St Johns County School District, Florida

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St Johns County School District is a school district in Florida. The school system has a total attendance of 29,724 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 listed with contact information. Meeting schedule, minutes, and recent agenda available.[1]
  • Administrative officials listed with contact information.[2]
  • Budget is published.[3]
  • Annual audits are available.[4]
  • Information on background checks is provided.[5]
  • Union[6] and vendor contract information is provided.[7]
  • Provides information on the standardized tests in the district.[8]
  • Information provided on how to make public records requests.[9]

[edit] The bad

  • Tax information not provided.
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. [10]

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.

The Chair and the Vice-Chair are elected for one year terms every November. The school board can create committees where necessary. [11]

The school board is empowered to determine the policies for the school system.

Member District Term
Beverly Slough District 1 2006-2010
Tommy Allen Chairman District 2 2008-2012
Bill Mignon Vice Chairman District 3 2006-2010
Bill Fehling District 4 2006-2010
Carla Wright District 5 2008-2012

The Superintendent of schools is Joseph Joyner. [12]

[edit] School Budget

There was a 2% budget cut in 2008-2009 in response to the slowing economy. The District continued a hiring freeze for 2009. In 2009-2010 there were $10.2 million in Federal Stabilization Funds. [13] The tentative budget for 2009-2010 is $433,487,124.14 which should cover the needs of 29,724 K-12 students[14] The operating budget is $3.8 million higher than 2008-2009 but $7.9 million lower than 2007-2008. In order to achieve savings the following cuts have been made:[14]

  • Ninety fewer support staff than 08-09 and 290 fewer support staff than 07-08.
  • Reduction of 1.2 million in funds for new textbooks.
  • A reduction of $300,000 in Supplemental Academic Instruments.
  • Schools with 25% less operating funds.
  • Departments with 30% less operating funds.
  • $300,000 in savings provided by vendors.
  • Closing of schools (except high schools) for the summer to conserve energy
  • A reduction of $26.8 million in in the Capital Budget


The total spending budget for the district in the last completed fiscal year was $221,327,000, which was, and will be again, split into four components:

  • Instruction: $98,151,000
  • Teacher Salaries: $63,139,000
  • Pupils: $10,332,000
  • Total Support Services: $62,337,000

Additionally, there are currently 25,757 active students in the district.[15]

[edit] Millage

The proposed millage rate for 2009-2010 for this district: [14]

Type 2008-09 2009-10 Proposed Difference
Required Local Effort Millage 5.111 5.294 0.183
Basic Discretionary Effort 0.098 0.748 0.009
Supplemental Discretionary Effort 0.121 0.250 0.250
Local Capital Improvement Millage 1.75 1.500 -0.250
Total Non-Voted Levy 7.801 7.480 0.321
Debt Service (Voter-Approved) 0.162 0.000 -0.162
Total 7.642 7.801 0.159

[edit] Academic Performance

The school district is the third in the state in total FCAT points. Only one of ten districts to have earned an "A" rating for seven consecutive years. Tied for first in the state in reading and third for Math. [16]

[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] District Size

The following is the school district population: [18]

Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Enrollment 20,918 21,910 23,090 24,320 25,757 26,474 27,514

[edit] Unions

The union for this district is the St. Johns Education Association. [19]

[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.)

The school district has spent $7,732.69 for 2009 on payments to the lobbying firm Mixon and Associates.

St. Johns County School District has four registered lobbyists with the Florida legislature and executive for 2009. [21] [22] Two of these lobbyists work to influence the executive. Payments made to the lobbying firm Mixon and Associates total $56,200 since 2004. [23]

Firm Date start Date end Amount
Mixon & Associates08-01-200907-31-2010$10,200
Mixon & Associates08-01-200807-31-2009$12,000
Mixon & Associates08-01-200607-31-2007$12,000
Mixon & Associates08-01-200507-31-2006$12,000
Mixon & Associates07-01-200406-30-2005$10,000

The payments actually made to the firm (covering expenses outside the contract amount) total $73,687.37 since 2004.[23] For 2009, $7,732.69 has been spent.

The school district pays membership dues to the Florida School Boards Association, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.[24]

St. Johns County School District does not hold legislative receptions, nor does it give gifts to public officials.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ School Board
  2. ↑ Contact Us
  3. ↑ Budget
  4. ↑ Accounting
  5. ↑ Screening
  6. ↑ Contracts
  7. ↑ Awarded Vendor Contracts
  8. ↑ Testing Facts
  9. ↑ Records Requests
  10. ↑ School board powers and duties, Florida statute
  11. ↑ School Board Governance
  12. ↑ St. Johns County School District
  13. ↑ Tentative School District Budget
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Tentative Budget FY 2009-2010
  15. ↑ St. Johns County School District Information
  16. ↑ State of Schools Presentation
  17. ↑ Florida School Accountability Reports
  18. ↑ St. Augustine Record: September 25, 2007- Schools' explosive growth continues By Paulette Perhach
  19. ↑ SJEA
  20. ↑ Online Sunshine - Lobbying Information
  21. ↑ Florida Executive — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  22. ↑ Florida Legislature — 2009 Registrations By Principal Name
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Contracts - St. Johns County School District
  24. ↑ Florida School Boards Association members list


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