Senator says schools must cater more to business

The Tampa Bay area is poised to become a statewide leader in education, state Sen. Don Gaetz told a gathering of educators and business leaders at a Wednesday luncheon hosted by the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations.

"The problem with school districts is that they teach what they want to teach," said Gaetz, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. "The curriculum we're offering is not based on what the business community needs."

Career and technical education was my primary platform issue when I ran for office. I have spent my entire time in office trying to get the rest of the board and the administration to understand the importance of not letting the mid-kids fall through the cracks anymore.

I am very excited to hear others saying the same thing. We are on the forefront of an exciting movement. Our community will only be better for it.

Read full SP Times article here.

The voters have spoken

Amendment 1 has passed. The school board took a unified and vocal stand against it.

As I said, I approached my opinion from two perspectives. The first as a property owner and I, like every other tax paying citizen want real tax relief. However I believe amendment 1 is not enough to cure the problem. It will not help homeowners on the verge of losing their homes. In a time when foreclosures have doubled in Hillsborough County we need more.

The second perspective was as an elected official tasked with overseeing the budget of the 8th largest school district in the nation and knowing what we and other government bodies are going to have to do in the future.

I believe government should be more efficient. We will now move forward with the voters will and do what is necessary to live within our means. What this will do to our schools and community is yet to be seen, but it is what it is and we will make it work.

As the burden of taxation has now been shifted to local municipalities I will do everything in my power to cut expenses before we go to the voters with our hands out and ask for more.

I am proud that people exercised their right to vote.

School Board says "no" to Amendment 1

I have approached my research on the property tax amendment from two perspectives. The first being as a property owner. As a property owner I am not satisfied with the amount of money we will be saving. In my opinion more time needs to be put into a better solution. Let me clearly state "As a tax paying citizen I want tax relief" I just do not believe what has been proposed is good enough.

The second perspective is as an elected official. The onus of taxation will only be shifted from the state to local municipalities. We will be robbing Peter to pay Paul. And regardless of promises made, the money is going to have to come from somewhere.

I believe we need to cut cost where ever we can before we ask the citizens of Hillsborough County for anymore money, but the reality is we will lose money if this amendment passes.

The Hillsborough County School Board voted 5-1 this morning to take a stand against Amendment 1, the property tax reduction measure going before voters Jan. 29.

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 1!

Read full article in the Gradebook.

Read another Gradebook article here.

Re-writing policies

This is very important to the direction of school district. We are currently in the process of re-writing our policies. I would like some input on our policies good and bad.

Our policy handbook can be found here.

I have had several parents talk to me about a policy that allows law enforcement to sometimes go beyond their legal authority when interrogating suspects while they are in school.

Read the St. Pete Times article and let me know your thoughts on this policy. When principals stop being advocates for the student in the parents absence and start becoming the accuser the child has no legal representation. Do children have the same legal rights as adults?

Are there any policies you feel need to be looked at? Let me know.

Access to blogs on school computers

I have recently had some concerns posted on access to blogs on school computers on another topic. If you have concerns please post them here.

Autistic License

Autism is a serious issue that affects 1 in every 150 children born. That is an overwhelming number. One that deserves more attention from the government, educational community, and the medical research community.

From a societal perspective one of the things that makes autism so difficult to deal with is that the children look so normal and it is hard for people not familiar with autism to understand what is going on internally with kids suffering with it. Add family stresses to the equation and we have a powder keg. Like alzheimer’s, autism greatly affects almost every aspect of a families existence.

I have been educating myself on autism in order to make the best decisions for our children, families, and teachers and ran across this story on channel 10. View channel 10 video here.

An award winning play called “Autistic License” is written by Stacy Dinner-Levin runs Thursday, January 10 and through Sunday the 13th at the TECO Theatre at the Patel Conservatory in the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets $10 for Thursday and Sunday; $15 Friday and Saturday with all of the profits going to Autism Speaks and will stay in the Tampa Bay area. You can reserve tickets at www.autisticlicense@gmail.com cash or check only and tickets will be available at the door.

I am going to try my best to make it this weekend. I hope if you are an educator you can make it.

To view a great movie called "Autism Every Day" click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. This film is 13 minutes long and well worth the time as it will help you understand what the families with autistic children go through.

Just Listen gets a reprieve

UPDATE: Just Listen book challenge

Just Listen was challenged by a parent recently and per our school board policy a review committee met yesterday to make a determination on whether the book could remain in circulation or not. Marilyn Brown with the Tampa Tribune was there and documented the meeting. Read the article here.

I posted a review of the book. After reading the book I came to the conclusion that Just Listen was a well written with vivid characterizations and a meaningful, moving plot and felt the different scenarios faced by the characters (including the one read aloud at the School Board meeting) are all unfortunate realities our children are facing everyday. I feel confident this book could be beneficial to students for a number of reasons and do not believe it should be removed from our libraries.

I stated that I had confidence that the committee of intelligent, thoughtful people would no doubt see the merits of the book. I am pleased that the review committee came to the same conclusion I did and will allow the book to remain in circulation.

Don't I know it

I have two boys so I found the following article about boys and organizational skills particularly interesting.

With girls performing better than boys academically, education professionals have been debating whether or not there is a crisis in the education of boys. Some say single-sex schools is the answer, some say they need male role models or new teaching techniques. There are some who believe physical changes in classrooms encourage boys to move around, rather than trying to anchor them to their seats is key to their success.

But as they deliberate, tutors that charge as much as $100 an hour and college counselors have stepped up to the plate to help boys be successful.

Tutors say their main focus is organizational skills because boys generally have more difficulty getting organized and multitasking than girls.

It’s about time the education community realizes the difference in learning styles between boys and girls. That being said, I don’t believe there is a magic bullet. The solution is going to be a multi pronged approach.

Read the article here.

Back for the new year...here's some interesting stuff

OK everyone...time to get back to work. After time off to decompress and spend time with the family I am ready to go.

Here are some interesting articles I found as I was perusing the web:

- Shermon Dorn's predictions for top stories to watch in 2008

- Tampa Tribune's In Case You Missed It - 2007 50 Things We Know Now (That We Didn't Know This Time Last Year)...not educational, but interesting and great conversation starters nonetheless (these things make you sound a whole lot smarter than "how about that Britney?")

- Court Revives Lawsuit Against No Child Left Behind Law

- St Pete Time's Darwin survives another debate

I know that's a lot to pack in to one posting, but I had some catching up to do after a long, much needed break.