Below are the news briefs that took place during the Leon County Schools Agenda/Workshop meeting on September 6th, 2023.
LCS staff gave the Board a presentation on budget updates and explained the millage rate would be set at 5.464 which is .004 less than the previous year, although a true rollback millage rate would have been 5.091. Additionally, staff explained there’s an exception this year for $1,000,000 of Capital Outlay funds to be transferred in order to support bus driver salaries. However, Chair Alva Smith noted that she heard that certain projects would be delayed because of this increase and that she is extremely opposed to this. She went on to say that she wished that the Board would have been engaged in this discussion more.
The Director of Early Learning for Leon County Schools and two guests representing the Rebound and Recovery program provided the Board an overview of the curriculum. LCS teachers will be trained to provide developmentally appropriate resiliency instruction to their students. The curriculum teaches students to “Recognize” their emotions, thoughts and behaviors, “Reflect” on the connection between their emotions, thought and behaviors, “Reframe” their negative thoughts, and “Regulate” their emotions and behaviors. The initial curriculum is ten lessons that teachers may implement however they choose.
LCS staff gave a presentation on the options for the history curriculum for Board approval. Previously, the options were presented to LCS teachers to review and rank. Gallopade was the highest ranked of the options despite not having a digital version. However, during Board discussion on the topic, Board Member Marcus Nickolas noted that when he was looking over the Gallopade curriculum, he noticed that some of the information on African American history in Western Florida was mistranslated.
LCS will be receiving about $59,000 from a settlement from the parent company of Juul. The Board will also receive funds from another settlement that took place in March from Juul itself. Once the funds are received, the Superintendent will make a recommendation on how the money should be spent. Staff noted it will take around 1.5 years to receive the full amount of both settlements. Additionally, Board Member Rosanne Wood noted she hopes the money will go toward a vaping prevention program to help students.
Chair Alva Smith noted that several weeks ago she got a call from a company by the name of Bus Patrol who offered to install cameras on LSC buses free of charge, which would generate revenue by giving people traffic citations. Additionally, Mrs. Smith explained that if the cameras were installed that would mean there would be GPS on the buses as well which means that with the addition of student swipe cards, it would allow for students to be tracked getting on and off the school bus.
School Board Discusses Budget, the 4R’s, Vape Settlement & Cameras on Buses added by Tristyn Leigh on
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What does Juul have to do with Leon County Schools? Was LCS harmed by Juul? Can you get a Juul in the cafeteria vending machine?
I thought this was an article on skrewel “kiss cams” when I saw “Cameras on Busses,” hah!
From Google:
The plural of the noun bus is buses. You might see the plural busses, but that form is so rare that it seems like an error to many people. You might also see the verbs bussed and bussing, both of which are rare and also come across as an error to many people. The plural of bus is buses.“
The 4R’s is a silly word game that a not very serious teacher came up with, it will do nothing but waste time and be the subject of juvenile ridicule.
The school district needs to instill a healthy fear of retribution. That is what makes our little planet work.
How about we consider school bus cameras at some future point down the road after we get cameras totally installed in all the classrooms.
And @ David sounds like Alva followed her boss’s example and got her own HAA HAA Corporations set up to receive those totally legit “thanks a lot funds” from the Bus Patrol Business.
Alva and Rocky there should be some big contributions blessing your HAA HAA accounts from those classroom camera business’s.
So lets set up the classroom cameras first and bus cameras after that.
Bus Patrol may be in the classroom camera business too.
Y’all look into that and report back to me at the next meeting.
WHY would Bus Patrol contact a School Board Member and NOT the School Super? They would also need to Contact the County and City Commissioners and possibly the Governor. ALSO, remember the Stop Light Cameras and all that mess? The School Board and the County needs to own the Cameras and the System and run it themselves.
Tallahassee Reports, if a balanced blog, should not be in the business of protecting Republican School Board Members by omitting votes and quotes that are important. 4-1 vote last night is relevant for sure.
We have a reporter writing a story related to the Thursday meeting and it will be up this weekend. Thanks Steve S.