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Seminole County Public Schools, Florida

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Taxes Y
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Budget Y
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Meetings Y
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Elected Officials Y
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Administrative Officials Y
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Contracts Y
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Audits Y
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Public records Y
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Academics Y
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Background checks Y
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School district websites
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Transparency grading process


Seminole County School District is a school district in Florida. The school system has a total attendance of 64,409 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

In 2011 Seminole County Public Schools earned a Sunny Award for having a perfect website transparency score.

Main article: Evaluation of Florida school district websites

The site was last reviewed Jan. 20, 2012.

[edit] The good

  • Budget is published.[1]
  • Information on lottery funds, property records, internal accounts, and comprehensive annual financial reports provided.[2]
  • School board members are listed with contact information.[3] Meeting schedule, minutes and agendas available.[4]
  • Administrative officials [5] listed with contact information in searchable database.[6]
  • Academic performance information is provided.[7] School grade summaries are also posted.[8]
  • Includes student progression plan, detailing how academic performance is evaluated.[9]
  • District report card provided.[10]
  • Union contracts available in drop down menu.[11]
  • Awarded vendor contract bids are available.[12]
  • Includes information on background checks covered under the Jessica Lundford Act.[13]
  • Rates for public records requests posted.[14] Also, under SCPS is who to contact to file for a public records request.[15]
http://sunshinestandard.org
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[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. [16]

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.

School board members in Seminole County are elected every four years. Two are elected during the presidential election, and the remaining three are elected during the governor's election. [17] The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are selected yearly. [17] The chairman presides over meetings and appoints committee's as may be necessary by law or board decision. In the absence of the chairman, the vice-chairman will perform the duties of the chairman. The board will also appoint a parliamentarian and a clerk. [17]


The School Board members for this district are: [18]

Member District
Dede Schaffner Chairman District 3
Sandy Robinson Vice Chairman
Diane Bauer
Jeanne Morris
Sylvia Pond District 4

The Superintendent for the Seminole County Public Schools is Bill Vogel. [18] The superintendent is responsible for the executive administration of the entire district within the law and school board rules. The superintendent will serve as School Board secretary and manage all employees of the school district. [17]

[edit] School Budget

The budget for the Seminole Country Public Schools in 2009 was $802,593,362. Of this, $326,660,209 went for instruction, $149,440,980 was allocated for facilities acquisition and construction. $31,238,132 was spent on school administration. [19]

The 2007-2008 budget for this district has as the spending budget $529,073,000, which is split into four allotments:

  • Instruction: $266,345,000
  • Teacher Salaries: $183,768,000
  • Pupils: $18,348,000
  • Total Support Services: $137,754,000

In addition, there are 67,530 active students in the county.[20]

[edit] Millage

The following are the millage rates for 2008-2009. [21]

Type 2008-09
Required Local Effort Millage 5.097
Basic Discretionary 0.498
Supplemental Discretionary 0.198
Capital Improvement Tax 1.750
Total Millage 7.453

In 2009 the school board approved a property tax increase of $0.25 cents-per-$1000. This is estimated to raise an additional $7.3 million for the school district. [22] This brings the total millage to 7.72 per $1000 of taxable property value.

[edit] Academic Performance

The Seminole County School District is an 'A' rated district. 81% of the school in Seminole received an 'A' rating in the Florida Accountability Reports (FCAT) with 14% receiving a 'B' rating, and 5% receiving an 'C' rating, and no schools failing. [23]

Seminole High School saw a two letter drop from an 'A' to a 'C' and Winter Springs High School dropped from a 'B' to a 'C'. [24]

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

[edit] Unions

The Seminole Education Association (SEA) is the teacher's union for this district. [26] In August of 2009 the SEA was not able to reach a contract agreement with the school district. As such, the school year began with no teacher's contract in place. [26] However, the board was able to reach an agreement on health care with the district contributing $5,716.44 to cover 100% of the employee's health care plan. Negotiations will resume after Labor Day. [26]

[edit] School Choice

Seminole school choice options include magnet schools, cluster schools, and school transfer options in elementary, middle, and high school. [27] Students who are approved for transfer must remain enrolled in their new school for a period of one year.

[edit] Lobbying

Main article: Florida taxpayer-funded lobbying

Taxpayer-funded lobbying is the practice of government entities using public funds to lobby. This occurs at all levels of government: it can be at the federal level or occur at local level with cities and counties, for example. These activities are hard to track because of the broad nature of lobbying, among other reasons. The issues lobbied for by governments can 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. [28] The results of the information requests are included in Florida school districts lobbying totals. (For information on the project or to start your own, see the project page.) Seminole County Public Schools has one registered lobbyists for lobbying before the Florida executive branch, and two lobbyists with the Florida legislature for 2009.[29] [30] Only one of these lobbyists works towards influencing the executive.

The school district pays membership dues to the Florida School Boards Association, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.[31]

[edit] Controversy

A janitor at Wilson Elementary recently confessed to stealing two bags of presents from the principal's office and giving them to needy families.[32]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Budget
  2. ↑ Finance Department
  3. ↑ School Board
  4. ↑ Meetings
  5. ↑ http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/communityinvolvement/SideMenu/AboutUs.aspx Administration]
  6. ↑ Employee Search
  7. ↑ School Grades/AYP
  8. ↑ SCPS School Grade Summary
  9. ↑ Progression Plan
  10. ↑ Report Card
  11. ↑ Employees
  12. ↑ Vendor bids
  13. ↑ Jessica Lundford Act
  14. ↑ Rate Schedule
  15. ↑ Public Records Request
  16. ↑ School board powers and duties, Florida statute
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Policies of the School Board.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 School Board Members
  19. ↑ Budget Document Page 10
  20. ↑ Seminole County School District Information
  21. ↑ Budget Document 2008-2009
  22. ↑ School Budget Crisis, Orlando Sentinel, 7-28-09
  23. ↑ 2009 SCPS School Grade Summary
  24. ↑ Local high schools aren't making the grade, Seminole Voice, 7-24-09
  25. ↑ Florida School Accountability Reports
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Seminole Education Association
  27. ↑ Student Transfer Information
  28. ↑ Online Sunshine - Lobbying Information
  29. ↑ Florida Executive — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  30. ↑ Florida Legislature — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  31. ↑ Florida School Boards Association members list
  32. ↑ Fox News, School janitor arrested for stealing Christmas presents, Dec. 22, 2010


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