Winning with Cordiality and Control
The Public Isn't Taking the Bait
The date was April 11, 2022. I was heading out to a Sarasota County Commission meeting to protest funding Rumble with taxpayer money. Rumble is a media outlet that was choosing Sarasota (Longboat Key, to be specific) as its headquarters, with promises of creating jobs locally.
The problem with Rumble is that they air content that contain anti-American propaganda. Russian Television (RT) is one such source and has been banned in several countries. Citing free speech in his support of an $800,000 stipend supporting this far-right entity, then-County Commissioner Christian Ziegler almost wet his pants with excitement. He suggested that they could even use Sarasota school students to intern.
“I know someone who could help with that,” he snickered. (No indoctrination, right?) He was speaking of his wife, Bridget, who still serves on the school board, despite repeated requests for her to step down.
As I was leaving to attend the meeting, my husband had asked: “How did you get involved in this?” Exasperated, I answered: “Adrien Lucas!”
Lucas is a well-known advocate in Sarasota - from stopping the development of the celery fields to helping a school board candidate in their run for a board seat.
Ziegler trolled over 100 people in attendance that day as “old and unpatriotic”. When it was her turn at the microphone, Lucas fact-checked Ziegler, calling him out as an alleged insurrectionist who attended the January 6 attempted insurgency at the nation’s Capital.
It was a compelling, authentic (and justified) diatribe, but Lucas expressed disappointment in herself for losing control. While it was a memorable comeuppance for the grateful people who experienced it in person, Commissioner Nancy Detert came up to me after the meeting and asked why Lucas was so angry. I gulped.
This cautionary tale seems apropos now, because public school advocates aren’t happy. They were blindsided at the recent November 19 meeting when being told that reducing public school board meetings to one time a month was going to a vote without an advance workshop.
“It appears to any person who follows the school board, that they want the response by the public to be chaotic and angry. This is how they can justify cutting back the meetings to once a month.”
Major credit to the approximately 50-plus people in attendance that displayed decorum and collaboration with the board members in stating that this idea reeked of a lack of transparency and a continuity of a trusting relationship with the public.
The second to last speaker, SEE’s Anya Dennison, spoke calmly before and after the vote was made. “I am genuinely excited to hear your thoughts and thank you so much,” she stated before a vote was taken. After the motion passed that went against the will of the community, she still thanked the board.
Following her, Michelle Pozzi spoke. The contrasts in presentation style were akin to Dennison as Taylor Swift funding nationwide food banks and Pozzi representing Eric Trump stealing from a cancer charity. The proud far-right Pozzi, who home-schools her children went on the attack against board member Tom Edwards. What would get Pozzi so stirred up?
“He tied masks around our children’s faces,” she lectured to him, “that were not your own.”
When our friends, family members and neighbors were suffering or died from the Covid pandemic, Edwards followed science and laws that students should wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid to teachers, staff and parents at home.
Her vitriol was embarrassing, because she was living in the past. In trying to exert a bravado to appear smarter than those who dedicate their lives to infectious medicine, Pozzi came across as uneducated and powerless. As Detert would ask: Why is she so angry?
At the December 10 meeting, which takes place at 6pm, a topic of distraction, mistrust and an underlying motive will be on the agenda. Item 9.2 is strikingly similar to the ill-advised and controversial Liberty University affiliation that had recently been voted on. The new Consent Agenda Item Reads:
APPROVAL OF THE AFFILIATION AGREEMENTS BETWEEN SARASOTA COUNTY SCHOOLS AND NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA
1.That the Sarasota County School Board approve the affiliation agreement between New College of Florida and Sarasota County Schools.
2. That the Sarasota County School Board authorize the Chairperson or Vice Chairperson and the Superintendent to execute the agreement contingent upon form approval by General Counsel.
We will be doing a deep dive on the unknowns in affiliating with New College of Florida (NCF) before Tuesday’s school board meeting. There was not a link to NCF’s website stating the particulars in what it involves. What we can guarantee with almost 100% certainty is that the wheel in motion is being steered by Ziegler. Will Superintendent Terry Connor once again do the bidding for her as he did with the Liberty University debacle?
While the public anticipated a collaboration between the board and the public, the pot was stirred to create a false sense of hope. At the 11/19 meeting, the board voted against 100% of public opinion and cut back public meetings to once a month. (Those dissenting were Edwards and Board Member Liz Barker.)
The hand-in-hand nature of community involvement further deteriorated when board members Ziegler, Tim Enos and Robyn Marinelli took a hypocritical party-line approach in electing conservative Marinelli as vice-chair of the board over the more experienced and versed Tom Edwards.
There will be a lot to unpack and fold up again at the upcoming meeting, but it will have to be done neatly and effectively. It appears to any person who follows school board members, Ziegler, Enos and Marinelli, that they want the response by the public to be chaotic and angry. This is how they can justify cutting back the meetings to once a month.
There was a deliberate division created between the board and community which could discourage even long-time advocates for Sarasota public school education. The public didn’t have to be called “old and unpatriotic” to see and hear it for themselves. Sarasotans were looking forward to a new chapter with the election of board member Liz Edwards, however the conservative team of Ziegler, Enos and Marinelli threw a wrench in it.
Advocates helped get Barker elected and now isn’t the time to abandon the shared mission for higher enrollment in the public schools and working on behalf of the district’s motto: Every Student, Every Day.
This is where we take a page out of Lucas’ handbook. Through her attendance at meetings and voiced opinions in newspaper editorials and social media, she encouraged others to join in on the betterment of the community that we reside in. She passed the torch onto others simply through awareness.
The manner in which we talk will also serve as our own ally. While most who watched the county commission meeting will remember Lucas’ requital of a very deserving Ziegler with fondness and gratitude, she felt she hadn’t brought her best to the table. (“He started it!” I remember her yelling, as the audience of advocates applauded her and a “Point of Order” was called out.) Rumble was dead in the water thanks to the work of Lucas and others.
It was at the April 22 meeting that Lucas insisted I attend where I met the impressive Support Our Schools Founder Lisa Schurr. The rest is Dear Bubbie blog history.
A local artist named Marise once said: “If you see a corruption happening, you use your mouth, you talk. If they don’t listen, talk louder. If they still don’t listen, get more of you to talk.”
Sarasota will be talking with control and bringing their best to the table at the next school board meeting, as they carry on the torch that an inspiring Lucas so adroitly lit and carried for us.
Your opinion on the affiliation with New College of Florida matters. Write to us at jslferguson@gmail.com or comment in the section below. A blog will be coming out on this Consent Agenda Item before the Tuesday meeting. Your thoughts will be published.
Ah, yes. I remember Adrien addressing Christian Ziegler as a “Fascist Fluffer”. And this was even before his and Gidget’s sexual predatory bar hopping and trolling came to public light. Boy Adrien nailed that one, didn’t she?
I have no objection to having agreements with legitimate, accredited institutions of differing perspectives. My objection would be if there is not a balance of differing perspectives. I'm against banning in general whether of books or information.