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Mayor gaining fame as class act

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published November 5, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Mayor Rick Baker bounces among groups, refining the same speech, stopping at every photo opportunity and outstretched hand.

It's a four-hour grind on a recent Friday morning, a typical day for a politician close to an election.

But Baker, the popular mayor of Florida's fourth-largest city, isn't hawking a candidate on this trip. He's preaching the importance of reading to 650 awestruck students at a local elementary school.

"If you can read, you can teach yourself how to do anything," says the 6-foot-7 Baker, soaring over his 4-foot onlookers.

The message is typical for Baker, who has made education a top priority in his five years in office. He has raised more than $10-million for St. Petersburg schools, he says, attracted almost 80 corporate partners to mentor city students and recently promised big bonuses to principals whose schools make strides.

His focus has become a model for municipalities in the state and across the country, proponents say.

It has also fueled speculation that Baker, who attended Florida State University with Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist, may be campaigning for a new job: state education commissioner.

Baker says he's not thinking about the possibility, but came short of ruling it out when asked recently.

"I hear a lot about that," Baker said of the speculation. "I don't bring it up."

A rising star

Baker, 50, is seen as one of the Florida Republican's rising stars, a lawyer with a business background who has been able to unify large voting blocs in St. Petersburg.

He has the ear of Gov. Jeb Bush and most of the business community, and is as comfortable playing guitar at a weekend farmers market as he is brokering a deal in City Hall. He was elected to his second and final term last year with over 70 percent of the vote. His term expires in 2009.

For years, speculation about his future has centered around Rep. C.W. Bill Young's seat in Congress, but people who know him say his style is more executive than legislative.

The state education commissioner oversees public schools from kindergarten through the colleges along with more than 2,000 employees. The commissioner is appointed by the Florida Board of Education, not the governor, and current Commissioner John Winn has said he has no plans to step down.

But a new governor, who appoints the Board of Education, would have sway over the future of the education department.

Local educators, administrators and business leaders believe Baker's personal devotion to improving education, coupled with his successful leadership experience, make him an attractive candidate.

"It's buzzing around," Pinellas County school superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Friday. "But quite frankly, I think Rick Baker would be an outstanding anything right about now."

Becoming a model

In five years, Baker has helped match 80 area corporations with St. Petersburg schools - partnerships that have created hundreds of mentors while providing schools needed institutional support, the mayor says.

The corporate program has become a model for Florida and much of the country, earning praise from both Bush and the National League of Cities. Baker has been asked several times to discuss the city's successes at state and national education workshops.

One company, for instance, donated 200 computers to Northeast High School and helped develop the school's information technology curriculum.

The company, Catalina Marketing, also provides 48 mentors - split between the high school and Riviera Middle School - and has helped fund 84 four-year college scholarships for low income sixth grade students, said Bill Protz, its executive director of community relations. The scholarships are part of Baker's aggressive Doorways program.

Baker has encouraged city employees to become mentors, allowing them an hour during the workweek to meet with students. And the mayor has hired his own education czar, at $85,000 per year.

The city also is exploring a program to provide high school students internships and apprenticeships in city government.

"It's been a wonderful opportunity for us," said Paula Nelson, a first-year principal at Boca Ciega High School. Though Boca Ciega is in Gulfport, the mayor has extended many of the city's programs to the high school since most of its students are from St. Petersburg.

"Not all the kids understand the magnitude of what he's trying to do," said Greg Cardone, the principal of Meadowlawn Middle School for the past 13 years. "He didn't get into this because he was trying to develop a name for himself. He's astute enough to see that the future of St. Petersburg lies in the hands of the kids."

A thankful group

During his pitch for reading at the local school, Blanton Elementary, Baker made it a point to shake the hand of each and every student.

He remembers his school days in Miami, when former U.S. Rep. Dante Fascell did the same thing. "I never forgot that," Baker says. "To me, if the kids get to meet the mayor, they feel like they're more part of the city. They feel better about the city."

He bobbed from room to room, asking them what words they could spell, if they knew who he was, and if they were going to read at home tonight.

After stopping in one room, a third-grader handed him a written note: "I would like to thank you for making St. Pete a beautiful community for us," he wrote. Another dozen notes were waiting for him at the principal's office by the time he had finished his tour.

Times Tallahassee bureau chief Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Aaron Sharockman can be reached at 727 892-2273 or asharockman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 5, 2006, 00:40:14]