Leon County School Board Meeting Briefs: March 30, 2023

Leon County School Board Meeting Briefs: March 30, 2023

Below are the news briefs from the Leon County School Board meeting that took place on March 30, 2023.
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The Board approved a Superintendent recommendation to adopt a change order for Ferrara Consultants and Space Age Roof Tech, LLC. Sealey Elementary School, Roof Replacement Project. The contract amount will be increased by $145,788.35. The original amount approved was $2,277,350. The changes were the result of unforeseen circumstances.
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The Board approved a Superintendent recommendation to adopt a two change orders in the deductive amount of $132,594.97 and $234,527.44 for Allstate Construction, Inc., Rickards High School New Construction, Remodeling, and Renovations & Site Improvements project. The deductions were due to project savings and direct purchasing actions. The estimated construction budget for the project is $35,000,000.
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The school board heard a presentation from Dr. Alan Cox, Assistant Superintendent, on the topic of sexual education, also known more formally as “Human Growth and Development.” In the presentation, Cox went through a number of pieces of information in his presentation ranging from the definition of LCS’ sexual education program, opt out forms provided to parents for their children, and data sets displaying the STD rates among 15-19 year-olds in Leon County.

Cox reiterated that LCS had opted into the Abstinence Plus program based on the historical data dating back years, based on what was going on around the country at the time it was implemented.
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The Board held a public hearing with most public speakers encouraging the adoption of the revised Human Growth and Development curriculum. The LCS Human Growth and Development included lessons for 4th and 5th grade, for grades 6th through 8th and high school.
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The Board approved the Superintendent recommendation to adopt math and ELA (English, Language, Arts) instructional materials. Pursuant to F.S. 1006.283 governing the adoption of instructional materials, a public review of adoption materials was completed between March 7 and March 27th. A public hearing was held for this agenda item on March 7, 2023.
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The Board approved several policy revisions including revisions related to the rules that address training requirements for exertional heat stroke, including administration of cooling zones. Revisions also permit students, enrolled in private school or educated at home, to participate in a District interscholastic or intrascholastic sport.
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Towards the end of the meeting, Board Member Darryl Jones took a moment to offer his thoughts regarding “curriculum, books, book selection, and book banning.” He said that when he was in school, his second home was the library. He also said that one of the first “civil rights that we fought for as a nation was the public right to learn” and that “it should go unscathed” for the sake of “our young people.”
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The full meeting can be viewed online.

4 Responses to "Leon County School Board Meeting Briefs: March 30, 2023"

  1. Dad shuttered the family business about 25 years ago and spent the next several years as a “roofing consultant” to the school board, condo associations, hotels, etc. (Anyone with a roof larger than the family home.) His comment to me was that most of these large contracts are so bloated that he could work for 10% of the contract price, save the buyer at least twice what they paid him, and produce a better product for the buyer. But he worked on a fixed price contract (per job) and saved the buyer about 20% over what most contracts ran. (This also started a cottage industry that had its own issues as too many started passing themselves off as “experts” and the same folks that didn’t know which roofer to trust didn’t know which consultant to trust.)

  2. O / T

    Breaking news:

    Tallahassee Classical Board may not have been in compliance as required by law. They need to provide documentation and verification that there were in fact the required five bona fide board members rather than four, and had the required background checks.

  3. Rickards High School is getting New Construction, Remodeling, and Renovations & Site Improvements for $35,000,000. What does it cost to build a new School? It seems that Rickards has had a LOT of Money thrown at it over the last few Decades, why is that?

    Revisions also permit students, enrolled in private school or educated at home, to participate in a District interscholastic or intrascholastic sport? How would that work?

    Mr. Jones, I am sure that, like me, back when YOU were in School, it was a very different time back then, there are just some things that do not need to be in the Schools.

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