Sarasota Swears In New School Superintendent Ahead Of Reopening

SARASOTA, FL — Longtime Florida educator Brennan Asplen was sworn in Monday as the new superintendent of Sarasota County Schools following a nationwide search by the Florida School Boards Association that included 31 candidates.

"You've taken the helm in a perfect storm so your background commends you for a great deal of success here," Circuit Court Judge Lee Haworth said in presiding over the swearing-in-ceremony inside the school board chambers. "By the way, we're all smiling under our masks."

Both Asplen and the jurist wore masks during the event, which served as yet another reminder of the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming school year that is set to begin on Aug. 31. Sarasota County reported eight new coronavirus deaths Monday as the total number of cases in the county climbed to 6,256 and the total number of deaths rose to 147.

"It's like nothing we've ever done before. I know that most of my time — probably 100 percent of my time — is going to be working to reopen schools successfully," assured Asplen, who previously served as deputy superintendent in St. John County School District, Florida's top academically rated district.

"We have an issue. We have an obstacle. We're going to have to all come together, and work together very hard to get through it," said Asplen, whose educational career spans 32 years and includes the positions of teacher, coach, dean, assistant principal, principal, associate superintendent and most recently as deputy superintendent for academic and student services.

Asplen, whose base salary is $215,000, replaces former Superintendent Todd Bowden who stepped down over an investigation into his handling of allegations involving inappropriate behavior by the district's former chief operating officer and assistant superintendent, Jeff Maultsby.

Chief financial officer, Mitsi Corcoran served as interim superintendent prior to Asplen's selection.

The new superintendent compared the coronavirus outbreak to other challenges faced in the past, including the Great Recession of 2008 and the Parkland school massacre on Valentine's Day 2018.

"Back in 2008, we had a recession. We had funding issues. We had to come together and create plans to work through that," Asplen said. "We had the Parkland incident down in Broward County, and what did we do? We all worked together. We came up with a plan. It made our schools even more safe than they already were. We worked through that."

Vice Chair Beverly Slough of the St. Johns County School Board sent a letter of support for Asplen in which she described him as a humble person of exceptional character who is more interested in the success of others than in garnering accolades for himself.

"Dr. Asplen is a creative problem solver as demonstrated by his solution to the conundrum of pay for performance," she said. "He devised a formula that met both the letter and spirit of the law and was embraced by our teachers union. Several other counties have adopted his formula to address their own needs."

Asplen said he plans to hold community conversations in different areas of the county to discuss successes and challenges.

He said the district's reopening plan was developed with input from district employees as well as community members, doctors and health officials.

"We have face to face. We have remote learning. We have concurrent learning and we have our virtual school," he said of the reopening plan. "They've been working day and night on that."

The superintendent said 2,500 teachers have been attending Zoom meetings and professional development activities to prepare for the school year.

"There are going to be issues that pop up, and we all as a community — everybody working together — we need to work through those issues in a positive manner.so we can get through this, and start out school very, very successfully," Asplen said.

"There's going to be fear. There's going to be uncertainty. I know that. There's going to be issues like I said, but I'm asking everyone for your compassion, and your understanding as we work through this in a collaborative spirit, that we work through it together," he added.