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Board discusses 2018 legislative priorities, policies

Eric Cravey
Posted 10/25/17

FLEMING ISLAND – Funding to establish a Montessori school, a multi-tiered performing arts school, acceleration junior high programs and provide transportation for choice programs in the 2018-29 …

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Board discusses 2018 legislative priorities, policies


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND – Funding to establish a Montessori school, a multi-tiered performing arts school, acceleration junior high programs and provide transportation for choice programs in the 2018-29 school year emerged as the priority issues the Clay County School Board wants to focus on during the 2018 Florida Legislature.

Clay County School Superintendent Addison Davis first emailed school board members a list of 10 issues he’d like the Florida Legislature to address on Sept. 26, but by the board’s Oct. 19 workshop on the issue, Davis had whittled his priorities down to five items.

“These are just something I put on here in order to help in our push and most it’s surrounded by funding,” Davis said at the workshop held at Fleming Island High.

Davis’ Top 5 list included restoration of a local two mill property tax levy for schools, categorical funding for school choice development and enhancement, “adequate funding to significantly increase teacher salaries,” funding for high priority certification areas and invest in high quality instruction development funding or Title II programs.

Board member Ashley Gilhousen was the first to speak and said school choice would be her top priority.

“I would like to start with No. 4. I think that’s a good general launch point because if you look at what the state has been interested in funding lately, choice is a hot topic,” said Gilhousen, who has two children who attend St. Johns Classical Academy, a new charter school on Fleming Island. Her mother, Diane Hutchings, is also chair of the academy’s board of directors.

“I think that should we agree to hire a lobbyist, that we could probably take down some more specific dollars, tied to specific initiatives. That’s the kind of thing I’d like to drill in on,” Gilhousen said.

Davis said he wants funding to expand existing AICE and International Baccalaureate programs into the junior high and even elementary school levels, so they would feed into the high school programs. He said establishing such programs would be new pathways for students who need a rigorous curriculum. Davis would also like to see Clay County Schools create a new performing arts school, as well as add a Montessori program in the district.

“We are losing kids, competitively, to LaVilla and Douglas Anderson School of Arts and we need to figure out what we need to do to recapture these students in order to provide attractive programming, so they will stay and build a bench from y’all agreeing to put music and art in every one of our elementary schools,” Davis said.

In terms of the two mills levy, board members Gilhousen, Betsy Condon and Mary Bolla voiced doubts that such a measure was plausible given the current economic climate in Florida.

Condon said too much time had passed for current Florida lawmakers to know and understand why the two mills was important districts.

Bolla said the climate in the Legislature comes across as one of “If you need money, figure out how to get it,” she said.

Davis said, while admitting he was off-topic, he was ready, when the board was ready, to have a conversation about asking voters to pass a half penny sales tax to fund school facility improvements. He cites the districtwide need for air conditioning system replacements – estimated to cost $49 million – as one item a new sales tax would fund.

All of the money generated would be solely committed to facilities, upgrades, which are greatly needed in our organization,” Davis said.

Gilhousen said if the school board is going to tackle legislative priorities, she wants measurable goals. Again, it was another plea to hire a lobbyist.

“I think that it’s a reach. I understand the need for it. I understand reaching for the stars, but I think that that works better in bargaining than it does in lobbying,” she said.

Condon suggested focusing on maybe one big ticket item to be funded rather than multiple request for funding different items as the board narrowed down its legislative priorities. However, she also said with the session so close, it doesn’t make sense to hire a lobbyist.

Also, on Oct. 19, the board held a special called meeting that morning where they approved on a 5-0 vote, the district’s updated assessment calendar as required by the Florida Department of Education. The calendar failed to be approved at the board’s regular Oct. 5 meeting after teachers and parents had complained about too much testing.

In the weeks after the Oct. 5 meeting, Davis said, district staff reviewed some of the testing and made changes that would please each said of the issue.

The new assessment calendar made it optional to give a mid-year assessment in grades 6-10 for English Language Arts, eliminated mid-year assessments for K-3 reading in iReady and K-8 mathematics in iReady.

“We worked hard to identify some handful of tests we could eliminate in order to make sure we

Maximize instructional time,” Davis said.