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Edwards, Wood and Babicz face off in District 2

Edwards, Wood and Babicz face off in District 2

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Vaseline

In the most hotly contested school board seat up for election in Sarasota in August, three candidates with widely varying backgrounds and experiences are vying to represent District 3 on the Sarasota School Board.

Tom Edwards, the current board member, is running against Greg Wood, a father of three and former nonprofit executive director, and Thomas Babicz, a retired IT professional who emigrated to New Jersey from Poland to escape communism.

If Wood or Babicz win, the ideological makeup of the board could shift to a 5-0 conservative majority. Such a shift would be a contrast to the 3-2 liberal majority of a few years ago under Jane Goodwin, Shirley Brown and Edwards.

Since there are three candidates, one must get 50% plus one vote to secure the seat. If all candidates fail to get 50% plus one vote, the top two will go to a second round in November.

The Herald-Tribune interviewed each candidate to discuss their background, goals and visions for the Sarasota School District. Here’s what each candidate had to say.

Tom Edwards

Campaign contributions: $167,765.50 Campaign Expenditures: $75,586.07 (All data as of July 10.)

Edwards, 66, is the incumbent member of the Sarasota School Board for District 3. He was first elected in 2020 in a neck-and-neck race against then-incumbent Eric Robinson. He is the only registered Democrat on the board and describes himself as a moderate.

In a new four-year term, Edwards wants to protect public education and create a safe, high-performing academic environment for all students. He wants to continue improving third-grade reading scores, with the goal of literacy for all. He also wants to continue improving an already robust career and technical education program in Sarasota schools to ensure students have a plan for after high school: enrolled, enlisted or employed.

Edwards cited school principal Terry Connor, whom he and school board president Karen Rose supported during the selection process, as an example of what the school board can achieve when it focuses on students, not politics.

However, Edwards says the Sarasota School Board has now become too political, something he’s heard from both ideological sides, and that the political distraction is taking attention away from the students.

He points to his school board member Bridget Ziegler and her continued service on the board after a sex scandal that came to light through a rape investigation into her husband, former Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler, as the source of the political noise at board meetings — not him.

Prosecutors never charged Christian, and Bridget was not accused of wrongdoing.

Details of Ziegler’s involvement with another woman raised questions, as she has championed legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill called “Don’t Say Gay” that bans the teaching of sexual orientation in grades K-12.

“That’s where the public’s frustration is,” Edwards said. “They (the board majority) are all political, and it’s a reflection of the politics and policies that the governor put forth in Tallahassee.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has named Edwards as a school board member he would like to see lose his re-election bid — something Edwards wears as a badge of honor. In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, he said the governor often used bullying tactics and influenced his endorsed board members — the majority of the Sarasota School Board — to bully him.

“I don’t think that’s the behavior that we want our children and our students to model and learn,” Edwards said. “The community doesn’t like that either and will correct it at the ballot box.”

Edwards said he sees the four conservative board members as “coordinated,” echoing a board member in Ziegler who he believes should not be in power. Echoing Ziegler, Edwards said the board’s majority makes the situation more divisive and political — particularly Board Chair Rose, who is also seeking re-election.

Edwards has raised more than $167,000 in campaign contributions, largely through citizen donations, more than ten times as much as either of his two opponents.

“I am very proud that my four years of work has resulted in the financial support that the community has given,” he said.

Greg Hout

Campaign contributions: $15,096.90 Campaign Expenditures: $10,552.06 (All data as of July 10.)

Greg Wood, a 44-year-old father of three, former competitive rowing instructor and nonprofit executive, is running against incumbent Tom Edwards for the District 3 School Board seat.

Wood moved to Sarasota from Houston in 2019, planning to enroll his children in Sarasota Public Schools. After seeing how the district was handling the COVID-19 pandemic, he began to pay more attention to the school board.

His decision reflects his stance on Florida’s HB1 and private school vouchers. He said he strongly supports school choice, but wants to make public schools the obvious choice for parents.

“I think it’s important that we do what’s right for the kids, and not necessarily what’s right for an agenda,” Wood said in an interview with the Herald-Tribune.

He initially ran for the School Board in 2022 for the seat now held by Tim Enos in District 5, but withdrew from the race due to a family illness. Since the 2022 election, the board has redrawn the district boundaries to more closely align them with the County Commission map — a move that has confused many, given that the board had just been redrawn following the 2020 census. Under the new lines, Wood was drawn into District 3, allowing him to run again in 2024, something his opponent Edwards has publicly criticized.

“I had nothing to do with the redrawing of the constituencies. In fact, I didn’t even pay attention to it,” Wood said, adding that he laughed when he heard Edwards claim that the boundaries had been deliberately redrawn.

Wood, a self-described lifelong conservative, said he has supported several actions by the current board majority, including votes to reject federal Title IX protections against discrimination based on gender identity, which he said set the board a leader for other districts in its decisions to address federal overreach. The Biden administration’s changes to Title IX to add protections against discrimination based on gender identity have led to challenges in court, questioning its ability to be enforced.

As other school board candidates have emphasized, Wood wants to see even more improvement in the district’s third-grade reading scores.

“We’re still failing about 30 percent of kids in reading in third grade, right? That’s not good,” he said. “I’m all for trying whatever methods we need to do to get positive results.”

Wood said he wants to review the district’s spending on its programs over a four-year term and see where money could be spent more wisely. He also emphasized improving the district’s parental involvement in its Exceptional Student Education program, adding that there needs to be more transparency and trust built between parents, teachers and the district.

Several candidates have raised issues of politics with the school board. Wood said he wants “no part” of drama during school board meetings, and pointed to Edwards’ comments during board meetings as a distraction from educating children.

“How does this advance education? You’re campaigning at a school board meeting. That’s not okay,” he said.

Thomas Babicz

Campaign contributions: $14,599.46 Campaign Expenditures: $11,011.34 (All data as of July 10.)

Thomas Babicz, a retired IT professional and school board candidate who lives in Venice, crashed his bike earlier this summer. Babicz was taken to the emergency room by ambulance, but he refused pain medication, he said.

“I was campaigning on the way to the emergency room in the ambulance,” he said. “And I still have three votes from the ambulance.”

Babicz grew up in Poland, fled communism and emigrated to New Jersey, where he worked in IT for 35 years. During his time in New Jersey, he said he prided himself on making his work more efficient and cost-effective.

Despite a lack of teaching experience, a commitment to financial responsibility and common sense solutions from his previous work is what Babicz said he would bring to a role on the school board. He said he is the “only candidate who openly fights against pornography, social-emotional learning (SEL), woke and divisive critical race theory.”

Many teachers in the district see SEL as essential to developing the skills elementary-age students need to be active in the classroom and socially, especially after COVID-19 impacted in-person interactions during crucial school years.

Critical race theory is a university-level academic framework that posits that racism is more than prejudice, but is systemic in American law and institutions. Florida’s Stop WOKE Act banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, despite it not being in the curriculum.

Babicz positioned himself as a candidate against everything incumbent Tom Edwards stands for. He pointed to Edwards’ “no” vote on Bridget Ziegler’s resolution to reject gender identity discrimination protections under Title IX, and said that because of that vote, Edwards supports men using women’s restrooms — something Edwards denies.

“They also support placing sexually explicit books that promote gender identity expression of non-heterosexual attraction in our schools. Why?” Babicz said. “Again, school is not the place for this.”

He said he’s concerned about the district’s third-grade reading scores, which have been trending downward but are trending upward again after COVID-19. He said the district needs to focus on phonics-based reading instruction — something several other candidates support — and he supports the district’s current literacy plan.

“If we can raise the level of education, we’re helping everybody,” Babicz said. “There’s nothing worse that can happen if we let someone graduate without being able to read.”

Follow Herald-Tribune education reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. You can reach him at [email protected].

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