Manatee assistant principal wins state award. She asks officials to give teachers more freedom

Bernadette Pletcher, of Tillman Elementary School, received the Outstanding Assistant Principal Achievement Award, a yearly honor from the Florida Department of Education.

Richard Corcoran, the state’s education commissioner, honored the Manatee County leader at a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday morning. Standing in Florida’s capital with Superintendent Cynthia Saunders nearby, Pletcher thanked her teammate, Principal Marla Massi-Blackmore.

“This has everything to do with the leader I work with,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher joined the school district in 2009, starting as a math coach at Manatee Elementary School. She later worked as an assistant principal at Anna Maria Elementary School and the former G.D. Rogers Garden Elementary School.

Her current home, Tilliman Elementary, is a Title I school that serves hundreds of economically disadvantaged students. The Palmetto school jumped from an F grade to a B grade during Pletcher’s three years at the campus.

In her acceptance speech on Tuesday morning, Pletcher said high poverty should not equal low performance.

“I want those Title I students to have the intellectual ability to compete with students from non-title schools,” she said.

The annual award began in 1997, honoring one assistant principal from throughout the state. Pletcher received a trophy and $2,500 for her achievement.

“They are obliterating the negative narrative that too often surrounds Title I schools, and I am honored to recognize these educators and their students for tremendous growth,” the education commissioner said in a prepared statement.

Tom Grady, a member on the State Board of Education, asked the honorees how Florida could better support its school leaders. In her final comment at Tuesday’s meeting, Pletcher asked for more freedom in the classroom.

“I think the flexibility to fit what’s needed at our schools,” she said, citing the school’s unique knowledge of its students and their needs.

This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 11:21 AM.