Many things were discussed at the Sarasota County school board meeting on August 16th. Seven school board members were there, including Karen Rose, Tom Edwards, Dr. Brendan Asplen, Jane Goodwin, Michael McKinley, Bridget Ziegler, and Kathy Tomkins. The meeting started with recognition of the boys and girls club of Sarasota and the star leadership training program from Desoto County. Booker High Schools JROTC led the pledge of allegiance and opening performance.  

The student representative was Helen Mosquera, a senior at Booker High school involved in the Aice and law student programs. Helen is also an ambassador of her schools “A college for every student, brilliant pathways program.” This program sponsors career-based clubs that are student led at their school like Careers and International Affairs club and the College Reach Out Program. Helen is also a part of the Girls Empowering Girls Everywhere club and the Sarasota Students for Justice. She hopes to go to college to major in cultural studies and eventually go to law school to become an attorney.  

Following the student representative’s introduction, the board then talked about this month’s new “character strong trait” which is respect. The goal of this “character strong trait” is to emphasize the importance of respect, not just for others but also for ourselves. 

The superintendent’s report focused on the opening of the school year. Dr. Asplen also addressed a video and essay contest for scholarship events about what voting means to you, more information about this is on the Sarasota County school’s website. The surge of 870 more students and over 500 employees is one of the largest seen in past years in Sarasota County. It is also expected that more students will be enrolling in school after Labor Day. Free and reduced lunch applications are also available on the county website. Lastly, Dr. Asplen showed a video of the PLC (professional learning committee) teacher and administrator teaching program that occurred during the summer.  

To conclude the meeting, citizens were allowed to speak to the school board on matters discussed during the meeting.