Opinion: The Manatee County School Board actually governs. Where is the fun in that?
After a meeting in 2018, Manatee County School Board members Dave Miner and Scott Hopes had a little tiff in the parking lot.
As Hopes was walking to his car, he alleged Miner drove his car at him without the headlights turned on.
"He's lucky my gun was in my car," Hopes told the Herald-Tribune then. "He is a crazy person, apparently.”
Miner countered with: "That's his way of trying to intimidate anyone who is critical of him to say, 'Be careful, I may have a gun on me, I'll shoot your brains out.’ And I don't think that is a good way to encourage discourse.”
Even their quotes were entertaining.
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These days, no one on the Manatee County School Board tries to run each other over. No one threatens to pull a gun either. What is wrong with these people? Don't they know they have a tradition to uphold?
Where have the good times gone?
All the current board members seem to do is their jobs, and the employees and students of the district are all the better for it.
Gina Messenger, Cindy Spray, Mary Foreman, Chad Choate and Richard Tatem are the board members, and they should all be commended. Why? Because you never hear about them, and in this climate that is a good thing. People don't want the childish antics and hoity-toity political grandstanding of the Manatee County Commission or the Sarasota County School Board. They just want officials who can make rational decisions not based on political bias but common sense, and that's essentially what you have here.
The way the board selected Jason Wysong to be the superintendent is a prime example of how good governance works. A healthy discussion respected by each member led to a solid choice. Why is that so hard?
A few weeks ago, on a weeknight, I attended a parents meeting at Lakewood Ranch High School. Parents, teachers and band directors were concerned the board was going to cut funding to the music programs.
Tatem attended the meeting and did something quite shocking: He actually listened to everyone's concerns and took notes. He did exactly what an elected official is supposed to do: He was present for the people he represents.
I have a daughter involved in the band program at a local high school, and the following morning I emailed Tatem to express my appreciation for what he did. Tatem immediately returned my email, and he couldn't have been more genuine.
Years ago, the Manatee County School District could not have been more of a mess. I remember watching meetings on cable TV instead of Tampa Bay Lightning games, and they were in the Stanley Cup Finals. That's how entertaining the meetings were.
No kidding. I would walk down the aisles at Publix at night looking for meeting updates on Twitter. These things were that good.
Heck, Miner even showed up one night with a chainsaw because he was going to cut through all the crap.
You had a slew of bad superintendents, from Tim McGonegal, to Rick Mills, to Cynthia Saunders. You had warring factions of board members, from Miner, to Hopes, to Bob Gause, to Julie Aranibar, to Mary Cantrell. You had the Rod Frazier student groping scandal at Manatee High. Heck, a lawsuit filed against Mills, former investigator Troy Pumphrey and the School Board by former Manatee High football coach Joe Kinnan is still ongoing. It was originally filed in 2016.
Now all you have is a bunch of boring board members. They don't try to run each over with their cars. They don't threaten to pull a gun on each other. They don't bring chainsaws to meetings. They don't do anything fun.
All they do is what they were elected to do.
All they do is their jobs.
Ah, for the good old days.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: When did the Manatee School Board stop fighting in parking lots?
