School board chair faces 3 challengers in Manatee election

Three candidates are challenging an incumbent for his District 4 seat on the School Board of Manatee County.

Jim Daniel is a Florida native who moved to Manatee County in 1982 and went on to raise a family in town. His wife and children are local educators, and he is a certified public account with auditing experience in Manatee, Sarasota and Hernando counties.

Gov. Rick Scott appointed Scott Hopes to the board last year, and he now serves as its chair. He taught eighth and ninth grade science, along with gifted third and fourth grade classes in Hillsborough County. He worked as a cancer epidimiologist and then went on to own and operate hospitals. Hopes said he also oversaw a multibillion-dollar budget as director of health policy for the state of Florida.

Richard Murphy was born and raised in Hendry County, where he worked as a full-time teacher starting in 2005. He served as a school board member from 1994 to 2008, and as the superintendent from 2008 to 2012. He later became an administrator in the School District of Palm Beach County.

Joe Stokes and his wife started their education careers in Indiana, and they worked together to raise two children and foster 13 others. Stokes moved to Manatee in 2004 and worked as the principal of King Middle School. He went on to become director of elementary education for the district, and he later served as the assistant principal of Samoset Elementary School. His career spans 45 years.

The primary election is Aug. 28. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers will face each other in the Nov. 6 general election.

Residents can vote early in the primary through Aug. 25. Polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the following locations:

• Manatee County Supervisor of Elections office: 600 301 Blvd. W., Suite 118, in Bradenton.
• Lakewood Ranch Town Hall: 8175 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.
• Rocky Bluff Library: 6750 U.S. Highway 301 N., in Ellenton.
• Palmetto Library: 923 Sixth St. W.
• Manatee County Utilities Administration: 4410 66th St. W., in Bradenton.

Each candidate visited the Bradenton Herald for a discussion on school security, fiscal responsibility, board unity, academic achievement and the search for a new superintendent.

Security

Daniel said he would immediately negotiate with county commissioners to address security in the upcoming school year.

He believes county commissioners wanted more information before they agreed to split the cost of added sheriff’s deputies with the school district, and that district officials failed to answer all the questions, leading the commission to back out of negotiations. A lack of financial support was one of the reasons Manatee schools hired armed “guardian” officers, and Daniel said the community’s No. 1 concern is having law enforcement instead.

“And we’re going to talk in a collaborative, cooperative fashion, not go banging on the doors,” Daniel said.

Hopes is impressed with the district’s guardians because most of them have prior experience in law enforcement or the military. He is, however, focused on making law enforcement officers the district’s main source of security. He said a shortage of available sheriff’s deputies played a large part in the decision to choose guardians.

Along with their experience and constant training, sheriff’s deputies and police officers could help build relationships in the community, especially at elementary schools, Hopes said.

“In many cases, this may be the first exposure that a child has with an armed police officer, and wouldn’t you want those children to see that individual as a friend,” he said

Murphy prefers law enforcement officers over guardians, and he said it would take strong collaboration between the superintendent and school board to address the legislature and find a solution. He also stressed the importance of empowering counselors and providing mental health resources.

“They build that trusting relationship, and that relationship provides communication on what’s going on in school, at home, on the streets,” he said.

Stokes also said counselors are overburdened, a large piece of the broken security puzzle.The state required security in every school, but it failed to fully pay for the new mandate, and Stokes believes that created conflict between school districts and county commissioners.

He, too, prefers the use of law enforcement officers rather than guardians.

“Our fund balance, the number I hear is around $30 million, and I think it was worth taking a million and a half to put a policeman or an SRO in every school,” Stokes said. “If you want the best, you have to pay for the best.”

Spending

Daniel said the school board regularly approves big purchases and budget increases through its consent agenda, meaning there is no public discussion during board meetings. He believes more transparency and upfront planning would prevent overages.

The district’s deputy superintendent is currently on administrative leave after a software project got out of hand, Daniel said, and he believes a lack of oversight allowed that to happen.

“The time to be raising Cain is a year ago when (Hopes) came on board, and if he has suspicions then he should have been screaming from the mountain top,” Daniel said.

Hopes said the district’s organizational structure allowed its deputy superintendent, Ron Ciranna, to become overwhelmed and possibly make poor decisions. The heads of several large departments — information technology, finance, construction, transportation and others — reported only to Ciranna.

“You create an environment for agency theory, meaning the agent has the ability to control the information that the protagonist or the board or the superintendent makes decisions on,” Hopes said.

He plans to continue building trust with the community, assessing the budgeting process and forming a long-term plan.

Murphy said he envisions the district getting to a place where competitive salaries no longer rely on a tax millage. And in a rapidly expanding community, the school district should work to research its contractors, solidify its budgets and supervise its projects, Murphy said.

“I don’t want to see the taxpayers pay the cost of overruns, needless expenses, because they’re getting taxed enough,” he said.

Stokes said transparency is key to financial responsibility. To exemplify that belief, Stokes attached his 2017 tax return to his filing documents.

He also said a copy of the budget should be written in clearer language so residents understand money is available and how that money can be used under Florida law.

“I’ll have anybody take a look at my personal finances and, as a taxpayer, this is public money,” he said. “We need to have it very visible, where it’s seen, whether it’s the construction side of the budget or whether it’s the operation side of the budget.”

Academic achievement

Daniel said poor district grades come down to “leadership, leadership and leadership.”

Teachers have the passion, he said, but added resources and a clear message are still needed. Daniel said the district should add more support for children and parents, especially the students who are bussed more than an hour to and from school.

“And what we see is we have to be ready to provide an infrastructure to help support them if we’re going to have those kids achieve,” he said. “And I’m talking about the families. If they’re working two or three jobs, and dad’s working a second shift...nobody’s going to be able to sit down with those kids and work.”

Hopes said academic achievement is the result of hard work by teachers, cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, psychologists, accountants and everyone else in the district.

He also said that just over half of Manatee third graders are reading below their grade level, adding that a background in education was not enough to lead the district toward success. He said experience in policy work and business was also needed.

“Everything else in our district is to support the effort in the classroom,” he said. “Our product is student success through academic achievement.”

Murphy said he lobbied for more vocational classes and funding as a superintendent. While college readiness is important for many students, he said, not everyone has the same goals.

His goal is to prepare students for a future after high school, whether that entails college or a career.

“We have so many blue collar workers now and they’re fighting for jobs and fighting for business, basically,” he said.

Stokes echoed the belief that students need more preparation for college or vocational opportunities. He also said the district needs more programs to create a year round learning experience for students in need of extra help.

And, he said, there should be more focus on English language learners, especially when it comes to young, impressionable students.

“We know some students have summers of enrichment, where other students don’t have any enrichment at all,” he said.

Board unity

Daniel is running for school board, first and foremost, to repair the board’s constant infighting and scandals.

Whether someone heads a fast food chain or a school district, he said, the attitude of a leader is felt throughout his or her entire organization.

Hopes said the board worked through its growing pains faster than expected. They learned to better communicate through the Master Board Program, he said, but they still need to work on procedural issues.

Speaking on his arrival to the district, Hopes said he found a board that seldom followed Robert’s Rules of Order or its own bylaws. He believes much of the tension resulted from his chairing of the board — not letting people waste time or stray from the business at hand.

Murphy said he ran for Hendry’s school board in 1994 because he felt it needed improvement. He also recalled dealing with funding issues and differing personalities from 2008 to 2014, when he served as the district’s superintendent.

Collaboration, he said, is the first step to solving any problem.

Stokes is leaving retirement to address the board’s issues, mainly a lack of civility and communication. Such behavior affects decision making and, ultimately, the lives of more than 48,000 students, he said.

He said effective leaders separate their egos from their business. Stokes would like to see more collaboration between board members, the superintendent and other district administrators.

Superintendent search

Daniel said board members need to fix their relationships before they can attract a quality superintendent, which became a need after former Superintendent Diana Greene left to head Duval County schools.

He would prefer to find someone in the middle of their career — a person who can make Manatee better and then move on, as most superintendents do after three to four years.

Hopes, conversely, would like seasoned candidates who want to finish their careers in Manatee.

It’s best, he said, to form a strategic plan for the district’s future before it searches for a new superintendent who can implement that plan. Hopes has collaborated with the Florida School Boards Association to learn more about the search process.

Murphy said the district should gather input from county residents, and that community input should actually be valued and taken into consideration. He also suggested using consultants to aid in the search for a new superintendent.

Stokes would like to consider both local and national candidates. As someone who moved from Indiana and found success in Manatee, he knows the value of casting a wide net.

And instead of creating a district plan before the search, he would rather form a plan in collaboration with board members and the new superintendent.

This story was originally published August 18, 2018 at 6:00 AM.