THE SCHOOL BOARD OF ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Regular Meeting –January 13, 2009
6:00 p.m.
School Board Room
4204 Okeechobee Road, Fort Pierce, FL34947
MINUTES
The School Board of St. Lucie County held a regular meeting in the School Board Room on January 13 2009 at approximately 6:00 p.m.
Present:DR. JUDI MILLER, Chairman
Member Residing in District No. 1
MR. TROY INGERSOLL, Vice Chairman
Member Residing in District No. 5
DR. JOHN CARVELLI
Member Residing in District No. 3
MRS. KATHRYN HENSLEY
Member Residing in District No. 4
MS. CAROL A. HILSON
Member Residing in District No. 2
ALSO PRESENT:MR. MICHAEL J. LANNON, Superintendent
MR. DANIEL B. HARRELL, Attorney
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Chairman Miller called the meeting to order and announced that students from Fort PierceMagnet School of the Arts would lead the Pledge of Allegiance and sing musical selections.
MINUTES
Action:There was a motion to approve the minutes for
the December 9, 2008 expulsion meeting and
regular meeting as presented (Hensley/Carvelli/
Carried 5-0).
SPECIAL ORDERS OF BUSINESS
1. JC PGA Golf Club and LearningCenter Donation ($15,000)
Dr. John Carvelli and Mr. Jay Stewart, District Athletic Director,informed the Board that the PGA Golf Club and LearningCenterin Port St. Lucie had received a shipment of golf clubs from professional golfer Jack Nicklaus in November of 2008. With the help of golf professionals at the golf club, Dr. Carvelli and Mr. Stewart were able to make arrangements to distribute 300 golf clubs (valued at $50 each for a total donation of $15,000) to district high schools and K-8 schools. Plaques were presented to PGA golf professionals Bob Balliserri and Gary Bates who were very appreciative of the Board’s recognition and expressed great interest in their partnership with the district. They expected that more golf equipment would be donated to schools in the future. It was noted that a golf tournament was scheduled for May 30, 2009 to raise funds to send more golf clubs to schools.
2. JS Scholar Athlete Recognition – Fort PierceWestwoodHigh School Students
Mr. Jay Stewart and Fort PierceWestwoodHigh School representatives recognized two of their scholar athletes, namely, Robert Allen and Diamond Lee, for their great achievements in academics and school sports.
CTA REPORT
CTA/CU Vice President Vicki Rodriguez addressed the Board and described the continuing collaboration that was going on in an effort to draft language and continue lobbying efforts for the Legislature’s upcoming special session on the budget deficit. She informed everyone that the union/School Board partnership was sponsoring an upcoming rally called, “Stand Up for Education”, which was scheduled for January 31, 2009, starting at 9:30 a.m. in the district office parking lot,
CWA REPORT
No report.
CONSENT AGENDA
Action:The superintendent recommended the Board approve consent
agenda items#3 through #7 (#8 and #9 were deleted), and #10 through
#13 as presented (Hilson/Carvelli/Carried 5-0).
3.SR Personnel Agenda & Leaves
4. TB Monthly Financial Report – November 2008
5. TB Payment of Bills – November 2008
6. TB Videoconferencing Endpoints. 09-12E
7. TB Videoconferencing Bridge, 09-10E
8. TB WAN Telecommunications Services, 09-09E(Delete)
9. TB Cabling Labor Hourly Rates and Materials for Premise Distribution Wiring, 09-08E(Delete)
10. TB Renewal of Alliance with Panasonic Corporation
11. KP Lincoln ParkAcademyMiddle School Band Trip to Atlanta, GA - April 16-19, 2009
12. KP Port St. Lucie High JROTC Trip to Jupiter, FL – June 15-19, 2009
13. BS Authorization to Advertise for Public Hearing – ADA Amendments of 2008 (Revised 504 Manual)
OTHER BUSINESS
14. BS Stipulated Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Final Orders #032 through #048
Action:The superintendent recommended the Board approve Stipulated
Findings of Fact,Conclusions of Law and Final Orders #032 through
#048 as presented (Carvelli/Hensley/Carried 5-0).
SUPERINTENDENT AND STAFF REPORTS ON SELECTED TOPICS
15. OR Math and Science (Including Advanced Coursework Offerings)
At the Board’s prior request, Dr. Owen Roberts, Assistant Superintendent, and Mr. Karlheinz Haas, Director of Curriculum/School Improvement, presented a report on math and science initiatives. Mr. Haas shared an overview of new standards, reviewed the assessment transition to new standards, highlighted various forms of support for teachers and building administrators, assessed the initial impact of the standards implementation on student performance, and provided an update on advanced course offerings. Via power point, Mr. Haas explained various charts and responded to board members’ comments and questions. Suggested instructional resources and curriculum support for specific projects were brought out.
In the future, Mr. Haas pointed out that staff needed to create a common language and vision, define lesson design essentials for every school, enhance content knowledge for all educators and administrators, increase available resources for teachers and increase rigor in classrooms, strengthen content integration to build conceptual understanding, continue to develop partnerships between STEM partners and teachers, and strengthen horizontal/vertical articulation of curricula.
Board members asked for an analysis of the results with regard to expectations of the community, an analysis of student performance data, follow-up on strategies that address obstacles and challenges that are relevant to the Board’s targets.
16. ML Report on State Budget Update
Superintendent Lannon had provided a written document called “Shining the Light on Funds for Education” (see supplemental minutes packet) and proceeded to report on the dire economic circumstances that the nation, Florida, and St. Lucie County were facing—an ongoing concern and topic of discussion. He recounted that Florida was one of the hardest hit states as a result of the economic downturn. St. Lucie County was among the leading counties in foreclosures, bankruptcy and un-employment. More than 3,562 students in St. Lucie County schools qualified for free meals.
It was brought out how Florida consistentlyranked low among other states in the nation, e.g., 47th out of 50 states relative to average tax burden, 45th in K-12 funding, 46th in school spending before current round of cuts, 2nd highest dependency on local dollars when both state and local revenues were controlled by the Legislature, required local effort in St. Lucie County at 59% vs. state funding of 41%, and 2008-09 state education budget now lower than 2007-08. This was in stark contrast to Florida’s Constitution, Article 9, Section 1, which states, “It isa paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education...”
Mr. Lannon indicated that educators and communities realized that their future was tied to the quality of its Pre-K to Grade 12 programs and outcomes. Florida’s universities and colleges also depended on the success of public education; Florida’s future depended on a more diversified and aggressive economic development strategy including high tech, high wage jobs.
Mr. Lannon made a “call to action” and stressed that no change would leave Florida at the bottom in funding for education. Legislators must make tough choices and set priorities now. They must place state education budgets last in the cut line, not first. They must maximize flexibility in all categorical funding, restore the local discretionary millage to 2.0 from its current 1.75(as of 2008), fix the Class Size Amendment, postpone implementation of new state laws and programs, and reduce or eliminate programs not central to the classroom.
The superintendent asked everyone to join together and commit to making Florida a top tier education state to achieve long term, sustained economic growth and development. He asked that everyone work as a team in support of efforts to find additional revenue sources.
Board members thanked Mr. Lannon for getting the message out and agreed that, as leaders of the community, they were committed to working on the issues at hand. It was also mentioned that a number of the “call to action” items were not cost items but were flexibility issues that could make a huge difference.
ATTORNEY’S REPORT
No report.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS’ REPORTS
Mrs. Hensley talked to the Board about the Sally Ride initiative for science education that had originally started with a small group of six but was now underway in four counties. Sally Ride curriculum lessons had been developed and would soon be distributed to teachers for this summer's camp for girls. It was hoped that this unique program could expand next year into a camp for boys also.
Mrs. Hensley also mentioned she had attended a TPO meeting last week during which the issue of road build out was discussed. The group had hired new consultants for modeling purposes and it was hoped that the future road network would be based in more reality than the state's build out model of 100%.
On another matter, Mrs. Hensley mentioned that the University of Florida had a new interim vice president, Dr. Larry Arrington, who was in charge of the IFAS/Extension office. Mrs. Hensley thought it would be a good move and she would wait to see how long the interim position would last.
Dr. Carvelli thanked Mr. Lannon for his presentation on the budget crisis and agreed that everyone would have to look toward finding solutions. The Board would need to preserve its partnerships since they were of utmost importance. Dr. Carvelli thought the annual indicators quarterly reports would help guide the Board when looking at results and making decisions on where to spend the money.
Dr. Miller concurred with Dr. Carvelli's comments and asked that the focus group results/priorities be tied to the Academic Business Plan, the Board's targets, and the Annual Indicators. Dr. Miller asked that board members consider scheduling a town hall meeting in February in order to gather more input from the community prior to making decisions based on budget cuts. There may be a need for a series of town hall meetings after the one in February. Dr. Miller stated it was important to invite the public to an open forum, either in the evening (after work) or on a Saturday when people can come.
Dr. Miller was pleased to announce that plans for a sophisticated annual district calendar were underway. All departments, board members, administrators, etc. would be able to show from year to year critical areas of importance.
Ms. Hilson reminded everyone about the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade scheduled for Monday, January 19, 2009.
UNSCHEDULED SPEAKERS
There were no unscheduled speakers.
ADJOURNMENT
Following disposition of all matters scheduled to come before the Board, Chairman Miller adjourned the January 13, 2009 regular meeting at approximately 8:30 p.m.