Leave ‘without cause’ in

Shirley Brown, don’t do it.

Put your business management hat on and block out your emotions and the way you feel about fellow Sarasota County School Board members Bridget Ziegler and Eric Robinson. They are not the issue. 

Do not vote at the Aug. 7 school board meeting to remove the can-be-fired “without cause” clause from the school superintendent’s employment contract.

You said yourself at the July 17 board meeting, “I don’t want to do this.” 

Nevertheless, we understand why you went along with board member Caroline Zucker’s surprise motion at the end of discussing Superintendent Todd Bowden’s evaluation and salary. Amid the toxicity and animus hovering over the board at that moment — with you and board members Zucker and Jane Goodwin at constant odds with Ziegler and Robinson — we can understand being swayed to support the motion. 

After approving Bowden’s raise, Zucker pulled out her trump card: She raised the ante to extend Bowden’s contract two years to 2022 and remove from his contract a clause that gives the board the right to terminate Bowden’s employment without cause.

“I’ve never heard of anyone being terminated without cause …” Zucker said. “I would like it removed because that’s not good. Someone could say, ‘Well, you went to the bathroom and you took too long, so you’re fired.’ It’s a little ridiculous, but this whole thing is.” 

Oh my. Woe to anyone who endured the two-and-a-half hour discussion of Bowden’s evaluation. Board Chair Ziegler was clearly uncomfortable, straining and at times awkward as she tried to be diplomatic and keep the discussions civil and polite. But the contentiousness was excruciatingly palpable, however well all five board members tried to stay in their adult.

DESTINED NOT TO BE A TEAM

Step back from this fray. If you have paid any attention to the Sarasota School Board and how it has devolved over the past two years, Bowden stands as the lightning rod that has supercharged the philosophical differences in the 3-2 split (Zucker, Brown and Goodwin versus Ziegler and Robinson).

Even before Bowden’s selection, Ziegler’s election in 2014 and Robinson’s in 2016 rocked the congeniality and cohesion of the former board of Zucker, Goodwin, Brown, Carol Todd and Frank Kovach. Ziegler especially irked the old guard with her push for more open meetings and more transparency.

When Robinson joined the board in 2016, Robinson, a CPA, was much like Ziegler. Neither took the tact of being quiet, reticent, first-year board members who typically observe and learn the machinations and politics and seldom spark debate. Instead, Robinson, like Ziegler, came off as aggressive, requesting data and unafraid to speak bluntly.  

It was obvious the old guard didn’t like the brashness of the newcomers. What was worse for the veteran board members, Ziegler and Robinson are more fiscally and philosophically conservative than Zucker, Brown and Goodwin. Ziegler and Robinson are strong supporters of school choice and charter schools. Zucker, Brown and Goodwin are more statists — pro-government control and tolerate charter schools because they have to.

This group was destined not to be a unified, five-person team.

ALIENATED CORE CONSTITUENCY

Then came Bowden, and the storms continued and still continue — with Bowden as the central lightning rod.

While vying to become the replacement for the much-revered Lori White in 2016, Bowden brought immediate controversy. Allegations that Bowden sexually harassed colleagues while serving as director of the Suncoast Technical College compelled White to hire an investigator. But the probe concluded there was no basis for disciplinary action.

By October 2016, the board chose Bowden as superintendent. Brown initially was the only board member to vote against him, citing his lack of experience with elementary education. She changed her vote to make the choice unanimous.

Bowden quickly alienated one of his core constituencies. Under all previous superintendents, the leaders of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association met each Friday with the superintendent. When White was superintendent, she gave them electronic badge access to the third floor of the school administration building, where the superintendent resides. 

Bowden revoked the access and discontinued the meetings. Barry Dubin, executive director of the SC/TA, says neither side has reached out to the other since.

Relations between Bowden and the teachers union grew frostier during contract negotiations. On the day teachers planned to picket for higher pay outside the district administration building, the district sign facing Tamiami Trail said: “We have the best paid teachers in Florida” — viewed as kicking dirt in the teachers’ faces.

Bowden was tough in contract negotiations with the SC/TA. After a five-month stalemate, he was able to bring the union to agree to eliminate the traditional step raises and seniority pay in favor of a merit pay system.

Dubin calls the pay plan “a disaster.”

When the district’s test scores showed a 4 percentage-point increase, Bowden in a press release credited his hiring of 19 assistant principals ahead of teachers. Teachers were insulted again.

For the first time in Dubin’s three decades with the teachers union, it conducted a climate survey of its members. One of the questions was whether teachers, nonteachers and administrators thought the superintendent was doing a good job. Although 44% of the union’s teacher members responded to the survey, the accompanying chart is unequivocal.

69% DISAPPROVAL RATING

In business, it’s expected that not everyone will like the CEO. The CEO is not in his or her job to make friends or be liked by employees. But when a sizable sampling of employees shows only  6% think the CEO is doing a good job and 69% say he is not, that should be an alarm bell. 

If you were a director of this enterprise, and even though the business’ performance is satisfactory, you would want to know: Why? What are the issues? Are they likely to lead to bigger negative issues — e.g. deteriorating morale, employee exodus — that can jeopardize the business? How can they be corrected?

Every good board of directors tries to look ahead and arrest these concerns before they become a crisis.

In this case, yes, Bowden still is relatively new, almost completing his second year. And it’s expected that when a new CEO arrives, his or her changes are going to disrupt the old guard employees who were comfortable with the previous CEOs.

But most employees are smart enough to decipher quickly whether the new boss has it; whether he or she is going to be a fit with them and the business and they a fit with the new boss; and whether they want to get aboard the new direction. 

Indeed, it’s all about “the fit.”

The same is true for a board of directors. Effective CEOs know if they are to be successful, they not only must do the job of running the business; they also must cultivate their relationship with directors.

This is commonplace: Companies often will have a high performer who is skilled and competent, but who also is a constant irritant within the organization and disruptive to the culture. The dilemma becomes: put up with the irritant because of the results for the business or let him or her go to preserve the organization’s long-established and successful culture?

If you are a Sarasota School Board member and willing to try to take a dispassionate view of the past two years (and we didn’t even discuss the school safety issue), you probably should be making a note: The current superintendent arrived in controversy, and it hasn’t stopped. A check on relationships inside and outside the organization will say a lot.

For all of the above reasons, this is why, Shirley Brown, you should not remove from Bowden’s contract the clause that allows the board to terminate his employment without cause.

There is evidence he is not a fit. Why preclude the board from making that decision?