The fact Sarasota County maintained an A grade in state assessments this year could deliver substantial impact on rhetoric around the 2022 School Board races.

The Department of Education lists the state as the fifth best in Florida, not its highest position ever but the district will in fact keep a streak of As dating back to the launch of district grades. This comes as a time when a particularly angry slice of the public routinely levels criticisms at School Board meetings, and as Gov. Ron DeSantis aims to make school reform a major issue on the trail. He has openly called for voters to throw out School Board members who disagree with his policies, and the local district went through quite a tussle with the Governor over masks last year. One wonders how much this all plays in elections this August.

Issues like charter schools, support of vouchers, parent involvement and teachers’ union priorities will continue to pepper debates and media coverage, as has happened in the past.

I maintain there’s a single factor that more often than not determines the outcome of School Board races. That’s whether parents are happy or not with the education students receive at schools. A listen to board meetings might suggest there’s great discontent over everything from what libraries carry on shelves to what bathroom students use. But the school grades, produced by DeSantis’ administration, show students continue to perform well compared to peers in the state.

How will this translate politically? Locally there’s a curious dynamic. The only incumbent School Board member on the ballot, Bridget Ziegler, remains a close ally of the Governor and recently secured his endorsement for her re-election. A leading conservative figure, she’s effectively run as a ticket with two other School Board members — Tim Enos and Robyn Marinelli. But both of those candidates are facing non-incumbents for open seats.

As increasingly has become the norm, there are effectively Democratic and GOP slates running for all the seats on the board this year. Dawnyelle Singleton has challenged Ziegler for the District 1 seat, Lauren Kurnov faces Marinelli for District 4 and Nora Cietek battled Enos for the District 5 spot.

My hypothesis has always been if parents are content with school performance — and an A grade suggests they should be —  they will retain incumbents. I thought that was well demonstrated four years ago when Ziegler was retained but so were board nemeses Shirley Brown and Jane Goodwin. Eric Robinson’s ouster seemed to defy the rule, a break I attribute to bitterness between the incumbent and then-superintendent Todd Bowden that ultimatlely left both unemployed.

This year? Despite DeSantis’ unhappiness with Sarasota school and the fact Ziegler often casts dissenting votes on the Democrat-majority board, she may benefit yet, having the support both of angry conservatives and of parents who only cared that the district kept its A.

What of the other races? I’m curious. I don’t know that those apolitical parents will care so much about who DeSantis or Ziegler supports for the other seats. Democrats have no incumbent who can lay claim to the district’s successes either, though Brown and Goodwin surely want the Democrat candidates as their successors.

Of note, all three races will be determined in August. DeSantis faces only token opposition in a GOP primary, and will be most focused on marshalling voters for his re-election in November. This means a true test comes Aug. 23 on who cares who runs the Sarasota schools— and whether the board will be selected by angry activists or satisfied parents.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA. 

For the second month in a row, the inventory of active listings in the two-county area increased year-over-year in May 2022. According to data from Florida Realtors and compiled by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, the residential market also reports the highest-recorded prices for all property types in both counties, along with fewer closed sales and an increase in new listings.
The combined sales across the two counties and for both property types decreased year-over-year by 4.6% to 2,466 sales in May but increased by 7.9% from the previous month.

Single-family sales decreased from last year in Manatee County by 7.3% to 685 sales, while Sarasota single-family sales decreased by 7.6% to 910 sales. In the condo market, closed sales are increased by 6.3% to 339 sales in Manatee and are down by 1.7% to 532 sales in Sarasota.

“With everyone talking about rising interest rates and inflationary pressures, the number of sales begins to decrease and the number of properties actively on the market starts to increase. Some of this is cyclical based on the time of year since we are in our summer slowdown, but certainly higher interest rates and inflation are beginning to impact our market,” said 2022 RASM President Tony Veldkamp, a Senior Advisor at SVN Commercial Advisory Group. “Prices, both average and median, remain very strong and are still increasing, while we continue to see the time from listing to contract measured in days, not weeks. Our active inventory of single-family homes has finally exceeded one month of supply in both counties, but we deem a healthy balanced market as a six-month supply.”

At the end of the month, there were 2,556 active listings combined in both counties for both markets, a 58.5% increase from May of last year. Compared to last month, active inventory increased by 29.8% with 587 more listings reported at the end of May than at the end of April.

Prices continue to rise in May, with the highest median prices reported for both property types in both counties. Single-family home prices in Sarasota increased by 21.6% to $495,000, while the median price in Manatee increased year-over-year by 37.5% to $550,000. For condos, the median price in Sarasota increased by 29% from last year to $403,000, and Manatee prices increased by 51.9% to $369,900.

“If the time is right for someone to purchase a home, they should not let interest rates deter them if they can afford the increase in payments. Homes can be permanent, whereas interest rates are temporary. You may live in the home for the next 20 to 30 years or more, but you can refinance that loan in two years, five years, or ten years; whenever interest rates become more favorable,” added Veldkamp.

Unsold inventory for single-family homes is now at a 1.2-month supply, a 100% increase in Manatee County and a 71.4% increase in Sarasota County. As for the condo market, the months supply of inventory is at one month, a 66.7% increase for Manatee County and a 42.9% increase for Sarasota County.

The number of properties added to the market last month increased year-over-year by 17.2% for single-family homes and increased by 12% for condos. New listings also increased from last month with a combined month-over-month increase of 3.7% in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA.

The median time it took for properties to go under contract was 6 days in May in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA, which showed no change for single-family homes and a decrease of 33.3% for condos.

Monthly reports are provided by Florida Realtors with data compiled from Stellar MLS. Visit www.MyRASM.com/statistics.