Aranibar elected school board chair

The Manatee County School Board elected Julie Aranibar as its chairwoman at its meeting Tuesday night by a 4-1 vote.

Board member Bob Gause was opposed.

The board unanimously selected Dave Miner as vice-chairman.

“I am officially a madam now, which feels pretty good,” said Aranibar, the board’s district 5 representative.

Aranibar said her priority is to get the board to set a stronger set of policies and procedures for itself that are transparent and easy to follow.

“We are coming off a year we’ve never seen before,” Aranibar said. “Under Karen Carpenter (who Aranibar replaces as chairwoman), we hired a new superintendent and, for the first time, had a vetting process that was clear and open to the public. Now the board moves into a governance role where we need to establish clear policies and procedures.”

Also Tuesday, the board unanimously agreed to designate a 10-acre undeveloped parcel it owns at Braden River High School as surplus property it intends to sell.

The money from the sale will go into reserves. 

“Selling this property is part of our fiscal recovery plan we sent to the state,” Aranibar said. “It’s important we move quickly on this.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].