Happy New Year 2014!

New Life To Our Schools, Students and Teachers

Each New Year brings new goals, new desires, and new hopes. This year great change is needed in Florida’s public school laws and governances.  It is my hope and my prayer that the when the Florida State Legislator meets for the 2014 session that common sense, rational thinking and positive non-partisan solutions are agreed on and passed.  This includes changes that would not only give clear direction on Florida’s education standards and state assessments, but also includes Legislative intervention into the Duke Energy lawsuits and its damaging reduction of funding to our Citrus schools and classrooms.

This past 2013 year, the school board and district often had to make decisions, choosing the lesser of two bad options.  This past year also saw the state’s implementation of a widely criticized and flawed school grading system, which begins with a controversial single day “high-stakes” assessment test (FCAT 2.0 or EOC) and finishes with 50% of a teacher’s evaluations being based on these controversial assessments as well as students’ lives being determined by these “high-stakes” assessment tests.  In 2013 we saw at the beginning of the year a “non-negotiable” expectation and mandates by the Florida Department of Education (FL-DOE), State Legislator and Florida Governor that all curriculums must be aligned to the Common Core State Standards and with what then the Governor and FL-DOE described as an improved “high-stakes” assessment test the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) would be the answer to all the negative issues of FCAT and FCAT 2.0. Then at the end of 2013, the Governor and Department of Education abandoned PARCC, and are now rethinking the whole Common Core standards and looking to now develop new Florida standards which may look similar to Common Core.  In the meantime due to the mandates to Common Core and the use of Common Core assessments for teacher evaluations millions of dollars locally and perhaps billion statewide have been spent preparing and transitioning for these requirements. Now with the changes being suggested by political groups and the Governor districts have had to find a way to fund these mandates by often cutting in others areas. Will that money now be in vain? I hope not.  This legislative session will be another important one as several education changes are likely to take place and I will do my best to help keep you informed and how you can help.

This coming year no doubt will have its sure of challenges and successes. I encourage each of us in our many different roles as parents, teachers, educators, staff and community to work hard to recognize the problems that we must fix but remember as hard as it can be to stay optimistic and to focus on the positive parts of public education.

May we, through our schools and students continue to be blessed in our great county.

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Regular Board Meeting Recap for Dec. 10^th, 2013

Choir, Presentations and Awards!

December 10^th, 2013 I chaired my first full regular school board meeting.  School Board Member Patricia Deutschman had the opening exercises and, with the assistance of soard secretary, Linda Verderame, arranged to have the Citrus High School’s a-capella choir.  (follow this link to view video of performance: youtu.be/nDmZCvf_0WE) What a great way to start a school board meeting.

One of the presentations was the Superintendents “Making a Difference Award” which was presented to Camden Blackburn, a student at Pleasant Grove Elementary School, and Rosemary Sullivan, a bus driver with Citrus Schools. The awards were given for their heroic efforts which lead to Camden’s brother receiving lifesaving assistance.  Earlier this school year while riding to school Ms. Sullivan was informed by a student that Camden’s brother was sick. Ms. Sullivan took the appropriate action to bring the bus to a safe stop, and radio EMS.  Camden’s brother was unconscious. Camden provided the necessary information and assistance that lead to EMS prompt response and then immediate transport to Shands Hospital.  After weeks of treatment Camden’s brother was released and is healing now back at home.

The other impressive presentation awarded on that day was to recognize the Foreign Exchange Students with the Rotary Youth Exchange.  Director Chairman Doug Lobel presented five high school students from the countries of Belgium, Croatia, Finland, and Brazil who have been attending our three high schools this school year.  The students shared what life and school is like in their home countries and how it compares to Citrus County and the United States. Some of the comments the Board heard were, “I love having sports in high school and picking and choosing your (educational) classes”, “In Finland I never could have taken keyboarding (Piano) as a subject in school. Now I play piano.” Over and over the students said that what is different about American schools is that one, everyone can go to high school, not only those that meet certain criteria. The other is that you have a choice of some of the classes you can take, and lastly, that in Citrus County students can take classes in the field of Arts. These students exchange their own family homes with American students who are living in their native countries and who are learning the language and culture.  This program is celebrating its 70^th year this year.

Besides the presentations the board received updates on the Duke Energy lawsuit statutes and its impact to the district.  I will be sharing more about that in a subsequent blog.  The Board also approved the purchase of additional Penn Foster site licenses and the new English Language Arts text books for grades 6-12 for use beginning in the 2014-2015 school year.

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START/ESE Advisory Council Presentation

ESE college student Kenny Korchak: “you have to advocate for yourself”

This quarter’s S.T.A.R.T. (Student Transition and Resource Team) / ESE (Exceptional Student Education) Advisory Council meeting was held at the Chet Cole Life Enrichment Center at the Key Training Center in Lecanto.

The special guest speaker was not an educator talking about classroom strategies, a parent talking about what we can do at home, or a Ph.D sharing about the latest educational studies. Rather, this day, Kenny Korchak a young man with cerebral palsy and a student with learning challenges himself, came to share one simple message to the learning challenged and special needs community, “students have to advocate for themself!”

Kenny shared about his learning challenges and how he had to learn to stand up for himself. When Kenny began school in Elementary School it was a positive experience. The schools and teachers worked to encourage him and even stayed late to tutor him. At Secondary School things were different; Kenny was placed in an alternative learning school similar to Citrus’s CREST School with the anticipation of graduating with a special high school diploma instead of a regular diploma. It was immediately evident to Kenny that while this school was helpful to other students this was not the appropriate school for him, he desired to be mainstreamed. In Kenny’s freshman year his assessment test showed that he was on grade level and even above in some subjects. With the encouragement of one of his former elementary teachers who advocated for Kenny, he was placed on a regular diploma track. Kenny knew that what would help him to be most successful was to be in the mainstream high school. Kenny did need educational accommodations but his learning challenges were not going to keep him from being successful and so Kenny began his journey of being his own advocate, guidance counselor and advisor in his education. He designed his own schedule each year and would make formal request to have accommodations in his Individual Educational Plan (IEP). If high school alone was not tough enough, Kenny wanted to accomplish more, so while on spring breaks from high school he entered himself into vocational classes to become a “certified nursing assistant” (CAN) which he completed and got certification while still in high school. In the summer of 2008, Kenny graduated from high school with a regular diploma. This was far from an end for Kenny, this was just the beginning. Next, Kenny enrolled at Pasco-Hernando Community College in the Criminal Justice Academy and is completing his AA in criminal justice. His goal is not to simply become a deputy but rather a School Resource Officer (SRO) in the schools to be a daily mentor and advocate for students. Throughout sharing of his journey Kenny spoke about the many great obstacles he encountered and the many people that told him he would never succeed. Kenny focused on those that told him he could succeed and how to be successful but every day he (Kenny) had to believe in himself in order to actually become successful.

Kenny’s story was so inspiring and heartfelt that Pasco County Schools, where Kenny attended school, made a short documentary video on the challenges Kenny faced while in Pasco Schools that they have their staff view in hopes of making life easier for the next “Kenny’s” that go through their school system.

In Citrus Schools we have been embracing and greatly incorporating student self-determination/advocacy. Citrus ESE department has been providing student advocacy trainings with a program, Standing Up for Me that was developed in part with Citrus Schools ESE Department, Project 10: Transition Education Network, and Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System. The SUFM curriculum was designed in Florida to provide professional development training to teachers to advance the self-determination of their students. In addition Citrus’s ESE department this year has been piloting student lead IEP conferences. These conferences put students and their parents in the driver’s seat of developing a successful educational plan for the student’s learning based on the student’s expressed needs and desires. The results are often a stronger commitment to learning on the part of the students.

Listening to Kenny speak about his situation and what key aspects resulted in success for him, I am reminded of a quote by Rita Pierson who was a TEDTalks speaker, and was a 40 year elementary school, secondary, and ESE teacher. She said, “Every child deserves a champion — an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

(Follow this link to see a Pierson TEDTalks: http://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion.html)

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