Race for Manatee school board seat has two candidates with big differences

Incumbent Gina Messenger and candidate Bridget Mendel are vying for the School Board of Manatee County’s District 1 seat in the Aug. 18 primary. Aside from being mothers and former teachers, they differ in almost every way.

Messenger said the district has made great progress since voters elected her in 2016, and she vowed to continue the positive momentum. Mendel said the board was in dire need of a change maker, and she vowed to hold district leaders accountable for their spending and their plans for struggling students.

Messenger, the board’s current chair, graduated from Manatee High School in 2005. She then earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education before teaching in Marion and Orange counties.

Her husband, Matt, works as the supervisor for Manatee Schools Television, the district’s employee-run TV station. The couple is now raising two daughters in Parrish.

“I’m the only candidate or board member that has a child in our schools when they open. I think that is a really important perspective and voice that we need on our school board,” Messenger said Tuesday.

Mendel, a regular at local school board meetings, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of New Hampshire, along with a master of science in education from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y.

She worked as a teacher in New York and Chicago before moving to Manatee County with her longtime husband, Mark, and their three sons.

All of her children graduated from local schools, and Mendel said she worked at Bashaw Elementary School as a first-grade teacher and a long-term kindergarten substitute for nearly two years.

“I just put three boys through the system for the last 10 years,” Mendel said in an interview. “I’ve had 10 years to see the good, the bad and the ugly, but I’ve seen it from three different perspectives. I’ve seen it as a parent, a taxpayer and a teacher of the district.”

Both women hold active certifications with the Florida Department of Education. Mendel is certified in elementary education, while Messenger is certified in elementary education and English for speakers of other languages.

The school board race is nonpartisan and open to all Manatee County voters.

On the reopening of schools during COVID-19

Messenger recently said the district was offering families a variety of needed options for returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a full return to campus, while Mendel viewed the reopening as an unsafe decision made under political pressure.

Children struggled emotionally and academically during the recent period of online learning, Messenger said during a virtual forum by the Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce.

The school closures also put a financial burden on working families that stayed home to watch their children and help with the online classes, she continued.

“Because of that, I do believe we need to start school in the fall,” Messenger said. “The school district has created a plan that will allow for families to make the best choice for themselves.”

As of Tuesday morning, students were slated to begin on Aug. 17. They had the option to learn in person five days a week, to continue full-time online classes or to learn under a hybrid schedule, rotating between online and in-person classes.

Citing the steady rise in local COVID-19 cases, Mendel said the district was unprepared to keep students and employees safe on campus. She also called for a stronger plan to support online learning and provide all students with the needed internet access.

“There is no acceptable number of a child dying under our care,” Mendel said during the Latin Chamber forum. “Our board will have blood on their hands. I do not think it is appropriate, and I think the pressure being applied from the governor is outrageous.”

On their priorities in the new year

Messenger often points to the opening of three new schools — Barbara A. Harvey Elementary, Dr. Mona Jain Middle and Parrish Community High School — as evidence of progress in the district.

She also highlighted the recent growth at Title I schools, which serve a high number of low-income families. Palm View Elementary, which is expanding to a K-8 school, jumped from a D to an A under the state’s grading system.

The school also adopted Woz Pathways, a series of classes in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple and its famous computers, created the program.

Southeast High School opened an on-campus health center, the first of its kind in the district, and new pre-K classrooms are constantly opening in the county, Messenger said during a virtual debate by Teaching for the Culture.

Academics and finances, she said, were both improving district-wide. Messenger cited an improved bond rating and healthy reserves in the district budget, and she said Manatee was on track to become an A-rated district before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“During my time on our school board we have seen student achievement improve,” Messenger said. “We have seen financial stability and more opportunities for our students. We need to continue to move forward.”

During the same debate, Mendel said the district was touting a handful of successes while forgetting about its most vulnerable students.

Mendel said she was especially concerned about the increased enrollment at Horizons Academy, the district’s alternative school in Bradenton. She said it was largely Black and Hispanic students who were sent to the campus and robbed of a quality education, maintaining the school-to-prison pipeline.

She felt the district was failing its English-language learners and students with learning disabilities. Students should have more opportunities to learn in their native language before diving into the “linguistic deep end” and struggling with all-English material, she said.

Mendel also emphasized the need to screen students for dyslexia and other learning difficulties at an early age, giving them needed support and ensuring they don’t fall behind.

And for much of her time as a Manatee County resident, Mendel has decried the use of high-stakes testing to gauge student progress, along with the use of technology over traditional classroom instruction.

“The vision is a free and appropriate public education for all, not for some,” Mendel said during the debate by Teaching for the Culture. “Not for those who can afford it. That’s free and appropriate for all, and that includes all our students in ESE services, bilingual students and students who may have been shipped to Horizons without their due process rights.”

On the superintendent

Messenger and Mendel are sharply divided on their opinion of Superintendent Cynthia Saunders.

The district superintendent is one of only three positions filled by the school board. According to its bylaws, the board has authority to appoint a superintendent, legal counsel and an internal auditor.

Mendel has often called for the superintendent’s resignation, citing an investigation by the Office of Inspector General at the Florida Department of Education. The former education commissioner, Pam Stewart, concluded that Saunders “fraudulently inflated graduation rates” between 2014 to 2016.

In a settlement agreement, the superintendent said she “neither admits nor denies, but elects not to contest the allegations.” Mendel attended a hearing in Fort Lauderdale to silently protest the agreement last October.

A state commission ultimately denied Saunders’ settlement, calling for greater sanctions. The hearing inspired Mendel to run for school board, she said during the Latin Chamber forum.

“I don’t want to hear that we have record-high graduation rates, only later to find out that the state found our superintendent guilty of cooking the books, yet the board members hired her anyway,” Mendel said at the time.

In February 2019, after the accusations came to light, the school board voted 3-2 to award Saunders the superintendent position through June 30, 2021. Messenger cast one of two dissenting votes, calling for a formal search process.

However, during the Latin Chamber debate, Messenger said the superintendent has since led the district in a positive direction. When asked if Saunders should remain in her position, Messenger said “we need the stability of our current superintendent.”

“I truly believe that she has done a lot of great work for the School District of Manatee County,” Messenger said.

On their campaign donations and endorsements

At $22,734, Messenger has raised more than double the amount of her challenger, but the vast majority came from her own contributions.

Messenger contributed $17,500 as of late July, more than 75 percent of the total contributions to her campaign. Another $3,000 came from three family members, and the remaining $2,234 came from five individuals who donated between $30 and $1,000 each.

There was also an in-kind contribution worth $100 from her husband, Matt, for “video production.”

Mendel raised $8,700 over the same time period. She received dozens of contributions worth between $10 and $1,000 each.

The lone $1,000 contribution was from Native Tile and Stone LLC, a company registered to former school board candidate Shaun Lehoe. Mendel has also paid Lehoe for consulting and marketing, according to campaign records.

Lehoe and several other contributors to Mendel’s campaign are supporters of Lincoln Memorial Academy, a school in Palmetto that had its charter revoked and its property taken over by the school board.

While an administrative law judge upheld the decision, supporters of Lincoln Memorial Academy, including Mendel, have questioned the validity of evidence used against the school. There is now an ongoing appeal of the takeover, along with a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district.

Mendel received a $250 contribution from Christopher “C.J.” Czaia, a member of the school’s former governing board. Mendel received another $1,000 in contributions from Tag Feld, the attorney who represented Lincoln Memorial in a hearing related to attorneys’ fees.

Manatee Concerned Citizens for Justice, a supporter of Lincoln Memorial’s former administration and a critic of Superintendent Saunders, also donated $100 to Mendel’s campaign.

Mendel is endorsed by Progressive Manatee and she was the preferred candidate after a July 24 debate hosted by Teaching for the Culture. The organization hosted a virtual debate, polled the viewers and announced the winner days later.

Mendel’s website is bridget4manatee.com.

Messenger is endorsed by the Parrish Civic Association, the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange and the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee. She was also endorsed by MEA Tiger, the political action arm of the local teachers’ union.

Her website is ginamessenger.com.