2012 Pinellas County School Board Candidates Forum
July 26th 2012, Osceola High School
District 1 QuestionsQ1. What experience do you have with complicated budgets? When you are given a 200 page, $1.3billion budget for the district, what will be your process to determine if it is a good budget for the school district?
Watch the candidates' responses. Q2. Pinellas County Schools provides over $8 million of transportation services not mandated by the state of Florida which amounts to 25% of the entire $32 million transportation budget. In addition, the Pinellas school bus utilization is around 65%, less than all four surrounding districts. What should the District do to save transportation dollars that could instead be used in the classroom? What other cost-savings recommendations would you make? Watch the candidates' responses. Q3. In November voters will be asked whether to approve the continuation of the one-half mill ad valorem tax for school district operating expenses. Through the end of the 2010-2011 school year, the tax has supplemented teachers’ salaries by an average of $3,180 per year and supplied schools with more than $38 million in reading materials, wireless mobile computer labs, Smart Boards, up-to-date software, art supplies, band uniforms, musical instruments and many other items that enhance teaching and learning. What should the District do to prepare should this source of funding go away? Watch the candidates' responses. Q4. There are many challenges inherent in evaluating teachers’ performance. What do you perceive those challenges to be, and what type of training would you suggest providing for school leaders to assist them in providing fair and constructive evaluations? How should the district balance using evaluations for accountability and using them to help teachers improve? Watch the candidates' responses. Q5. The School Board is in the process making of making a very important decision – selecting the next Pinellas County Schools Superintendent. Do believe the current slate of three candidates is adequate? What are three questions you would ask candidates for district superintendent? What would you hope to learn about the candidates from the responses? Watch the candidates' responses. Q6. The overall performance gap between black and white students in Pinellas County is among the worst of any large district in Florida. Why has Pinellas not been able to make much headway on the gap? What would you do as a board member to change that? Watch the candidates' responses. Q7, State law says the School Board’s job is “to determine policies and programs for the district. It says the superintendent’s job is to “exercise general oversight” over the system and make recommendations to the board. School boards and superintendents sometimes clash over their roles. If you are elected, where would you draw the line between your job and the superintendents? Watch the candidates' responses. |
District 7 QuestionsQ1. The Pinellas County School District is the seventh-largest in the state and the 24th-largest in the nation. The School District is the largest employer in Pinellas County with 17,000 staff who serve more than 100,000 pre-K through 12th-grade students. What experience do you have that demonstrates success leading such a large, complex and important organization?
Watch the candidates' responses. Q2. It has been recommended by some that the District should consider the sale of vacant land and facilities to reduce its operations budget. The ongoing costs related to these unused sites is estimated to be approximately $600,000 per year and could potentially generate millions of dollars in cash for reinvestment. Do you agree that the district should sell its vacant land and facilities now or should the district retain the property for future use or wait to see when property values climb again? What other cost-savings recommendations would you make? Watch the candidates' responses. Q3. The Department of Education and/or the Legislature require that school districts meet certain requirements and provide certain services for which districts are not given funding or are not given sufficient funding. Some of these unfunded mandates include:
Video not available. Q4. In March 2011 the State of Florida released the “Florida DOE Professional Development System Evaluation Protocol” district report and review. In this report Pinellas receive a rating of 4 out of 5 in non-instructional staff training, a 3 out of 5 in instructional staff training, but a mere 1 out of 5 in Leadership Development in training administrators. What will you do as a board member to help set policy that ensures high quality leadership development of principals and assistant principals? Watch the candidates' responses. Q5. In the Fall of 2011 the School Board agreed to support a 5 year plan called Academies of Pinellas. Approximately 17% of high school students are currently enrolled in Academies, Centers of Excellence and other themed programs. The goal of the 5year plan is to increase enrollment to 50%. As a school board member will you be willing to support the necessary changes in staff and resources to reach this goal? What has been your experience with this education model and how do you value its importance? Watch the candidates' responses. Q6. Imagine Charter School in St. Petersburg just earned its third F in four years. Though Imagine supporters have made the case that they were improving, 2011-12 FCAT data showed the school was still struggling: 54 percent of its third graders, for example, scored a Level 1 in reading, the lowest possible score. Do you agree with the School Board’s decision this week to give the Imagine School another chance to improve? What do you know about charter schools and their mission? How aggressive should the School Board be in closing charter schools that are struggling? Watch the candidates' responses. Q7. What is your view of the teacher’s union in this district? What about other stakeholder groups like the Pinellas Education Foundation and the PTA? What is your style of listening to parents and other community members? When making decisions that affect students and families in District 7 and throughout the County, how will you prioritize stakeholder concerns? Watch the candidates' responses. |
Lightning Round Questions
Watch the District 1 and District 7 to the following questions:
- Do you believe that Pinellas County Schools have put enough emphasis on combating bullying and escalating school violence?
- Would you support longer school days?
- Would you support the abolishment of early release Wednesdays?
- Do you support working with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to supply busing for high schools?
- To save money, would you allow middle and high school students to ride the same bus?
- Should any non-instructional school services be transferred to private sector in order to save money for the district?
- Do you support the continuation of the one-half mill ad valorem tax for school district operating expenses?
- Do you support legislation that would allow for the takeover of public schools by for-profit charter management companies and other corporate interests?
- Do you support Amendment 3 Revenue Limitation, which was modeled after Colorado’s TABOR, on the November ballot?
- Do you oppose the current use of the FCAT to assess student, teacher, school and district performance?
- Is it realistic that nearly 99% of teachers in Pinellas County received a performance rating of satisfactory or above?
- Do you object to the public giving the School Board a grade for their actions and outcomes?
- Do you support the implementation of Common Core State Standards?
- Can schools succeed without strong parental involvement?
- Are you a current PTA (Parent Teacher Association) member?
