GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS ENDORSES BRIDGET ZIEGLER

Gov. DeSantis Discusses Bridget Ziegler

BRIDGET BELIEVES…
“Every child deserves access to a world class education and to graduate high school well prepared for success in college, trade school, the military or the workforce”
MEET BRIDGET
Bridget has served as a Parent Advocate on the Sarasota County School Board since 2014. She was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 by the voters of Sarasota County.
BRIDGET ON ISSUES
Bridget has been a leading advocate for protecting parental rights, opposing indoctrination – including Critical Race Theory – working for taxpayers and supporting our teachers & students.
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GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS ENDORSES BRIDGET ZIEGLER FOR SCHOOL BOARD
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BRIDGET DISCUSSES THE ISSUES
Ziegler Impacted National Education Dialogue in 2021
Families today gather for the nation’s biggest holiday at a still turbulent time. As 2022 wraps, many surely will ask whether families have enough input on their students’ education. It’s hard to think of anyone who has delivered quite the impact on that conversation, whether you welcome it or not, as Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler.
As the state and country debated the place of critical race theory in public education, Ziegler often served as the face of the issue in national media and made the case for the topic’s exclusion from the curriculum. One of the founders of Moms For Liberty, she appeared regularly on Fox News to deride the academic philosophy, which studies the role of institutional racism in history. For those appearances, she earned a shout-out from the stage by Gov. Ron DeSantis at the Statesman of the Year dinner in Sarasota this fall… READ ENTIRE ARTICLE02r
Sarasota County School Board member instrumental to law and activists opposing mask mandates
Bridget Ziegler has spent much of the last seven years on the losing end of votes, as a staunch conservative on the Sarasota County School Board.
But her influence beyond Sarasota has exploded in recent months.
In December, Ziegler teamed with two former school board members to launch “Moms For Liberty,” a grassroots organization that advocates for parental rights in schools.
Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler.
In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parents’ Bill of Rights into law, a piece of legislation that Ziegler helped develop following several Sarasota School Board battles in 2018 and 2019.
Now, Moms For Liberty has chapters all over the country, with members leading the charge against school district mask mandates. And the Parents’ Bill of Rights is the linchpin to DeSantis’ argument that school districts cannot require students to wear masks.
With a nationwide movement launched and a key legislative victory in recent months, Ziegler said most of the credit belongs to what she characterizes as overreaching and out-of-touch local school boards.
“The behavior that I have seen for years is causing people to be fed up, and it’s happening across a lot of states and counties,” Ziegler said… READ ENTIRE ARTICLE
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MEET BRIDGET ZIEGLER
Bridget Ziegler is currently seeking re-election to continue serving the best interest of every public education stakeholder – including students, parents, families, teachers and taxpayers.
Bridget was first elected to the Sarasota County School Board by Sarasota County voters countywide in 2014 – after being appointed by Governor Rick Scott to fill a vacancy – and she was re-elected in 2018.
During her time on the board, Bridget has been a local, state and national leader advocating for the protection of parental rights. At the local level, Bridget has successfully fought to give all Sarasota County taxpayers access to a more transparent government, at the state level she was instrumental in the drafting of the ‘Parental Bill of Rights’ and at the national level she has helped expose the dangers of Critical Race Theory.
Bridget believes teachers must have the necessary resources and support to be successful in the classroom.
ORGANIZATION membership
Republican Party of Sarasota County, Precinct Committeewoman
East County Republican Club, Member
Nokomis, Osprey, Venice Area (NOVA) Republican Club, Member
North Port Area Republican Club, Member
Republican Club of Longboat Key, Member
Republican Club of South Sarasota County, Member
Republican Womens Club of Sarasota, Member
Sarasota Republican Club, Member
Florida Coalition of School Board Members, Founding Member
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Leadership Sarasota Executive Board 2014-2016
Leadership Sarasota, Youth Leadership Chair 2015
Leadership Sarasota, Youth Leadership Vice-Chair 2014
Leadership Sarasota – Class of 2013
AWARDS & MENTIONS
Observer’s 2018: People to Watch
Tampa Bay Business Journal: Women in Business Nominee 2018
Sarasota Magazine: Best of Award: Best Public Official – Honorable Mention 2017
SRQ Magazine Women in Business Nominee, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Sarasota Magazine: Best Of Award: Greatest Community Accomplishment – 2015: Election of Bridget Ziegler
Business Observer’s 30 under 30 award – 2011
SRQ Magazine: Millenial 6




Bridget’s Priorities, Actions & Wins
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✔️ Keeping Our Kids Safe
Like Bridget, parents across Sarasota County drop their children off at school each morning and trust our schools to watch over them throughout the day. And while we work and go about our daily lives, we expect our children to be safe until the moment we pick them up.
As a parent, there is NOTHING more important or valuable to Bridget than her children and that is why her top priority has and will continue to be school safety.
Actions & Wins:
- Championed school safety and security enhancements in 2015 to become part of the five-year Capital Improvement Plan’s priorities – including single point entry.
- Appointed to serve on Governor Rick Scott’s School Safety Workshop, which resulted in her recommendation of the state having a baseline standard of security guidelines, an update of OPPAGA, and audits to ensure compliance.
- Pushed for streamlined Risk Management Procedures to be adopted at every school site.
- Championed the closure of School Avenue at Sarasota High School.
✔️ Protecting Parental Rights & Empowering Families
No one will ever know what’s in the best interest of each and every individual student greater than the parents and families watching over them.
That is why Bridget believes that we must encourage, engage and empower parents to be as involved as possible in the education of their greatest treasurer – their children – both at school and at home!
Actions & Wins:
- Championed fairness by grandfathering students when amending class weighting and student progression plans.
- Championed transparency and equity for students by promoting school choice options (Charter School Information, School Choice Open Enrollment, Dual Enrollment).
- Founding Member and President of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members (FCSBM), an organization dedicated to focusing on the needs of each individual student and empowering parents.
✔️ #StudentsFirst
Every decision Bridget make starts with one question – What is in the best interest of the over 43,000 students in Sarasota County?
The focus of education shouldn’t be on the “system”, but instead solely focused on every single individual child and what we can do to help teach, shape, and guide them towards a successful future.
Bridget has and will always put the needs of our #StudentsFirst!
✔️ Supporting Teachers & Staff
Outside of parents & families, the greatest influence on the success of our students (the next generation) in Sarasota County are the over 5,000 teachers, staff and coaches instructing and supporting them each day.
Teaching is a true calling based on a deep-rooted passion to help not just educate, but mentor and shape our students. The last thing a teacher should have to worry about is if they have enough supplies or other resources to carry out their passion for the benefit of our children.
As a member of the Sarasota County School Board, Bridget will continue her efforts to ensure that our teachers & staff have the resources necessary to achieve their mission.
Actions & Wins:
- Streamlined the administrative process for student referrals to ensure fairness and transparency.
- Instituted an audit and review of hiring process.
- Streamlined the online system for volunteer sign up, thus increasing volunteer engagement.
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✔️ Champion for Transparency
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.
✔️ Fiscal Responsibility & Stewardship
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).
✔️ Taxpayer & Parent Advocate
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.
✔️ Cleaning Up The Bureaucracy
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.
CONTACT BRIDGET ZIEGLER
Bridget Ziegler for School Board
Info@BridgetZiegler.com
941.404.1600 (Call or Text)
Checks may be mailed to:
Bridget Ziegler Campaign
P.O. Box 51963
Sarasota, FL 34232