when the general public has, perhaps, a lack of trust in the district’s fiscal management, I can point to my background.”

Colon won’t say who, if anyone, he plans to nominate to be chairman Tuesday.

“Whoever we put in those chairs, we must look at the board in its totality to make the choice,” Colon added. “We have some major financial issues before us.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "School board reorganization could affect campaign for tax hike."