School Board to narrow superintendent shortlist

The Sarasota County School Board is continuing its search for Superintendent Lori White’s replacement today as school board members prepare to choose which candidates will proceed to the next stage in the selection process.

The board will select an unspecified number of candidates to be interviewed by the board prior to its final vote on Oct. 18. 

Sarasota County School District narrowed down its initial list of 49 applicants to eight on Sept. 6. 

The shortlist includes one Sarasota County School District employee, Todd Bowden, as well as Florida residents Bambi Lockman, Andrew Rynberg, Mark Porter, Brennan Asplen III, Kevin Gordon and Vickie Cartwright. Fourteen of the original 49 applicants were from Florida.

The only out-of-state applicant to move on from the preliminary stage of the selection process was Arthur Anderson of Georgia.

Two candidates, Vickie Cartwright and Mark Porter, were also shortlisted by rival Saint Johns County School District in its superintendent search. Saint John’s County is slated to to identify its superintendent on Oct. 11,  a week before the Sarasota County School Board’s final vote on Oct. 18.

Today’s decision comes earlier than outlined by Sarasota County’s original timeline. The district originally expected to identify candidates to interview on Oct. 4.

However, Sept. 20 was identified as a new selection day last week when the district also released candidates responses to the school board’s questionnaire.

In addition to candidate responses, the board’s agenda for today’s meeting also shows possible interview schedules for the selected finalists.

The board’s agenda does not indicate how many candidates will move onto the interview stage, but preliminary schedules show slots for between three and five candidates.