Valentine delivers State of Education address

Palm Coast Observer
News

With the looming prospect of state budget cuts, Superintendent Janet Valentine delivered the first State of Education address to concerned teachers, parents and administrators.

School Board chambers at the Government Services Building filled up quickly the night of Thursday, March 10, for the district’s first State of Education Parent Forum, given by Superintendent Janet Valentine.

“What’s going on … and how it will impact our kids — that’s why we’re here tonight,” Valentine told a crowd of teachers, administrators and parents.

(For past coverage, click on these links: School Board brainstorms budget-reduction options; Six-hour school days could halve budget)

Valentine’s presentation began positively. We’re an A-rated school district, she announced; our graduation rate is seven points higher than the state’s; we have one of the lowest dropout rates; and our gifted, AP and IB programs are “thriving.”

She continued: we have a 3:1 computer-to-student ratio, with online portals for parents and opportunities for online learning; we have strong service learning programs and a volunteer/mentor base that is “huge” to our district; we maintain certified teachers in arts, music and P.E. courses; and our cafeterias serve more than two million meals a year.

But there are challenges.

Whereas Valentine can’t recall a single homeless student before 2005, there are now 250 enrolled in the system. Thirty percent of students read below grade level, she said; graduation requirements have increased; and more than 50% of students live below the poverty line, not to mention the $6 million revenue shortfall in only three or four years — plus the $6 million to $7 million less the board expects to receive in 2012.

“But we’ve been preparing,” Valentine said. In the past three years, the district has cut 160 employees from its payroll while expanding its enrollment by 400. It has downsized after-school activities by 75%, basically eliminated summer school and moved from block scheduling (“Which we all loved”) to a seven-period day at high schools.

Still, according to Valentine, the district remains in serious trouble.

“We would not be surviving if this county had not passed that quarter-mil (referendum in November),” she said. The same goes for the half-penny sales tax, which was passed in 2003, and is up for a re-instatement vote in 2012.

“We’re going to need you. We need your vote,” Valentine said. “You’ve been doing without it; you won’t miss it.”

Should the state’s proposed budget cuts occur, the school’s purse may only be able to support the necessities, Valentine suggested. “We’re mandated to keep our core subjects; we’re not mandated to keep all of our athletics.” Academic activities and clubs could be reduced, as well, if the individual programs can’t find ways of supporting themselves. There could be another hiring freeze. Schedules could be rearranged to shorten school days by about 45 minutes, aligning all teachers’ planning periods outside of the regular school day.

“It’s not the greatest thing, folks. It’s not — I understand that,” Matanzas High School Principal Chris Pryor said during a post-presentation question-and-answer session. “But we needed to come up with $3 million, and this is part of the puzzle.”

Superintendant Valentine closed with a call to action. Become a volunteer, she said, monitor a child, stay informed about legislation and be an advocate for your children — all sentiments echoed by 50th No More education advocacy founder Colleen Wood, whom School Board member Colleen Conklin introduced as “a very angry momma bear.”

Wood preached a return to local control over schools and a general questioning of authority.

“What happens to your child matters to me,” she said, “and what happens to mine should matter to you … The budget cuts coming from the state are forcing your School Board to make choices that are not in the best interest of your children.”

The public question-and-answer portion of the night didn’t last long. Submitted on index cards which board member Andy Dance read aloud to the Superintendant, one questions was from a parent who wondered about the fate of the ESE program, which Valentine said she would look into making more efficient regarding staff and transportation.

Another was concerned about FPC’s band class.

“I don’t want anyone to think at this point that we’re only going to have core classes,” Valentine said. “We’re going to continue to have electives, they’ll just be reduced.”

At meeting’s end, Don and Joanne Biggers, mother and father of a 10th-grade honor student at Matanzas High School, felt optimistic. “I feel good,” Don Biggers said. “I feel like we have a really good school board … Their hands are tied.”

Concerned that their daughter Lacey might not be able to take elective courses she needs to complete her Bright Futures Scholarship, Joanne Biggers said they felt at ease after listening to the presentation.

“Very caring,” she said of the board.

Janice Oehl, substitute school nurse and mother of a 7th-grade gifted/AP student at Indian Trails, agreed.
“I love the school system,” she said. “I think they’ll do (all they can).”

Oehl and her husband moved to Flagler County specifically for the school district when his career brought them to Florida from New York.

“I loved what they had to say inside,” Oehl said. “They really care for the children.”

“The bottom line is this is what we do,” School Board member Colleen Conklin told the audience Thursday night. “This is our job: we advocate on behalf of our students … But we’re going to need you, every single one of you we’re going to need in order to make a difference.”

“Things are changing,” she said, “ — fast.”