Two years in, Manatee school superintendent celebrates fiscal turnaround, continues to work on trust

BRADENTON -- Two years ago, the Manatee County School District was in financial ruins. It hired Rick Mills, a military leader who worked in school districts in Chicago and Minneapolis, to turn around and unite the school district.

While he was able to turn around its finances, his methods did little to unite the district. Instead, Mills has become a polarizing figure in Manatee County.

"Candidly and frankly, the school district was in much more dire straits than I had imagined," Mills said recently about the state of the district when he was hired in March 2013.

His measure of success depends on who you talk to. To some, the problem is more about his attitude than his decisions. To others, including Mills, the best measures are the results.

"You may not agree with my methods, but you can't argue with my results," Mills said.

For the most part, the financial success is undisputed. Mills and his team -- mainly consisting of newcomers, from out of state -- cracked down on the district's financial situation. For the 2014-15 year, under the guidance of Deputy Superintendent of Operations Don Hall, the district approved a balanced budget, meeting the state-mandated minimum in the reserve for the first time in four years. But problems continue to crop up from past financial decisions -- including mismanagement of bonds that must be dealt with now under Mills and his team.

On the other hand, the academic successes that Mills touts -- including a jump in rankings against other Florida districts, having two dozen district schools improve their state-assigned school grades by at least one letter and having seven Manatee District schools improve by two letter grades -- aren't necessarily a product of Mills' work, or his team's work, but could be potentially the result of work by previous administrators, some say. But others credit Mills and Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Diana Greene for the academic turn-around as well. And while the district has improved, it is still in the bottom half of the state rankings for academic achievement.

And despite those achievements, the district has faced a number of embarrassing situations.

District struggles

Audit findings slammed the district right after Mills started, compounding an already-dire fiscal situation. The Roderick Frazier scandal erupted and is still reverberating through the district, with a number of lawsuits pending against the district. Then there was the issue of potentially selling McKelvey Park and putting private security officers into the district's elementary schools as opposed to school resource officers.

And one of Mills' top hires, Troy Pumphrey, was put on paid administrative leave after an anonymous package containing information about Pumphrey's past was sent to the district. The suspension called into question many of the investigations Pumphrey had performed for Mills, including those against board members and influential school figures.

The school board that hired Mills in 2013 had an readily visible split, those for and those against Mills. He lost an ardent supporter in the most recent election when Julie Aranibar was ousted by former Manatee Technical College director Mary Cantrell. The board dynamics have shifted and most say Mills has lost his strongest board ally in Aranibar.

The board has moved in the direction of being administrators, Aranibar said.

That was made clear during a recent meeting where the board spent the better part of an hour dissenting and questioning a district committee and the superintendent's recommendation on the proposed calendar for the 2015-15 year, she said.

"That's not your job," Aranibar said.

Tensions arose because a half-day of school was proposed on Good Friday next year to avoid having the final day of school for students on a Monday. Typically, the district has not had school on Good Friday.

The board ultimately tabled ruling on the calendar, asking staff to try to find a way to rework the calendar so there was no school on Good Friday next year.

Board tensions heightened again this week after staff attorney Mitchell Teitelbaum passed along information to the state Attorney General's office about potential bid tampering in 2008. Teitelbaum's presentation implicated board member Bob Gause in wrongdoing. In testy emails this week, Gause called for a special meeting to discuss the conduct of both Teitelbaum and Mills. Those emails upset Mills.

"I am also concerned that this is retaliation directed at me in a matter that I had no role, responsibility or authority," Mills wrote in an email. "The proposed agenda and course of action could be deemed as a hostile work environment."

With two years under his belt, and two years to go in his current contract, Mills asked the school board this year not to extend his contract further. The announcement surprised many in the community, as Mills had previously said he wanted to retire from Manatee County.

But that announcement was designed to be an affront to the board, who had recently made several decisions against Mills' recommendations, including paying former district investigator Debra Horne's legal fees.

Mills said he still wants to remain in Manatee County for the next five to eight years.

"I anticipate staying here. My goal is to remain here and retire here," he said.

The past two years haven't been easy, but as he continually reminds the public, Manatee County is now on the path to greatness.

'A small Southern town'

What Mills walked into two years ago, knowingly or unknowingly, was a small Southern town.

And with that small Southern town comes certain expectations, according to Minnie King, Susan Bassler and Fran Padgette, all retired educators who keep a tight watch on the school district happenings.

"Things are done so different here," King said. "It takes a while to figure out how to do what you're going to do. It's a network of knowing the community and knowing the people."

One of Mills' first missteps was not making a dedicated effort to get to know the community and those within the community and by attempting to solve community problems without involving those in the community.

Padgette pointed to the district's decision to hire an outside company to conduct a survey and make recommendations about the district's long-term growth. Redistricting school zones, a plan to build new schools or shutter old schools all are under consideration.

Under Dearing, local community committees took part in the discussion and decision-making and presented the options to the school board. The work was done locally and garnered buy-in from the community, Bassler said.

"It meant people accepted the final result more willingly," Padgette said.

Padgette, Bassler, King and a host of other retired educators they meet with regularly, don't want to see Mills go, although they're worried that Mills' recent decision not to seek a contract extension makes him a lame-duck superintendent.

"Does he have any buy-in?" Bassler asked.

"I think he's going about it the wrong way," King said.

They don't want to bring back "the good ol' boys." Their goal is to support the school system and create the best possible education system for the students.

"We're not out to get anyone," Padgette said. "We want the system to respond to the community."

Charlie Kennedy, a former teacher at Manatee High School who joined the school board in October, said he gets the perceptions about Mills.

As a teacher and community member, he said he didn't really know much about the superintendent. But now, he's gotten a chance to know Mills better.

"He wasn't quite the ogre that I'd been told he was," Kennedy said.

Mills came in under fire, Kennedy said, and made some missteps in the beginning, as anyone might. But it's important to note that Mills seems to have learned from those mistakes. Kennedy said Mills has strong opinions and can be a bit stubborn and headstrong.

"That's true of most chief executives," Kennedy said.

Overall, Kennedy said he feels the district is on the right track now.

Learning curve

After two years in the district, Mills has learned a lot, he said.

First, he's learned Manatee County is essentially three separate and distinct communities, which all have their own quirks. There's Anna Maria Island, then the established urban core of Bradenton and there's also the eastern part of the county, that's new and developing.

"It would have better served me if I had understood that early on," Mills said.

He's also learned a lot about perception and how public perception can stop a project in its tracks and make the superintendent's job that much harder. In all his life, and that includes his days in Chicago, Mills said he's never seen a community as tied up in local politics as Manatee County.

"You can't say yes to everything," Mills said. "You're supposed to get along with everyone."

The district has a lot of what Mills called "armchair quarterbacks," those who will criticize, but haven't gotten involved, which is to be expected anywhere. Mills said the senior leadership has been affected by the dynamics of the elections and by the politics.

"It has an impact when you come to work everyday," he said.

One of Mill's goals coming in was building trust. In two years, he acknowledged there are still some people who don't trust him, but he points to his goals and his results as reasons the district should have regained public trust by now.

"I feel good about where we're at as a district in rebuilding trust," Mills said.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published March 22, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Two years in, Manatee school superintendent celebrates fiscal turnaround, continues to work on trust."