Past and present School Board leaders contend funds should go to school district proposal
Regardless of criticism from public speakers — including a former Sarasota County School Board chair and Tom Edwards, a current member of the School Board — the Sarasota County Commission voted 3-2 on Oct. 23 to approve the principles and terms of an agreement awarding $7.5 million to the Building Industry Institute to create a trades career educational program.
The Institute is nonprofit organization affiliated with the Suncoast Builders Association (SBA), formerly the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association. The CEO of the Suncoast Builders Association is Jon Mast, a former county employee.
Among the four persons who addressed the issue during the Open to the Publiccomment period at the start of the Oct. 23 meeting, which was held in Venice, former School Board Chair Jane Goodwin told the commissioners, “If you were doing the right thing, you would give all of [the $15 million set aside for trades instruction] to Suncoast Technical College, who are ready, willing and able to put shovels in the ground and put together Phase 2 of a wonderful building … in North Port.”
Goodwin stressed that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $201,535,000 to the county in the spring of 2023 to assist with the recovery from Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Lee County but caused significant damage in South Sarasota County in September 2022.
“We have students [at Suncoast Technical College in North Port] that are readily available for training and people who have already done training,” Goodwin added.
Noting that the Suncoast Builders Association tried for years “to get the Florida House from us,” Goodwin continued, “they’ve continued to come up with different scenarios to do their project at the expense of the taxpayer. This is wrong.”
As the School District project summary noted, “STC offers day and evening classes in over 30 technical programs,” with high school students allowed dual enrollment in them.
The funds received through what county staff calls Resilient SRQ would have been used to construct a new building for more career and technical education programs “and renovate the student services area to meet the needs of expanded enrollment,” the School District proposal continued.
The trades education offerings that would have been expanded were carpentry, electrical work, a four-year electrical apprenticeship program, and a three-year HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) apprenticeship program. New programs would have involved HVAC training and welding.
The project summary anticipated that 1,100 students would be served in the first five years at a per-person benefit of $6,818.
The average county staff score for the application was 86.3, the document said.
In contrast, the Building Industry Institute program would be expected to serve 420 students over the first three years, with programs offered in carpentry, electrical work, HVAC, plumbing and construction technology. The per-person benefit would be $31,409.
The average staff score for that proposal was 41.7, the form showed.
A board decision
As Steve Hyatt, a manager in the county’s Office of Financial Management, reminded the board members, on Sept. 10, the commissioners did award $7.5 million to the School Board for the Suncoast Technical College (STC) program in North Port.
“All projects must adhere to HUD national objectives,” he noted, with HUD calling for them primarily to support low- and moderate-income persons.
During the ensuing discussion on Oct. 23, Chair Michael Moran said at one point, “I’m just thrilled to see that HUD money was allowed to do this [trades program]. Steve had a lot of hesitation,” Moran added, that HUD would not approve the commission’s desire to use $15 million for such an initiative.
All of the county awards, Hyatt continued during his opening remarks, have to go through a process of conditional approval, which is based on specific actions. Among them, he said, each organization has to demonstrate its ability to manage the funds to complete the project, mitigate risks of loss of funds or non-compliance, and complete the project in the necessary time frame.
To ensure the county can spend all of its HUD grant by the federal deadline, Hyatt said, the Building Industry Institute will need to secure the rest of the money it needs for its initiative — including the first three years of operation — no later than Feb. 28, 2026, a date the Suncoast Builders Association had proposed. The county will reimburse the nonprofit when it has achieved specific milestones.
Hyatt also noted that the Institute had requested $13 million altogether out of the federal grant funds.
If the commissioners gave staff the go-ahead that day, Hyatt added, staff would draw up the draft agreement specifying the milestones for the Institute to meet.
Commissioner Smith noted that the February 2026 date “seems a little far out.” He asked Hyatt whether the land the Institute plans to purchase with part of the grant funds would become county property if the Institute proves unable to raise the rest of the money it needs for the program.
Hyatt assured Smith that the agreement would call for all of the remaining money to be secured before the county would provide any of the grant funds to the Institute.
Commissioner Joe Neunder voiced concerns about the February 2026 deadline in regard to the possibility that delays could be encountered during construction. “Projects can take time,” Neunder said, “and things come up.”
He also alluded to the commission’s longstanding relationship with the School Board. “They do a great job,” Neunder said, referring to the leaders of the school district. Moreover, he noted, “They’re kind of shovel-ready at the moment.”
He could not support providing funding to the Institute, Neunder added.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger told his colleagues, “I really dove into the whole proposal. … I have not been able to get comfortable with it. For me … too many unknowns.”
Adding, “I’m all for vocational training,” Cutsinger nonetheless stressed that paying about $32,000 per student in the Institute program, compared to the School Board figure, was another factor he disliked.
Questions and observations
At Commissioner Smith’s request, Mast, CEO of Suncoast Builders Association (SBA), came to the podium to respond to questions.
The first question Smith posed was why the SBA wanted the commission to allow it until the end of February 2026 to secure all of the necessary funding.
“We have many opportunities to raise additional funds,” Mast replied, including capital campaigns and the pursuit of grants.
Federal grant opportunities will not be made public until Feb. 1, 2025, Mast pointed out. Then, the money for the grants will not be appropriated until May 2025, and the grants will not be approved until August 2025. “So there’s that.”
“It’s going to take a while,” Mast continued, noting, “[Seven-and-a-half million dollars] is a lot of money to cobble together. And that’s the job we will have to do.” He added, “Hopefully, the county will be happy with the project when it’s done.”
Mast also referenced comments by the speakers that morning that indicated the SBA and its members do not know what they are doing. “We’ve been here since 1988,” he pointed out. Moreover, the SBA will be collaborating with the Home Builder’s Institute (HBI) to manage the program, as stated in the Institute’s application.
The application explains that the SBA will be “leveraging HBI’s expertise in delivering exceptional construction workforce training. HBI will hire all staff immediately related to the operation of the academy, including the operations manager, instructors, recruiters, and career development coordinators. The Building Industry Institute will provide overall direction through its own CEO, CFO and grant writer, and other professional staff. [The Institute] will also manage the property where the academy will be located.”
Additionally, Mast told Smith, “We know what this community needs. We know how to mentor. We know how to teach our construction students, especially now,” in the wake of the damage the county suffered from Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“It’s important to get [students] in the field while they’re doing course work,” Mast said, “so they can be productive employees of our members and non-members alike.”
Chair Moran pointed out, “Some of these massive, massive private organizations,” such as Sherwin Williams, Milwaukee Tool, Lowe’s and Home Depot, “have huge philanthropy arms to push money down for this exact mission — educating young folks to come into the trades.”
Commissioner Neil Rainford said he believes that the Institute program can be implemented in the time frame requested.
The Institute’s building likely will be in use for 40 to 50 years, Rainford continued. “This is kind of an incubator … for future success, as I see it.”
Alluding to Moran’s comments, Rainford said that when relationships are built with national companies, “then [those companies] continue to buy in when they see success year after year and help to fund those programs.”
Rainford ended up making the motion to approve the terms of the $7.5-million agreement with the Institute, and Commissioner Smith seconded it.
“I have a lot of respect for the vocational schools” and Suncoast Technical College, Smith said. “They’re doing tremendous work. But I also see value in the industry itself training their employees. … As we all know, especially when we got our first jobs, it’s all about relationships.”
With the Institute’s program, Smith pointed out, “These young people will have an opportunity to engage with … the folks that are hiring the workforce.”
Moreover, he noted, “The industry has a vested interest in making sure these folks get educated properly and can do the work …”