Election 2014: Ken Marsh: Sarasota School Board, District 1

Long-term planning isn’t just Ken Marsh’s career choice: It’s a lifestyle.

In April, to run for the District 1 seat of the Sarasota County School Board, Marsh retired from his 35 years of work in public education. His last position, director of long-term planning for Sarasota County Schools, meant he had to contemplate the future to decide where new schools should be built, when they would be needed and even how many classrooms each could use.

When he wasn’t planning for the school district, he was planning his next sailing trip with his wife, Tanice Knopp.

Marsh isn’t a daylight sailor. When he and his wife go sailing together, it’s a two- or three-night venture.

The couple sail along the southwestern coast of Florida and have gone all the way down to Key West, he said. These trips take the same type of long-term planning as his career, just at a micro level, because they have to plan where to drop anchor at night, which stops to make and make sure the weather won’t be too severe.

“Sailing fits with the planning part of my brain,” Marsh said. “There’s a significant degree of self-reliance.”

The only thing they don’t have to plan is what clothes to pack: Marsh and Knopp live on their boat, Awesome.

“That’s what it is, awesome,” Marsh said with a grin.

When the couple moved 18 years ago to Longboat Key, they needed a place to live. The two had always been sailing aficionados, but they had to choose between having a house or having a boat, Marsh said.

“We chose the boat,” he said.

But Marsh wasn’t always an official long-term planner.

Born in Greenwich, Conn., he attended the University of Georgia for both his bachelor’s degree in psychology and Master of Social Work. He moved to Sarasota County briefly in 1979 before moving to Manatee County to work for the school district as a child abuse investigator; he was the district’s first school social worker.

In 1995, he returned to Sarasota County. He was an adviser for the elementary schools, helping to plan and execute student testing, school choices and charter school attendance. In 2003, he was named director of long-term planning and stayed in the position until filing to run for office.

As director, he was responsible for prioritizing the district’s budget for capital projects, renovations, maintenance and updates and rebuilding. He was also responsible for buying land for the school district for future school sites.

“There had not been a planning department in the school system for many years,” Marsh said. “I knew I was making a significant difference by ensuring that whenever we were going to invest in property or a new school that we were going to do it for the lowest price.”

In the primary election, neither Marsh nor his three opponents received a majority of the votes to win the seat. Marsh received 40.63% of the votes, and Bridget Ziegler received 36.82%. The two will face off Nov. 4, in a runoff election.

Q&A with Ken Marsh
My favorite thing about my profession: My favorite one was my last one as a long-range planner, primarily because it allowed me to work with local government, developers, community planners and educators to determine when and where and how schools would be built. Because there had not been a planning department before me for a long time, I knew I was making a difference.

The best ideas come to me when: The best ideas can hit me virtually any time. But, they’re only the best ideas when I can share them with other people and work it through to really see if the idea is actually as good as I was thinking it was when I came up with it. Not all of them are original — some ideas come from reading different literature in the planning field or talking to other educators from other school districts to see what they’re doing; often my ideas build on the good ideas of other people.

The story of my life would be called: It wouldn’t be a very exciting movie. … But it would be a story about a man who lived by the Golden Rule, who was a good listener, read and researched, and brought people together to collaborate, not compete.

The best piece of advice I ever got was: To smile more, mostly from my wife.

I’m inspired by: I have two role models: The first is my father, who was a very kind and patient man. He was dedicated to his family, his job and his community. The second is Abraham Lincoln. His style is “being there”; as a leader, you have to get out to where things are going on.

KEN MARSH
Age: 64

Education: Bachelor’s degree in psychology and Master of Social Work, University of Georgia

Family: Wife, Tanice Knopp; daughter, Erin Craig

Occupation: Former director of long-range planning for Sarasota County Schools

Interesting fact: Marsh and his wife live on a sailboat on Longboat Key.