School districts across the state of Florida are wrestling mightily with the tasks of making draconian cuts in their budgets. School Board members are losing sleep, superintendents are visibly depressed and teachers are all on edge, wondering if they will have jobs in the coming months.
But what are the parents saying? In one county, at least, we don’t know publicly what the parents are saying, except for those who have called their school board members. While Clay County school officials have urged teachers and parents to send them their ideas on how to cut the school budget and to contact their legislators to appeal for more funding for education, there hasn’t been that uproariously loud voice from the community protesting the cuts. At least not yet.
The worldwide economic crisis is wreaking havoc with families, banking, finance, construction, infrastructure and probably more areas that we can even imagine at this time. As I have said before, I am not sure that all of the changes that may come about because of the financial chaos will be bad. There are benefits to a leaner, meaner economy, the least of which is greater efficiencies and more conservation in many areas.
Look at what has happened in the oil industry. Prices went through the roof in the U.S., motorists reduced their driving by billions of miles and prices came down, thus producing a benefit to the environment. (I know gas prices have rebounded against all odds, but there are other reasons for that.) You can see similar results in water usage and prices for all manner of Read the rest of this entry »
Two students from Ridgeview High School will be representing Clay County in the International Science Fair in Reno, Nev., later this year. The students are Alex Gandzyura in engineering and Mitchell Stecker in physics.
This will be Stecker’s second straight appearance at the International fair. Last year, at the fair in Atlanta, he did not win any awards. Here is a brief video of Stecker at this year’s county fair held Feb. 17 at the fairgrounds in Green Cove Springs. Click on the gallery tab at the top of the page for photos of the event and see the complete list of winners on the continuation of this story inside.
I am talking, of course, about Jacksonville’s debut on “American Idol.” Not what I was hoping for. I have heard a few local singers and I know there are some out there who can do better than what we saw Tuesday night.
The best part of the night was at the end with Ann Marie Boskovich’s amazing voice, and she isn’t even from Jacksonville. I didn’t catch where she is from but I think somewhere in Tennessee.
Proposals to trim the Clay County, Fla., school budget for fiscal year 2009-2010 could cause wholesale disruption of both the educational and extracurricular programs in the district, including athletics.
Superintendent Ben Wortham presented School Board members and a room full of concerned educators a list of proposed cuts that would reduce expenses by more than $27 million in the coming school year.
Included in those proposals:
a saving of $11 million by eliminating up to 256 allocations district wide
This giant mastadon skeleton is on display in the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.
I accompanied my wife on a job-related trip [for her] to Tallahassee last week. She was working with the State Department of Education on some new science standards for public school teachers.
While she worked, I played. Sort of. I got in one round of golf on Thursday after it had warmed up from a low of around 20 degrees and I visited the Museum of Florida History, which I will tell you more about in a few minutes.
The trip was also noteworthy for renewing acquaintances. My wife visited a friend from high school whom she had not seen in more than 40 years and I met a person I used to work with at the Times-Union, Jim Baltzelle, who is now Florida bureau chief for the Associated Press in Miami. Of course, there was a legislative update session in Tallahassee, so it was natural that journalists would be all over the place. My neighbor Mike Marino was also there visiting with the Times-Union’s new Tallahassee reporter. Read the rest of this entry »
I am sure that tongues were wagging at water coolers around many schools today, and rightfully so. Cuts are coming. Schools face the prospect of layoffs because of declining enrollments and cutbacks in funding from the state. Several counties have already begun closing underused schools.
As one superintendent said, “It may get uglier before it gets better.”
In Clay County, School Board members will be wrestling with a proposal to eliminate some 115 positions at a savings of $6.3 million for the 2009-2010 school year.
”We have no growth,” Superintendent Ben Wortham told board members at their regular meeting Thursday night. (Jan. 15) as he laid out a plan to reduce the district budget by $10.5 million due to a decline in state funding.
Volunteers from the Orange Park Rotary Club helped judge the Orange Park Junior High School Science Fair Wednesday morning, Dec. 17. Benjamin Swann, who has been at the school for three years, is the science fair coordinator. Listen to his explanation of the science fair and then click on the gallery above for photos of some of the judges and projects.
posted
Mar 1, 2009 by Lamar Thames
