Citrus Schools is an “A” District Again!

Congratulations to our students and staff for again making Citrus County School District an “A” and High Performing School district. Citrus for 2013-2014 in 1 of only 10 counties in the state of Florida to receive this rating by the Florida Department of Education!

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Recap of Board Workshop & Special Meeting June 24, 2014

While students are enjoying their summers away from school, work continues around the school district. Our teachers are spending a good amount of their time off taking courses and planning for the upcoming school year. Maintenance and custodial staff are in their busiest time of the year doing repair projects, stripping floors, painting, and much more. Construction crews are re-roofing, remodeling, and improving our schools and campuses. Mechanics are working on buses and new bus drivers are in driving school. Principals and district administrators are interviewing new staff, overseeing projects and planning for the coming year. For the school board the summer is always a busy time finalizing the upcoming budget, reviewing the past school year and laying plans for the new school year.

This board meeting included both a workshop and special meeting. During the workshop staff gave presentations on our Health Care Facility, Flood Insurance Policy Review, 2014-15 Student Progression Plans and the 2014-15 school board budget. During the special meeting portion of the meeting the board approved new hiring employees, contracts, leases, and purchases.

The staff presented an option for the Citrus County School Board and the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office to enter into an agreement to partner with our Wellness Center in Lecanto and for the CCSO open a new Wellness Center in Inverness for school board employees and CCSO employees to use. This would provide now two Wellness Center locations in the county for CCSB employees to utilize at no additional cost to the program. After a question and answer session by board members the board unanimously gave direction to staff to move forward. Then the staff shared with the board the concern of potential increasing flood insurance rates that may increase as much as 25% a year for the next four or more years. Next the board was presented with the fully revised Student Progression Plans for elementary, middle and high school. These are the academic policies for student promotion, retention, assessment, grading and more. Once formally approved they will be available on the district’s web site.

The last presentation during the workshop was the 2014-2015 School Board Budget. Assistant Superintendent of School Services Ken Blocker gave the presentation on the over $220 million dollar budget. This budget process began the day after last years’s budget was approved in September 2013. A great deal of work went into this budget as there were many challenges to be addressed. Mr. Blocker enthusiastically shared that this was a balanced budget that largely did not reduce services to students in the classroom and that did not take, but rather added to the funding reserves (savings).

Durning the special board meeting the board approved the hiring of new employees as recommended by the superintendent. Human Services Director Jonny Bishop shared that at this time the school board still has job positions available, 33 instructional and 13 non-instructional positions are currently available. For a list of open positions visit: http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/departments/personnel/jobposting.htm . The board then unanimously formally approved the agreement with the YMCA to provide before and after care for students at our elementary schools. The board unanimously approved the leasing the Renaissance Center building to Silver River. This was the last remaining legal agreement between the school board and Silver River. Lastly, the school board unanimously approved the purchase of the iPads for all 5th and 8th graders in Citrus County. This, as I have shared before, is part of the county’s strategic technology plan which is being driven by the state’s requirement to transition from print to digital curriculum.

As always if you have any questions on any issue please do not hesitate to contact me.

Our next school board regard large meeting is July 8th, 2014 beginning at 4:00pm.

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Frustrated Florida Public School Parent Letter to Gov.

I would encourage you to read this letter to Florida Gov. Scott, FL-DOE Commissioner Pam Stewart as well as a superintendent, and school board members from an understandably frustrated Florida public school parent from Seminole County. Follow this link to letter: http://www.lynnerigby.com/blog/2014/05/why-i-am-pulling-my-kids-from-public-elementary-school-a-letter-to-the-powers-that-be/

This letter reflects what parents, students, educators, school district leaders and board members have been expressing for several years now. While I personally feel for me Citrus public schools is still the best academically educational option for my own children, I can understand why some parents are looking at alternatives for their students. What is doubly frustrating is that the general public does not understand that it is NOT educators such as classroom teachers that are proponents of these high-stakes testing, but rather in Florida it is the State Educational Board, Department of Education and most especially the Florida Legislator that is. Often the very political groups that are now upset, angry and supportive of non-traditional public schools are the very people that were the architects of high stakes testing for public schools. These people will often defend their actions by saying “high-stakes testing is about accountability”. I say, “Hog-wash”! They have always had an agenda with high-stakes testing and it was not about what is best for students.

I am proud that on July 10th, 2012, that I along with the rest of the Citrus County School Board at the time unanimously pass a resolution opposing overemphasis on high-stakes testing. (Follow this link to see resolution: https://thomastalks.org/ccsb-on-high-stakes-testing/)

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