On March 27th, the Leon County School Board held their bi-weekly Agenda Review Meeting, which included two workshops. There was no discussion about the agenda that will addressed at the March 28th general business meeting,, so staff went straight to the workshop discussions.
The first workshop focused on reading achievement and student success in Leon County Schools. Nicole Patton Terry, from Florida State University, provided an update on the READUP partnership between FSU and Leon County Schools. The focus areas of READUP are reading, early learning, and children with disabilities.
Dr. Terry explained there will be a new additional focus for post-secondary success. Board Member Marcus Nicolas asked if there was a plan to monitor the impact on student success. Dr. Terry explained that there was monitoring for what happens “after” students received support from the Literacy Leadership Teams.
The second workshop was an update on student discipline policies. Leon County School District staff explained that teachers are asked to redirect students’ behavior before anyone starts writing referrals for suspensions. Staff noted that in the more recent school years, the number of suspension referrals given to high school students went up due to a large number of students that had not been in a school setting for almost a year and a half.
Board member Laurie Cox explained how teachers should receive training to help students with prevention measures. She stated, “I want to make sure that our teachers (especially new teachers that are just coming in) get the training they need to deal with challenges that we have.”
Board member Nicolas identified a gap in the policy, as the policy provides specific guidance on the first suspension a student receives but leaves it to each school to address second and third suspensions without a policy.
Finally, the review board discussed payment for Leon County School employees. Board member Nicolas stated, “It’s hard to be paid once a month especially when they don’t make a whole lot of money.” He went on to ask for an analysis to see how much it would cost to switch from once-a-month pay to semi-monthly pay. Staff responded that they would be able to provide the information that Nicolas was looking for.
LCS Agenda Review Meeting Addresses Student Discipline Policies added by Tristyn Leigh on
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@Deep Six — I had a couple of junior high school coaches with that kind of paddle. The holes were about an inch around and left those tender red welts when the paddle was delivered to your backside. The coaches weren’t sadists though. They just recognized that there was more punishment in that paddle with less effort than from it’s sister paddle. The so-called jocks (how much jock can you be at 14?) took it as a matter of pride to see how many they could take without their eyes tearing up. The goal was 5, but I don’t recall anyone getting there.
Now, our shop teacher had the same sadistic streak that yours did. He liked to charge up a capacitor and find an excuse to put it on someone’s chest just to see them collapse. And he came at me once, from across the room, when my lab partner had gotten shocked. He accused me of lighting him up. Only my lab partner’s getting in between us stopped the instructor from whatever it was he had in mind that day.
We need to bring back corporeal punishment in our schools and I am glad to hear it is making a come back in our private schools. Liberals tried to cancel spanking too but we are waking up to the reality and need for it everyday more and more.
We had a shop teacher named Wayne Sapp, he was from Pinetta Fl, and a Pentacostal minister in his free time. The man was a straight up sadist – he had a wooden paddle with holes drilled in it, it was highly varnished and in big red letters it said, “The Hot Seat”. I was sent to Mr. Sapp one time, and I made sure never to make eye contact or even walk down his part of the hallway again. We could write ten pages out of the student handbook or choose “licks” from Mr. Sapp. The only people I ever saw choose licks were cocky freshman, everyone else knew better.
P.S.
Mr. Sapp would go on to teach me how to weld and he even let me build a Chenowth sand rail dragster for my senior project. He made a big key like you would find on a wind up toy to go on the back of it. It would do wheelies!
I hope he’s still kickin’.
@David
Years ago, I was chatting with my dad and he mentioned how upset he was that his credit score was so low. My comment back to his was, “Dad, the ideal credit score is zero. Zero! It means you don’t need their money and they don’t want to waste time dealing with you. You ran the family business for decades and through it supported about a dozen families every year. You haven’t borrowed money for anything since 1968 when you moved us into the house on the water. You paid off that house in 2 years and haven’t accessed anything credit related but a credit card for nearly 40 years. You should be everyone’s idol!”
That’s been my goal, but I’ve financed investment properties in recent years so there hasn’t been a year in 40 years when I didn’t owe on a mortgage or two. Consequently, I haven’t lived up to my own advise, but I’m getting there!
I now prefer to be paid once a month. All my Bills are due between the 5th and the 20th and I pay them all the Day Before and the Day Of Payday so I never miss a Bill and my Credit Score has shot up a LOT.
I remember way back Voting to shrink the Elementary Classrooms to about 15 Students, last I recall, that hasn’t happened yet. If there are 20 or more Students in a single Classroom there is no way a Teacher can do their Job properly. More Teacher-Student Time together is needed NOW more than ever before to help Kids Read, Write and do Math. I have what I think is a very good idea to shrink the Class Size and build more Classrooms but the State will need to get involved.
If you want to redirect students’ behavior before anyone starts writing referrals for suspensions, put the Paddle BACK in the Classroom and USE IT. It worked wonders when I went to School. To see that thing hanging beside the Chalkboard everyday and once in a while seeing the Teacher use it……… made me want behave.