Manatee County School Board candidates debate testing, impact fees at Lakewood Ranch Republican Club luncheon

LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Six of eight Manatee County School Board candidates took part in a Lakewood Ranch Republican Club luncheon Friday, one of the largest get-togethers of board candidates so far, detailing their positions on some of the hottest issues in Manatee County, including impact fees and testing.

For the most part, candidates expressed similar views, including opposing the controversial Common Core standards -- known here as the Florida State Standards -- and agreed impact fees are necessary to help the district succeed.

"This is incredibly important," club President Steve Vernon said. "You can't get any better than a meeting like this."

Three board seats are up for grabs this year.

The five school board seats are divided into geographic districts. Candidates must reside in their district but voters countywide are allowed to vote in each race.

School board races are nonpartisan, but only registered Republican candidates were invited, Vernon said.

Board member Dave Miner and local planner Misty Servia are the two candidates in the District 3 race, which covers West Bradenton and Anna Maria Island.

Lifelong Manatee resident Xtavia Bailey, second-time candidate Linda Schaich and former Title I teacher Gina Messenger represent the District 1 race, which covers the northern part of the county. Bob Gause holds the District 1 seat now and is not

seeking re-election.

District 3 candidate Edward Viltz, a retired Title I teacher not registered with a party, was not allowed on the panel but attended the luncheon.

John Colon, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott after Mary Cantrell died in July, is the only candidate for the District 5 seat, which includes Lakewood Ranch.

On Monday, impact fees on new developments will start being collected again specifically for schools. Candidates were in favor of the fees, but said they are not the only solution to district funding problems.

"We need other tools in there. We need to look for other revenues sources," Servia said.

Some argued the board should have been looking to reinstate impact fees much earlier. They were suspended for schools in 2009.

"I was the only board member in 2013 who said we should be talking about impact fees at that time," Miner said.

Colon said there are bigger funding issues at play, because impact fees are restricted in how they can be used.

"Impact fees can only be utilized to build new schools. I think a lot of people are forgetting that," he said.

State-mandated standards and testing also became an issue.

Vernon asked what the candidates thought about linking teacher evaluations and scores on the state-mandated tests. Candidates agreed some measure should be used, but didn't necessarily think the state test was the best way to do it.

"A good principal would know the students, would know the teachers and he'd know pretty quickly who are the good teachers and who needs some help," Schaich said.

Messenger said as a teacher she has given standardized tests and knows they don't always match what happens in the classroom. Tests need to actually serve the purpose to be used to evaluate teachers, she said.

"We need to consider what is valid when we're making the test and when we're using it to grade teachers," Messenger said.

Bailey said the community and local officials need to come together to fix the testing issue.

"We need to be electing the elected officials, hold them accountable and make sure they're pushing education back to our communities," she said.

After the event, Viltz said it was nice to hear the other candidates' positions. He also agreed impact fees are necessary for the school district and testing is out of hand.

"I believe there is a need for standards, but let's test against the standards," he said, adding he thinks middle school students spend more time testing than lawyers preparing to take the bar exam.

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

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Manatee County School Board candidates debate testing, impact fees at Lakewood Ranch Republican Club luncheon ."