School Board To Undermine Class Size Amendment?

BY BUDDY NEVINS

A group of  parents are worried that the Broward School Board is about to subvert the Class Size Amendment.

That’s the state constitutional guarantee that classes be small enough to give  students a reasonable chance to learn.

Parents fear that the Board will try to divide the county schools into eight geographic areas. Student populations would be averaged within each area.

This would mean that some schools would be allowed to remain over-enrolled because their student counts would be averaged with other schools that would be under-enrolled.

This would lock Weston students into overcrowded schools without a chance of relief.  It would doom east Broward students to under enrolled schools, which would be underfunded based on their smaller size.  

Parents are fighting back using that Digital Age tool of activists, the e-mail tree.

Below is the e-mail zipping around Broward, which is starting to reach politicians and officials outside the school system:

Various cities and the School District have discussed a new strategy to circumvent rules on overcrowding and boundary changes.  Under consideration is the development of eight geographic regions.  School populations would be averaged within a region. This would mean that some schools would be allowed to remain over-enrolled while other schools would HAVE to remain under-enrolled.

What is wrong with this concept?

a. Under-enrolled schools lose funding:  With funding tied to students, under-enrolling a school takes dollars out of schools.  Under-enrolled schools struggle to provide the same services as schools at or above capacity.  It impacts schedules, what classes can be offered, advanced placement offerings, services such as ESE, art, music, PE, etc.

b. Overenrolled schools are also negatively impacted: With too many students, classroom space is at a premium.  Programs such as music, art, and physical education are generally harmed in this scenario.  Class sizes may be larger.  Students sit in portables without covered walkways, technology, running water and bathrooms.

c. Geographical areas also allow development within a geographical area without payment of impact fees.

Before making a decision on geographic areas, the District needs to determine compliance with class size, scheduling (block vs. rotator), and what portables qualify for use.  The Oversight committee needs answers to questions such as

a. Does the District include any portables in the student station count?

b. How many portables are pre 1998 and don’t meet SREF standards?  Are they allowed to be used to determine compliance with class size?

The Florida Voters spoke loudly and clearly on both class size and equity.

Amending the ILA in this manner might make it difficult to comply with the state constitution. *

This matter will be brought before the ILA Oversight Committee on December 9th at 9:30am, KCW building. The Committee Members are listed below. Please correspond with them and let them know your feelings regarding amending the ILA.

Members of the Oversight Committee Include:

ptingom@plantation.org
joycooper@aol.com
ajones@ci.dania-beach.fl.us
gresnick@gray-robinson.com
dstermer@westonfl.org
kklopp@deerfield-beach.com
krish6@bellsouth.net
cmarks7121@aol.com
lwexler@broward.org
robin.bartleman@browardschools.com
maureen.dinnen@browardschools.com
kevin.tynan@browardschools.com
naylorrealty@bellsouth.net
rrogers@ibigroup.com
eichners@calvin-giordano.com

*  Article IX, Section 1, Florida Constitution, is amended to read:
Section 1. Public Education.

The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education and for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of institutions of higher learning and other public education programs that the needs of the people may require. To assure that children attending public schools obtain a high quality education, the legislature shall make adequate provision to ensure that, by the beginning of the 2010 school year, there are a sufficient number of classrooms so that:

1. The maximum number of students who are assigned to each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for prekindergarten through grade 3 does not exceed 18 students;

2. The maximum number of students who are assigned to each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for grades 4 through 8 does not exceed 22 students; and

3. The maximum number of students who are assigned to each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for grades 9 through 12 does not exceed 25 students.

4. The class size requirements of this subsection do not apply to extracurricular classes. Payment of the costs associated with reducing class size to meet these requirements is the responsibility of the state and not of local school districts. Beginning with the 2003-2004 fiscal year, the legislature shall provide sufficient funds to reduce the average number of students in each classroom by at least two students per year until the maximum number of students per classroom does not exceed the requirements of this subsection.

 



14 Responses to “School Board To Undermine Class Size Amendment?”

  1. Weston parent of two says:

    If the School Board has problems now, just wait until they tell me and my neighbors we will have to put up with overcrowding in our school forever. I have two children in elementary school and want to see a new high school before they graduate.

  2. Duplicitous Bitches says:

    Those two faced bitches used this class size argument to get money from us. Now they’re looking for ways not to implement it. There is nothing good about the broward public school operaion. People should take it back and throw every one of those people out.

  3. Maria Peddington says:

    Class size is one of the major determinants of student success and any attempt to undermine the amendment is almost criminal on the part of the School Board. To fudge the student population counts to justify either overcrowding or undercrowding is something we sadly have learned to expect from the school board. This will especially hurt the underachieving schools who will have to make do with less as the e-mail states accurately. The liberal Democrats on the School Board are very willing to beg blacks for votes every two years. Now they can explain to the black community why many of their schools which are underenrolled will not get the same resources as the overcrowded schools in Weston, Parkland and Pembroke Pines.

  4. When I was Young says:

    If they gave teachers the right to smack the kids around, like they did when I was in school, you could have 40 in a class and they’d all learn. I had 40 in my class and we all went to college. But that’s because there was discipline in the school, and then at hope to support the teacher. Now we have neither and kids are much worse off for it.

  5. When I was Young says:

    I meant at home, not at hope.

  6. Concerned Broward County Resident says:

    You need to get a little more educated on the process before you start making comments like this.

    The boundary changes will affect every family in Broward County if it passes. you will have children bused from Weston to Cooper City, from Cooper City to Davie, from Davie to Pines, from Pines to Miramar, etc……

    I don’t want my children to bused to some other neighborhood, when we have good schools around the corner.!!!

    There are more problems! by going ahead with the boundary changes.
    They will need new buses, gas, tires. Think about the environmental impact, business impact. PTA impact. After school activities, and many more.

    Lifetime friends all of the sudden separated going to diferent schools.

    We need to stop The boundary Changes; Amend the ILA and force the school board to build the school that where promised to the Western Cities.

    Our children are not cattle to be moved around because the School board misused the funds and build schools and classroom where they were not needed.

    This should not be a political issue, this is our childrens future they are playing with

    Help stop the Madness and support the eight geographical areas.

  7. Garfish says:

    Hahaha, use an email tree…let’s hope the School Board doesn’t block those emails as spam too.

  8. What This is All About says:

    What this boils down to is too many fat white suburban housewives with raging hormones not wanting their little darlings to go to school with black kids.

    They want the boundering done just right so that result doesn’t occur.

    Why don’t we just tell the truth already?

    FROM BUDDY: The e-mail was generated by white and black parents who largely go to east Fort Lauderdale schools. They are concerned that their schools will be robbed of resources under this plan. They are not worried about their kids going to school with blacks, because their kids already go to heavily-minority schools.

  9. Support Neighborhood Schools says:

    Ditto to the number 6 comment. Support Mr. Notter possible recommendation of waiting a year. This will allow for amending the ILA and State legislators to work on a Bill allowing portables to count. Yeah – yeah , we never wanted portables, but better than busing the kids outside of the neighborhood – rather have them in a portable than on a bus, rather have them in an overcrowded school than on a bus.

  10. nottinamazesme says:

    Of the 15 names listed on the Oversight Committee, how many have been teachers? How many have worked with groups of children of all ages? And have they done so for 10 years or more? From what I see they’re politicians! My point is: without sufficient experience you can’t possibly make prudent decisions because you simply don’t know what you’re talking about. Things on paper or in a world looked at with rose-colored lenses may look and sound one way, but in reality these same ideas may wind up being a flop. Therefore, an unexperienced team may not have the foresight needed. We may very well have in our hands another team in Broward that knows little about education.

    Hey, does anyone aound here know the best roads heading north so we can head out of the Sunshine State and not look back?

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    On the other hand, I couldn’t agree more with When I was Young if I wanted to. Words that are more true than those have never been said. In the “ole days” teachers had approximately 4 dozen students in a classroom and they all learned and were well-behaved. But things then were very, very different. Now it’s very complicated.

    Today, there are parents(administrators and teachers as well) who make up excuses for their children’s poor actions and try to justify something wrong as being correct. Many try to discredit teachers as much as possible and teach their children that disrespect is admirable, and even funny. Some parents even go as far as to lie about their child’s teacher to get what they want, and in so doing, teach their children that lying is fine.

    Some people’s values are totally cockeyed nowadays, something our society didn’t see too much of long years ago. Yet, I deeply admire those parents who, despite what’s in vogue, instill in their children values and morals that are truly magnificent and wholesome. These children become the adults who wind up obeying rules and respecting set policies. They had good parents, who prepared them for life. (Ooops! Wait a moment here. Did I jsut say a bad word: “obey”? My goodness! Shame on me! That’s a totally inappropriate and politically incorrect word. Nobody uses that kind of foul language anymore! It’s now “follow”.)

    Fact is: the population numbers in our prisons and jails is astronomical. Why? I think it starts at home. Poorly developed habits, or character development, inevitably carry on to the schools, where little can be done, and then, to the streets. Here’s an added bonus: for the last 20 years or more, television and film directors and producers have been adding to the situation and selfishly lining their pockets with plenty of ill-gained money, by screwing up our kids’ heads with their deplorable ideas and examples of what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s funny on the screen. And since mom and dad are out working 8-10 hrs. a day and can’t teach their children what to do, their kids must learn from someone else. Someone who undergoes no “scrutiny” procedures for their productions, because little is in place, other than the G, PG13, R, X, and triple X ratings, etc. No one can ask whether these Hollywood (CA!) folks are child molesters or if their brains are fried from drug addiction, or whether they’re grossly lacking in morals. Nothing…because they hire themselves. Their millions of dollars just magically open the media doors, and the hearts and minds of the fools who fall for them and wind up watching and ultimately approving their garbage. Our society and our children are their lab guinea pigs!! Now, supplement that with what “other experts” think….and well, we’ve all seen the results, folks. Look at the stats.

    The bottom line is that good or bad behavior is learned via the guidance given at home, which is also where the TV happens to be. I do have faith that for our society’s sake, goodness will still prevail.

  11. concerned parent says:

    Please don’t think for a second that any more schools are going to be built. That is not going to happen. The county is under-enrolled, the economy collapsed, and there is no money. The laws we all voted for about class size were done to encourage building of schools where they were needed, NOT to result in busing kids out of their communities. That is exactly what is going to happen if the amendment to the ILA doesn’t pass. Tens of thousand of students will be bused away from their communities. Schools that ARE NOT overcrowded will be affected as well, as they will be moved to make room for kids coming from adjacent schools. This can all be seen on the broward school boundary website. The result will be a disaster to Broward county and Broward public schools, as people will turn to other options such as charter schools and home schooling to provide stability for their children. Enrollment will drop even more, and that will not help any child living anywhere in the county. Please, understand what is happening here, this is not a “west vs east” issue: this is a “years of bad decisions and poor planning which have led us all to the edge of a cliff” issue.
    Amend the ILA! It’s original purpose is now moot, and it needs to be changed!

  12. concerned parent says:

    And by the way, I couldn’t care less if my children go to school with black children. They go to school with black children right now, as well as Chinese children, muslim chilren, Israeli children, and just about every ethnic, racial, and religious background you can think of. That’s not what this is about at all. I want my kids to stay in our community, so they can continue to go to afterschool clubs, extracurricular activities, home with a neighbor after school, all the things they will not be able to do if they are sitting on a bus for an hour.

  13. Not True says:

    Cannot back down from this. In Weston, the people there wanted schools built here or there, this way or that, with these people invited and those not, so they could keep their kids away from the black kids. Plain and simple.

    Same with those racists in SW Ranches. They got Bev to put herself in jail (didn’t take much effort actually) to build a school where she did so they could send their kids to a majority white school in a changing demographic.

    Do not try to tell me otherwise about Cooper City. This boundary issue comes down to whether white girls will go to school with black boys. That is a very big part of what this is all about. Admit it.

  14. Not True says:

    @Not True. It’s a shame you are so ignorant on this topic and quite frankly somewhat racist in your remarks. I busted my butt in school and at work to make the money I do so that I could put my family in a reasonably safe and productive neighborhood. If that happens to be a predominantly white neighborhood then so be it. That’s just Socio-Economics at play. Not my fault. If you want your Black boys (as you put it) to go to school with white girls then start improving yourself to afford a home out west. Pretty simple. Don’t blame us “white people”. Have a nice day now.