By ALICIA LEONARD
The Walton County School Board (WCSB) met for a series of workshops and their regular meeting on the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2014. All board members were present with the exception of Sharon Roberts.
The board moved quickly through the opening agenda items, including approval of the agenda itself and the adoption of minutes from previous meetings and expulsion minutes.
Under the call for public comments, Shawn Miller, a parent of a student enrolled in Freeport Middle School, respectfully approached the board about issues his child was having with the new Florida State Standards.
“We’re having some serious issues with math this year,” Miller told the board. He said the way his son had been taught multiplication tables the year prior were a different formula than they way they were being taught this year. “This is the third time my child has been taught math as far as multiplication and division.” Miller said the district had gotten his son a tutor to help him to bring his scores up, and using the older long form of maths, his son showed progress. “This year with the new way, he is totally lost. I was totally lost. My parents were totally lost to the point I went and bought a book from the school so I could stay ahead of how they are teaching math, and the teachers are openly saying there is such a large gap between the old system and the new system and that they are trying their best, but they can’t slow down for one child.This is happening to a lot of people. Everyone in our neighborhood that has a child in the fifth or sixth grade is having this problem.”
Miller expressed that he understood the district did not change the way the courses were taught and that those changes were mandated from the state, but he was asking the district to work on helping parents to be able to help their children do better in the new classes. “I’m just looking for a way to help my child. I want him to succeed,” he said.
Walton School Superintendent Carlene Anderson told Miller that she believed staff in their curriculum department could help parents understand the new standards, and as far as helping students individually, she would be meeting with school principals the next day and ask for some parent meeting/tutorials to be started, as well as getting Parent Teacher Organizations and Associations involved and “see if we can assist our parents in learning how to help with the Florida Standards. It’s not something we can do away with here…but we can work to help our parents…we will be working on that for you, sir.”
The board then moved to open a public hearing on board rules and policies. With no public comments, the board closed the public hearing and moved to adopt their policies and rules unanimously.
Under agreements and contracts, the board approved unanimously to continue the contracts for School Resource Deputies (SRD) on campuses. Anderson thanked Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson and his department for the SRD program for the manpower they provided and the funding that they have continued to provide that helps support the SRD program. “Our facilities, our staff, even our children and especially the children’s parents feel very safe, having these gentlemen and ladies in our presence. I just want to publicly thank him for that contribution that he continues to make. Without them, we certainly would lose some of our SRDs. Thank you. We appreciate it very much.”
Chief Financial Officer for the district, Debra Noyes, addressed the board later in the meeting over the Annual Financial Report (AFR) for the 2013-14 school year. “We stand at the end of school year at 2.52 percent” or $1.672 million for the general fund balance. “There is much work that has been started in the area of the general fund. Some of that work preceded me with the superintendent’s guidance this summer, and Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Messer, as well as many of the constituents in this room that work in the district. We have a lot of collaborative work to do. These folks that work in the school district don’t get enough information from the finance department to make good decisions. I am actively learning your computer system. It’s a bit of a challenge, but I can say there is information in there that we have to be able to pull out, and use wisely.”
Noyes said the finance department had been able to pull down the general ledger of every department so they could “understand better between 2013 and 2014 where our expenses actually went up. What we have to do as an organization is hard-wire a budgetary process. That’s where people are held accountable to their budget. The board amended your budget 25…it’s debatable, we think 24 to 26 times last year. What we are going to do is change a culture where we hold people accountable to the budget that they have. We’re going to reduce the number of times we’re coming to you to ask for budgeting exceptions, but that will require that we do a lot of collaborative work, in working together to create that culture of accountability.”
The board had earlier approved a policy to protect the 3-percent fund balance required by the state, along with a 1-percent fund to cover any unexpected expenses or shortfalls if necessary. The 3-percent fund balance can only be accessed by a majority vote of the board in a financial emergency.
The next WCSB meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21 at 5 p.m at the South Walton High School media room.
To see more about district events and schedules, go to HYPERLINK “http://www.walton.k12.fl.us.” www.walton.k12.fl.us.
