Sarasota School Board elections: Edwards, Wood and Babicz face off for District 3 seat

In the most contended school board seat up for election in Sarasota this August, three candidates with vastly different backgrounds and experiences are all vying to represent District 3 on the Sarasota School Board.

Tom Edwards, the incumbent board member, faces Greg Wood, a father of three and a former non-profit executive, and Thomas Babicz, a retired IT professional who immigrated to New Jersey from Poland to escape communism.

If Wood or Babicz wins, the ideological makeup of the board could flip to a 5-0 conservative majority. Such a flip would contrast the 3-2 liberal majority from just a few years ago under Jane Goodwin, Shirley Brown and Edwards.

Because there are three candidates, one must achieve 50% plus one vote to secure the seat. If all candidates fail to hit 50% plus one vote, the top two will advance to a runoff election in November.

The Herald-Tribune interviewed each candidate to discuss their backgrounds, goals and visions for the Sarasota School District. Here is what each candidate had to say.

Tom Edwards

Campaign contributions: $167,765.50 Campaign expenditures: $75,586.07 (All data as of July 10.)

Edwards, 66, is the incumbent Sarasota School Board member for District 3. He was first elected in 2020 in a tight race against the then-incumbent Eric Robinson. He sits as the only registered Democrat on the board, and describes himself as a moderate.

In another four-year term, Edwards said he wants to protect public education and create a safe, high-achieving academic environment for all students. He wants to enhance third-grade reading scores further, aiming for literacy for all. He also wants to continue improving an already robust career and technical education program in Sarasota Schools to ensure students have a plan for after high school: either enrolled, enlisted or employed.

Edwards pointed to Superintendent Terry Connor, who both he and Board Chairwoman Karen Rose supported during the selection process, as an example of what the board can achieve when it's focused on students and not politics.

As it stands now, however, Edwards said the Sarasota School Board has become too political — something he's heard from both ideological sides — and the political distraction shifts focus away from students.

He points to fellow school board member Bridget Ziegler and her continued service on the board following a sex scandal made public by a rape investigation into her husband, former Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler, as what drives political noise at board meetings — not himself.

State attorneys never brought up charges against Christian, and Bridget was not accused of wrongdoing.

Details of Ziegler's involvement with another woman raised questions given her stance supporting legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill for prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation in K-3 classrooms.

"That's where the public's frustration is," Edwards said. "They (the board majority) are all politics, and it's reflective of the politics and policies that the governor in Tallahassee brought forth."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted Edwards by name as a school board member he’d like to see lose his re-election – something Edwards said wears as a badge of honor. In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, he said the governor often utilized bullying tactics and influenced his endorsed board members – Sarasota's school board majority – to bully him.

“I don't think that's the behavior that we want our children and our students to emulate and learn,” Edwards said. “The community doesn't like that either, and will correct it at the ballot box.”

Edwards said he sees the four conservative board members as "coordinated", following the lead of a board member in Ziegler who he feels should not be in power. Following Ziegler's lead, Edwards said the board majority makes the situation more divisive and political — specifically board Chairwoman Rose, who is also up for reelection.

Edwards has raised more than $167,000 in campaign contributions, largely from grassroots donations and more than 10 times more than either of his two opponents.

"I'm very proud of the fact that my four years of work has translated into the financial support that the community has given," he said.

Greg Wood

Campaign contributions: $15,096.90 Campaign expenditures: $10,552.06 (All data as of July 10.)

Greg Wood, a 44-year-old father of three, former competitive rowing instructor and non-profit executive, is running against incumbent Tom Edwards for the District 3 School Board seat.

Wood moved to Sarasota from Houston in 2019, where he planned to enroll his kids in Sarasota public schools. When he saw how the district handled the COVID-19 pandemic, he started paying more attention to school board.

His decision echoes his stance on Florida’s HB1 and private school vouchers. He said he strongly supports school choice but wants to make public schools the obvious choice for parents.

“I think it's important that we're doing what's right for the kids, not necessarily what's right for an agenda,” Wood said in an interview with the Herald-Tribune.

He initially ran for school board in 2022 for the seat now occupied by Tim Enos in District 5, but pulled out of the race due to an illness in the family. Since the 2022 election, the board re-drew its district lines to align closer with the County Commission map – a move that confused many since the board had just redistricted following the 2020 census. Under the new lines, Wood was drawn into District 3 allowing him to run again in 2024, something his opponent Edwards has been publicly critical of.

“I had nothing to do with redistricting. In fact, I didn't even pay attention,” Wood said, adding that he laughed when he saw Edwards assert that the lines were redrawn intentionally.

Wood is a self-described lifelong conservative, and said he has supported several actions taken by the current board majority – including its votes on rejecting federal Title IX protections against gender identity discrimination, which he said the board was a leader for other districts in its decision in terms of curbing federal overreach. The Biden Administration’s changes to Title IX to add protections against gender identity discrimination have seen challenges in court, questioning its ability to be enforced.

As other school board candidates have also emphasized, Wood wants to see even more improvement in the district’s third-grade reading scores.

“We still failed roughly 30% of the kids in third-grade reading right? That's not good,” he said. “I am for trying whatever methods we need that’s going to get us positive results.”

During a four-year term, Wood said he’d like to assess district spending in its programs and see where money could be spent more wisely. He also emphasized improving the district’s parental outreach in the Exceptional Student Education program, adding that there should be more transparency and trust built between parents, instructors and the district.

Several candidates have raised issues with politics at the school board. Wood said he wants “zero part” of drama at school board meetings, pointing to Edwards’ comments at board meetings as distractions from educating kids.

“How is any of this furthering education? You’re campaigning at a school board meeting. That’s not ok,” he said.

Thomas Babicz

Campaign contributions: $14,599.46 Campaign expenditures: $11,011.34 (All data as of July 10.)

Thomas Babicz, a retired IT professional and candidate for school board living in Venice, crashed his bike earlier this summer. Babicz was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance, but he refused pain medication, he said.

“I was campaigning on the way to the emergency room in the ambulance,” he said. “And I have three more votes from the ambulance.”

Raised in Poland, Babicz fled communism and immigrated to New Jersey where he worked in IT for 35 years. During his time in New Jersey, he said he took pride in making his work more efficient and cost-effective.

Despite a lack of education experience, a dedication to fiscal responsibility and common sense solutions in his previous work is what Babicz said he’d bring with him in a role on the school board. He said he’s the “only candidate openly running against pornography, social emotional learning (SEL), woke and divisive critical race theory.”

SEL is considered by many district teachers to be essential for elementary-age students' development of skills necessary to engage in the classroom and socially, especially after COVID-19 affected in-person interaction during crucial instructional years.

Critical race theory is a graduate-level academic framework that asserts racism is more than prejudice, but also systemic in U.S. laws and institutions. Florida's Stop WOKE Act banned the teaching of critical race theory in state schools, despite it not being in the curriculum.

Babicz positioned himself as a candidate against everything incumbent Tom Edwards is for. He pointed to Edwards’ “no” vote on Bridget Ziegler’s resolution to reject gender identity discrimination protections under Title IX, saying that because of that vote, Edwards supports males entering female restrooms — something Edwards denies.

“They also support placing sexually focused books promoting gender identity expression of non-heterosexual attraction in our schools. Why?” Babicz said. “Again, school is not the place for this.”

He said he’s worried about the district’s 3rd-grade reading scores, which have trended down but are trending up again following COVID-19. He said the district needs to focus on phonics-based reading instruction — something also supported by several other candidates — and he supports the district’s current literacy plan.

“If we can increase the level of education, we are helping everybody,” Babicz said. “There is nothing worse that can happen if we allow somebody to graduate without the ability to read.”

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota School Board: Edwards, Wood and Babicz face off in District 2