A majority of voters in Sarasota in November voted in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment to turn school board offices into partisan positions. That was slightly higher than the percentage of voters statewide who supported the same move.

It doesn’t much matter. Constitutional ballots require 60% support to pass. Since it was a constitutional amendment passed in 1998 (with 64% support) that made school boards nonpartisan in the first place, only a new amendment can reverse that decision no matter how badly the Florida Legislature wants to the change.

But results in Sarasota seem especially peculiar considering how voters a few months ago delivered such a strong statement against the politicization of the local School Board. Two years after a conservative takeover of the body that cost a superintendent his job, nearly installed a completely political apparatchik in his place and effectively turned board meetings into a 1990s talk show that late Sarasotan Jerry Springer might refuse to host, voters in August appeared to repudiate the step to the right.

I know. Some quite certainly will argue re-electing School Board member Tom Edwards did not necessarily mean voters hate showboat politicians. But he had been a lone dissenting voice on many policies, and a pragmatic force working with pro-business groups on matters outside board meetings. At the least, awarding him a second term rejected the particular politicization seen in the wake of the right-wing takeover of local education policy in 2022.

Certainly, Liz Barker’s election unseating incumbent Karen Rose, who had run a partisan campaign against wokeness as she sought another term, showed a distaste for populist huffing.

Of course, both political parties engaged in School Board races this year and in the part. State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, pushed for the School Board measure to appear on the statewide ballot. He runs an accounting firm with Eric Robinson, who Edwards unseated from the School Board in 2020. Gruters felt then the reason Edwards, a Democrat, won was likely because Democrats did a better job communicating the party of their candidate better than Republicans did for Robinson. Certainly, when conservatives won a board majority in 2022, the fact the three winning candidates were all Republicans had been messaged by both their supporters and critics alike.

With that in mind, it may be no surprise most voters now favor making the offices partisan officially. May as well drop the charade.

But what voters should keep in mind is that under Florida law, whether a race is partisan or nonpartisan has more to do with who votes than who runs.

Every registered voter in Sarasota County could vote in August on every School Board race, just as they could for judgeships or any municipal contest. But any partisan primaries in August were closed only to voters of that party. Even if only Republicans run for an office, meaning the primary will effectively decide a race and should theoretically be open to all voters, whichever campaign would benefit from a closed primary will inevitably find a write-in candidate and shut the August race to only members of their own party. If you want to call this on insidious GOP tactics, rest assured in Democratic counties and other jurisdictions, Democrats unscrupulously employ the same method.

The day may yet come when enough Floridians vote for partisan School Board races that an amendment passes. I just hope voters understand the outcome of this change will be disenfranchisement of any voter registered in a minority party, along with the growing number of voters who don’t register with any party at all. 

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor of SRQ MEDIA. 

Graphic courtesy Pixabay.

Here we are again, celebrating and reflecting on yet another successful year at Ringling College of Art and Design. And what a year it’s been. 

Our 2024-‘25 academic year, which started in the fall, saw us enroll another strong incoming class of around 450 new students and a returning student body of around 1,200. Even though this was not a record-setting year for enrollment like we had in Fall 2023), we were proud to maintain a strong number of around 1,700 talented and diverse students who come from nearly 60 countries around the world and nearly every U.S. state. 

I must say, these students have proven their resilience. This past hurricane season, our local community had to deal with not one, not two, but three major hurricane events within a couple of months. Through two campus-wide evacuations, our students, faculty and staff demonstrated their adaptability and determination to succeed. 

Over the last 25 years, the College has grown exponentially in size and reach. The institution has been able to expand its physical footprint to 60-plus acres, including opening Sarasota Art Museum and the Ringling College Museum Campus—which celebrated its fifth birthday this December. We have erected 14 new buildings across our main campus and renovated several others.

Ringling College also experienced a transformational surge in diversity and inclusion, with an increased number of students from underrepresented communities and a robust international student population. Indeed, 21% of our students come from nearly 60 countries outside of the U.S.

We have now established more than 150 endowed scholarships for deserving students. We recently launched two new academic majors—Virtual Reality Development in 2018 and Entertainment Design in 2019. Our academic programs hold top rankings, including our Motion Design, Computer Animation, Film and Illustration programs. This year, we created a new Greenlight Fund within our Film Circle to help support our budding filmmakers and directors.

We have been learning a lot about artificial intelligence, making great efforts to understand its capabilities, limitations and impacts specifically on our artists and designers. We launched an undergraduate certificate program in AI as an option for students in all majors. 

These are only a few of the many milestones that signify Ringling College is on its way to achieving its vision: to be THE preeminent art and design college in the world. But we still have some work to do.

Last year around this time, we announced the public phase of our comprehensive fundraising campaign, Catalyst for Creativity. Now into our second year of the public phase of the campaign, we have raised $151 million of our $175-million goal. To prepare our graduates for an ever-expanding global and creative economy, we know it is our responsibility to invest heavily in academic innovation and creative thinking. Thus, our campaign encompasses three essential priorities: Building Creativity, Igniting Creativity and Connecting Creativity.

Igniting Creativity is all about support for students and faculty. Key investment components include student scholarships, endowed department head positions, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programming and a new Center for Teaching Excellence. 

Connecting Creativity is focused on engaging the local community. Through more than 100 programs offered annually, Ringling College provides opportunities not just for students, but roughly 100,000 local residents and visitors from around the globe who take advantage of our offerings. This campaign also supports our Sarasota Art Museum; Ringling College’s Campus Galleries and Exhibitions; the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Ringling College; the Englewood Art Center; and our Town Hall Lecture Series. 

The final pillar of the campaign is Building Creativity. Simply put, we are out of space. As we continue with our goal of increasing enrollment, we have a growing need for educational space for our academic programs where the absolute best and most creative teaching of art and design can take place.

One building, currently called the Signature Academic Building, will be located on the corner of North Tamiami Trail and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way—the entrance to the campus. It will not only be our new gateway, but an entrance to Sarasota signifying you have arrived at the epicenter of Florida’s creative community. I can’t wait to see this incredible building come to life.

As we gear up for 2025, I am so pleased to say our future looks incredibly bright. Thank you to all of our wonderful community members who support Ringling College in so many diverse ways—we simply could not do it without you. 

Dr. Larry Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art & Design. 

Photo courtesy Ringling College.