Months after a successful campaign to renew a sales tax, incumbents on the Sarasota School Board are back on the campaign trail, this time defending their own jobs. Both incumbents running for re-election—Shirley Brown and Jane Goodwin—are fending off challenges from local control advocates—respectively Helen Wolff and Randy McLendon. The incumbents are running on a record of positive accomplishments and a need for continuity, while the challengers are focused on an independent curriculum and a resistance to the national Common Core standards.

In District 5, School Board chairwoman Goodwin is being challenged by McLendon, returning to the ballot after a bid for the Sarasota County Commission two years ago. McLendon said it was the arrival of Common Core in the public discourse that agitated him into running. "No parents like it, few teachers like it," he said. "It's hard on administrators, and the School Board is not interested in pushing back." He said both School Board members and state lawmakers should be countering the effort to federal uniform standards and that teachers should have the freedom to build curriculum out of the needs of individual students.

Goodwin, though, said she is supportive of the objectives of Common Core, called the Florida Sunshine Standards in Florida, and said Sarasota County has succeeded in maintaining a strong curriculum. She noted the standards are set by the state, not the School Board. But Goodwin's daughter, a teacher at Sarasota High School, has offered first-hand accounts that the standards create a good environment and encourage critical thinking in a positive way.  "Students enjoy it and more engaged in the classroom," she said. "The days of students sitting in a classroom taking notes and listening to a lecture, the teacher at a whiteboard, are done. Now students are learning from each other as well as the teacher, and we have found this to be a very good process."

In the District 4 race, incumbent Brown was similarly proud of the accomplishments of local students. "The District is moving in the right direction," she said. The 77 percent approval for the recent school tax vote showed an endorsement of the school board's policies in Brown's eyes. As for Common Core, she said much of the consternation comes from misinformation about the standards. "It's just a different way of pushing critical thinking in teaching," she said. "The curriculum in schools is different and more rigorous than it has been, and I don't have a problem with that."

But Wolff said the new federal standards are taking education in an entirely new direction, and she doesn't like the outside interference. "I will support efforts to retain and regain local control for teachers, parents and local officials," she said. "Those are the ones who best understand the needs here." She said students will be better served through partnerships with area professionals and allowing teachers more control of what gets taught in classrooms, and she said local officials should be able to determine if a curriculum is being blown through too quickly.

The nonpartisan Sarasota School Board races will be held Aug. 26 and are open to all Sarasota County voters. 

In 2001, Dave Minton created and organized the Suncoast Wine Festival. A year later, he was a founding member of the Lakewood Ranch Wine Club. Minton remained active in both until 2006, when he began to spend extended periods of time in California and Oregon, hanging out in places with names like Napa and Willamette Valley. Now a certified sommelier, Minton is back in Sarasota full-time and hosting the town’s latest wine-tasting venue, the Chianti Wine Club.

Headquartered at Chianti restaurant off Clark Road, the Chianti Wine Club will have its fourth meeting tonight, one a month since its inception last April. But Minton, who has played host to such tongue-in-cheek events as ‘How to Be a Wine Snob,’ isn’t trying to replicate the highbrow and oft-parodied events cloistered behind red ropes and drapes, but instead aiming for something more like a relaxed get-together among friends.

“I’m focusing on events that are affordable and that will bring people in to experience and taste wines in a way that they don’t have the opportunity anywhere else,” said Minton, who priced the event at $10 for club members and $20 for non-members.

Unlike full-scale wine dinners, Minton’s gatherings are a briefer and boisterous affair, with room to move around and themed bites to pair with the wine instead of full meals. Tonight’s theme will be chocolate, with truffles from Sirard’s Chocolate, and next month will be cheeses.

“It’s really relaxed and there’s room to move around,” said Minton. “So many wine tastings are elbow-to-elbow and you’re fighting to get to the table. Here, I walk around to the tables and talk to the members about their wine experiences.”

As a bit of added fun, each month’s guests will vote on their favorite wines and the selections with the most votes are added to the restaurant’s wine list.

For more information about the Chianti Wine Club, call 941-356-4841. 

Aluminum bi-folding door manufacturer, Origin USA has opened its US headquarters in Venice, Florida. Origin has invested heavily in a manufacturing and customer service infrastructure in order to match the lead times and customer service. The US operation will be offering lead times that nearly match the levels it has become famous for in the United Kingdom, restricted only by increased transportation distances. The doors, which have Florida product approvals, fold and slide to almost any configuration, come in any color and incorporate numerous safety features.  

Origin USA

At their annual meeting on Jul. 5, Theatre Odyssey’s Board of Directors elected the following officers for the 2014-2015 season: Tom Aposporos, President; Dan Higgs, Vice President; Tami Vaughan, Secretary; and Donna DeFant, Treasurer. In addition to the election of officers, the company announced the re-election to the Board of Directors of Bob Trisolini and the election of Don Walker. 

Theatre Odyssey

Under the guidance of Dana Johnson, certified Executive Pastry Chef and one of only three chefs in Bradenton to be given the Best Chef's America award, Sugar Cubed aims to be the most innovative bakery in Bradenton. Located in Bradenton’s Village of the Arts, Cappuccino Streusel Muffins, Key Lime Danish, Raspberry Crumb Cake and Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies are among the regular offerings, along with varying daily selections. More than just a bakery, Sugar Cubed will be home to events year round, including culinary seminars, cookie and cupcake decorating classes for children, and charity functions. 

Sugar Cubed

SRQ | The Magazine is pleased to announce the panelists for our August SB2. On Wednesday, August 6, from 11:30am-1pm at the world-renowned IMG Academy Golf Club in Bradenton, join leaders in local education, Allen Carlson, President and CEO of Sun Hydraulics, Mary Glass, Executive Director of the Manatee Education Foundation, Jeff Hazelton, President and Chief Technology Officer of BioLucid, Jan Pullen, Saint Stephen’s Head of School, and Susan Scott, Executive Director of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, for a dynamic panel discussion as they share their insights on the private and public challenges associated with the region’s business community. Tickets to this symposium are $35/person and include plated lunch.  

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