Sarasota School Board selects superintendent search firm

The search for a superintendent of Sarasota County Schools is underway as the school board selected Florida School Board Association to lead the search.

The decision was unanimous, which members said was a rare but necessary step.

“I’m willing to compromise on this,” Board Member Bridget Ziegler said. “I want us to get it right. I want us to be successful, and I want us to put our best foot forward.”

After hearing presentations from both FSBA and Iowa-based Ray & Associates, the board selected FSBA for its local knowledge and its leadership.

The FSBA search will be run by Bill Vogel, whom the board considered for the role of interim superintendent until he removed his name from consideration.

Although both Ziegler and Board Member Eric Robinson expressed concerns about FSBA based on the search it did to find previous Superintendent Todd Bowden, they both said the biggest plus for FSBA was Vogel’s leadership.

“I’m trying to keep an open mind about FSBA, but I’ve got to say, the No. 1 reason I’d lean toward FSBA is because of Vogel,” Robinson said. “Having him on the search firm is a big positive.”

FSBA has led superintendent searches in seven counties within the past five years, and board members lauded the organization’s knowledge of Florida and candidates who are familiar with Florida’s education system and open-government laws.

Although board members said they would like candidates from all over the nation, Board Member Jane Goodwin said she appreciated the fact that FSBA has access to many local candidates.

“Someone has a steep learning curve if they don’t have Florida experience,” Goodwin said.

Although Robinson and Ziegler voted to approve FSBA, they did so with some trepidation.

Goodwin and board members Caroline Zucker and Shirley Brown all have a close relationship with FSBA — Goodwin is president-elect, and Zucker and Brown are on the board of directors. Robinson and Ziegler wanted to make sure that the three working with FSBA would not have a stronger say in the search.

“It’s my choice not to be involved, but I want to be sure there’s equal weight and full transparency,” Ziegler said, “if you could respectfully keep that in mind and make sure we don’t miss anything.”

Now that a firm has been selected, board members need to decide on a timeline for the search and minimum requirements. In the past, Sarasota searches for superintendents have sought a standard of five years of experience on the executive director level.

Robinson questioned whether leaving the standard there or raising it higher would allow quality candidates to apply.

In its last search in Volusia County, Vogel said FSBA attracted a chief operations officer and associate superintendents from top-performing districts in the state.

“We had others that were not applying for that job because people were asking me, ‘When is Sarasota coming up?’” Vogel said. “So there are already people that want to apply for this district.”

Now FSBA will work with the board to personalize the search. This could include a citizens advisory committee, an internal survey and an external survey to gauge community support.

A next step was not planned at the meeting, though Vogel suggested Feb. 18 as a possible date for the first search meeting.