The Sarasota County School Board has experienced controversy, polarization,financial challenges and more in recent years – and it will soon see dramatic change as well.
On Tuesday, Aug. 18, three of the School Board’s five seats will be on the primary ballot, and seven candidates are competing for four-year terms.
Here's the first of the Herald-Tribune Editorial Board’s three endorsements for the Sarasota County School Board:
District 1
Heidi Brandt, Teresa DeWitt and Jimmy Glover are pursuing the seat held by outgoing School Board Chair Bridget Ziegler.
If no candidate exceeds 50% of the vote on Aug. 18, the top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.
Brandt has led organizations at Southside Elementary School – her daughter is a student
there – and both of her parents were public school educators.
Brandt has built her School Board campaign around the acronym "STAY," which she said represents her priorities of safety, teachers, academics and greater parent involvement (the “Y” stands for “you”).
Brandt said the district must aggressively address its enrollment decline, which is largely a byproduct of Florida's expanded school voucher program.
“We need people to come back to our schools and to stay in our schools,” Brandt told the editorial board.
DeWitt is a licensed mental health therapist with two children who are past and future students in the Sarasota County schools, and she has been a fixture at School Board meetings for years.
“I’m just not into any of the political stuff,” DeWitt said.
“I want to be a calm, common-sense voice on the board.”
DeWitt said she would tackle the district’s budget challenges, and she has called for greater scrutiny of its finances.
“I do not believe you get $43 million in the red by accident or surprise,” DeWitt told the editorial board.
“I will be very, very, very focused on where the dollars are going.”
Glover is a flight attendant whose wife is a former Sarasota County teacher, and they have four children who have been fully educated in the district.
“I have decades of real-life experience in the district,” a laughing Glover told the editorial board.
Glover said Sarasota County's teachers – who now face growing academic demands and grueling position cuts – must be given more support and respect.
“Our teachers don’t feel like they are being listened to,” Glover said.
“My goal as a board member will be to go into our schools and really find out what our teachers need.”
Our endorsement
While Brandt and Glover are solid candidates, the pragmatic DeWitt has the greatest potential to make an impact as an effective and engaged School Board member.
Voters should choose DeWitt on Aug. 18.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 3 candidates seek a Sarasota School Board seat. We choose 1. | Opinion
