Open seat on Manatee Board filled as Scott Hopes gets sworn in

The School Board of Manatee County is back at capacity, as of Tuesday.

Scott Hopes, a retired health care CEO who was previously on the University of South Florida’s Board of Trustees, was sworn into the board by Judge Brian Iten during a School Board workshop. Gov. Rick Scott appointed Hopes to fill the vacancy left by former board member Karen Carpenter, who moved to Boston in June.

Hopes, who has been critical of the district’s test scores and questioned Superintendent Diana Greene’s description of the recent bump in test scores as an “improvement,” told the board he looked forward to supporting Greene.

“Her success is what we depend on for the success of our students, so I am here to serve her,” Hopes said.

Before the meeting, Hopes touted his experience as a former teacher in Hillsborough County, where he worked for two years after college, and his business experience.

He didn’t hesitate to jump into the nitty-gritty details of school district governance.

During a presentation on a massive software overhaul of the district’s personnel management system, Hopes urged administrators not to be “penny wise and pound foolish” with the number of employees designated to the project.

“This is not the time to say I’ve got to stay within the budget,” Hopes said, telling board members and district staff that software transitions can become costly if not given appropriate staffing.

School District asked to pitch in

Developer and former state senator Pat Neal, representing the North County Partnership, asked the board to contribute $4 million to a $12 million extension of Fort Hamer Road.

Manatee County has told the school district it needs to widen 69th Street East and Martha Road, which surround the new high school planned for Parrish. Neal told the board that, instead of spending the money on those two roads, it should use the money to help fund the extension of Fort Hamer Road.

Neal is planning a public-private partnership to extend Fort Hamer Road from south of U.S. 301 to Erie Road, where the new high school will be, and on to Moccasin Wallow Road, near where the district will be building a new elementary school.

Neal said his firm, Neal Communities, had committed $4 million to the project, and he wants Manatee County and the School Board to pitch in an equal amount.

While the board seemed to respond positively to Neal’s proposition, Greene said the district had not planned on widening the entirety of 69th Street East and Martha Road running adjacent to the new school, and that a traffic study had not revealed a need for expanding roads.

Greene said the district is required to widen a portion of Martha Road between Erie and the first entrance to the teacher’s parking lot, and the district would be willing to replace plans for a student entrance off of Erie Road by widening Fort Hamer Road.

District executive planner Mike Pendley said the county had not given the school district a clear answer as to what the traffic impact of the new school would be or what the threshold was to warrant expanding current roads. And, Pendley said the road expansion could lead to more congestion.

“It would invite traffic down those roads,” Pendley said.

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Open seat on Manatee Board filled as Scott Hopes gets sworn in."