Following are the major points from the School Board Reorganization Meeting on January 20, 2026.
ITEMS OF INTEREST
The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Chair Spray who then read the District Vision Statement. The Invocation was given by Pastor Rick Chaffin of Manatee Baptist Church. The color guard from Lakewood Ranch High School JROTC presented the colors, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Navy Veterans Shelly and her husband Trevor Green. Mrs. Green is employed by the school district in the Food and Nutrition Department. Both she and her husband have long service records. The Superintendent presented them with a plaque and flag that flew over the US Capitol to recognize their service. Dr. Breslin also presented flags from Congressman Vern Buchanan’s office to previous school district employees who have led the pledge.
Student Celebration/Recognitions – Ms. Carson, Director of Communications, facilitated the recognitions.
Recognition of Award-Winning JROTC Programs
The award-winning JROTC programs at Parrish Community, Braden River and Bayshore High Schools were highlighted. “The new kids on the block” Parrish Rifle and Raider teams placed in championship meets and won. They won the Area 5 Rifle championship and go to state competition this weekend. Parrish Community is one of the youngest and newest programs in the state. Student leaders expressed their pride and appreciation for their JROTC team members and the adult support. They are going to Nationals in Alabama. Bayshore HS JROTC Program’s Sergeant Major stated his goal since freshman year was to win state competition and they are so proud to win it this year. The student Senior Captain of the A Team was pleased to be recognized and thanked parents and all who pushed them to be consistently better and her team for listening to her to make them a better team and the ability to win states. The Braden River JROTC team’s student Captain thanked the board for recognizing them as they are heading to National competition in April. The student leader also thanked her team for all their hard work and trusting her to lead them to be their best. She and her co-leader recognized the opportunities that JROTC provides students.
Recognition of the Braden River Middle School and Johnson K8 as WozEd Pathway Schools
Amber Platowski, WOZ Education Coordinator of Secondary Science for the school district, recognized the teachers and students at Braden River Middle School and Johnson K8 as Woz Pathway Schools. They raised their science scores by 9 percent in one year. Andrea Nestle, Chief Curriculum Officer of Woz Schools, was present to recognize the schools for their accomplishments. Woz was founded by Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computers) to be creative, to change the world, and change the lives of others. WozEd provides engaging, future- ready learning. Palm View was the first in 2019 for full continuum of science in STEM for Woz, Ballard and Bashaw Elementaries were added as well as Lee and Sugg Middle Schools. In 2024, Palm View was recognized as a school of distinction. This year Johnson K-8 and Braden River Middle School were added to the Pathways across all grades. Ms. Nestle presented awards to the two school principals and team leaders.
Celebrating the Certification of Manatee Elementary Community Partnership School
Brenna Allen, new CHS Community Partnership Schools Director at Manatee Elementary, recounted the years of collective effort for enabling them to complete this project. Children’s Home Society representative and past project director thanked Board Member Charlie Kennedy who heard about the community partnership meeting and ‘dragged’ her to a meeting so the school could begin this project in 2019-2020. Community Partnership Schools is about the whole family, not just the child. It is a multi-organizational approach. Christine Thompson, Assistant Director, from the University of Central Florida Center for Community Schools worked with Southwest Florida on these programs. Certification is a rigorous process among numerous community organizations and the school. Ms. Thompson presented the school with a plaque and a banner to display at the school. All the partner agencies came forward for a photo including representatives from UCF, USF, Boys and Girls Club, MCR Health, and the school leadership.
Public Comments – There were no public comments.
Reports and Presentations
2025-2026 FAST Progress Monitoring 2 (PM2) Mathematics Assessment Results – updated 1/16/26
Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, Derek Jensen, and Evan McCarthy, Director of Assessment, Accountability and Research, presented the data for PM2 (progress monitoring) Math Assessments. Mr. McCarthy explained the Florida Assessment of Student Testing (FAST) from the Department of Education platform and the district portal for parents. He highlighted a few sample questions that students would see, the advanced vocabulary used in the questions, and the results. Charts of comparisons from 2025 to 2026 were also included. Accelerated math programs’ impact on scores was explained. Math results on almost all elementary and middle grades have improved over last year and, in many cases, outperformed the state wide results. It was consistently noted that the math skills and vocabulary in the testing format are well beyond what current adults experienced in elementary and middle school. The presentation described the next steps to support continued success that include the district, principals, and teachers.
[See slide presentation at https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3853845/2025-26_School_Board_PM2_Math_Data_Review_1-20-2026.pdf]
Consent Items: – Twenty-nine items were approved 5-0.
New Business (Non-Consent Items)
Approval of Budget Amendment for November, 2025 (No Financial Impact) – Approved 5-0 after review by Deputy Superintendent of Business Services, Rachel Sellers.
Approval of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and All Official Parts Thereof for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2025 (No Financial Impact) – Approved 5-0 after Ms. Sellers spoke to this, recognizing Finance Director, Kathy Miley, and her team’s effort to provide information to the auditors. No findings on this audit done by the Auditor General.
New Business (No Superintendent Recommendation)
Acceptance of the State of Florida Auditor General Report Operational Audit, Report No. 2026-055 – Approved 5-0.
Approval of the Proposed 2026 Greater Consortium of School Boards (GFSCB) Federal Legislative Program – Approved 5-0 with no discussion.
Approval of School Board Members to Travel to Tallahassee Florida for Florida School Board Association’s Annual Day in the Legislature Event, January 28-29, Not to Exceed $4,500. (General Fund) – Approved 5-0 after noting Mr. Tatem and Ms. Felton will attend.
Approval of School Board Members to Travel to Tallahassee Florida for Manatee County’s Day in the Legislature Event, February 4-6, Not to Exceed $2,500.00 (General Fund) Annual day in Legislative – Approved 5-0 after noting Mr. Choate and Chair Spray will go.
Approval of School Board Member Felton to Travel to Tallahassee Florida for Greaer Florida Consortium of School Board’s Day in the Legislature Event, February 12-13, Not to Exceed $1,200.00 (General Fund) – Approved 5-0.
Approval of FY 2025-2026 Half Cent Sales Surtax Internal Audit Report (General Fund) – Approved 5-0 after noting the Board went through this at a workshop.
Approval of Internal Audit Special Review – AAA High School Construction Manager at Risk Request for Qualifications: Results Memorandum (General Fund) – Approved 5-0.
Approval of SDMC – Five-Year Risk Assessment – Approved 5-0.
Updates:
Instructional: Mr. Jensen mentioned the STEM and School Choice Showcase on Saturday, January 24, at the Convention Center and will include the Math Superstars and District Science Fair with 348 projects entered. Ten middle and 10 high school projects will be sent to the state competition. MTC’s enrollment on the first day of this semester was more than 2200 students. There will be two career fairs on February 5 and 12 at MTC and the program will introduce students to available careers. Next week is Florida State Literacy Week. Twenty district VPK programs have been honored as excellent programs by the FL Department of Education. ESE is continuing a career exploration grant for 50 students to participate. Basketball season is ending and soccer teams will be entering playoffs. Mr. Jensen mentioned that many students are participating in the Manatee County Fair activities.
Operational: Mr. Clark talked about ongoing job fairs and offers made. The Pathways to Teaching event will be at Wakeland tomorrow 6-8 p.m. Upcoming job fair for operations on Feb 19 at Matzke and Feb 24 for instructional will be held virtually. For Wellness, a wellness challenge focus is aligned with winter Olympics and will have STEP ski jump for number of steps and hydration hockey – both with awards. Food and Nutrition hosted a special Manatee County Fair day at school cafeterias with themed menus and two tickets were awarded to the fair at each school thanks to the Fair Association. Walk-throughs were held this morning at Rye Ranch and Veterans Elementaries and these two schools under construction are progressing well. Tomorrow will be a walk-through at AAA high school.
Legal: No report.
Superintendent Remarks: Dr. Breslin reported this has been an active and productive month. She visited the Fair and saw the contributions of our students. Leadership Team continues work around student early learning and adding 8 additional VPK classrooms. About student support, the leadership team met with foster care agency representatives for strengthening their work. She attended the Chamber Lunch last week and heard from the mayors in the county. Dr. Breslin attended the All-State Arts program in Tampa where Steven Armstrong from Braden River led students who performed at the program. This was the first time a group from Manatee was asked to perform at the President’s Concert. She commended the work of the district staff and citizen advisory committee for the excellent audit reports. She will speak on Thursday to aspiring educators on how to become teachers and is the keynote speaker at this Thursday’s Tiger Bay luncheon. The Superintendent visited Rye Ranch and Veterans Elementary this morning to check out construction. Dr. Breslin emphasized all the activities coming at the STEM Showcase and School Choice Fair on Saturday. She thanked the board for their ongoing focus on the students.
Board Comments:
Ms. Felton talked about the Manatee County Fair. She described the first ever media day at the fair that created collaboration between the schools and the Fair Association. She lamented that she will miss the drum line competition tonight at the Fair. She named and praised the media programs of a variety of schools and their students who participated and will be submitting their product for judging. She thanked Mr. Chapman for creating the press passes for the students, with almost 150 provided. She said this Saturday will feature the youth awards for livestock. She and Mr. Tatem attended the Valor Commons ground breaking and she is looking forward to students at Veterans Elementary having learning opportunities there. She attended Florida Musical Association performance and said it was a beautiful program. She attended the Law Enforcement graduation and is so proud of everyone. There is a new Deputy at the Manatee Sheriff’s Office who she taught with at Southeast High School. Last Saturday was the opening of Embracing Our Differences display in Sarasota and of over 1000 entries with only 60+ selected, Manatee District’s Gene Witt Elementary student was selected to be part of it. She will bring them to a board meeting for recognition.
Mr. Kennedy thanked the Superintendent and board for keeping our focus on students for all that is going on around us. We have over 58,000 students and very few of them will win state recognition and we had several of them tonight and it is an honor to achieve that accomplishment.
Mr. Choate thanked staff for all their work and Manatee Elementary for their recognition today. The STEM showcase is highly recommended even if you do not have any students; you get a great idea of where your tax dollars are working.
Mr. Tatem said things are going well at MTC with strong leadership at all levels. Regarding leadership, there are few jobs that are professions and education is one of those. We are responsible for the integrity of our profession and it is our responsibility to police each other. We need to speak up and police ourselves when we see things that are not going as they should. He encouraged all to be helpful, but not critical, and not lead themselves and others into a situation that might not be what they expect, but will do them harm.
Chair Spray thanked staff for all the work they do for the Board with updates, reminders, etc. Being a state champion will stay on the students’ records forever and something they can be proud of forever. There has been chatter about how we conduct ourselves on the board and should have a time limit on presentations. I do not mind sitting through presentations and board comments and would not put a limit on time on anyone making a presentation. What we do matters and is viewed by many. The next Workshop is Feb 3 at 10:00 a.m. and the next Board meeting is Feb 10.
Adjournment: 7:26 p.m.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
Board Members are commended for expressing their admiration for the JROTC teams. Chair Spray and Mr. Tatem gave inspirational and heartfelt words to all the JROTC teams. Ms. Felton expressed her pleasure in the leadership she saw developing in the students from their JROTC experiences. Superintendent Breslin also thanked the principals and teachers for being there with the students tonight and all year long.
Board members asked in-depth, clarifying, and information gathering questions on the Progress Monitoring math data as well as praised the teachers for using consistent, high-level vocabulary in their classrooms.
Item 11 on the Consent Agenda was for the approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with Space Florida to form an educational partnership. It would have been helpful to the public to remove it from the Consent Agenda and open it for discussion and explanation. This was an opportunity to attract students to an exciting and unusual program in the district’s secondary schools.
In the interest of transparency, before voting to accept audit reports, Ms. Sellers should be asked to summarize the findings. The Auditor General Operational Audit was accepted without discussion although there were four significant findings. Similar action should have taken place for the Internal Audit Report of the Half-Cent Sales Surtax and the Internal Audit Special Review of the AAA High School Construction Manager at Risk Request for Qualifications. In addition, the community should know what areas will be the focus of future audits because of the Risk Assessment. It is inappropriate to assume everyone can watch the workshops and simply commenting that Board Members talked about the topic earlier gives the appearance that the Board does not want the community to know what is happening.
Chair Spray continues to run a smooth and efficient board meeting.
