Pasco County Schools, Florida

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Pasco County School District is a school district in Florida. The school system has a total attendance of 66,202 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. Meeting schedule, minutes and agendas are available.[2]
  • Administrative officials are listed with contact information.[3]
  • Annual financial audits are available.[4]
  • Provides information on academic standards and curriculum.[5]
  • Background check form is available.[6]

[edit] The bad

  • Does not provide information on taxes and contracts.
  • Site does not provide information on making public records requests.
Working for accountable government now


[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. [7]

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.

Below are the school district board members: [2]

Member District
Allen Altman, Vice Chairman District 1
Joanne Hurley District 2
Cathi Martin District 3
Kathryn Starkey District 4
Frank Parker, Chairman District 5

The Superintendent for the Pasco County Schools is Heather Fiorentio.[8] The Superintendent is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations while implementing school board policies. [2]

[edit] Teacher Contracts

For the 2008-2009 school year Pasco teachers did not receive an increase in salary from the 2007-2008 levels because of financial shortages statewide. . [9]

[edit] School Budget

The total budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year was $1,234,661,155, a decrease of 5.71% from the 2007-2008 budget. [10] Of this, $434,358,877 (or about 35.1%) was appropriated to pay for salaries and benefits. [11] $11,683,139 was allocated to pay for school choice programs and charter schools. [12]

Pasco County Schools are slotted to receive $10,932,895 under the recovery act. [13]

As of the beginning of this fiscal year, there were enrolled in the district 52,675 students.[14]

[edit] Millage

Below are the millage rates collected by the school district:[15]

Millage Rates 2008-2009 2007-2008 Increase/Decrease
State Required Local Effort4.9694.7810.188
Local:
Basic Discretionary Effort0.4980.510-0.012
Supplemental Discretionary Effort0.2410.2310.010
Local Capital Improvement Millage1.5001.5000.000
Total Non-Voted Levy7.2087.0220.186
Debt Service (Voter-Approved)0.0000.186-0.186
Total Millage Levy7.2087.2080.000

[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.[16] To see results, click "show".

[edit] Unions

The United School Employees of Pasco (USEP) is the union for this district. [17]

[edit] School Choice

Charter schools in Pasco county are independently governed public schools that offer and alternative to the traditional school district. They are under performance contracts with the school district and are held accountable for academic and financial results. [18] Pasco currently has five charter schools in the district.

Charter schools are required to participate in FCAT testing. All charter schools in the district received an "A" rating except the Imagine School at Land O' Lakes, which received a 'B'. [16]

[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. [19] The results are included in Florida school districts lobbying totals. (For information on the project or to start your own, see the project page.) Pasco County Schools has one registered lobbyists with the Florida legislature and executive for 2009.[20] [21]

The school district pays membership dues to the Florida School Boards Association, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.[22]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Budgets
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 School Board
  3. ↑ Administrative Database
  4. ↑ CAFR
  5. ↑ Curriculum and Instruction
  6. ↑ Background check
  7. ↑ School board powers and duties, Florida statute
  8. ↑ Superintendent
  9. ↑ 2008-2009 Negotiations
  10. ↑ Annual Budget 2008-2009 pg. 9
  11. ↑ Annual Budget 2008-2009 pg. 32
  12. ↑ Annual Budget 2008-2009 pg. 35
  13. ↑ Grants to Local Educational Agencies - FLORIDA
  14. ↑ Pasco County School District Information
  15. ↑ Annual Budget 2008-2009 pg 6
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Florida School Accountability Reports
  17. ↑ About USEP
  18. ↑ About Charter Schools
  19. ↑ Online Sunshine - Lobbying Information
  20. ↑ Florida Executive — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  21. ↑ Florida Legislature — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  22. ↑ Florida School Boards Association members list


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