Escambia County Schools IN Compliance with Class Size Count for 2010

UPDATED Friday, October15th--Escambia County Remains in full compliance with Class size at the class level!

Members of the Escambia County School Board were told on Monday that our district is in compliance with the class level, hard cap class size count for this school year.

We were told that the situation changes on a very fluid basis, and that it looked as though we would be one student over in one class--however that situation was resolved prior to Monday's count. Reassigning the one student left us in full compliance as of Monday, October 11th at 12 Noon.

The superintendent and his staff will again brief the School Board on our class size status at our regular monthly discussion workshop this Thursday, October 14th, 3PM at the Board Room of the McDaniel Building.

Being in full compliance is good for our district in that we won't be losing any of our money to the state in fines. We may also receive additional monies from the state via other districts that did not comply.

Hopefully all of this scrambling will become unnecessary if the voters pass Amendment 8 and allow us the flexibility to use schoolwide averages!

Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects FEA Challenge to Amendment 8

Taxpayers 2    Union  0

This is another win for taxpayers, students, parents, school boards, and superintendents. 

Amendment 8 will be on the ballot and the votes will count.  First the union lost in circuit court, now their weak argument has been unanimously rebuked by the Florida Supreme Court.

Now we have to get 60% to say yes to 8 on November 2nd to make it

Taxpayers  3   Union  0

From the Miami Herald

“The Florida Supreme Court has rejected a teachers union's challenge to a ballot issue that would loosen the state's class size limits. The unanimous ruling came Thursday, just a day after the justices heard oral argument on Amendment 8. They ruled its ballot summary accurately describes what the Legislature's proposed state constitutional amendment would do. “

Full article here

Shouldn't We Keep Local Legal Representation for BP Oil Litigation?

This contract is being brought forth for approval by the Escambia County School board at a special meeting today.  This contract will appoint four out-of-town law firms to represent the interests of the Escambia County School District in litigation against BP for losses incurred by the district due to the recent oil spill disaster.

I have no problem with any of the firms represented in this contract--I just don't know who they are.  One Texas firm, One Tampa firm, and two firms from Panama City.  I  want to know why no local frms were considered.  We have some  highly qualified, nationally respected firms that are quite capable of representing us effectively.

These  well qualified local firms hire local residents and create jobs here in Pensacola.  If all things are equal, I prefer to hire locally.

I've spoken to many of the top attorneys in the area today, and after giving this much thought and consideration I am going to recommend that this item be tabled and I'm also going to recommend to my fellow board members that more thought be given to hiring local law firms to represent us in this case.

Chris Christie for President 2012!

Chris Christie has already said he will not run for president--I just wish he'd reconsider...

I like the way he is reforming N.J. and his fiscal conservatism.  I also like the way he is taking on  the public sector white collar unions.  His next target-- the powerful Teacher's Union in N.J..

From Fox News Philadelphia:

"I do not bash teachers. I bash stubborn, self-interested unions. That's who I bash," Christie said...
He says teacher pay scales based solely on seniority and graduate degrees should be changed. Instead, he says, teachers should be paid partly based on how well their students do on standardized tests..
"Just getting a masters' degree or a masters plus whatever should not be a way for you to boost your salary even higher if you are not showing performance in the classroom," Christie said. "Pay should be set to the performance."

Read the full article here

Every American Taxpayer Should Read this Article

Daniel Di Salvo, a political science professor at City College of New York, recently wrote a piece for National Affairs that was featured on Real Clear Politics.  It is a fascinating look at the rise of public sector unions in America over the last 50 years.  Every American Taxpayer should read this entire piece.

From the article:

"As private-sector unions have withered, public-sector unions have grown dramatically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) than private-sector employees (7.4 million) belonged to unions. Today, unionized workers are more likely to be teachers, librarians, trash collectors, policemen, or firefighters than they are to be carpenters, electricians, plumbers, auto workers, or coal miners...Even President Franklin Roosevelt, a friend of private-sector unionism, drew a line when it came to government workers: "Meticulous attention," the president insisted in 1937, "should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government....The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service." The reason? F.D.R. believed that "[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable."."



Chris Christie for President 2012!

The "VOTE NO ON 8" Ditty--(to the tune of "Jingle Bells")

Manipulation  and re-working of  political cartoons is funny.  I found this one about factory farms but thought it could be re worked as a funny "NO ON 8 DITTY"--to the tune of "Jingle Bells"

Escambia County Student Discipline/Expulsion Statistics for 2009-2010

The 2009-2010 discipline and student expulsion statistics have been released. The latest report shows an increase in expulsions district-wide, up from 150 for the same period in 2008-2009  to 185 in this report. (23% increase).  Drug infractions incresed to 83 this year from 71 last year, representing an increase of nearly 17%.

Last year's stats can be found here.


For the 2009-2010 school year, a breakdown of weapon/drug infractions by school is here

For the 2009-2010 school year, a breakdown of expulsions by race, gender, and school site is here.

I feel confident that as a district we will continue to make our schools as safe as they can be-- by continuing to ensure that those who bring contraband to school are caught and punished. 

I expect that our expulsions will decrease over the next year as a result of our implementation this year of a comprehensive drug policy.  This comprehensive strategy is already paying dividends according to one resource officer I spoke with, because  students know that drug dogs are coming on a more frequent basis and this seems to be compelling students not to bring drugs onto our campuses.