Leon County Schools, Florida

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Leon County School District is a school district in Florida. The school system has a total attendance of 32,856 students project for the 2009-2010 school year. The Florida Department of Education provides a list of past, current, and future school enrollment totals for each district.

[edit] Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of Florida school district websites

[edit] The good

  • Budget is published.[1]
  • School board members are listed with contact information.[2] Meeting schedule, minutes and agendas posted.[3]
  • Administrative officials are listed with contact information under respective departments.[4]
  • Annual financial audits are posted.[5]
  • Labor [6] and vendor contracts are available.[7]
  • Information on background checks is provided.[8]
  • Student progression plan is posted.[9]

[edit] The bad

  • Information on making public records requests is provided[10], but doesn't actually list who to contact.
  • Does not provide information on taxes.

[edit] School board

The school board controls school property, establishes, organizes, and operates the schools of the district, including: establishing schools, adopting enrollment plans, providing for school elimination and consolidation, cooperating with school boards of adjoining districts in maintaining schools, maintaining the school year schedule and other more specific duties as outlined in the Florida statute. [11]

It operates, controls and supervises the district's public schools as well as determines the rate of school district taxes, with the option of two or more school districts operating and financing educational programs together.

Member District Term
Forrest Van Camp 1 2008-2010
Dee Crumpler 2 2008-2012
Maggie Lewis-Butler 3 2006-2010
Dee Dee Rasmussen 4 2008-2010
Georgia Bowen 5 2006-2010

Mr. Jackie Pons serves as the Superintendent of Schools since 2006.[12]

[edit] Teacher contracts

[edit] School Budget

The 2008-2009 fiscal year (FY 09) budget for the Leon County School Board total is $471.7 million with the General Fund or operating budget of $274.6 million which makes up the largest portion at 58% of total funds. Capital Projects is the second largest fund at $117.9 million and represents 25% of the overall budget. Teacher and administrative worker salaries are slated to be $90,854,000, which comes to about 19% of the overall budget (but over one-third of the operating budget). Additionally, there are 32,327 students currently enrolled in schools within the district.[13]

The FY 09 proposed operating budget of $274.6 million, represents a $16.3 million (5.6%) decrease over the budget adopted last fiscal year. This budget will support an expected increase of 310 students, bringing their projected total unweighted fulltime equivalent (UWFTE) enrollment to 32,716. In addition, the operating budget includes increases that address increasing costs, such as fuel and utilities.[14]

Leon County had to reduce their operating budget by approximately $16.3 million compared to the adopted budget last year, due to reduction of funding from the state and other factors. The funding cut was approximately $10.7 million, reduced interest earnings of $500 thousand, $885 thousand less in School Recognition, and a lower fund balance of $3.6 million. They are funding approximately 150 to 200 fewer positions, including between 100 to 150 fewer teachers and 50 fewer non-school staff, which could mean fewer choices for non-core course offerings and larger class sizes for some of those classes. Core course offerings are primarily math, science, history, and English classes. Non-core courses include courses such as music, chorus, dance, and physical education. Cost increases include: $1.5 million for utilities, $1.9 million for a new charter school, $800 thousand for health insurance increases and $1.3 million for opening new schools, and $400 thousand more in the staffing plan reserve.[14]

In addition, the Leon County School District is slated to receive $3,858,399 in Title I Grant allocations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.[15]

[edit] Mill revenue

Below are the mill rates collected by the school district:[16]

Year Millage Rate
2009-2010 7.747
2008-2009 7.82

[edit] Academic Performance

[edit] 2007-2009

Below is a chart of the school's grade based on the student's performance of the statewide test called the FCAT.[17] To see results, click "show".

[edit] Unions

The Leon Classroom Teachers Association (LCTA) is the teacher's union for this school district.[18]

David Worrell currently serves as President.

[edit] School Choice

See also: Florida school choice

There are currently six Charter Schools in Leon County School District, two of which are Recognized Charter Schools. The data below is based on information taken from a February 2009 survey. [19]

The C.K. Steele-Leroy Collins Charter Middle School offers grade levels 6th-8th to 67 students.
The Florida State University School is a Recognized Charter School and was awarded $136,043 in 2008. The school offers grade levels K-12th to 1,641 students.
The Imagine School At Evening Rose offers grade levels K-6th to 326 students.
The Life Skills Center offers grade levels 9th-12th to 313 students.
The Stars Middle School offers grade levels 6th-8th to 149 students.
The School Of Arts & Sciences is also a Recognized Charter school awarded $20,101 in 2008. The school offers grade levels K-8th to 249 students.

[edit] Lobbying

Main article: Florida taxpayer-funded lobbying

Taxpayer-funded lobbying, public entities using funds to lobby for special interests, happens in cities, counties, and other entities. These activities are hard to track. The issues lobbied for may be diverse, but school lobbying typically deals with issues close to the school district or school board.

In July 2009, Sunshine Review submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the 27 Florida school districts with lobbyists registered for 2009 with the Florida legislature. [20] The results are included in Florida school districts lobbying totals. (For information on the project or to start your own, see the project page.)

Leon County Schools has five registered lobbyists with the Florida legislature and executive for 2009.[21] [22] Only three of these lobbyists work towards influencing the executive.

The school district pays membership dues to the Florida School Boards Association, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.[23]

[edit] Representation

Payments made by the school district to lobbying firms Mixon and Associates are listed below. The contract between the district and Mixon & Associates for 2008-2009 cost $30,000, so it would seem this is the typical contract is a year long for $30,000.[24]


Payments to Mixon & Associates
Year Amount
2007-2008$35,684.26
2006-2007$38,010.31
2005-2006$34,421.92
2004-2005$30,637.25

These payments bring the district's spending on lobbying contracts with Mixon and Associates since 2004 to $138,753.74 since 2004.

For its agreement with Governance Services, the school district signed a contract for $24,000 for the 2009-2010 period. Payments for the end of 2008 to the present total $31,000. [25]

[edit] Most recent

Leon County Schools has reported $31,000 spent in 2009, comprised of payments to Governance Services.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Working for accountable government now


  1. ↑ Budget
  2. ↑ School Board
  3. ↑ Meetings
  4. ↑ Departments
  5. ↑ Audits
  6. ↑ Labor Contracts
  7. ↑ Awarded Bids and Contracts
  8. ↑ Background Checks
  9. ↑ Student Progression Plan
  10. ↑ Public Records Procedures
  11. ↑ School board powers and duties, Florida statute
  12. ↑ Superintendent's Biography
  13. ↑ Leon County School District Information
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 [1]
  15. ↑ Grants to Local Educational Agencies - FLORIDA
  16. ↑ Tallahassee Democrat, Leon County School Board votes in favor of property-tax rate, July 29, 2009
  17. ↑ Florida School Accountability Reports
  18. ↑ Leon Classroom Teachers Association
  19. ↑ Charter Schools by district
  20. ↑ Online Sunshine - Lobbying Information
  21. ↑ Florida Executive — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  22. ↑ Florida Legislature — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  23. ↑ Florida School Boards Association members list
  24. ↑ Mixon & Associates - Payments
  25. ↑ Governance Services


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