Week in Review for May 22nd – May 28th, 2011

“What just happened????”

The students, teachers and most of the staff have left the schools and summer has officially begun for the Citrus County School District. Now the challenges of developing the budget for next year continues.

On Thursday Governor Rick Scott signed the state budget but also vetoed $615 million dollars out of the budget for next year.  Then Scott asked the Legislators to reallocate the vetoed monies to K-12 educational funding.  Shortly after Scott spoke, House Speaker Dean Cannon responded with the following statement:

“What is more surprising is the Governor’s sudden emphasis on K-12 education. The budget we sent him funds education at a higher level than the Governor recommended just a few months ago, when he proposed a 10% cut to the FEFP. The Governor communicated numerous priorities during session, and we did our best to accommodate him. It would have been helpful if the Governor had shared this new found emphasis with us before the budget was finalized.”

We have been told from our contacts in Tallahassee that there is no reason to anticipate that any additional FEFP funds (Florida Education Finance Program – per student public school funding) will be provided to the school districts prior to the fiscal year 2011-2012 year.  While Governor Scott expressed that he would like to see additional funding generated from vetoed appropriations provided to K-12 school programs, there is no current plan to call a special session to have the legislature provide for more FEFP funding.

At this point it is hard for me not to repeat something I have expressed often for sometime: “I am sick and tired of the parties and politicians using public education as their political football.”

So what happens now?  On June 7th at 9:00am the Citrus County School Board will be meeting for another special meeting and workshop regarding the budget.  Superintendent Himmel and her staff will be providing the Board with additional information and annual costs of programs and curriculum.  I don’t want to over- speculate as to what, if anything will be finalized, at the meeting.  We are all concerned but I also feel there are some reasons to be optimistic about some things.

I am sorry for any of you that are waiting to hear if some positions will be funded and approved for next year.  Unfortunately, at this time it is critical that we have more information before making those decisions. Parents are concerned about how our classrooms and schools will be affected next year. I feel nearly everyone in the process wants to get things settled as soon as possible for you and our schools.

I hope all of you have a great beginning to a good summer break.

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Governor Scott has announced that he will veto $615 million from the State Budget. In his remarks he called the Legislature to redirect the vetoed funds into Florida’s Schools. Details are not yet available and we will keep you advised as information becomes available.

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Week in Review for May 15th 24th – May 21st, 2011

T-Minus 3 days (or 1 full and two .5 days) for students and 5 days for teachers and other 10 month pay staff.

The sun shined on a wonderful week in and around our Citrus County Schools. While there is much concern about district schools’ budgets and state budgets, this week was also spent celebrating our great students.

I had the pleasure of attending two 5^th grade original musicals at Central Ridge Elementary and Citrus Springs Elementary. The students at both performances were wonderful. 5^th grade CRE teache, Natalie Columbus wrote the script to the Ridgeback musical. CSE Teacher on Special Assignment Amy Crowell wrote an adaptation of another of Ms. Columbus’s plays for the Hawk musical. The students really seem to be proud of their efforts and enjoyed the experience of these high quality performances and I most say I was pleased that the students got a chance to learn so much about performing arts. Students were stage managers, actors, singers, costume designers and more. If you have any students going into 5^th grade next year, I would recommend them to be a part of this fun and creative opportunity.

Monday was one of Citrus County Schools most powerful and emotional graduations. It is the graduation at CREST. This was my first CREST graduation and I it was difficult to not be emotional as each graduate’s personal successes and favorite school activities were shared. One of the graduates was a student who is the first student at CREST School to graduate with a Special diploma, Option 2. An Option 2 diploma is based on mastery of a set of employment and community competencies identified in the graduation training plan. Among the requirements is that the student must be successfully employed for at least one semester at or above minimum wage. This student has been working for a pool cleaning service for the better part of the school year. These students are going above and beyond and they are an inspiration to us all.

I attended the Citrus Springs Middle School Honor Roll Awards on Tuesday. . This event takes place in the beautiful gymnasium at CSMS. Teachers and students sit in the center of the gym, with teachers sitting intermixed with the students. Parents and family members fill the bleachers on both sides of the gym. Hundreds of people come to this event to honor these students and I was glad to be among them as these impressive middle schools students were recognized for all they have accomplished this year.

The GOLD was given out at the 2011 Golden Citrus Scholars Award Ceremony on Thursday. This was the inaugural new “Golden Citrus Scholars” conceived in part by Board Member Pat Deutschman. Ms. Deutschman shared at a recent board meeting that after last year’s Citrus County Sports award dinner, she, Tabitha Wells, and Gerry Mulligan, publisher of the Citrus County Chronicle, talked about the need for a county wide academic awards ceremony. In the past others had been held but they had fallen by wayside. The Chronicle, Citrus County School District, Citrus Health Systems, the Citrus Chambers and others came together and developed the the Golden Citrus Scholars. The requirements and standards were steep for this award. For a full list of winners see the Chronicle story here.

I ended my week at the Lecanto High School graduation. This was my first large high school graduation as a School Board Member. Before walking up the aisle to take our seats, I learned from Board Members Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. Powers and Ms. Deutschman, that it is tradition to have us walk into the gym leading the LHS teachers and staff through the LHS gym and then onto the football field.   As we walked into this gym the talking inside quickly turned into a thunder of clapping and cheering which grew louder and louder as the teachers and staff entered the gym. It was exciting to see these students cheer for their educators. LHS is the largest graduating class of 2011 in Citrus County and among its many great scholars is National Merit Scholarship finalist Priyanka Thatipamala. Miss Thatipamala won out of approximately 1.5 million students who apply. Only about 15,000 students were chosen as National Merit Scholarship finalists. I am looking forward to next week’s celebrations and graduations on Monday at Crystal River High School and Tuesday at Citrus High School.

Lastly, this Tuesday, May 25^th, is our School Board Meeting and Workshop. One of the major items at the workshop is the 2011-2012 Budget which is scheduled to begin about 10:00 am. This is be the first time since receiving the Florida Legislators’ final budget that the School Board will meet and we are anticipating getting some preliminary budget reduction options. This will begin a much challenging budget season for our school district.

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