You elect the School Board and you pay for the School District.

The School District is YOUR government and Bridget believes that you have a right to view and provide feedback on every decision, expenditure and action taken on your behalf.

Meetings cannot happen in obscure rooms away from cameras, policy cannot be proposed without your review, and your money cannot be spent without you knowing exactly how it’s spent.

Bridget has been a champion for transparency and while her efforts have upset some along the way, she will never apologize or stop advocating for whom she works for and represents – The People!

Actions & Wins:

• Increased transparency and public access by moving School Board Workshop Meetings from an obscure conference room without cameras to the School Board Chambers with cameras.
• Allowed “The People” to have direct access to the discussions, proposals and decisions of their School Board by requiring that all School Board meetings and workshop meetings be televised, live streamed and online archived.
• Increased public access and awareness of upcoming proposals, discussions and votes by requiring the attachment of supporting documents to the online agenda.
• Blocked placement of any item to the Consent Agenda that does not have supporting documents, so that there is increased review and transparency for the public.
• Increased transparency by requiring that all construction projects/capital improvement plans be identified by name.

Bridget will never forget that every dollar spent by the Sarasota County School District is a dollar given to us by the hardworking and generous taxpayers of Sarasota County.

That is why she is so passionate about ensuring that the Sarasota County School District serves as a good stewards of taxpayer dollars by securing the greatest return on investment (ROI) from every expenditure.

Actions & Wins:

• Instituted an Independent Negotiator for Teachers Union Bargaining Contract Negotiations.
• Secured an annual savings of $200,000 by updating the School Insurance Brokerage Procurement Policy and requiring an RFP at a minimum of every five years.
• Provided increased financial review and oversight by requiring that any improvement over $150,000 on a non-instructional structure be brought before the board for approval.
• Implemented financial safeguards, such as ensuring that any expenditure that exceeds the previously approved bid contracts’ “not to exceed threshold” now requires the board approval. (Prior to this requirement being in place, the process was to simply notify board members by email and no approval was necessary).

With an annual budget of over $800,000,000 (yes, $800 million), 52 schools, 5,000 teachers & staff and over 43,000 students, the Sarasota County School District is a massive organization and can be intimidating/difficult to navigate.

To help address this challenge, Bridget has always made herself available to every taxpayer, parent, staff member and student who has questions, needs additional information, provides feedback or needs help navigating THEIR school district.

It may not get the headlines, but some of the greatest impacts Bridget has had as a member of the Sarasota County School Board is to help revise the School Board policies for compliance and procedural accuracy.

From increasing accountability by revising the Superintendent Evaluation to measurable metrics or blocking the use of the official School district email server by forcing them to use their own server, many of the policies championed by Bridget will have a lasting positive impact on the School Board and entire School District.

Actions & Wins:

• Championed the removal of the Teachers Union’s use of the official School District email server. The Teachers Union now operates on their own server.
• Restructured the District’s Capital Improvement Plan, which requires any improvement over $150,000 on a non-instructional structure must be brought before the board for approval
• Aligned the Strategic Goals & Superintendent Evaluation Tool to Measurable Metrics.
• Embarked on a full-scale School Board policy review for regulatory compliance and procedural accuracy.
• Implemented financial safeguards, such as ensuring that any expenditure that exceeds the previously approved bid contracts’ “not to exceed threshold” now requires the board approval. (Prior to this requirement being in place, the process was to simply notify board members by email and no approval was necessary).
• Updated the Textbook Adoption Process to ensure public review, input and transparency at the local level and worked with the State Legislature to adopt similar policies statewide.
• Implemented a Review and Restructure of the School District’s Equity and Harassment Policy, which increased the integrity of the process.
• Restructured the District’s 7.71 Construction Procurement Process.
• Updated Insurance Brokerage Procurement Policy, requiring an RFP at a minimum of every five years. This process resulted in an annual savings of $200,000.
• Updated Texting Policy to align with Public Records Laws and reduce District Liability.