Rick Patrick: Greene Publishing, Inc.
It was news that fell on welcome ears at the regular meeting of the Madison County District School Board on Tuesday, June 6, when interim Financial Officer Mary Loughran informed the Board that the fund balance for the district is expected to rise to 4.59 percent by June 30. This is still below the Board's self-established goal of five percent, but it is an improvement over the 3.72 percent reported earlier this year. This fund balance can be thought of as “savings” or reserve funds as a ratio of total money from all funding sources. In the past, that fund balance has been as high as 11.95 percent.
In other business addressed by the Board, the 19 item consent agenda was passed. Among the items on the consent agenda were: Madison County Central School (MCCS) summer experience personnel, a dual enrollment articulation agreement with North Florida Community College, a joint use agreement with Madison Church of God, a contractual agreement for inter-county transfer of exceptional students between Leon and Madison County schools, an agreement between the Florida State University Multidisciplinary Center and the Madison County School District, an agreement with Smith Therapy Services, Inc., an agreement between William Isaac Newman and the Madison County School District, the third grade reading camp/additional summer school, School Improvement Grant – Amendment 10, a milk bid, permission to piggyback on Alachua County's bread bid, a one-stop delivery system partnership agreement with North Florida Workforce Development, a Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) cooperative agreement, GED requests, and non – general fund staff trips.
Staff trips paid by grant monies were approved. Out-of-county student field trips with the migrant program were approved. Adoption of Policy 5121 – Controlled Open Enrollment was passed.
Adoption of new Social Studies textbooks for grades K – 8 and 9 – 12 was passed. There had been a public hearing on this matter held in May. Concern was raised about the lack of attention given to black history in the new textbooks. A cursory examination of the Pearson textbook to be used in grades 9 – 12 found this not to be the case. The Pearson text includes extensive coverage of black history and black historical figures, including the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Jim Crow laws, the spread of segregation, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, the Harlem Renaissance, the Tuskegee Airmen, A. Phillip Randolph, an entire chapter dedicated to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and much more. The new textbooks are designed to comply with Florida Department of Education standards, which require instruction in black history. Teachers are free to supplement the information in the text as needed.
Instructional evaluation and performance pay plans were passed.
Funds to update a ventilation system at Madison County High School (MCHS) were approved. The cost of the system improvements will be approximately $27,000 and when completed will allow welding instruction to be offered at MCHS. In the state of Florida, the median salary for welders is $35,470 per year.
The Board considered waivers for facility usage by community groups as long as they clean up. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen Pickles will consult with School Board Attorney Tom Reeves about usage of school facilities and possible waiver of fees.
Additional hours for assistant principals to finish out the contract year were passed. The staffing table revisions were passed. Permission to advertise non-instructional positions was passed.
A DJJ contract with Rite of Passage was passed. This is a different contract than the contract for the Excel School.
Dr. Pickles addressed the Board about her meetings with the Ministerial Association regarding parental involvement. She mentioned some of the outlying schools have great parental participation, while the high school and central school don't. She expressed disappointment that there was not a Project Graduation this year. Pickles said she is reaching out to the churches in the community in order to get more parental involvement in the schools. “It's my goal to go to every church. If they aren't going to come to us, we'll go to them,” said Pickles. “A lot of our [behavior] referrals are from grades two to five and they are for disrespect,” added Pickles.
“We could have reached out to someone in the community to have Project Graduation,” said District 3 School Board Member VeEtta Hagan.
“My son graduated from Madison County High School and it's strictly the parents, who have put [Project Graduation] on,” added District 2 School Board Member Carol Gibson. “They scheduled quite a few meetings and the parents did not show up.”
“If the school fails, we should pick up the ball. That was on the high school staff, they didn't reach out to the community after the parents failed,” said Hagan.
School Board Chairman Bart Alford suggested that someone from the District be put in charge of Project Graduation in the future rather than depend on parental involvement. “I don't want to be negative about it, but in this day in time I don't know that parents are going to step up and be involved in their children,” said Alford. “It's very sad, but it's reality.”
The next scheduled meeting of the Madison County District School Board will take place on Tuesday, June 27, at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Board meeting room, located at 210 NE Duval Ave., in Madison.