State of the District 2012 Part 1

Each year the Superintendent and her staff, at the request of the School Board,  present the State of the District reports during workshops.  There is a vast amount of information and data which requires these presentations to take place over two separate workshop meetings.

I encourage you,  if you’re interested, to watch some of the video footage of this meeting and see these details.  Due to the new video service that the board is providing you can watch this meeting by following this link: http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/events/1135043

During  the presentation we were again informed how Citrus is now ranked 12th out of 68 districts. (67 counties and Florida Virtual School make up the 68 districts.) Of the 12 top districts Citrus has the largest percentage of Title 1  students (a.k.a. Free and Reduced Lunch Students) with the highest  ratio of students, based on student population.  Citrus also  boasts 93% of its school were graded by the state as “A” schools.  Citrus again was award by the Florida Department of Education (DOE) the prestigious designation of an “Academically High Performing District”.  Citrus was one of only five districts that were awarded “High Performing” for 6 years in a row. Achieving this designation this past year was even more rigorous due to Florida DOE’s revision in increased testing standards. Being designated “High Performing” means that Citrus earned the right to waive provisions in Florida  Education Laws.  For example,  Citrus opts out of going back to school later  in the calendar school year so that our students have additional school time before taking high stakes test like the Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).  It should also be noted that Citrus’s ranking of 12th in the state is up from 20th in 2006.

Additionally,  in 2012,   Citrus earned much more to brag about.  Citrus graduated the first of International Baccalaureate (IB)  Students. In the program 52% of those graduated earned the highly respected IB Diploma designation.  This percentage of 52% is considered exceptional for a first year as that percentage is what is considered exceptional for a well-established IB program.  Further, Citrus is top ranked with SAT, ACT and AP results.

I want to thank our dedicated staff and amazing and hardworking students for these successes.  I will tell you that being in education these days can be like serving during a terrible military conflict.  Public education in our country and state is under attack everyday and those in education are demonized every day for serving our students and our future and I find that unacceptable.  No matter what is thrown at these educators they put their heart, soul and life, at often great personal sacrifice for the betterment of our students and future.

Comments Off on State of the District 2012 Part 1
Filed under: School Board Meetings