After hearing a presentation at the most recent Board meeting about Leon County School’s proposed capital expenditures over the next five years, one board member was critical of what was not addressed in the plan.
School Board member Alva Striplin said, “this is painful, painful to me again…there is no forward thought to my district that is busting at the seams.”
Ms. Striplin represents District 1 which includes the area between Thomasville Road and Mahan Road.
Her concerns were, in part, based on the growth that will result from the Canopy Development within Welaunee, which is east of Fleischmann Road between Centerville and Miccosukee roads.
Ms. Striplin spoke about the current capacity issues at schools in her district and said “I feel like in five years this community is going to look back at us and say why were you not planning for this….we are busting at the seems..”
“I am extremely concerned about the high school situation….I do not see concern in the five year plan addressing the situation”, said Striplin.
Superintendent Hanna responded by saying he shared similar concerns.
However, he said the current priorities for capital investment include updating facilities at Fairview Middle and Rickards High.
Hanna stated these schools were previously neglected and need attention immediately.
The plan could give $8 million to Fairview Middle and $25 million to Rickards High by the year 2022.
Responding to Striplin’s concerns about her district, Hanna said looking ahead we are planning on adding capacity at W.T. Moore Elementary School and Cobb Middle School.
At this time, Hanna said students living in the Canopy Development will be zoned for Lincoln High School.
As far as a new high school in the northeast, Hanna said the district has $260 million in debt and $26 million a year for debt service and does not think it is fiscally prudent to borrow more money for construction at this time.
Hanna said after the work at Fairview Middle and Rickards High is completed the Board can look at possibly borrowing more money to address the high school situation in the northeast.
School Board Member Striplin Addresses Overcrowding, Northeast High School added by Staff on
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I wonder how they will respond when they hear about a new k-12 charter school planning to open in tallahassee.
I have always said, Build the Schools where you want Growth. Build the Schools first and the Growth will follow.
Chiles and Leon have a drug problem. Ecstasy, mollies, weed. They have the money to spend. Lincoln is primarily a weed problem. But the big thing across the board is alcohol. We adults have problems and our kids are following suit. Count the beers in your fridge and keep track. Mark the liquor bottles with a line for the level. Check your hedges for empty cans and bottles.
Some of you people are so un-informed thinking Chiles and Leon are so much better than the other schools. It’s a little more undercover in those two schools but they have issues, and more than you would imagine. And it’s not from kids transferring in. It the Kids who think they can’t be touched because of their well to do parents. These kids are some of the main ones introducing drugs to their class mates. Some are even running away from home because of no attention at home.
they are disrespectful to counselors and feel really secure about themselves. Those parents that are being informed of these occurrences help hide those facts because of their own reputations as important members of their communities. But believe me, weapons, drugs and sex abuse have been found in those locations also. In some case, more so than at the GHETTO schools.
Wait a minute. Is it true that Rocky Hanna dated a teacher he supervised and evaluated? He had her transferred and monetary damages were awarded to the teacher? He did not loose his certificate? How can School Board members not act on this? He knowingly falsified information to the FBI and media outlets?
Just look at the census tracts and the future land use plan. The problem with Chiles is that people are sending their kids there instead of Lincoln or Godby or Leon. Enforce the school zoning as it is based on demographics. More kids would go to the schools they are zoned for and help them and benefit all students.
Yeah well if you are so adamant then you should send your children to Rickards buddy. Not mine. Mine are going to either Chiles or Leon come hell or high water.
Its easy to play diversity games with other people’s children isnt it, until its your kid in a high crime urban setting having to deal with unbelievable in-class discipline issues that come from kids with no father in the home.
Give me a break. The reason the schools are busting at the seams is because people who can move out of these areas are moving – and they move for their children (including black people of means). John Marks son went to Maclay. Other wealthier African Americans do the same thing – and they will not be sending their kids to Rickards.
I love it when people complain about lack of diversity without having the faintest clue. You want to see lack of diversity – then head to Rickards and see the IB program with its segregated classrooms of asians, indians and nerdy white kids – then look on the other side of the school and see kids of color. Thats the most segregated I have ever seen a school yet calling it an IB program exempts it from scrutiny.
Mike,
I went to a high school that was 50 percent Afo-American and Haitian, 25 percent Hispanic, and 25 percent white Anglos. My dad was a teacher at a mostly white school. He could have got me into his school but I didn’t want to go to a different school. I went to the school with all my friends; the school we were zoned for. I graduated #2 in my class, and got a scholarship to UF. I am now finishing a 30 yr career in government (after a three year teaching stint at a multi-ethnic high school). So I can tell you a person can get a good education at any school if they work hard and take things seriously.
Wow I feel sorry for your kids, what an example you’re setting for them. As an Educated well to do parent or as you said ” (including black people of means). ” I live on the North Side, I’m proud to say my son Graduated from Rickards, he received 4 scholarships from Major D-1 schools, he currently plays Division 1 Baseball at a school with a diverse team, last year he was selected to the All -Academic conference team, and he’ll graduate next fall.
People are inherently afraid of things that they do not understand or people who do not look like them, if a person choose to only live in his own world then he limits himself to greater knowledge. —- Benjamin E. May
Good News is COT owns 500 acres adjacent to Canopy, maybe new schools can go there!
Isn’t it about time that school board members set policy and tell the superintendent what they want him to do. Start with the accountability for costing School District hundreds of thousands of dollars with his invented notebook. Please reopen the ethics allegations from a number of years ago where Mr Hanna dated a teacher that he supervised then he had the teacher transfered, these are clear ethics violations.
The school board should probably enact a policy that requires an annual meeting or presentation from a student enrollment specialist or demographer with an expertise in projecting enrollment project. This person should be hired by the board and report to the board. It is clear that Superintendent Hanna has his own agenda for school construction issues. I just finished reading what is available from the report that Mr Cox prepared. It appears that Rocky Hanna developed a notebook with the specific intention of causing an investigation while having no firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing nor did anyone present him with any wrongdoing that could be verified by Mr. Cox.
We were told by the School Board and Supt. That the new South Side School would be a new Rickards High and lots of vocational programs would be added. The old Rickards would be the new Fairview and the old Fairview closed or used for other programs. That was shared with the public at PTO meetings.
Heard the same thing. However, let’s talk about some of the middle and elementary schools on the south side that are not even close to capacity (Nims for one). Lord don’t ever talk about moving Nims, what an abomination. Let’s just keep trying to say its a historical site, whatever. Nims should close and work to open a new Rickards outside of Capital Circle SE with a combination of Fairview and Nims combining into one. Sell the land Nims sits on now, it should be profitable. The proceeds could help support the funding for building another school. And work to build a better security force within the school and keep the kids that want to learn safe and the ones that don’t put them out. Let’s work to help the ones that want to learn.
Do not let Stripland fool you. She is running interference for Mr. Hanna. He wants a new Northside High School. They are playing good guy good girl with false impressions. The proposed new South side High School should have been built.
As somebody from the outside looking in, why should there be another school built in the south side area for which Godby and Rickards serve? These two schools are nowhere near full.
Why send some parents send their child to Chiles, Deer Lake, or Roberts when they live out of their school zone? Because those schools are newer and have new technology. There’s great teachers at both Rickards and Godby just like the other schools if the District stop accepting students attending schools outside of their own zone we wouldn’t even be having this conversation
Rickards, Godby, and to a lesser extent Lincoln are basically ghetto schools causing wealthy kid flight to Chiles by any means necessary.
You got kids “living” with their relatives in the Chiles district (who don’t really live with their relatives…know what I mean?)
The real issue that must be addressed is why did the school board allow Rickards, Godby, and to a lesser extent Lincoln sink into such hell holes that parents will do anything to keep their kids from attending those 3 schools?
And that’s just the high schools do you think any wealthy parents living in the ghetto middle school and elementary school districts want their kids attending those hell holes?
Ghetto schools? Are they attended by ‘ghetto’ certified administrators, ‘ghetto’ students, or is it because of logistics which qualifies each ‘public’ Leon county high school to be deemed a ‘ghetto’ school? Just wondering…
I hear you. I wouldn’t allow my own kids to attend any of those schools. I’d move back in with my parents in another state before I let them sit in class everyday with kids who don’t care about learning, teachers only there for paychecks, and violence and drugs around every corridor. Why did they let this happen? Because the parents who care left. The remaining parents don’t care at all. Do you know that Sabal Palm Elem used to have a sign in front of the school that had Leon County School’s logo on it…the one with the A+ in the red apple??? The ding bat parents in that neighborhood (ghetto) thought their kids were attending an A graded school!!! Like they really thought their little illiterate snowflakes earned an A. That is a prime example of the dilemma. Stupid parents don’t demand good schools, so they( school board) just let them rot and fester. Now that there’s a possibility of better off kids being bussed to these schools, it’s become a big deal. If I were a northeast tax payer, I’d want the southside schools to be in good shape regardless of whether or not my own kids attended simply because I’d be paying for it. Why waste money?
Here’s the funny thing…You talk about Rickards and Godby as if their really bad, but if you want the really good drugs just go to Deerlake and Chiles ….
Be careful about picking fights with superintendent Hanna you’ll be the next focus of a notebook submitted to media outlets and the FBI, but it will be signed concerned citizens of the United States of America. In the past when challenged he either has you transferred, non rehired or the focus of a factually inaccurate investgation. According to State Board rules Mr. Hanna could have his teaching license suspended for “an act detrimental to the education profession”. Does the school board consider the fact that Mr. Hanna had no first-hand knowledge of any wrongdoing in his notebook filled with accusations that cost taxpayers thousands of dollars to be an “act detrimental to the education profession”?
Northeast side is getting nothing. Too many Republicans out this way.
You wanna see a school system save money? How bout setting all schools on the same schedule sequence so we have 1 round of buses in lieu of the MORONIC 3 rounds of buses! 6 trips a day going by the same stops and landmarks. And by the way Rocky, I am still waiting on a definitive answer on where in the heck Chik-fil-A?? Moochel is long gone, give the kids what they want to eat, not what some bureaucrat hack thinks they should have.
Striplin has tried to pick multiple fights with School Superintendent Rocky Hanna. This is but one more.
Looks like a good opportunity for more private/charter schools.
nah it would just be a lot cheaper to pay for more buses. plenty of room in Godby and Rickards for those kids
Dear school board members,
If you would recover the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that superintendent Hanna caused in expenses with his “notebook”, but he admitted had no firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing within Leon County Schools, perhaps the district could hire a full time architect or demographer to solve issues. Last time I checked no one in Leon County Schools who is an associate superintendent was a demographer or general contractor but Mr Hanna acts like he knows better. I think it’s time to consider what Jefferson County did but you should outsource the superintendent responsibilities to a charter company. With each passing day we get more conclusive evidence that we need an appointed superintendent who knows issues and has a background in solving them rather than someone who seeks to destroy others. The superintendent used the word neglected, how about teachers being neglected, not a raise in sight.
The south side of town always gets the money, look at where recreation centers are located. The northeast side just gets to pay the taxes!
James:Your comments are dead on as to tax money from the NE paying for centers all over town , but not in the NE ! The county commissioner from your district should wake up , speak up , and correct this mess .
There should be a movement to de annex all of the north side and form our own city. We pay 80 percent of the taxes and get 20 percent of the spending.