Recap of School Board Meeting for Sept. 13^th, 2011

On Tuesday September 13th, 2011 the school board met for our Regular meeting as well as a Public meeting to give final approval of two policies and the 2011-2012 school year budget.

At the meeting Withlacoochee Technical Institute’s “SkillUSA, National Leadership and Skills Competition” winner, Angie J Mooney, was recognized for winning a Bronze Medal at the State competition and a Silver Medal at Nationals, for her Employment Application Process.  SkillsUSA’s mission is to help its members become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.  SkillsUSA serves more than 300,000 students and instructors annually. The organization has 13,000 school chapters in 54 states and territorial associations.

A few future construction and maintenance projects were approved.  They included an architectural agreement for Citrus High School Reproofing and an Engineering Agreement for the Lecanto High School Kitchen Upgrade Project where.  Also, an engineer’s proposal was presented to the Board for evaluation of a feasibility study to be done regarding building a new wastewater plant at Floral City Elementary.  After consideration, this study was approved.

One of the items which generated a great deal of conversation was the School Year Calendar for 2012-2013.  Patrick Simon, Director of Reach and Accountability, presented the process for the adoption of next year’s school year calendar. One of the biggest concerns is changes that have been mandated by the Florida Department of Education regarding testing days (a.k.a. “windows”).  As we understand it, due to lobbying by Florida metropolitan school districts, DOE will not allow testing during the month of December in order to accommodate those metropolitan school districts that offer summer school testing.  January testing very likely means that students will not finish their first semester courses before the December Holiday Break. They will, under the new regulation, have to return to school in January and begin taking End of Course Exams and Final Exams.  Why is this a problem?  Among the many logistical and curriculum planning concerns for all grades, it is our high school “Dual Enrollment” students that will lose out the most.  This will, for the most part, eliminate the availability of taking college courses in high school for many students and all but eliminate any high school student from taking college courses in the second semester.  This change will likely have negative affects on student’s success and cause additional financial stress on families future costs of college and post high school educational expenses.  The reason for this is that many high school students can, under the system we have now, finish one to two (or more) college semesters while in high school, therefore potentially saving tens of thousands of tuition dollars.  At this board meeting I was assigned to the District Calendar Committee as the Board Representative and our first meeting is this Monday, September 19th, 2011.  If you have any concerns which you would like to bring to my attention, please let me know.

Also at the meeting the Board approved the final budget for the 2011-2012 school year of $261.7 million dollars and set the millage rate for 8.054 mills which is a decrease of less than one percent from last year.

We have several important school board meetings and event in the next couple of months.  Below is a light of highlighted events I wanted to make you aware of.

Upcoming Events

• CRP Renovation Celebration/Open House
  • September 27, 2011 at 5:30pm
• Regular School Board Meeting for October 2011
  • October 11^th, 2011 at 4:00pm
• Town Hall/ESE Council Meeting on RtI Process
  • Wednesday, October 12 · 6:30pm – 8:00pm
  • Beverly Hills Community Building
• School Board Workshop for October
  • Board Goal Setting Workshop
  • October 25^th, 2011 at 9:00am
• Regular School Board Meeting for November 2011
  • November 8^th, 2011at 4:00pm
• School Board Workshop for November
  • Technology use by students in the Schools Workshop
  • November 15^th, 2011 at 9:00am
• School Board Organizational Meeting for 2011-2012
  • November 22^nd, 2011at 4:00pm
    • Elect New Chairperson, Hire Attorney and Set Meeting Days & Time
    • Date Required by Florida Statue

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