“A child is a person who is going to carry on what you
have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting
and when you are gone, attend to those things, which you think
are important. You may adopt all the policies you please,
but how they are carried out depends on him. He will assume
control of your cities, state and nations. He is going
to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities
and corporations…the fate of humanity is in his hands.”
– Abraham
Lincoln
From
the Central Florida Community:
"I
am proud of the community for organizing and passing on information.
Too bad it has to happen under these conditions. Count
me in to any community organization that cares about kids and
is committed to being informed about education. I'll be glad
to help you with anything I can."
Rick Roach, School Board Member, District 3
"As
a City of Orlando Commissioner, we are tasked, specifically,
with it's fiscal responsibility. I'm deeply concerned
over the financial impact of the change of the school start
times as has been approved by the Orange County School Board.
Let me cite just two examples that concern me:
First, much of our after school day care
at our 11 facilities throughout Orlando is supplemented by quality
staff provided through local high schools. This quality
core of working students have allowed us to keep our rates far
below the market and well within the reach of hard working families.
These employees are available for assistance and leadership
with our elementary school students since they are dismissed
from school well before our elementary schools. The impact
of a later start and release time for high schools requires
that we seek staff who are more likely to be less reliable and
more expensive. This, in turn, may require that we increase
our daily and weekly fees in order to maintain the quality program...something
that effectively will pass along this proposed savings to those
who can least afford it.
Second, I am concerned about crime. Adding more unsupervised
time for middle school students may create an increase on criminal
mischief and vandalism. We see this trend each summer
as school moves into summer recess and many of these students
have more time on their hands without quality supervision. I
don't know the financial impact on our community but expect
it to be substantial, even though it may not be adequately measured.
I'm convinced that there may be more creative and permanent
solutions to cutting our OCPS budget that should be implemented
before this is put into operation. I would hope that the
Orange County School Board would reconsider their action and
return the school start times to the previous times."
Robert F. Stuart, Commissioner,
District 3, City of Orlando
Robert.Stuart@CityofOrlando.net
Flashpoint:
School Budgets, Rezoning!
As seen on WCPX Channel 6,
Orange County school leaders join Lauren Rowe
to talk about education issues. Click
here to view video!
School
Cuts Hurt!
Budget Cuts, closings, quality of education. Just a
few of the issues plauging our public schools.
One agency keeping us informed is CORE (Community Organized
to Rescue Education).
Bud Hedinger spoke with it's president, Mary Jo, Markel, on
March 11, 2009.
Click HERE! to listen to interview.
Orlando
Sentinel Reports on School Closures
Wednesday,
April 8, 2009
CLICK
HERE TO READ ARTICLE
Orange
County Core Reports on Budget Studies
Thursday,
March 5, 2009 CLICK
HERE TO READ ARTICLE
Core
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