Pictured: Dr. Todd Bowden

A long-term contract for Sarasota County Superintendent of Schools Todd Bowden ultimately only mustered a 3-2 vote from the School Board. But the schools chief says controversial elements of the deal were personally important to him for job security.

“I have no intention of leaving,” Bowden says. “I have a son going into high school, and I have every intention of presiding over his high school graduation as superintendent.”

Bowden was selected as superintendent in October 2016. But a politically divided board has given him mixed reviews. School Board members Jane Goodwin and Caroline Zucker gave him high marks in an evaluation past year, while Bridget Ziegler and Eric Robinson scored him low and Shirley Brown said he was just above average. The School Board on Tuesday approved a four-year contract through June of 2023, one that can’t be broken—even with cause—without a supermajority of the vote. Ziegler and Robinson voted against the contract.

Bowden and Robinson acknowledge a poor working relationship. Robinson says Bowden won’t take his calls, while Bowden says Robinson remains the only board member who won’t do one-on-one meetings every other week.

But the political division made it important, Bowden says, to put the supermajority vote requirement in the contract. “The contract was really a response to the overall politicization of the board, which is itself extremely unfortunate,” he says. 

He says the outrage over the contract followed a template seen before. First, members issue angry social media posts, then news stories come. Angry public discourse takes place at crowded meetings. Then the issue settles and everyday business continues. He hopes that happens now that the contract has been finalized.

“Most of the conversation centered around really the provisions on ‘how do we terminate him,’" Bowden says. “That’s why it was important—because of some of the political gamesmanship going on.”

Bowden says the four-year contract makes sense as School Board members also serve four-year terms; Ziegler incidentally rejects that because Bowden is not an elected superintendent and not subject to the same type of public scrutiny and accountability.

His base salary will begin at $197,000 with $5,000 increases each year. That eventually puts him at $222,000, still within the initial contract range the School Board advertised for the post, $185,000 to $225,000. In workshops, parties agreed to a provision that if school contracts require a salary reduction, Bowden’s pay will drop as well.

But what if School Board elections result in a political change in board make-up? Will Bowden stay on with a board where three school board members want him out? 

Bowden notes that once the four-year contract expires, the supermajority requirement goes with it. “At the end of it, a majority—a simple majority—can decide if they wish to move on to another superintendent,” he says.

Pictured: Dr. Todd Bowden