SARASOTA, Fla. — Some parents and leaders of public school advocacy groups have raised the alarm about a plan by some members of the Sarasota School District to hire a consulting firm, Vermilion Education LLC.
The company's leadership has ties to Hillsdale College, a formerly liberal arts turned conservative Christian college based in Michigan. Critics say some of its leaders are behind the controversial changes at New College of Florida.
"There is an organization or a company called Vermilion. I noticed it's something that has come up a couple of different times," Bridget Ziegler, Sarasota School Board Chair, said as she introduced the idea to the board. Zeigler made that introduction during the March 21 school board workshop meeting ahead of the scheduled public meeting for that evening.
"I became aware of this service, and I wanted to bring it forward and propose it to the board," Ziegler said.
According to Zeigler, Vermilion would be a consultant for the school district on a wide-ranging number of issues or "Board Services" as well as a "District Improvement Study," Two of the contracts are posted on the board's website.
"To help us with certain things when it comes to keeping us away from the fire and keeping us focused on what we had today and not adopting things that are blindsiding people," she explained.
But some parents said they are the ones being blindsided by the introduction of a consultancy group with little to no information, public scrutiny or experience.
The company, according to the website Bizpedia, was only set up in December 2022.
"Children deserve nothing less than the very best education possible. That's why Vermilion Education exists. Believing that every child deserves a world-class education, Vermilion Education was founded to help school boards ensure the best possible education for their students," reads the company's website.
"This was just mentioned very very briefly in the workshop and so I started kind of looking into it. I found it was really difficult actually to even find a website for them," Jessica Thomason, a Sarasota mom of two in elementary school, said.
According to the contract on the district's website, Vermilion would sit in on teacher interviews, and review district policies and procedures. The group would also review and recommend teacher lesson plans, instructional textbooks, and library books among other things...
"I'm going OK, well that seems like a lot but what exactly is it that you're looking for and you know, that's where there's a real lack of transparency," Thomason said.
The registered agent listed for the company is Jordan Adams, who the website said "brings years of experience teaching, training teachers, and writing curricula to bear on each service offered to school boards."
"As soon as you Google him, you find out this is the guy connected with Hillsdale College," Thomason explained.
Adams was a curriculum specialist and one-time associate director of Instructional Resources at Hillsdale College. He was also part of the team that worked on the controversial Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum on civic education.
That connection concerns not only parents like Thomason but also leaders at Sarasota Classified Teachers Association.
"I have a strong feeling that what's happening in New college is what they trying to do to us as well," Barry Dubin, who is part of the Sarasota Classified Teachers Association, said.
Dubin is referring to the recent upheaval at the liberal arts college in Sarasota that was the scene of protests over a shift towards a conservative-leaning curriculum. In January, the school's 13-member Board of Trustees was overhauled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis packed the board with several of his majorly conservative allies. The new board fired the college president and dismantled the office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. They also installed the former state education secretary and former GOP speaker of the state house Richard Corcoran as the interim president of the school.
Dubin sent a letter to the association's members to notify them of the plans brewing at the school board.
"None of us ask for any of this. Teachers don't want to be bothered with politics they just want to teach kids," Dubin said.
Other board members who spoke at the meeting seemed to be in support of bringing the company on board except for Tom Edwards, a Democrat, who has increasingly become the lone voice of dissent on the board.
"Forget what your feelings are about Hillsdale, or otherwise. You can see the dissent that's happening here locally around New College, and to bring this into Sarasota County schools at this time, I think is a huge mistake," Edwards explained.
Edwards said he's not against what the company touts that it does but doesn't think they are the right vessel to carry out such services for Sarasota County Schools or bring unity to the district.
The board will discuss the contract with Vermilion on April 4 and possibly take a vote on it.
While there has been no public presentation from Vermilion, the recommendation on next Tuesday's agenda is for the contract to be approved as presented and be adopted
"I have not met Jordan Adam, so I don't know. I was just teasing this piece that I found very compelling and see the opportunity that this board can fit into, that the district could benefit from, and what I wanted to do is do a first introduction," Ziegler said in her closing remarks at the March 21 meeting.