UPDATED

Leon County Republican Party Chairman Evan Power’s statement on Superintendent Hanna’s apology:

I appreciate Superintendent Rocky Hanna taking time to reflect on his inappropriate and divisive remarks on Saturday and offering an apology.  I hope he will also take the time to review the actual guardian program not just the partisan talking points.  The program is not about arming teachers, but training those faculty members outside of classroom instructors at the same level as law enforcement so they can assist in keeping our children safe.  I agree with Superintendent Hanna that the safety of school children should be our first priority. 

Original Story

The following statement was released by Superintendent Rocky Hanna through Leon County Schools:
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Now that the emotion from this past Saturday’s march with our students is over, I’ve had a chance to reflect on the remarks I made during the rally. I would like to apologize for some of the language I used to convey my feelings about arming school employees.

Throughout my career I have never worried about being politically correct and sometimes my passion for an issue, or cause, clouds my better judgment and choice of words.

There are leaders on both sides of this important issue and as superintendent I must remain respectful of other points of view. I know at the end of the day we are all in agreement something must be done to ensure that what happened in Parkland never happens again. In the future, I will be sensitive of the opinions of others and deliver my message accordingly.

Again, I would like to sincerely apologize if I offended anyone with my remarks—I care deeply for our kids and want to do my very best to protect them.  

We continue to keep the families and all those impacted by the senseless acts at Stoneman Douglas in our thoughts and prayers.
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The statement comes after a number of people expressed outrage over Hanna’s comments which included coarse language and an all or nothing approach to the school safety issue.

At one point Hanna – who was opposed to the school safety bill passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor Scott – said if you are against us …”get the hell out of the way.”

He referred to legislators as “idiots” and asked that the supporters of the gun safety bill be voted out.

Many people took to social media to express there feelings.

Hanna’s comment came after Proctor weighed in on a gun safety bill which he said could result in black students becoming targets for “trigger-happy” armed teachers.

Proctor, in an 650 word opinion piece, defended his comments about armed teachers by citing national reports. “Consistent with my interpretation of the negative impacts of arming teachers have been other voices. These include Time Magazine and CNN,” said Proctor.

Proctor goes on to criticize Hanna’s plan to “patch-up” southside schools instead of building new facilities, such as a southside high school.

“Superintendent Hanna’s ‘Patch Up Program’ for southside’s existing schools equates to economic gerrymandering of public dollars.  This practice suppresses building new southside school facilities and oppresses our taxpayers and children,” said Proctor.

Proctor closes his comments by advocating for an appointed superintendent: “The twenty-first century School Superintendent of Leon County should be an appointed position for a skilled unifier and professional education manager.”

Include below is Commissioner Proctor’s letter.

Commissioner Bill Proctor calls for Appointed School Superintendent

Last week, I wrote a letter to the Tallahassee Legislative Delegation requesting that they oppose a proposal to arm classroom teachers in Florida Schools.  I explained in my own terms why I deemed this policy to be a bad idea.  Indeed, I respect our teachers.  They should be protected but not made to police.

Consistent with my interpretation of the negative impacts of arming teachers have been other voices. These include Time Magazine and CNN.  Time Magazine reports that “Black children will be the victims of Armed Teachers” in a story written by Sherrilyn Ifill who is the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Also, a CNN article headlined that “Lawmakers fear arming school staff could harm black and Hispanic students” was reported by Athena Jones and Carolyn Sung on Thursday, March 8, 2018.

Superintendent Rocky Hanna, who my letter was not addressed to, released a statement saying “Bill Proctor is nothing more than a school yard bully.”  He further noted “his rhetoric is an embarrassment to our community.”

A great bullying act by Superintendent Hanna was his recent orchestration to get the all female Leon County School Board to reverse their previous commitments to build a new southside high school inside Capital Circle southeast.  This reversal of plans lead by Superintendent Hannah is larcenous against the children and taxpayers in the south county.  Southside voters supported the last sales tax referendum, in part, because of promises that a new southside high school would be built.

It is now obvious Leon County needs a Superintendent who will listen to and serve all people regardless of geography.  We need an appointed Superintendent who rises above the politics and pretense of being a big baller shot caller who lords over all things, taxpayers and personnel of Leon County Schools including the school board.

Superintendent Hanna actions are injurious to the growth, dignity and advancement of the Leon County School District as a whole.  His refusal to invest public dollars into new infrastructure for southside modernization of educational structures stymies the southside’s development and growth.

His “Southside School Patch Up Program” is indeed scandalously short sighted.  It undergirds and exemplifies poignantly Harvard University’s findings in 2015 that “Tallahassee Florida is the most economically segregated community in the United States.”

Superintendent Hanna’s “Patch Up Program” for southside’s existing schools equates to economic gerrymandering of public dollars.  This practice suppresses building new southside school facilities and oppresses our taxpayers and children.

I encourage everyone to tour Montford Middle School and then tour Fairview, Nims and Griffin Schools.  The school facilities which help distinguish the learning experiences of children are radically different here in Leon County.

Although the Superintendent suggested that I am “an embarrassment” to our community, may I offer that a comparison of Montford School to Nims, Fairview or Griffin Middle School—counterparts of Montford—is a visible “embarrassment” to the Leon County School District.  Superintendent Hanna presides over a school district that fosters “separate and unequal” school facilities consistent with Harvard’s findings.

The twenty-first century School Superintendent of Leon County should be an appointed position for a skilled unifier and professional education manager.

The southside is a good and faithful partner of the Leon County School system.  There is no good reason the Superintendent and School Board should fight against us.  We have patiently waited for parity and equalization of our schools which are badly needed and long overdue.  Southside taxpayers deserve far greater than a band-aid fix-up for our schools.

Superintendent Hanna’s “Southside Patch Up Program” is a farce and a robbery.  However, this disastrous plan by him to leave our southside schools and children behind compels me to see that our community deserves to have an appointed superintendent.  The voted upon commitments and plans of a county’s school district should not be left to a flip-flopper elected superintendent.

In the letter, Power asked if Hanna would do the same for an issue he did not agree with.

“Will you also allow students to be excused and use school transportation in the future to attend a rally for educational choice, tax reform, or labor union transparency? In short is this a new policy or just a one-time effort to support an idea that you politically agree with,” wrote Power.

WCTV recently reported that Superintendent Hanna supported tougher gun laws.

“How does a kid get an AR 15 and just walk in and start shooting and killing people?” Hanna said. “At what point are we going to have the courage to talk about sensible gun control? What does it take?”

Hanna told the Tallahassee Democrat Monday that he is “not endorsing the rally. I’m endorsing our students’ right to participate.”

“Educators need to educate kids on all different types of party platforms and agendas, and they choose for themselves which ideas they support and which ideas they reject,” Hanna said.

Now, as Superintendent, Hanna’s priorities are being implemented.

At the last School Board meeting there were three votes by the Board to move forward with renovation projects at Rickards and Fairview.

First, the Board voted to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve an architectural consulting services contract in the amount of $423,476 for a Fairview Middle School project. The project includes new construction, remodeling and renovations of administration, dining, stage and kitchen facilities. The Fairview project has an estimated construction budget of $20,000,000.

The architect for the project is Barnett Fronczak Barlowe & Shuler Architects.

Second, the Board voted to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve the Hoy + Stark Architects’analysis which calls for the demolition of buildings 5 and 6 at Rickards High School.

The analysis concluded that demolition would save the school system approximately $120,900 per year and corrects conditions found to be in violation of Life Safety codes, FLDOE requirements, and Safe School Design guidelines. Both buildings are over 50 years old.

The analysis will be submitted to the Florida Department of Education for review and approval. The Board has previously received approval to raze five other buildings on the Rickards campus.

And third, the Board voted to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve a contract with Hoy+Stark Architects, P.A. in the amount of $816,903 for the Rickards High School New Construction Project. The project is for a two story classroom wing addition of approximately 20,000 square feet.

The Rickards construction project has an estimated construction budget of $30,000,000.

After the votes, Superintendent Hanna said “it’s going to be magnificent. I am excited about tonight. We made a promise to that community and to those schools and most importantly to those children. And tonight is the first step in delivering on that promise.”

When contacted by TR,  Striplin confirmed the complaint and said that “Ms. Lawson should conduct herself in an ethical and professional manner as outlined in LCSB policies 3210 and 1210, towards all District employees.”

Stiplin added, “This complaint was not filed without careful consideration.”

The complaint was submitted to Superintendent Rocky Hanna.

Policies 3210 and 1210 are broad policies related to the principles of conduct and ethics for district personnel.

For example, the preamble states “It is expected that employees will be of good moral character and demonstrate conduct as an employee that is at all times appropriate and consistent with the high standards that the Board and community expect.”

Ms. Striplin would not comment on the specifics of the complaint.

However, sources have told TR that the complaint involved a personal altercation between the two school officials late last year on a golf course and more recently moved into the professional realm.

Also, sources told TR they could not recall a complaint lodged by a school board member against an administrator in at least the last eight years.

TR will request a copy of the complaint from the School Board on Monday morning and will seek a comment from Superintendent Rocky Hanna and Ms. Lawson.

The report, based on information released earlier this month by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), showed that high school graduation rates in Leon County dropped by 3.7% for 2016-17.

Gillian Gregory, Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services for Leon Schools, explained to TR that the decline in graduation rates was, in part, due to the fact that FDOE no longer allows for students who receive diplomas through alternative methods to be counted as graduates.

The change in the calculation was dictated by a new rule in an education bill passed last spring by the Florida Legislature.

Gregory explained that beginning in 9th grade the academic performance of students are tracked and based on evaluations and/or test results, an intervention can be initiated.

If the intervention determines that the student may not graduate, the student is provided a different path that can lead to a diploma.

This path involves a partnership with an alternative school, such as EdOptions. Alternative schools provide online coursework that can lead to a diploma without passing state exams which are normally required for graduation.

Gregory said this program costs the school about $1300 per student and during 2016-17 approximately 86 students took this path.

Research by TR found that a number of school districts use this approach. For example, Smart Horizons – an online alternative school – has partnerships with about 25 Florida school districts and serve about 1,000 students.

Superintendent Rocky Hanna, who said the program was in place when he was elected, told TR he is not sure if the program will continue.

Gregory said the alternative path provides a diploma to students that would have otherwised not graduated.

State Investigation of Student Transfers

Journalist Andrew Atterbury, with TCPPalm.com, recently reported that in 2016 the Department of Education began looking into districts where students transferred to a nonpublic school or a home-education program in the second half of their senior year.

In March of 2017, state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart expanded the inquiry statewide that the findings will eventually be presented to the Board of Education.

Atterbury also reported that Dennis Kramer, director of the University of Florida Education Policy Research Center, said transferring students right before graduation is a common practice in many states.

Typically, districts do this to give students more support — or to game graduation-rate calculations, Kramer said. More often than not, districts are trying to help students, Kramer wrote.

Kramer said he believes the new rule is an attempt to increase reporting accuracy across Florida.

But the state could be better off creating a new category — a transfer rate to accompany graduation figures — instead of penalizing schools by labeling students as dropouts even though they did graduate, Kramer said.

“Counting them as the same,” he said, “does both the sending and receiving school a disservice.”

Hanna faced questioning from LCSB chair Georgia “Joy” Bowen on the resegregation of Leon County schools identified in a Sept. report by the LeRoy Collins Institute.

“I think an unintended consequence of school choice led to this (resegregation)’” Hanna said with a shrug, referring to the state’s implementation of school accountability standards, availability of private school vouchers, and the growth of charter schools.

He said changes to Florida law did away with traditional school zones and erased borders.

“Kids with the means and transportation could go wherever they wanted and those without are where they are,” he said.

“Kids desperately need diversity. They need to know how to assimilate — how to be around kids who don’t look like them, act like them and who don’t come from the same neighborhoods,” Hanna said.

“How do we bring diversity back to our schools? Well that’s a million dollar question, but together we can solve it,” Hanna challenged the board to think outside of the box to develop a plan with him.

“This is not an easy conversation to have as a community. We’ve all seen it but haven’t said anything. Now this report has come out and thrown it in our face.”

The LeRoy Collins Institute is a nonpartisan policy organization located at Florida State University which is affiliated with and works in collaboration with the State University of Florida.

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.

At the demonstration Bressack was a featured speaker.

TR first learned about the demonstration after Greg Marr Jr., a morning talk show host on Freedom 93.3, referenced a FAMU Online report about the demonstration.

Tallahassee Reports reviewed three stories by the Tallahassee Democrat, three stories by WCTV and two stories by WTXL that addressed the controversy generated by Bressack’s request that her fifth grade students use gender neutral language when addressing her in the classroom.

None of these eight reports referenced Bressack’s role in the demonstration.

Why is this important?

When the controversy arose, Canopy Oaks Principal Paul Lambert assured parents that Bressack’s “only agenda is teaching math and science at the greatest level she can.”

Also, Superintendent Rocky Hanna stated  “I can assure you that teachers in our district will not be allowed to use their influence in the classroom to advance any personal belief or political agenda. At this time, I do not believe that is the case in this instance.”

However, statements by Bressack at the demonstration raises questions about these assurances. At the demonstration Bressack said:

“I will not be spending my entire life pretending to be someone that I am not. I refuse to show students that their gender identities are something to be ashamed of. I refuse to show students that their gender identity makes them a danger to other students.”

This statement appears to indicate that Bressack had an agenda beyond teaching math and science. Bressack was ultimately transferred out of the classroom.

After the transfer Superintendent Hanna said the district has a “responsibility to provide a productive educational environment…free of distractions for our students, teachers, and staff.”