The board ceiling is broken

You would like to think it’s legitimate progress, that the ruling majority finally accepts that its colleague’s goals and intentions are the same as theirs — to do what’s best for the public school students and taxpayers of Sarasota County.

Congratulations to Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler, whose fellow board members chose her Tuesday to serve as chair of the board. Ziegler broke the galatial ice and the board’s establishment ceiling.

Everyone who has followed the Sarasota School Board ever since the 2014 election of Ziegler and the 2016 election of Eric Robinson has been well aware of the frosty, uncomfortable, tense relationship among board members. 

On one side, we’ve had the ruling majority for the past seven years, the establishment — Caroline Zucker (19 years on the board), Shirley Brown (11 years) and Jane Goodwin (seven years on the board, but active in school millage elections since 2002). On the other side are Ziegler and Robinson, the outsiders and the disrupters to the status quo. 

Witnesses of School Board meetings will tell you the majority consistently has conveyed the obvious feeling they view Ziegler and Robinson as the black hats, the whipper-snappers who need to learn how to stay in their place. 

To be sure, people who have served on boards understand this scene. It always goes like this. The veterans have their space and practices, and they know the inner workings of the organization.

Then along come the newbies. They’re anxious and eager to make a difference. But they immediately run up against the establishment wall. The message is clear: “Stay in your place, Honey, you need to learn a thing or two before you start spouting off.”

Ziegler and Robinson both have experienced these unspoken protocols. And to be fair, they likely would admit to being more aggressive than they otherwise might have been, largely in defensive response to the majority resistance and treatment.

But we’ll continue to give Ziegler credit, as we have before. A newcomer to politics at age 35, she has matured over the past three years, learning how to maneuver amid the ruling majority and still remain true to her principles. Ziegler achieved a major breakthrough, for instance, four months ago when the board majority finally agreed to make its workshops more accessible to the public and to televise and stream them.

Now that Ziegler holds the titular role of board chair, it will be natural for the ruling majority to scrutinize Ziegler’s every move. In effect, the message is: “OK, hotshot, show us what you can do; we’ll be watching.” Ziegler will be chairing the board as the school system moves toward renewing its one-mill tax in 2018 — a crucial moment for leadership.

Altogether, this is indeed a moment of progress for the School Board. With Ziegler as chair, Goodwin as vice chair and the 2018 referendum, our prediction is the two sides will come together for a common cause. But we’ll also predict Ziegler and Robinson will continue to challenge the status quo, signaling to voters a new generation of leaders with new ideas is ascending. That’s all to the good.