Pinellas County Schools, Florida

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Pinellas County School District is a school district in Florida. The school system has a total attendance of 103,077 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

  • School board members are listed but individual contact information is not provided.[1] Meeting schedule, agenda and minutes are available.[2]
  • Includes information on background checks.[3]
  • District financial audits are posted.[4]
  • Lottery fund report posted.[5]
  • Administrative officials listed with contact information under respective departments.[6]
  • Budget is published.[7]
  • Vendor contract bid information posted.[8]
  • Includes information on curriculum and academic performance.[9]

[edit] The bad

  • Does not provide information on taxes, labor contracts,
  • "Records request" page only provides information on requesting student records, nothing on makeing public records requests.[10]
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. [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.

In Pinellas County Schools the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson are elected annually. The board members are elected to four year terms. [1]

The responsibilities of the Pinellas County School Board include: [12]

  • Develop a school improvement plan for each school in the district.
  • Planning for individual assistance for schools that do not meet goals of improvement plans.
  • Provide information regarding performance of students and educational programs.
  • Manage lottery funds for school improvement.
  • Develop an annual “feedback report” on school improvement and education accountability to be submitted to the Florida Commission on Education Reform and Accountability.

[13] Here are the current school board members for 2009[1]

Member District
Janet R. Clark, Vice-Chairperson District 1
Nina Hayden District 2
Peggy L. O’Shea, Chairperson District 3
Robin L. Wikle District 4
Carol J. Cook District 5
Linda S. Lerner District 6
Mary L. Tyus Brown District 7

The Superintendent is Julie M. Janssen, Ed.D.

The Superintendent is responsible for: [12]

  • The administration and supervision of all the schools.
  • Evaluate the operation of the schools.
  • Making recommendations to the Board for operating the schools.
  • Financial management of the schools including preparing the annual budget.
  • Complying with all provisions of the State of Florida.
  • Making recommendations on all personnel including teachers, principals, department heads, or supervisors.

[edit] School Budget

The total budget for the school district in 2008-2009 was $1,553,402,586. From this $928,345,400 is the operating budget going to Salaries and Benefits, textbooks, materials, and maintenance. $479,132,668 went to capital outlay for the construction of new schools, renovation and remodeling, and the purchase of property, furniture, and equipment.[14]

Out of this total $841.6 million. Out of the school budget $540.5 million (64.22%) goes to teacher salaries and benefits with $211.9 million (25.18%) going to facility maintenance and operations. [15]

The school district is slated to receive $20,827,418 under the Recovery Act. [16]

To get the money from the Recovery Act, states are obligated to restore school funding for the coming year back to the levels provided in the 2005-06 school year. The Act outlines that if states could not do that, as Florida said it could not, then they needed to apply for a waiver and show that state education funding for the impending year was the same or more as the current school year, percentage wise.

[edit] Millage

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

Millage Rates 2007-2008 2008-2009 Percent Change
State Required Local Effort4.7305.1729.34%
Discretionary Local Effort0.5100.498-2.35%
Supplemental Discretionary Effort0.1410.1410.00%
Local Referendum 0.5000.5000.00%
Capital Outlay 1.8501.7505.41%
Total Millage7.7318.0614.27%

Total Revenue in 2007-2008 was $588,301,337 and $601,272,113 in 2008-2009 for a 2.2% increase in revenue. [15]

[edit] Academic Performance

In the 2007-2008 74% of district school earned an A or B rating based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. [14] Total enrollment in the school district was 104,717 students, including 1,866 students at nine charter schools.

[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 Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association (PCTA) and Pinellas Education Support Personnel Associations (PESPA) are the unions for this district. [18]

In 2009 the PCTA and the School Board entered a negotiation impasse with district wide proposals such as a 2-10% reduction in salaries. The PCTA and School Board have requested a federal mediator to handle the dispute.[18]

[edit] Lobbying

Main article: Florida taxpayer-funded lobbying

The school district pays membership dues to the Florida School Boards Association, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.[19]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Board Members
  2. ↑ Meetings
  3. ↑ Hiring Guidelines
  4. ↑ Audits
  5. ↑ Lottery
  6. ↑ Departments
  7. ↑ Budget
  8. ↑ Purchasing
  9. ↑ Curriculum
  10. ↑ Records
  11. ↑ School board powers and duties, Florida statute
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pinellas County Schools Policy Manual Ch. 2
  13. ↑ Pinellas County Schools Policy Manual Ch.2
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Facts at a Glance
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Annual Budget 2008-2009 pg 17
  16. ↑ Grants to Local Educational Agencies - FLORIDA
  17. ↑ Florida School Accountability Reports
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 PCTA-PESPA
  19. ↑ Florida School Boards Association members list


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