Sarasota School Board votes to begin redrawing board members' district lines now

Just two years after the Sarasota County School Board redrew the boundaries for the areas represented by the panel's five members, the board started the process to revise the district lines again.

With only board member Tom Edwards dissenting, the School Board voted 4-1 to approve a $39,000 contract with a consultant to launch the redistricting effort. The consultant, Kurt Spitzer and Associates, Inc., will start immediately and return to the board with a presentation on Oct. 10, according to board documents.

The money to pay the consultant come from the general fund, which saw a sizable increase in the $1.5 billion budget approved Monday.

A vote on any new map would likely happen on Oct. 17, the School Board's first meeting after the redistricting presentation.

School Board members represent specific areas of the county, and must be residents of those districts, but voters countywide participate in the elections for all five districts.

Some residents rallied at the meeting against the plan, saying that it would draw Liz Barker, a candidate running for the School Board seat held by Vice Chairwoman Karen Rose, out of the District 2 seat where she currently lives, making her ineligible to run for the position next year.

Patrick Duggan, the board's attorney, addressed legal concerns about the process following public comments, pointing to Florida Statute 1001.36 (2) which states "Residence areas may not be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a candidate for district school board member or an incumbent district school board member."

Board members who voted in favor of hiring the consultant also said that they wouldn't support any map that violated Florida law.

Duggan added that he would recommend any lines drawn include both Barker and Rose's residences in District 2 since they have both filed to run for the seat. He said any map without Barker in District 2 could violate the law, and that the board should express what the need is to redistrict as part of the process.

"The (census) numbers have not wildly grown since two years ago," Duggan said, referring to population growth.

Typically, boundaries for districts for political representation for local, state and federal offices are redrawn every 10 years, based on U.S. Census data.

Rose said the 2021 redistricting was not done properly, with some precincts splitting neighborhoods and the district not utilizing the Geographic Information System mapping tool to configure the zones. She also denied any ill will in pushing for redistricting, citing growth in south and east Sarasota County as justification for moving forward with redistricting.

"There is no intent, no action, to remove any candidate. It is illegal to do so," Rose said. "So it is not even possible, the accusations that were made."

Chairwoman Bridge Ziegler echoed Rose's comments on the county's growth as a rationale, making reference to the several schools currently under construction to accommodate the growth.

Edwards, the only Democrat on the board, said he felt the redistricting was a distraction but was keeping an open mind.

"I'm willing to keep an open mind and be persuaded that this is a great idea to spend $39,000, which for the life of me I have worked for this last week trying to figure out why that's a good idea. So I'm all ears," he said.

Edwards said he would have preferred that redistricting be considered for discussion at a workshop before coming up for a vote, and said he pushed for the contract to be brought to a vote at all since it falls under the spending threshold for an expenditure needing board approval.

"Spending $39,000 is just irresponsible for a group of School Board members who have fiscal responsibility," he said.

Some who spoke at the meeting also said they wished the district would spend the consulting money from on other district needs, such as classroom materials or teacher pay.

Barker, the candidate running against Rose, said she was happy to hear the board members did not support drawing her out of District 2. However, she said the $39,000 would best be spent elsewhere in the district, such as staffing substitute teachers.

"I would have rather spent this evening talking about how we can support our teachers, how we can pay them a living wage," Barker said.

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 votes to revise member districts after two years