Citrus is High Performing School District for 2014

Posted on May 23rd, 2014 by Thomas Kennedy

Citrus is High Performing School District for 2014

Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart gives special congratulations to teachers and students in Citrus

It is with great excitement that I share that the Florida School Board of Education that the Citrus County School District has been designated as one of only eleven districts in Florida as an Academically High Performing District for 2014.

In addition Citrus County scores improved so much in Grade 8 writing (by 4% points) and Grade 3 reading (by 1%) that Florida Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart issued a special press release congratulating teachers and students in Citrus County for notable gains on FCAT 2.0 Writing and Third Grade Reading and Mathematics. (Click here to read the press release)

There are even more detailed successes for Citrus County but these were a couple I wanted to share with you as soon as possible.

To be an Academically High Performing District, a district must maintain (but is not limited to) the following:

The district earns a grade of “A” for 2 of the last three years
Has no district-operated school that earns a grade of “F”
Complies with class-size requirements
Has no material weaknesses or instance of material noncompliance noted in the annual financial audit conducted

I am so proud of the great work by our students, teachers, staff, administrators, district staff, executive team, volunteers, parents, family members and community members that each contributed greatly to this success. GREAT WORK!!

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WE DID IT, 987 PETITIONS!!

Posted on May 19th, 2014 by Thomas Kennedy

WE DID IT, 987 PETITIONS!!

While I spent more time getting the petitions collected then in 2010 in the end we had about twice as many volunteers then in 2010. WOW YOU ALL ARE AWESOME! We even had many signed petitions to spare.

Thank you to everyone who collected signatures, signed petitions cards and were supportive and encouraging.

I feel so blessed to serve Citrus County students and schools.

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Chronicle Editorial Board’s Column in support of CTE/WTI

Posted on May 13th, 2014 by Thomas Kennedy

Chronicle Editorial Board’s Column in support of CTE/WTI

Thank you to the Chronicle Editorial Board’s Column in Tuesday, May 13th, 2014 in support of CTE. I so appreciate the Chronicle for their support of CTE and for kindly including me in their article. The blog post the Chronicle is referring to that I wrote was, “National Technical Honor Society at WTI” (April 15, 2014) which you can read in it’s entirely by following this link https://thomastalks.org/?p=5970.

Below is an excerpt and link to the Chronicle’s Editorial article.

WTI students — they’ve got skills

THE ISSUE: WTI students shine in statewide competition.

OUR OPINION: Technical education a great road for the future.

In a time when jobs are tough to find, doesn’t it make sense to think about an education/training program with a very high placement rate? That’s what about 550 students a year have been doing right here in Citrus County.

Withlacoochee Technical Institute offers 21 Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. A state rule requires WTI to track and meet standards for course completion rates, placement rates and licensure rates. The school far exceeds standards in all categories.

For job-seekers, it’s the placement rate that matters — that is, what percentage of students completing the programs get jobs in a related field? At WTI, the most recent report shows that 10 programs have 100 percent placement rates. Of the other programs, the lowest placement rate is 75 percent, and most are in the 80s and 90s. We call those pretty good odds.

Full Story >>

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You Are Reading Me, Thank You!

Posted on May 12th, 2014 by Thomas Kennedy

You Are Reading Me, Thank You!

Today while attending a school event I had a parent lean over and give me the best compliment, “I love your blogging and sharing about the school system. It is so great, please keep it up, I never knew about all of that in education and schools“. It made me feel like a million dollars!

I am so pleased, as the information I share I have felt is important for parents, educators, staff and the public to know and be aware of and know about. We have continued to grow and we now have over 10,000 individual reads a month. Not bad for a little local educational blog.

I look forward to continuing to provide information about our school board’s work and the issues we face in education.

Thank you for reading!

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