More Information on Start Time Flip.....Tough Financial Times Ahead....Beware of Amendments 5, 7 and 9

A school board has two main priorities- ensure the school district is fiscally sound and protect the integrity of the classroom-where all teaching and learning take place. Without these, no vision of excellence can be fulfilled.

In Orange County, of every dollar, 80 cents is spent on teaching, transporting, supervising and counseling students, 12 cents on school facilities, 5 cents on library materials, staff training and curriculum development, and 3 cents on central and fiscal services, general administration and technology. Florida's Department of Education deemed Orange County Public Schools the 7th most efficient of all 67 districts, and the most efficient of large urban districts.

The cost-saving move to flip start times came out of the process to cut $70 million from the operational budget, due to state revenue shortfalls. Schools cut their budgets by 6%, departments by 7%. Hundreds of teaching positions were eliminated. A majority of board members voted for the flip. As one in the majority, I believed alternatives to the flip could involve more teacher cuts or fiscal imprudence, such as using contingency reserves for a recurring expense, such as transportation.

Recently, all public agencies were directed by Governor Crist to hold back another 4%. Ramifications of Proposition One have not yet been felt. It is predicted to siphon another $93 million out of public schools. Dramatic fuel and utility cost increases will continue. (The state funds just over 40% of school bus transportation costs for Orange County Public Schools.)

Decisions, whether majority or unanimous, are official decisions. The Superintendent, like a CEO, takes action based on official decisions. It is being carried out in a positive and productive manner. It has refreshed community partnerships and created an atmosphere of innovation and ingenuity.

To add more uncertainty, several proposed constitutional amendments are coming to the voters this November from the Tax and Budget Reform Commission, an appointed state board.

Amendment 7 seeks to strike Florida's Blaine Amendment, which forbids direct public funding of educational institutions with religious affiliation. This is a back door to vouchers. It is being challenged in the courts.

Amendment 9 would require 65% of funding to be spent directly on classroom instruction (leaving it up to the legislature to define it) and reverses prohibition of public funding of private school alternatives, i.e. vouchers, etc. This is also being challenged in the courts.

Amendment 5 alarms chief financial officers, superintendents and school boards the most. It would dismantle and destabilize public school financing by eliminating local property tax for schools and requiring the legislature to replace it with some combination of sales tax increase, elimination of sales tax exemptions, more cuts and/or other revenues.

Go to www.votesmartflorida.org for more information and www.myflorida.com to register concerns with the Governor and state legislators about adequate, stable funding for public schools.

It is going to be increasingly difficult to protect the integrity of the classroom. We need the community to accept these harsh realities and work with us as we strive to fulfill this fundamental responsibility.

School board candidates, and my successor, must become fully informed about these realities and Amendments 5, 7 and 9. The financial health and integrity of Orange County's classrooms will depend on sober, rational and courageous leadership.

Choosing to Serve our Children in New Ways

Dear Friends,

As you may already be aware, I will no longer be seeking re-election to the Orange County School Board. I will enter a new chapter in my private life and in public service to the children of Orange County.

I am thankful to the voters who in 2004 gave me this opportunity to serve. My platform at the time was to bring educational equity to our students and demonstrate fiscal stewardship. I will touch briefly on the hard decisions that I have made as I fulfilled those promises.

From the beginning, a top priority was the transformation of Evans High School. All involved in supporting and working for Evans have the expectation that the unanimous decision to rebuild on its freshman campus will be fully implemented. The students at Evans have waited long enough for an equitable and excellent education, and this plan is clearly in their best interests. I am confident that the County Commission will, this summer, give their approval.

I have worked diligently with district staff and architects to guide plans for Edgewater High School so that future students will benefit from additional land and a new campus within a budget that is responsible to the taxpayers. Even though strict fiscal discipline was applied, it is still the largest budget for a school renovation in the history of Orange County Public Schools. Future board members will have to remain disciplined as this project is further developed
while they simultaneously protect the promise to Orange County taxpayers to renovate all existing schools and build new ones. No school is more deserving than another. They are all equal in my eyes.

The decision to phase out the programs at Hungerford Preparatory was difficult, but necessary for educational and financial reasons. Many citizens and organizations are working collaboratively to arrive at good solutions for Eatonville’s schools and its economy. My successor will need to get involved and work with the many people and community leaders who are dedicated to the transformation of this historic and culturally significant community.

I have been a strong advocate for middle and high school reform, specifically the district’s League of Educational Excellence, and the district’s strategic plan and vision to be “the top producer of successful students in the nation.” As future board members become guardians of equity and excellence, they will need to protect these important initiatives. They are the foundation of educational success.

I also advocated for the 2006 school board policy to establish firm fiscal discipline within our capital program to use all available revenues in a manner that allows the renovation of all existing schools and construction of sufficient number of new schools in areas of growth.

It has been an honor to work with our incredible principals, teachers, parents, students and community supporters. The schools of District 6, and throughout the county, are excelling at an unprecedented pace. I have never met a more dedicated family of professionals who truly care about our children’s welfare, always seek to better themselves in their areas of expertise, and work tirelessly every day to educate our children to the highest levels.

It has been an honor to work with our visionary superintendent and his excellent administration. He is a nationally recognized leader of public school reform and a man of great integrity and intellect. He has not always enjoyed the local respect that he deserves and that which his peers experience in other large cities around the nation. He does not let that unfortunate reality stop him, though. He always puts children first and is not afraid to challenge the status quo as he and his team move this district forward.

It has been an honor to work with my school board colleagues, especially when we have stayed unified and shown principled leadership on the many and varied issues that have come before us. The ideal school board is one that serves the greater good, maintains the long view, and places priority on the integrity of the classroom, where all teaching and learning take place. At our best, this school board did just that.

I know that my decision has disappointed many, and delighted a few. But, timing is everything. This new path will allow me the freedom to seek new ways to advocate for justice and equity in public education. I will seek opportunities to combat efforts by special interests in our community whose agendas are meant to undermine our public schools and have little to do with children or education.

For a long time, I have followed this creed- Every Child Matters. Every Child Learns. Every Child Succeeds. I will always believe in the potential of every child, regardless of skin color, family income, place of residence, country of origin, social status, or special need, and that each has a right to an equitable and excellent education. Once acquired, an education can never be
taken away. It is the basis of a healthy society. It is the foundation of our democracy. It is, I believe, a creed worth fighting for.

I will continue to be publishing posts on this blog. It will continue to have information about my record, my positions, my passions. I will also maintain a website, and this blog, for advocating for our children’s education and providing information that is truthful and helpful to this cause.

While I still have a lot of work to do over the next six months, I will be meeting regularly with Nancy Robbinson, my successor, to bring her up to date on the many complex issues and serious responsibilities that are involved in serving on the Orange County School Board. She has assured me that she wants to serve with integrity and dedication, and will place priority on what counts most-the educational success of our children.

Thank you to those of you with whom I have worked and those who have supported me over the last several years. Your support means the world to me. Together we will build a better community.

Anne

The Stakes are High-Choosing Children over Politics-My Stand on the Elected School Board Chair

As a sitting school board member, who now understands the complexities and the great responsibilities involved in educating every child in our public schools, I took a stand well over a year ago against a county-wide elected school board chair.

Supporters are primarily those who represent special interests who seek to gain access through this elected chair to contracts in construction, food service, transportation, alternative education, supplementary education services, etc. They also desire this position as a way to promote more land development, reduce impact fees, take sales tax money away from renovation of existing schools to put toward new construction in developing areas, and keep portable classrooms on school campuses to boost capacity. Local political heavyweights are also seeking political access through this elected chair to the over 35,000 employees of the school district.

The community is being misinformed by being told that an elected chair can "bring more money" to Orange County Public Schools, when in fact public school systems are funded through an equitable state formula. They are told that an elected chair will be akin to a city or county mayor, when in fact school board members and superintendents in the state of Florida are constitutional officers, not local officials operating under local charters. Public school systems operate under a heavy mantle of state and federal rules and regulations; a reality that allows very little flexibility in local control. They are being told that this one person alone can create a new "vision," while intentionally ignoring that fact that the school district has a new vision to be "top producer of successful students in the nation" and associated strategic plan developed by the entire leadership team- the school board and superintendent's administration.

The community is NOT being told that there are serious constitutional issues being raised about this position as well as concerns about how this proposal was muscled through the legislature and signed into law as a proposal that only applies to Orange County, either through direct placement on the ballot by the school board or through citizen petition. They are also NOT being told that, if this position becomes a reality, legislators can easily change the language of the enabling law and make the position more powerful to further diminish single member representation and weaken the CEO role of the superintendent.

After doing exhaustive research, I learned that in no case did any study, any think tank, any expert educator indicate that adding more politics would improve public education. So, along with the factors that I have described here, I voted against placing this proposal on the ballot. The majority of school board members voted against placing it on the ballot. As other school board members stated, if I had chosen otherwise, it would have sent the message that I thought that it was an acceptable idea for voters to consider. In fact I strongly believe it to be a path to a "shadow, rival" superintendent, an avenue back to parochial politics- the kind of politics that created conditions that we are now trying to correct, a disabling power against healthy consensus decision-making, and a way to dissolve single-member representation and possibly minority representation.

Below are two of my opinion pieces on this critical issue. The first was published in March in the Orlando Sentinel. The paper declined to publish the second, but it is on the OCPS website and has been distributed in other ways.

My Position: Orange County voters should reject efforts to politicize education

The opportunity for voters to make a profound difference in Orange County’s future is rare.

 It is in their power to kill a bad idea that would inject parochial politics into Orange County’s public schools and throw them into chaos.

 The idea -- to create an elected school board chair that would violate the Orange County School Board’s constitutional responsibilities for consensus decision-making and obfuscate the superintendent’s constitutional responsibilities to equitably and fully serve all Orange County students and operate as chief executive officer-- into one horrible proposal the state legislature put into statute and the former Governor signed into law after being misinformed by its supporters.

Now this resolution may come to the voters and threaten the very legacy of education reform that the school board, superintendent, administrators, teachers, students, families and community partners have worked so hard to build.

 Among accomplishments are the 300% rise in Advanced Placement enrollment, “B” rating by the Florida Department of Education, over 2/3 of Orange County schools rated “A” and “B” in FCAT performance, and new vision to be “the top producer of successful students in the nation.”

But what good are these accomplishments as a foundation for further progress if we go backwards to old-style parochial politics? And make no mistake, an elected school board chair would be under immense political pressure to trade those accomplishments for political favors, and is a shadowy path to a rival “elected” superintendent.

 Schools in communities with less political clout would be at the mercy of this elected chair because of the political environment that is forcing its creation. That's no way to ensure that all students in Orange County get access to quality K-12 education.

 What our public schools need now is stability.

Remember, voters eliminated the elected superintendent years ago and more recently chose single member districts to ensure better accountability and equitable treatment of all students and all schools. Core supporters desperately want this position, so the political deal making has begun to gain support among local power brokers along with a heavy dose of misinformation. 

 But that kind of behavior is politics, not leadership.

 Leadership is looking past who gets what contract tomorrow. It's looking to the future driven by a strong economy built by an educated workforce. 



Orange County voters maintain high expectations for our public schools, and have stayed committed to and supportive of them. They also know that it takes the whole community to build and sustain great public schools. In their wisdom, they will no doubt see this for what it is- a ruse- and should reject this proposal and ensure there are great public schools for our children for many years to come.

(This was not meant as plagiarism, but instead to use the same argument made by the Sentinel editorial board on April 23, 2008 against an elected state education commissioner. Both K-12 education and higher education require less, not more politics.)

Anne Geiger represents District 6 on the Orange County School Board.


Elected School Board Chair Agenda Behind Criticism

The Sentinel editorial board has an agenda. They want a countywide elected school board chair in Orange County, an eighth member with double-vote privilege. Supporters desire another politician to “make deals,” gain political leverage via 23,000 employees, and diminish the superintendent’s CEO role. Editorials imply that our school district is inferior without such parochial politics.

Facts ignored: School board members and the superintendent are constitutional officers with definitive, statutory responsibilities. Orange County Public Schools is a high “B” school district, over 2/3 of schools are “A” and “B”, and our middle and high school reform initiative is a national best practice. A strategic plan is being developed to achieve our vision to be “the top producer of successful students in the nation.”

Fragile Evans High School is now being used in misleading, disparaging editorials to push their agenda. Designated an “F” school by the Florida Department of Education, Evans suffers from long-standing school choice policies allowing many high-achieving students to transfer. It sits in Pine Hills, an area experiencing demographic changes, poverty and crime. Pine Hills and Evans endure incessant ridicule. Students are marginalized.

Arriving in 2004, I found it unacceptable that Evans was near the bottom of the sales-tax renovation list. Superintendent Blocker, “Kat” Gordon and I advocated accelerating Evans and Oak Ridge high schools. COVE and the school board concurred.

Fifty-year-old Evans, typical of Florida’s aging schools, deals with mold, water penetration and flooding. It has received $4.3 million for upgrades and maintenance since 2002.

Further action since 2004: first-class administration, strengthened faculty, rigorous curriculum including International Baccalaureate and Global Technologies programs, and plans for a new campus built swiftly in a more stable location.

In 2006, COVE and the school board unanimously approved rebuilding Evans on its freshman campus and adjacent property acquired for that purpose. The school district entered the county process to gain approval for institutional use of the acquired property. School district and county staffs worked collaboratively. Planning, engineering and design work were performed simultaneously. There was no controversy. Planning and Zoning Commission gave the thumbs-up.

Evans’ replacement school within its attendance zone, on its freshman campus and on the edge of a rural settlement, would be located “where city services are already provided.” Urban areas surround the rural settlement in which private development is restricted. Based on these facts, it would unlikely “set the stage for more big-city sprawl.” Trees and retention ponds would provide buffer.

Mayor Crotty and three commissioners gave the thumbs-down, without explanation.

An editorial calls the school district a developer. Developers are private entities that generate profit. Public schools are part of vital community infrastructure.

Evans students are being sacrificed in this toxic political environment. Shamelessly, many opponents are using rural settlement as a proxy for racial animus.

That should be the subject of an editorial, but children’s best interests and ethical governance are not the agenda.

Anne Geiger represents District 6 on the Orange County School Board.