The conservative majority also brings back Bridget Ziegler as chair.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: November 19, 2025
Host: The Sarasota School Board has a new chair, who also happens to have been their former chair: Bridget Ziegler. But the main issue prompting public comment at a packed Tuesday meeting was school board meeting times. Johannes Werner reports.
Johannes Werner: Until the start of this school year, the school board held two monthly evening meetings. That changed this summer, when the conservative majority on the board temporarily switched to once-a-month meetings at 10 a.m. And at the meeting yesterday, the five-member board was going to decide whether to carry over that new pattern into 2026.
That has prompted pushback by activists, arguing students, teachers, and most working parents will be excluded. SEE Alliance is a youth-driven advocacy organization, and their main issue at this month’s board meeting was to make sure the district returns to evening board meetings. Founder Zander Moricz was working the crowd lining up at the entrance of the school district auditorium at The Landings in Sarasota. Given the loud support he got, most of those in line seemed to agree with him.
Moricz, working the crowd. Photo: Werner
Zander Moricz: Less meetings, less accountability and less communication than ever. Can I get a “boo”?
Crowd: Boo!
ZM: This time last year, we had two monthly meetings, both at 6 p.m. They are proposing that, next year, we have one meeting a month, only at 10 a.m. Can I get a “boo”?
Crowd: Boo!
ZM: Can I get a “boo”?
Crowd: Boo!
JW: Avery Cole is a junior at Booker High. He skipped science class Tuesday morning to be at the board meeting—with the approval of his parents. He took a risk to make sure his voice will be heard in 2026.
Avery Cole: Truly, it’s our education. They’re making so many changes and so many plans for our education, and we really want to be involved in those discussions, because a lot of the time, we don’t really agree with all the decisions they’re making. We want to make our voices heard because, at the end of the day, it is our education.
JW: In practical terms, where are you on Tuesday mornings at 10?
AC: In practical terms, I would be actually in either my science class or in my math class learning.
JW: So what happens if you’re here now instead of science class?
AC: If I’m not there, I’m not getting valuable material for my tests at the end of the year. I’m not learning. I mean, I do learn all the time, but I’m not learning the curriculum that is assigned for me.
JW: Could there be disciplinary consequences?
AC: That I do not know, actually.
People lining up to get into a packed school board meeting Tuesday morning. Photo: Werner
JW: Board member Liz Barker made a last-pitch attempt with a compromise, switching every other session to mornings. Barker argued parents she talked to had the perception school board members do not care about working people.
Her effort was to no avail. With Tom Edwards, the board’s other liberal-leaning member, absent, nobody seconded Barker’s motion. The vote was 3-1 to keep the morning meetings.
Board member Robyn Marinelli responded to the criticism by saying that the monthly board meetings are not collaborative anyway. To be heard, students, teachers and parents should attend town hall meetings with Superintendent Terry Connor and contact school board members directly. While at it, Marinelli butted heads with audience members who loudly disagreed.
Robyn Marinelli: The one thing I noticed in a lot of these comments was that it was a collaboration. These business meetings are a one-way conversation, so we cannot even address you back with anything. This is a business meeting. With that being said, with us having Coffee with Connor or the evening town hall meetings, that is a time for everybody to come. It’s at 6:00. Having a board business meeting at 10 really is not a collaboration. It’s a one-way conversation. It is—excuse me!
You know, I’ve got to say this: You say you want to work with us, but any time any of us say something that you don’t like, you make comments—you make noises—and that’s on you. If you want to have collaboration, then I think you should show a little bit respect, because you say you want to have respect, you earn it. I can tell you, with all the comments that you make, that does not make me want to feel very collaborative with you. This is a one-way, so if you want to come and talk to us and really talk to us, come to the town hall meetings that will be scheduled. If they’re once a month, they’re once a month—or every other. So that is your compromise. Because if you want true collaboration, the last time I looked it up, that’s a two-way conversation, not one. Thank you.
Marinelli
JW: Before that, it was gavel-passing time. In a five-minute procedure, the DeSantis-endorsed majority—Karen Rose, Robyn Marinelli and Bridget Ziegler—voted Ziegler back into the chair position. She was nominated by Karen Rose, who was recently reappointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, after losing her election to Liz Barker. To the sarcastic laughs of some in the audience and the applause of others—and with no other nominations—the former chair was handed the gavel again.
Karen Rose: Thank you, Superintendent Connor. I would like to nominate Mrs. Bridget Ziegler for chair.
[Laughter]
Terry Connor: I have one nomination for Mrs. Ziegler. Any other nominations for chair?
Since we have one nomination, I will declare Mrs. Ziegler elected as chair by acclamation. Congratulations.
[Applause]
JW: After news broke last year that the Moms for Liberty founder and anti-LGBTQ crusader had sex with a woman, activists pressed for her resignation. Early this year, a Republican—seemingly backed by the local party—filed to run for her seat in 2026. Ziegler has yet to say whether she will run again.
Back in the chair.
Meanwhile, the trio also made sure Tom Edwards—one of the longest-serving members on the board—did not get a chance to be elected vice chair. Liz Barker had nominated him. Edwards was absent after the vote for the remainder of the meeting.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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