School Board has workshop on Mental Health

At last Tuesday, January 26th, 2016 school board workshop, our board received a detailed update on how our schools monitor, evacuate, and address mental health with our students and staff.  This was an important workshop for our board and community to have happen and I am grateful that School Board Chairman Linda Powers arranged it. I shared with the Chronicle, “I thought it was one of the most productive and collaborative workshops”.

Further I shared how excited I am about our school board “I felt excited to be part of that team. The four of us are really learning to work together. … The community needs to know we are asking questions.”

Read the entire report of the workshop by Andrew Caplan by following this link: http://goo.gl/NJ4bSo 

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Citrus Schools state of the District Part III

This past week’s school board workshop was the last of a three part series report on the Citrus Schools state of the District.  During these presentations staff gave updates and reports on Clinic Procedures, professional development, the district Wellness Center, SRO curriculum and some student safety statistics.

Last year due to new legal opinions the school district found it necessary to no longer carry Epinephrine pens (a.k.a. EpiPen) that did not have a specific prescription for a specific student.  In the past the school health clinic would keep on hand EpiPens in case a student or staff member had an unexpected allergic reaction. EpiPens can be an important lifesaving tool to have.  The school board, preferred to have them in the clinic and we were disappointed when we could not.  This past legislative session Senate Bill 284 was passed and signed into law permitting schools to have on hand EpiPens. Citrus School’s Student Services department worked out an arrangement with our Wellness Care Program here and their physician to have the new necessary paperwork on hand at each school.  Student Services also obtained a grant through the “EpiPen 4 Schools” program to pay for the pens.  Now our schools have all of these important tools on our school campuses and in our clinics should they be needed for our students and staff.

Director of Professional Development, Belinda Woythaler, shared information with us about the Professional Development Department Mission.  The mission of the Professional Development Department is to foster academic and social growth of all students through promotion, support, and communication of continuous improvement strategies and the facilitation of high-quality professional development for all staff.  Ms. Woythaler explained that High Quality Professional Development includes a focus on content that Develops pedagogical knowledge and skill.  Those skills then align with standards, curriculum, and assessments. Teachers become active learners through participation and applying the context of teacher practice with participatory and collaborative skills.

The Citrus County Sherriff’s Office and the Citrus County School District have an important working arrangement for student safety through the use of School Resource Officers (SRO) at our schools. This is done through the critical curriculum they teach and the safety they provide at our schools. The SRO supervisors Sgt. Ron Frink and Sgt. Scott Farmer gave a presentation explaining the SRO program and curriculum.   An SRO is a law enforcement officer who is assigned to elementary, middle, and/or high school.  The main goal of the SRO is to prevent juvenile delinquency by promoting positive relations between youth and law enforcement. The SROs programs include the FOCUS, Junior FOCUS, Child Lures, Explorer Program, Teen Driver Challenge and more.  These officers are one of the first lines of defense in protecting and helping our students.

Student Services director, Regina Allegretta, shared some positive information about the Citrus County School Board’s bullying policies and procedures, as well as some encouraging district statics. Ms. Allegretta shared that the Florida Department of Education: Office of Safe Schools (OSS) recently performed an audit on Citrus’s bullying policies and procedures.  Following that we were notified that CCSB was in full compliance of all mandatory items.  The Office of Safe Schools complementary letter of commendation CCSB by saying, “…you on your extensive outreach, trainings, promotions, etc. to parents, teachers, students (Compliance Item #6). You compiled quite a comprehensive list of bullying-related activities and trainings going on at the district. This should be shared with other districts.”  Afterwards Ms. Allegretta updated the board on the district’s bullying policies reporting process and reviewed the annual ‘Reported Incidents’ for Citrus schools which is sent to the state. While any number of inappropriate behaviors by one students towards another is one too many it is encouraging to learn that of the approximately 15,600 plus students in 23 schools in Citrus School Districts that this year (2013-2014) to date, 4-Substantiated and 8-Unsubstantiated bullying cases have been reported in all Citrus schools. During the 2012-2013 school year, 12-Substantiated and 8-Unsubstantiated, and in 2011-2012 school year, 8-Substantiated and 0-Unsubstantiated bullying cases have been reported in all Citrus schools. For additional information on the district’s bullying policies can be reviewed CCSB Student Code of Conduct, and the CCSB policy 5.321: Bullying and Harassment.

I always encourage the State of the District workshops as it gives board members and better opportunity to learn about the detailed working of our districts and its programs.

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Recap of School Board Workshop and Special Meeting for July 30^th

“Approved five to zero”

It has been over six months since School Board Chairperson Ginger Bryant was able to say the words, “approved five to zero”, at a Citrus County School meeting but at this meeting she was able to once again when Sandy Balfour was sworn in.  Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed Sandy Balfour as an interim board replacement as that is his responsibility when an elected official resigns office as was the case in January when the school board member from district 4 resigned.  Ms. Balfour was sworn in at the beginning of the board meeting.  Ms. Balfour is not new to Citrus County as she has been a teacher in the district for many years and most recently has been the language arts teacher for the Public Charter School, The Academy of Environmental Sciences.

The other major agenda item during the meeting was the board’s unanimous adoption of the Tentative Millage Rates, the Tentative Facilities Work Plan and the Tentative General and Capital Budget for the 2013-2014 Budget Year.  During the meeting two members of the public attended and one of them asked questions regarding the amount of the millage rate and what can be done to reduce the millage rate.   Kenny Blocker, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, explained several important items regarding the budget to better answer the person’s questions. Mr. Block explained that other than 1.5 mills for capital improvements and upkeep of the buildings the remaining millage rate is set by the State Legislator, not the local school board.  Board Member Ms. Deutschman went on to explain that Florida has an education equalization funding law which provides the same amount per student to all districts.  The purpose is so that students in districts like Citrus that have a lower taxable property value get the same amount per student as students in high property value districts like Palm Beach County.  In addition Mr. Blocker explained that this year’s budget reflects an overall decrease of approximately $13.8 million less (or 5.9%) from the approved budget of 2012-2013.

The board approved salary steps for all employees for the coming 2013-2014 budget year.  I am pleased that the board did this but it should also be noted that this is a contractual requirement and must provide annual steps, unless the school board declares a fiscal emergency and meets the requirements of said fiscal emergency as defined in state statute.

The board also approved an agreement between the College of Central Florida and the Citrus County School Board for providing Dual Enrollment options for Citrus County students.

The board reviewed some policies that needed to be revised and lastly the board gave direction to staff that with the recent changes in State Law the board would like a revised policy to permit the safe use of Epinephrine Auto Injectors (commonly known as “EpiPens”) for students.  Last year, due to a new State Health Department’s interpretation of the use of EpiPens by schools, schools would not be allowed to use an EpiPens on a student unless student already had  a prescription could have; students could also administer it to themselves. These critical life- saving devices have saved many students’ and adults’ lives in Florida schools and the State Legislators listened and revised the law to allow schools to have them in their health clinics.

Click here to watch the videos from this meeting…

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