The Collier County Public School Board will interview four candidates for the newly-created school board attorney position at a special board meeting at 9 a.m. Monday.
After the candidate interviews the board may select and recommend one of the candidates for the position, listed on the Jan. 23 agenda as a $180,000 position, or decide to seek additional input and/or candidates.
The candidates are James Molenaar, Kevin Pendley, Michael Fasano, and Cassius Borel.
The meeting will be the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Administrative Center, 5775 Osceola Trail, Naples. The agenda for Monday’s meeting is here. It will be open to the public and live-streamed on the district’s website, here. It will also be available after the fact via video recording, here.
- Cassius Borel: lead litigation counsel for Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance since February 2020 and manages the firm’s Fort Myers office. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama in 1999 and a Juris Doctor from Nova Southeastern University in 2003. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2004
- Michael Fasano: An associate with Kirwan, Spellacy, Danner, Watkins, Brownstein & Robb, a Fort Lauderdale law firm that specializes in insurance defense litigation, since April 2022. Previously as General Counsel with MacFarlane Barney Development in Fort Myers. Fasano earned a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University in 1996 and a JD from Florida Coastal School of Law in 1999 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2000.
- James Molenaar: Self-employed since Dec. 2022. Previously, he was Assistant County Attorney III with the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners and was formerly senior legal counsel for the Collier County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller. He joined the Clerk’s office in 2014 as manager of the internal audit department and was promoted to the legal position by Clerk Crystal Kinzel in 2018. Molenaar earned a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 1991 and a JD from Michigan State University College of Law in 1995. He also earned a Master of Law in Information Technology and Privacy Law from the John Marshall Law School at the University of Illinois in 2002, and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Florida in 2010.
- Kevin Pendley, of Ormond Beach, Fl.: General counsel for the Volusia County, FL, School Board in DeLand, FL, since July 2020. Pendley earned a Bachelor’s degree from Emory University in 1987 and a JD from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1990. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2007. He also holds certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and is the only candidate to hold this certification, which is specifically asked about on the application for the position. In addition, Pendley has a board certification in Education Law (2016) and serves on the Florida Bar Education Law Certification Committee.
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