During its annual legislative breakfast this morning, the Pinellas County School Board laid out a clear list of its 2016 legislative priorities.
Presentation topics ranged from school accountability and teacher evaluations, to operating budgets, capital outlay projects and tax credit schools.
“It has not been a particularly great PR year for our local [school board],” said State Sen. Jack Latvala, perhaps referring to the Tampa Bay Times’ “Failure Factories” articles, where a handful of public schools in South St. Petersburg were found to have substantially regressed over the past few years.
“But we’ll get to the end-zone,” Latvala continued. “We’ve all got the same goal in mind.”
Accountability
Examination of the state’s education accountability system was one of the larger issues touched on throughout the morning.
Come 2016, the board will push for a comprehensive review of the system, part of which will include efforts to suspend school grades for the 2014-2015 school year, as — according to the school board — enough of the necessary data needed to assign fair school grades has yet to be gathered.
The board would also like to see an analysis of “pay for performance” plans for teachers, which would involve impact studies on teacher recruitment and retention rates.
Other related board positions included allowing districts to use nationally normed tests as an alternative to the Florida Standard Assessment (FSA) tests; as well as reviewing state-mandated tests to determine which can be either replaced by national tests or thrown-out all together.
As for teacher evaluations, Pinellas’ school board wants student learning growth models used for teacher performance pay to be locally determined, in order to correct an “actual and perceived inequity in the system.”
Funding
Pinellas’ school board would also like the state to provide its area schools with $5 million per year for five years — all of which would go toward technology upgrades needed to implement student testing mandates and digital learning goals.
The board would also like the state to fully fund all school resource officers, as well as any other expenses related to school security.
Restoration of funding for the Adults with Disabilities Program will also be backed next year.
Perhaps the hardest hit dollar-related issue of the board’s was that of per student funding.
Currently, Pinellas is given exactly $7,097.29 by the state for each student enrolled in its public schools. The county school board would like to see that figure restored to where it was during the 2007-2008 school year (before it plummeted to a ten-year low of $6,255.58 during the 2011-2012 school year), where the state was giving the county $7,391.39 per student. The new money would equate to about a $30 million overall increase.
Other 2016 legislative priorities of the board’s include allowing districts to have the final say on charter school authorizations; restoring school boards’ ability to levy up to 2.0 mills for capital outlay purposes; and identifying new state revenue streams for public school construction, remodeling, maintenance and instructional technology.
HB 147
There was even some time taken to discuss the school board’s support of State Rep. Chris Latvala‘s HB 147, which requires the automatic expunction of criminal records for certain juveniles.
“[It’s] gaining momentum in the House,” said Latvala. “And it’s moving through the Senate. Hopefully we can gain some momentum so that we can get it signed by the governor.”
A couple proposed changes in the related laws would include the state automatically expunging all records of minors who aren’t classified as serious or habitual offenders once they turn 21; and automatically expunging the complete criminal history of a minor once they turn 26, so long as they’re not classified as serious or habitual offenders.
