Archive for School Board Meetings

Updates and Information on Duke

Posted on November 29th, 2012 by

Updates and Information on Duke

I want to thank all you to who have been involved in supporting our school system’s impact  in regards to the Duke Energy tax assessment crisis and the potential strike on students education in Citrus County.

I welcome you to attend our emergency meeting to show your support on Friday, Nov. 30th, 2012 at 2:00pm at our school board chambers at the District Service Center at  1007 West Main Street, Inverness.

I will be posting updates and information more regularly over the coming days and weeks as we receive information on situation.  I encourage you to check back more often, share this blogs web address with totters concerned and it’d you do not receive my newsletter please follow this link to subscribe http://www.thomastalksoncitrusschools.com/newsletters

 

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School Board Meeting on 10/09/2012

Posted on October 14th, 2012 by

School Board Meeting on 10/09/2012

While it was a lighter agenda for the October 2012 school board meeting it was a time of observing accolades for one of our schools and begin preparing for 2012 Red Ribbon Week

Floral City Elementary School was recognition for being awarded the East Coast Technical Assistance Center (ECTAC) Exceeding Expectations Award is one of the 11 schools out of 1,800 in Florida that received the Exceeding Expectations Award. The East Coast Technical Assistance Center is an educational organization in Florida that provides technical assistance to school districts and schools in Florida, especially those with high poverty rates. ECTAC provides consultative services for school districts in their efforts to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and to provide students with the skills needed for proficiency on challenging state and academic achievement standards as well as state academic assessments. ECTAC used to award Floral City Elementary this honor included a review of leadership, instructional strategies, practices and programs, high expectations of staff and students, use of data and monitoring of student progress, family and community engagement, professional development, school culture and climate, use of technology, and student academic performance.

Partners for a Substance-Free Citrus (PSFC) presented and received approval for the proclamation for Red Ribbon Week on October 22nd-26th, 2012.  PSFC is a non-profit prevention coalition made of concerned community members who have joined together to address underage drug and alcohol use in Citrus County. The group includes parents, teachers, students, school resource officers, members of our business and faith communities, professionals from the Department of Health, other government agencies and private non-profit agencies. We advocate for raising our kids in safe, healthy environments. They work together to protect our kids from drugs and alcohol. Join in celebrating with our schools and our students Red Ribbon Week on October 22nd-26th.

Also during the Public Hearing part of the meeting the Board approved the 2012-2013 Student Progression Plans.  These plans are the policies and steps for the daily education of our students.  They can be found on our district’s web site (www.citrus.k12.fl.us) under the ‘Information’ section at the top of the page.

If you are interested in watching any of the meeting, visit: http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/events/1599371

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State of the District 2012 Part 2

Posted on October 7th, 2012 by

State of the District 2012 Part 2

At the September 25th school board workshop was the State of the District 2012 Part 2 presentation.  The presentation covered overviews on the International Baccalaureate, Gifted, and the Professional Development and State Review

I find these State of the District reports invaluable both as a Board member and also as a parent.  I encourage you to view parts of the meeting on video that are of interest to you. (http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/events/1575816)

IB

Darrick Buettner, coordinator of the Citrus Schools International Baccalaureate program shared that, “IB aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”

The IB curriculum contains six subject groups and a core of three parts. The program requires that students study concurrently: three subjects at higher level (240 hours each), three subjects at standard level (150 hours each) and all three parts of the core.

Currently, Citrus has 287 IB students in grades 9th -12th.  Current statistics show that 97% passed English, 88% passed            Spanish, 70% passed History and 74 % passed Calculus. While this is not a complete breakdown of all of the IB students’ academic successes  it show a strong trend of the programs’ success.

Gifted

Citrus has almost 200 gifted students in elementary schools, almost 300 students in middle schools and just over 400 in high school.

What does it mean to be “gifted”?  Interpretations of the word “gifted” seem limitless, there are a handful of foundational definitions that range from demonstration of a high IQ to those with a broader conception that include multiple criteria that might not be measured through an IQ test.  The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) defines it in part as, “A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression.”  Rule 6A-6.03019, Florida Department of States’s Administrative Code, defines gifted as “one who has superior intellectual development and is capable of high performance.”

The district is currently monitoring the Gifted and Accelerated programs throughout our district so as to be able to better service our students in the future.  Look for more information about this area in the future.

Professional Development State Review

The Professional Development State Review occurs every three years.  It encompasses three levels of review; District, School, and the Educator.  Four reviewers visited during the week of February 6th-9th, 2012.  The State makes the decision as to which schools to review.  They chose and identified; Central Ridge Elementary School, Crystal River Middle School, and Lecanto High School.  There is four ratings for each standard in the evaluation system; from a low of “1” for “Unacceptable”, “2” for “Marginal”, “3” for “Good”, and the highest of “4” for “Excellent”.

In the 30 areas Citrus Schools was evaluated by the state, the absolute highest rating possible is a 4.00.  The state of Florida’s overall Mean Average for exemplary is 3.5. Citrus received a 3.9. 

In addition to the programs I have talked about, additional district programs in Career and Technical, AVID and Virtual Schools Options were presented and reviewed with similar positive data results.  I again encourage you to watch the meeting and fast forward to parts of the meeting and presentations that may interest you the most.

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State of the District 2012 Part 1

Posted on September 2nd, 2012 by

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.

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Recap of School Board Workshop & Board Meeting on 8/14/2012

Posted on August 15th, 2012 by

Recap of School Board Workshop & Board Meeting on 8/14/2012

Election Day and a board meeting on the same day!

I was most excited about this meeting as it is the first inaugural meeting that was LIVE streamed on the web to the public.  You can also visit http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/ to view replays of the meetings as well.

Our meetings began with a workshop to first, review proposed revisions to school board policy, 9.50, “Distribution of Advertising Literature and Materials to Students”.  Following that, through arrangements made by Board Member Ginger Bryant, the board watched a video and then had a discussion on Jamie Vollmer’s book, “Schools Can Not Do It Alone”.  (follow this link to watch some video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKV8vrygcp0)

During the regular board meeting the board approved the 2012-2013 Agreement between The School Board of Citrus County and the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office for School Traffic Control. They also approved the 2012-2013 Agreement between the School Board of Citrus County and the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office for the School Resource Officer Program.

Lastly, Bruce Sheffield, Coordinator of Health, Physical Education & Special Programs, recognized Citrus County School District as recipient of the Sunshine Medallion Award.

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Recap of School Board Special Meeting, Workshop & Public Hearing on 7/24/2012

Posted on July 27th, 2012 by

Recap of School Board Special Meeting, Workshop & Public Hearing on 7/24/2012

Our board meeting for July 24th included a Special Meeting, Budget Workshop & Public Hearing to Adopt the Tentative Millage Rates and the Tentative Budget.

During this meeting Director of Technology, Dr. Mike Geddes, test LIVE streamed the board meeting over the internet. I am really excited about this and I look forward to sharing even more about it soon.

At the board meeting the board approved the Floral City Elementary School Wastewater Treatment Plant Consultant Agreement and two change orders for Crystal River High School Site work, Renovations, Remodeling and Additions.  The board approved the Instructional and Support Recommendations known on the board as “The Golden Rod” (as it is printed on golden colored paper to be easily identified).

At the Public Hearing the board Adopted the Tentative Millage Rates totallying 7.639 mills for the local funding which is almost 10% less than last year’s rate.   The Tentative 2012-2013 Budget total is $229,952,264.00 which is  approximately $30 million less or 11.5% less than last year’s budget.  The state funding for the 2012-2013 budget year has increase approximately $2 million dollars but as a district we have still lost a total of $16 million in State and Federal Funding since 2007.  All total, the State of Florida will fund $42,475,648.00 or 44% while locally Citrus tax payers will fund $54,678,991.00 or 56%.  About ten years ago those percentages would have been reversed and the State of Florida would have paid the largest percentage of the funding. This is frustrating as the State of Florida Legislator and the Florida Department of Education send mandates down to our local communities and then require that those mandates be paid locally.  Since Florida DOE has designated Citrus County as an “A” district now for 7 years in a row (see blog story: Citrus School is an “A” District… Again!!), and since Florida DOE has designated Citrus as a “High Performing School District” for six consecutive years (see blog story: 2012 High Performing School District for 6th Year!), should not the Florida Legislation give counties, like Citrus County, broader local control?

Unfortunately, I want to share that NO member of the public attended any of the meetings.  Neither the Special Meeting which began at 1:00pm, followed by the 2012-2013 Budget and Student Progression Plans for Elementary and Secondary Workshop that started about 3:00pm, and lastly, the Public Hearing to adopt the Tentative Millage Rates and the Tentative Budget which was at 5:30pm.  My hope is that with the beginning of LIVE streaming of the meetings more parents, students and community members will watch the Live streaming to be more informed of the issues and workings of our schools and district.

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