School Board Meeting - 02/22/2022
At this weeks’ meeting, the board received updates on strategic planning and Covid mitigations and approved submitting the budget to the city manager. No new questions on the budget had been submitted. You can find the budget Q&A here. It includes (among many things) answers to how ESOL services are being provided and what types of interventions for math and reading are being used.
[Jerrod’s thoughts: Board member David Ortiz noticed that proposed ESOL staffing at Henderson was lower than other schools. The schools clarified that 5 Dually Certified teachers are being used to act as 1 ESOL FTE. I think this is a creative use of staffing and brings Henderson up to the equivalent of 2 FTE ESOL teachers. I’m glad we have dually certified teachers for these purposes, but I have 2 questions: 1) would having a dedicated ESOL teacher better serve the ESOL students at Henderson and 2) what are the effects on workload and other classes by using the dually certified teachers to fill these slots.]
The superintendent presented updates on the strategic planning process. You can find the slide deck here. Discussions on what kinds of measures and metrics need to be used in order to ensure we are achieving our goals. I’ve included 2 slides that capture progress so far:
The board expressed interest in having the various advisory committees provide specific feedback for strategic planning.
Dr. Noonan also provided a Covid update. N95s are being provided for students and staff who want them. Field trips are coming back! The superintendent felt it was incongruent to allow large groups of students to travel to Disney World and not allow for regular field trips.
Here is some clarification over what happens when you get a call saying your child has symptoms. TL;DR: the parent can test their child onsite and does not necessarily have to take their child home (though this depends on they type of symptoms).
The schools increased distancing and discontinued group work due to caution over mask opt outs.
[Jerrod’s thoughts: I want to thank our board for the work they have done on moving the schools towards more normality. As noted by Dr. Noonan, for many people, it’s hard to envision what life will be like without some of these mitigation strategies. Emily Oster has a useful article in the Atlantic addressing how to consider restrictions on children vs. restrictions on adults.]
The motions to approve submitting the budget to the city manager included these additions:
increase the FCCPS stipend paid to National Board Certified Teachers from $1,000 to $3,000
increase the cost of living for employees by 0.25% for a total COLA of 2.25%
implement a $15 per hour minimum wage for FCCPS employees (this currently affects one employee)
provide a one-time stipend of $1,000 to employees on the top of the salary scale in FY 2023
[Jerrod’s thoughts: I wrote to the board that we should be conservative in program growth in an environment of high inflation. FCCPS will most likely not be able to provide COLAs equal to current inflation rates, but program growth does inhibit our future ability to provide increases in compensation that meaningfully offset future increases in cost of living caused by high inflation.]
