Group calls to replace Superintendent Tim McGonegal, attorney

As Tom Garland stood in the parking lot of the Manatee County School Board’s administrative offices, he waved a hand toward the building he says costs taxpayers more than $1 million a year to operate.

Selling the building, which is assessed at $6.3 million according to the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s website, and moving offices into the Matzke Complex would reduce the district’s expenses and put more money into classrooms, he said.

Garland and his recently formed group, the Committee for Improving the Education of Children in Manatee, said the school district needs to make drastic changes and to move quickly to improve education for children in Manatee County.

“We’re dealing with the largest business in Manatee County that is still doing business as usual,” Garland said during a press conference held in the school board’s parking lot about an hour before its regularly scheduled meeting June 27. “They’re still using old ideas. They’ve built a budget that protects the administration on the backs of the taxpayers, the educators and the students.”

Garland and other members of the group called for the termination of board attorney John Bowen and an outside investigation of recent lawsuits in which he was involved, specifically one involving an autistic child.

The group also seeks the initiation of a nationwide search for a new superintendent; an investigation of communications between board members to determine whether they are being constrained from voicing problems they identify within the district; an outside investigation of why the district has the “highest per student administrative cost of any Florida community;” and an outside investigation of the Manatee Education Foundation and to what extent it provides a benefit or cost to the district.

“We have limited dollars and we need to get as much money into the classroom as possible,” Garland said. “We can do better.”

Members of CIECM have been attending board meetings for the last year and have shown a stronger presence at meetings in the last six months, district officials said.

Superintendent Tim McGonegal said many of the statements the group is making are misleading or false and outlined discrepancies during a presentation at Monday’s meeting. For example, the district ranks 40th out of 67 districts in terms of administrative costs, McGonegal said.

McGonegal also said he has checked into selling the administrative building, as suggested by members of the CIECM, but moving costs would exceed the value of the property, because moving employees to the Matzke Complex in southern Manatee County would require the rebuilding of a hurricane-hardened room for computers and the re-routing of the district’s fiber optic system, among other expenses.

“We are using best practices,” McGonegal said.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].