Escambia School Board Candidate Forum Video

This Past Tuesday, The Candidates for Escambia County School Board Participated in a televised forum sponsored by WSRE and the League of Women Voters.

You can see the video Here

District 1

Jeff Bergosh
Luke Keller
Hosea Pittman (did not participate)

District 2

Gerald Boone
Virginia White

District 3

Linda Moultrie
Charlie Nichols

In Weekly Questionnaire and My Responses

Yesterday the Independent Weekly, Rick Outzen and Sean Boone, posed the below questions to thd District School Board Candidates.

My response to these questions is below.


Sean/Rick,

Attached are my responses to the questions that you posed. I went over the 25 word limit because these were extremely tough issues you raised that 25 wards was inadequate to cover.

Thanks very much for the opportunity to present my views.

In weekly Questionnaire and Candidate Jeff Bergosh’s Responses



1. The state legislature wanted to tie teachers’ compensation to test scores, but Gov. Crist vetoed the bill. What is your position on this issue?

SB6 became a lightning rod because it became partisan politics at its worst--one party attempting to ramrod its agenda over another party (like Democrats did to Republicans on Healthcare in D.C.). People are weary of partisan politics. For lasting meaningful education reform to occur, I believe the legislature must work with all education stakeholders to craft intelligent, meaningful, and effective policy.


2. The School District has surplus property, including the old Brownsville Middle School. What is your plan for disposing of these properties?

The district school board will continue its practice of making below appraisal land/facility purchases as necessary while continuing to sell our excess properties at prices that are at or exceed appraised value. Some recent sales examples -Wedgewood, Molino, (sold at appraised value) and a small parcel near Washington H.S. (In Escrow currently) for $1.7 Million. Additionally, we are close to a deal on the sale of Brownsville M.S. We are also doing a lease w/purchase option on the Edgewater property this month with attractive terms for district taxpayers. We are aggressively disposing of our excess properties—despite this fetid real estate market.

3. What is your position on zero tolerance?

I believe the term is synonymous with stupidity. We pay our administrators well enough, and they are trained well enough, to dole out punishment where it is necessary while utilizing common sense when appropriate. I joined with Patty Hightower last month in a call to remove the term from our district policy. We will still expel students who bring drugs, make bomb threats, or commit violent acts or bring weapons—but the term Zero Tolerance is a “tarnished brand”—(a lot like SB6!)—Zero Tolerance will be removed from Escambia County Policy.

Escambia County FCAT Scores W/ Comparison to 2008-2009 Scores

We've all heard the news and seen the articles-FCAT scores are out and Elementary School  and many Middle School grades around the state are dropping. 

Elementary School grades in Escambia county have dropped.  (A complete look at all Escambia County School Elementary and Middle School Grades with a year over year comparison can be found here . )

Was it the test?  Obviously there are problems with this year's test.  Nobody can doubt that.

But now the state has had two "independent" auditors look at and certify the results--Abracadabra, Shazam--everything is fine. These tests are fine....  ("The body on the beach was not a Shark Attack Victim, but rather a 'boating accident' "or better yet "these are not the droids you are looking for")

...of couse there were problems with this year's test--how else could one explain the fact that all 67 counties in the state experienced similar anomolies?  My hunch is that this test must have included some new concepts that were not taught to elementary schoolers throughout the state.  How else could such a mass drop occur?
If not the scoring, which we're told was "accurate" how else do you explain a group of students around the state suddenly and precipitously producing falling scores on the same sections of a standardized test?

Something was amiss and people knew it, so the release of the data was delayed, superintendents were called to Tallahassee in advance of the release to be briefed, and, voila-the test data is released and every elementary school in the state sees unusual issues with the scores.

Some state superintendents are not taking this well.   Some are so enraged that lawsuits have been contemplated.  This story is not over and there is definitely more to come.

In the meantime, however, we must not let this terrible, horrific handling of the FCAT by NCS Pearson and State bureaucrats derail our district's progress.  We must continue the focus on students; we must continue our forward progress even in the face of this temporary setback.

We will overcome this test result and we will bounce back stronger next year in spite of this hiccup.

Department of Education Picks Florida as a RTTT Phase II Finalist

The Announcement was just made.

41 States Applied for Phase II RTTT Awards, but only 19 made the cut.

The Following States are In Round Two of Race To The Top:

Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina.

Florida did not win in the first round, much to the amazement of many involved in the process.

Florida will be competing for up to $700 Million in the competition to improve our schools.

The Governor and his RTTT working group will be travelling to D.C. in August to pitch Florida's re-worked application.

This will be interesting.....

Michelle Rhee Fires 241 Teachers, Puts 737 on Notice

From the Seattle Times:

"Although the teachers dismissed for poor performance represent only about 4 percent of the city's 4,000-member corps, Rhee said an additional 737 employees were put on notice they had been rated "minimally effective," the second-lowest rating, and would have one year to improve their performance or be fired.

In the years before Rhee took over the district, almost all the teachers had high performance ratings and few were fired, but students, on average, had low achievement levels."

Read the full article

I like Michelle Rhee because she is strong and she constantly challenges the status quo.  She's got guts and she's not afraid to take on the establishment.  In 2008 I read a lot about what she was trying to do up there and felt she would make a huge impact if allowed to continue her work.  .  Looks like she is!  If every school district had a Michelle Rhee, taxpayers would be getting a much better return on their money and children everywhere would reap the benefits that greater accountability and oversight would bring.

A Win For Escambia County Property Taxpayers--No Millage Rate Increase for 2010!

The Escambia County School Board, at a special meeting this afternoon, approved the tentative budget and millage rates for advertising for 2010.

The documents and executive summary can be found here.  Page 29 shows the drastic nearly $800 Million dollar decline in our Escambia county Tax Roll from last year to this year.  Page 32 shows the side by side comparison of this year to last years' millage rates--they are holding steady at the same rate.

Last year, over my NO vote, the board raised the millage tax rate.

The previous year, I pushed to keep the rate steady, and was successful in persuading the board and district to lower the capital outlay portion of the millage such that the overall rate remained unchanged..

This year we are again doing the right thing for our community by holding the rate steady, although we did have the lattitude to go higher.  I'm glad raising the rate was not recommended, as I would not have supported an increase to the millage tax rate; As I did last year I would have voiced displeasure and voted NO.

In difficult times we need to be mindful that property owners and small businesses are hurting.  As we all attempt to navigate this tepid financial environment together we need to keep more taxpayer money in taxpayer pockets..

We will vote to adopt these tentative rates one week from tonight.

The outcome---the vast majority of Escambia County taxpayers will se a reduction in the School Board portion of their property tax bill.

Escambia School Board Formulating a Comprehensive Drug Eradication Policy for 2010-2011

I'm extremely happy to report that the Escambia County School District is officially developing a comprehensive drug eradication policy to be adopted by the Board.  In budget meetings held over the last several weeks, the funding for this undertaking was identified.  In a School Board retreat held this past Wednesday afternoon where broad policy and overall district direction was the topic, more on the proposed drug policy was unveiled.  What is known currently is that the point person from the district on this policy will be Deputy Superintendent Mr. Norm Ross.  Mr. Ross will be researching the issues and working closely with the local law enforcement community and the Escambia County School Board Attorney to craft a policy that will benefit all of the students in our district.  I'm told that Mr. Ross will be studying what other districts from around the state and the nation have been able to put in place with respect to drug eradication techniques.  We won't be attempting to re-invent the wheel here locally; We will be developing a policy that is tried and tested, built upon best practices from other locations, then tailored to fit our needs locally.

Although the official policy will be brought to the board sometime in August or September, the broad areas of focus are known and can be identified at this time:

1.  Student Safety--the onus of this policy will be on student safety and we will not be undertaking this comprehensive strategy for punitive purposes.

2.  Drug dogs will be utilized in a more frequent, managed,  and measured fashion than has been the case in the past.  A defined pattern and schedule will be formulated and Drug Sniffing Dogs will be in our middle and high schools on a much more regular basis looking for drugs.

3.  Students will have the opportunity to participate in formulating the district's anti-drug slogan and advertising program.

4.  A more robust "campus crime stoppers" program will be rolled out and rewards will be given to those who report on peers involved in illegal activity.

5.  While not set in stone at this time, the direction that our policy seems to be heading is for the inclusion of a random drug screening/testing program for students wishing to participate in extrcurricular activities.  We cannot legally randomly test all students (Like Pensacola Catholic High School Does);  However we can and should randomly test those who wish to participate in extracurricular activities and/or drive their personal vehicles on our school campuses.  Again, the onus is on student safety.

6.  Voluntary testing, self reporting, counseling and progressive discipline for those identified in screening/sesting will all be factors and components in our final comprehensive strategy.


I'm very happy to see the district moving in this direction.  I have been steadfast in my advocacy of this type of a policy in our schools for the last four years.  I know that we cannot control societal factors which are changing rapidly around us--but we can and should do everything we can to control the environment in and around our schools.  The goal should be to make our schools drug-free sanctuaries for our students.   Having a comprehensive strategy will empower students to "Say No" to drugs--on and off campus.  Peer pressure is compelling, but if a student knows he may get tested, or dogs will be in his schools, or his freiends might tell on him to win money, perhaps we can exert enough influence on this student to help him/her make better choices both in and out of school.

I frankly believe we should have been doing more on this for years, but I am glad we're at least moving this direction now.  Drug use/abuse is a significant problem in our community and in our schools.  I know the devastating effects drugs can bring to young people, and I believe this new policy will have a drammatic, positive impact in Escambia County Florida-- and will help thousands of district children if we enact and deploy it properly.