Got questions?

We need ’em.

The Pinellas County Council of PTAs and five co-sponsors, including the St. Petersburg Times, are planning a major televised forum Aug. 21 featuring the 13 candidates for Pinellas School Board. The plan is for the public to submit questions for the candidates right here, under this blog entry. That’s so participants will be able to see what their fellow citizens are asking.

The deadline for questions will be Aug. 10, after which a committee made up of sponsor representatives will choose the best ones. The debate will be held at Osceola High School and will be televised live on the school district’s channel, WPDS-TVl4.

The other co-sponsors are the Pinellas Education Foundation, Bright House Networks, the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and WorkNet Pinellas. The forum will consist of three moderated mini debates, one for each seat. The District 1 and District 2 board members represent the entire county. The District 4 board member represents Clearwater, Largo and the mid-county beaches.

This is an important election. Three of the board’s seven seats are up for grabs and the Pinellas school system is at a critical crossroads. So we encourage you to participate.

- Tom Tobin, education writer

Comments

[A fed up teacher]

I've read that part of the new school-based management initiative is to end social promotion, yet officially I've heard school board members say there is no such thing in Pinellas County Schools. Come on, who do they think they're kidding. Every year I'm forced to promote kids who can't read and write to make room for more who can't read and write. Will the lying and deceit end if you are elected to the School Board?

[Kim]

1.The recent budget "reorganization" cut the expansion of the school nurse & CNA project, which would have placed more health professionals in schools daily. How would you address the needs of students with complex medical needs?

2.How is the new student assignment plan addressing the medical needs of students?

3. What positions would be your priority to replace if funds became available?

[fed up taxpayer]

The PCSB budget has increased from $1 Billion in 99/00 to $1.5 Billion for 07/08. Student enrollment has been decreasing the past few years. Why has spending skyrocketed, and what will you do to rein it back in?

[Mark]

School starts in about a month. Right now, middle schools do not know how many periods or blocks they are going to teach. The District Administration is proposing a schedule which violates the contract between the School Board and teachers. Middle School students and teachers will return to chaos if the current situation continues. Do any of candidates have opinions on this matter?

[A voter who cares about education]

Should the current school board members move quickly to fill the vacant superintendent's position or wait until the new school board takes office?

[concerned parent and child advocate]

1. How well-versed are you with the School District's efforts in closing achievement gaps? What is best way to help underachieving students?

2. How have you worked collaboratively with diverse groups? Please give example.

3. What experience do you have for budget/people management and how would it help school district?

4. How would you characterize changes needed to improve the professional environment of the School District and particularly the School Board?

5. What role should schools play to combat obesity?

6. What are your thoughts about expanding instructional minutes?

7. What experience do you have working w/special needs students and helping those families bring out the best in their students?

[Can't stand to watch]

I've attended a number of Pinellas County School Board meetings and watched a number from my home on TV (I don't get out much). It seems that current school board members spend an awful lot of time dealing with personnel issues and administrative issues better left to the superintendent, and very little time is spent dealing with critical problems that actually relate to educating our kids. How do you respond to that criticism and what do you propose to do about it?

[A business person who cares]

A few weeks ago, an official from the Pinellas Classroom Teachers' Association made a comment in the Times to the affect that since teachers don't "mess in business", business people should not "mess in education". I partner with a Pinellas County School and many of our employees mentor. Is this attitude representative of all educators? Maybe if a few more business people got involved with education our schools would not be in the trouble they are now.

[Outraged parent]

I've read recently that more than 5,000 students each year are dropping out of school in Pinellas County and this number has been pretty constant for almost two decades. As a candidate for school board, doesn't this make your blood boil and what do you plan to do about it?

[publicschoolteacher]

PTA mom, why not STOP? No one is forcing you to support every student in the class. You complaints should have gone directly to your child's principal, and then to your school board representative if the issue was not resolved.

That being said, imagine how much $ comes out of teachers' pockets to buy supplies for students whose parents aren't as generous as you are. I know about those pesky electric pencil sharpeners. I have bought no less than a dozen over the years until I finally decided to spring for the industrial strength one from a catalog to the tune of almost $300.

Yet in my county, people are screaming for the board to deny us our annual step increase. I know I will be relying heavily on parents to fill in the gaps. I will not be buying extra supplies with my own money like I have in the past. I have never put printer paper on my wish list before (as our school has always had PLENTY), but it's on there this year.

[Tom Tobin, Times Staff Writer]

Good questions so far, folks. Keep them coming.

[nc_angelone]

What are your thoughts or plans on expanding vocational education at the high school level? Not every kid is bound for college, and there's been too much talk but no action on addressing the needs of the high school students who are not running 3.0 GPA's and do not have the desire nor the finances to attend college. There is nothing dishonorable about pursuing a plumber's apprenticship, learning how to run a grocery store, being a kennel assistant or learning the art of massage. And some of these jobs, particularly trades and wellness - there is money to be made. It seems that the students like these - the ones who fall in the middle - they are forgotten about. So how do you, or will you address the fact that the high schools in pinellas are still revolving around the college-bound and honors/AP kids, and not assisting the middle ground kids with other career choices? I know....I have one.

[PTA Mom]

Yes, I know that is my responsibility. I am well aware that I need to supply that for MY CHILD. I do with no problems.... I send her with supplies in her bag every day, and all the items on the school list on the 1st day of school.

I am refering to the hundreds of dollars that I spent on supplies for the WHOLE CLASS. Not everyone remembers to send in pencils every day..... dozens of pencils, dozens of of pencil tip erasers, dozens of regular size erasers, hundreds of pages of printer labels, reams of paper, pricy electric pencil sharpeners (know hoe long it takes 18 kids to use those old fashioned pencil-eating machines... about 20 minutes), dozens of paperback books for the classroom reading centers, dozens of plastic storage containers to store things in... the list is endless....

[publicschoolteacher]

PTA mom,
Are you aware that it is your responsibility to send you child to school prepared? Maybe you shouldn't have to buy printer labels, ink and such (the school has $ to supply those things), but pencils, notebooks, folders, etc. should come from home.

[PTA MOM]

1. What are your beliefs as far as gifted education (for those students who pass the iq testing to be considered gifted)?
2. Are you aware that a high percentage of students who take pscb testing for gifted fail? Then with One privately paid testing pass, with scores 15/20+ points higher than the school provided testing?... This is not an instance of parents "testing until you get a high enough score", but simply one privately paid test post pscb testing.
3. Are you aware that there are Confidentiality "issues" with the gifted testing, such as one student receiving their private test results in the same envelope with another students? Or how about one student receiving their test results with another student's name on it crossed out? Both of these instances have happened to current Ridgecrest students.
4. Are you aware that there is no gifted middle school (in place for the coming year) or gifted magnet?
5. Are you aware that the gifted 5th graders at Ridgecrest go on to middle school and HAVE ALREADY USED THE 6TH GRADE TEXTBOOKS AND READING MATERIALS (while in 5th grade at Ridgecrest) and thus coast by in 6th grade and don't learn anything in 6th grade and become bored in class.
6. Are you aware that there are language arts classes in middle school where students sit and listen to a tape recording of a book being read?
7. Are you aware that parents are spending hundreds of dollars in classroom supplies (tissues, paper towels, notebooks, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, dry erase labels, printer paper, ink, folders, printer labels) so that the teachers do not have to spend their salaries on these supplies?
8. How much time have you spend observing what really goes on in classrooms? How many visits have you had WITHOUT a principal/vice principal there by your side so you can hear what the teachers REALLY want to say (not what the admin wants them to say).
9. Have you ever walked a 2 mile trek to school through busy roads, walking next to roaming dogs and fast driving cars? Would you let your children/grandchildren walk that distance? Don't forget about the 30+ lb backpack that the children must carry.
10. Would you let your K or 1st grade child cross 113th street in Seminole/Largo to get home from school? How about a 5th grader with a 30 lb packpack? With no crossing guard? When the same bus drops kids off on Ridge rd AFTER passing their street on the east side of 113th?

[tre]

1. What financial areas do you see as the district's top priorities? What do you see as the lowest priorities?

2. How do you plan on improving faculty and staff morales --especially in light of the recent budget woes?

3. What do you believe a child need to perform at his/her best?

4. What do administrators, teachers, and staff need to perform at their best?

5. How do you plan to increase and improve social studies education in our district to better prepare students to be citizens?

6. What do you see Pinellas County schools as doing well currently? Where do we need work?

[Joy]

1) What will you do to get the state legislature to fund public schools appropriately?

2) As a school board member, who are you accountable to, and how will that accountability affect what you do on the Board?

3) For you, what is the driving force in local education? finances or learning, or something else? How might your "driving force" affect what you do on the Board?

(1) If you are elected and could see just one thing accomplished during your term that would improve our school system, what would that accomplishment be, how would you implement it, and how would you "sell" it to the other board members, the superintendent, the teachers and parents, and the public?

(2) what do you see as the outgoing school board's greatest success and its greatest failure? What would you have done differently?

(3) in what areas do you plan to advocate making additional budget cuts which are most certainly coming next year -- transportation? layoffs ? Fewer benefits for employees as well as a pay cut or pay freeze? Hiring freezes? Closing schools? Which of these areas do you feel should be high priority to keep their funding even in an era of severe budget cuts?

[truth]

my question to the candidates:

Are any of you a CPA? We need someone who is qualified and has experience identifying wastful spending, duplication of business processes, and someone who knows how to make a dollar strecth like a piece of bubble gum that's been stepped on by a middle school kid running through the school hall! Good luck, my prayers are with you......seriously.