With Rick Mills on his way out, Manatee County School Board faces monumental task
BRADENTON -- As the Manatee County School District superintendent is set to retire, a school board that has a reputation for discord and prolonged meetings debating small things -- such as the finer points of a school calendar -- must quickly build a focused and cohesive team.
"This is an opportunity for this board to show leadership," board chair Bob Gause told his colleagues at the end of the board meeting this week. "If we do that we're going to be very successful."
On Monday, after two years as superintendent and two years left on his contract, Rick Mills announced he is leaving the district July 31. He said he had lost the board's support after November's election and didn't think he could be effective as a superintendent.
The five members of the board unanimously accepted the decision at a board meeting Tuesday, which the superintendent didn't attend because of a family emergency. The board refrained from discussing the next steps, instead planning to talk more at a May 12 workshop about where the district goes from here.
When Mills leaves in July, the board will likely appoint an interim superintendent,
probably either Diana Greene or Don Hall, the deputy superintendents, although they could rehire Bill Vogel who filled the interim spot before Mills arrived and is familiar with the district's woes. It took the district about six months between September 2012, when Tim McGonegal left and March 2013, when Mills started, to find a superintendent.
Greene was a finalist for the job in 2013, receiving votes from board member Dave Miner and then-board member Barbara Harvey. Mills ultimately won the job garnering votes from Gause, Karen Carpenter and then-board member Julie Aranibar. Greene was a finalist recently for at least two other superintendent jobs, but was not offered either position.
With Mills absent Tuesday, Hall sat in the superintendent's chair and conducted part of the meeting, including reading recommendations for the board.
A clear goal
One of the most important first discussions for the board moving forward is having a clear goal, said Andrea Messina, the director of board development for the Florida School Board Association. Messina worked with the board during its last search, and said the board already has reached out.
"They need to be clear with what they're looking for," Messina said.
When Mills was hired, the board was looking for someone to fix the district's financial situation. Mills and his team have done that, although in the long-term, the district is still going to face financial shortfalls. The district recently announced they expect the fund balance at the end of the fiscal year to reach $18 million, more than the $16.5 million earlier estimated.
The board may no longer be looking for someone with a strong financial background, but may instead be looking for a leader to unite the community or bring a strong academic background.
"It really depends on what the community wants," Messina said.
Although the district looks financially stable in the short term, officials have said they're going to have to go to the community and ask for more money -- through referenda -- to help keep the district afloat in the future. Mills and Hall have been talking about the financial future.
The district may need to build at least three new schools in the next few years, one at each level, to meet the community's growing needs. To do that financially, the district may need to reinstate impact fees, ask the public to increase the millage and ask the public to approve extending the half-cent sales tax. The board may also need to ask the public to approve a $150 million bond to finance new schools.
Without community trust in the board and district leaders, the district could be facing serious hurdles. One way to rebuild trust is to find a new superintendent with the ability to unite the community, bringing together people in the older established areas with emerging and fast-growing areas of the county, which seemed to be a challenge for Mills.
A national search for a new superintendent could take about 7 months. An aggressive search for candidates within the state could take as few as 18 weeks, or about four and a half months. The final timeline can be affected by the interview schedule and contract negotiations.
"It depends on how clearly they're able to agree what it takes for the district to move forward," Messina said.
Board relations
In the past few months, the word "dysfunction" has been thrown about in relation to the school board, most recently by board member Carpenter, who floated the idea of having a state receiver or community group work with the board on leadership.
"We are coming up on making some important decisions and at this time it is hard to expect the community to support us with such dysfunction," Carpenter wrote to her fellow board members, even before Mills announced his intention to retire.
Not all board members share her belief. Board chair Gause said he's noted a marked improvement in how the board works together.
In emails to his fellow board members after meetings, Gause thanks them for focusing on the agenda and not "taking the bait" from members of the community.
"I was proud to be up there with you," Gause wrote after a February meeting. "I had the opportunity to speak to a number of people following the meeting. Everyone I spoke with noticed the different tone."
Still the board couldn't even agree on going to Kissimmee to participate in master board training, aimed at helping boards communicate more effectively. No district business is discussed at the training, Messina said. "This training is designed for all of them to work together," Messina said.
Despite repeated pleas from other board members, Miner would not attend the training so Carpenter dropped out, prompting Gause to cancel the training with the school board association and hire a facilitator and management consultant to come to Bradenton.
"We currently have two Board members unwilling to attend the FSBA training in Kissimmee for different reasons, and it is important for the Board to continue building its leadership capacity," Gause said in a press release Friday. "We are at the start of an important journey together and to be successful, we must work as a cohesive group."
Miner said he thinks the training in Kissimmee violates the Sunshine Law, he doesn't agree with the cost and he said he is not sure the training is effective. "I share with every member of the board a desire to improve our working relationships," Miner wrote in an email to them on Thursday, reiterating his position. "However, I believe our board can use our time and resources in better ways to improve as a board."
Messina said the training is geared toward working with the entire leadership team at once but that if one person can't or won't attend, it would still be beneficial for the remaining board members.
"It's still better for four board members to do it than zero," she said.
Carpenter told board members if Miner wasn't attending, it wasn't worth her time to go.
Bringing Banther to Bradenton will cost $1,500. The School Board is asking the FSBA to refund the Board's costs for the originally scheduled training.
Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.
This story was originally published May 3, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "With Rick Mills on his way out, Manatee County School Board faces monumental task ."