Dr. Gunnar Paulson
Chairman, SBAC
We are fast approaching the end of another school year.
It is a year when we have seen Karen Clarke become our new Superintendent and the Legislature continuing to pass legislation that presents challenges for public education. It is also a year when we had the tragic shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that has had a profound effect on how we view the world.
It has also been a year when we saw test scores in our District rise and an elimination of ALL failing schools. It has been a year when our Superintendent has implemented strategies to improve the scores of our lowest performing students in all our schools. In addition we have continued to raise teacher and employee salaries to ensure we can hire good teachers to teach our children. We have also dramatically increased participation in our Career-Technical programs. We must realize much more needs to be done.
Last month we as a School Board approved the following five (5) priorities to give us a vision to follow for the 18-19 school year.
- Safety – we are dedicated to making our schools safe for ALL our students and employees.
- Past a Half-Cent Sales Tax to maintain, fix and add facilities.
- Raise teacher and employee salaries to be competitive.
- Eliminate any schools with a ‘D’ or less grade.
- Implement our new Equity Plan.
I want to thank all our PTA’s. They have been a great help to our school district in many ways. A special thanks to Khanh-Lien Banko. Her leadership of ACCPTA has led to an organization that benefits all our children.
Our District is doing many great things, but there is much more to do.
I know I speak for the entire School Board and together we can meet all of the challenges we will face!
EVERY CHILD COUNTS!