The mission of PTAs everywhere is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. In short, we are advocates for ALL children. For over 120 years, we have been the largest, volunteer child advocacy association in the United States. The Alachua County Council of PTAs (ACCPTAs) supports and provides the county voice for our local PTA school units. We are proud to have been re-instated in 2016, thanks to the support of our school district and our school-level leadership.

2017 – 2018 Year in Review

July 2017

• Attended 2017 Leadership Convention – Celebrated our 1st birthday!

August 2017

• Met with all SBAC members
• ESE Open House
• ACCPTA Fall Training – Visit with Carolyn Nelson-Godert
• Chartered
  • Hawthorne Middle-High School PTSA
  • Santa Fe High School PTSA
  • Mebane Middle School PTSA
  • Re-Organized Idylwild Elementary School PTA

September 2017

• Alachua County Public Schools Awareness Month – with League of Women Voters, UF ECC, & Education Foundation for Alachua County Public Schools
  • Received declarations from 7 of 8 municipalities’ commissions and the Alachua County Commission
  • 3 films about public school conditions
  • Graham Center Symposium: From Hacks to Heroes o Forum: Alachua County Public Schools Now and Going Forward

• Met with all Alachua County Commissioners
• Spoke to the Alachua County Legislative Delegation public comment about school facilities.
• Attended the Real Talk Coalition Forum: Separate But Equal
• Raised awareness about for-profit charter schools.

October 2017

• RADKids Advocacy
• Wrapped i3 Steering Committee with Chamber of Commerce tour of Idylwild and public endorsement of 1⁄2 cent sales tax initiative for SBAC.
• Started Community Facility Site Meetings with ACPS administration and facilities department.

November 2017

• FLPTA All Children Are Our Children Summit
• Presented to Principals about the Fiscal Responsibility Training
• Started attending the Gainesville Youth Summit
• CRC Speech

December 2017

• Impact Awards
• Attended the Innovative Classrooms Presentation with the Education Foundation of Alachua County Public Schools
• ACCPTA Reflections Judging

January 2018

• Florida PTA Legislative Conference
• Office visits with our Alachua County Legislative Delegation and Education Committee Members
• MLK Walk & Dinner
• ACCPTA Training – Fiscal Responsivity with Alex Rella, ACPS Assistant Superintendent Finance & Jean Hovey, Executive Director Florida PTA

February 2018

• Went to Sarasota to see innovative classrooms.
• RADKids Advocacy
• Finished school site facilities meetings
• Started serving on the School Planning Advisory Committee (SPAC).
• Attended the Rally in Tally
• Founder’s Week – PTA Week – Guests Cindy Gerhardt, FLPTA President, and Linda Kershner, FLPTA President-Elect
  • Vigil for the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School
  • General Meeting about School Safety
  • Alachua County All Children Are Our Children Summit
  • Reflections Celebration

March 2018

• Citizens for Strong Schools Board & Committee Meetings
• Children’s Trust Kickoff
• Chartered GHS PTSA
• ESE Meet & Greet

April 2018

• Sponsored Keith Perry’s visit to Hawthorne Middle-High to discuss impact of 7069.
• Presentations to all High School Student Government Groups asking them to join.
• Resumed ACCPTA School Visits

May 2018

• Promoted the ALICE Parent Training Workshop
• Elected our 2018-2019 ACCPTA Officers
• Throw our first End of Year Bash!

Your ACCPTA Board Members Serve on:

• Florida PTA Board of Directors
• Florida PTA Resolutions Committee
• SWAG Child Center Advisory Board
• Alachua County Opioid Task Force
• School Planning Advisory Committee
• Food4Kids Backpack Program
• UF Medical Guild
• UF Autism Advisory Board
• Community Partnership School Community Leadership Council
• Chamber of Commerce i3 Steering Committee
• Citizens for Strong Schools Board & Committees

Click here to view slides from the May 2018 General Meeting.

 

Our ESE Committee has partnered with the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resource System and A Family Network on Disabilities to bring our families with Exceptional Students resources, tools and webinars for them to navigate the world of ESE.  Here are some tips on supporting positive behaviors at home during the summer.  We encourage you to check out their websites at www.fdlrssprings.org and www.fndusa.org.

Building Positive Behavior in the Summer:

1. Create new summer routines and follow them. Most families have different schedules in the summer. Create new routines to meet the summer schedule.
2. Make a summer calendar. This helps your child learn the summer schedule, know what to expect, and have things to look forward to.
3. Hold your children accountable. Have your kids help clean up, set the table, put their clothes in the hamper. The summer is a great time to encourage and build responsibility. Continue to have high expectations for your child.
4. Get outside! Find time to play outside every day.
5. Go on adventures, have new experiences. Build your child’s schema, comprehension, vocabulary, life skills, and more by experiencing new things. This does not have to mean fancy and expensive trips. Go to new parks, a new store, or on an elevator or escalator. Try new foods. Eat dinner outside. Look for bugs. Anything new helps build your child’s understanding of the world and creates confidence in the world and themselves.
6. Create memories that your child will remember forever.

Courtesy of Stefanie Crosier at FDLRS Springs

Following is a summary of legislation that was passed during the 2018 Legislative Session that will most likely have an effect on Alachua County Schools:

The Good

• Accountability: Some enhanced accountability for private schools (for example: background checks for staff).
• Title I Funds: More administrative funds are being provided, which means we can implement more district-wide programs to help all Title I schools.
• New School Construction: The district has more autonomy for school construction when the funds used are from voter-approved initiatives.  There is also more flexibility with building codes when schools are not designated shelters, such as the elimination of some redundant requirements.
• Capital Outlay: As of last year, school districts were required to share some capital funds with charter schools. For this year only, the state will provide some of that funding.
• Mental Health Pilot: Some funds were allocated for schools to provide mental health services to kids (however, the funding is not sufficient to hire the counselors that are needed). ACPA is currently looking to work with an external provided to provide additional resources.

The Bad

• Tax Credit Scholarship: This allows businesses to funnel money into private school vouchers that would have gone into the state’s general fund, thus lessening the overall funding available for public schools (as well as other public entities).
• Hope Scholarship: This allows students being bullied (or meeting other similar criteria) in a public school to receive a voucher to attend a private school. Florida PTA does not support this because it does nothing to curb the bullying at its source, which would help all children.
• Teachers Unions: Teachers unions will be dismantled and must petition for re-certification if their membership drops below 50%. Alachua County’s current membership is 60 – 65%.
• Charter School Expansion: The bill makes it easier to replicate a high performing charter school and more difficult to terminate a low performing one.
• Surtax: Local governments (including school districts) are now required to undergo a performance audit when asking for a voter referendum for local funding. This is in addition to the many audits and oversight that districts currently go through. The audits must be done within 60 days before a referendum is placed on the ballot, causing many districts to push the process through quicker.
• Financial Transparency: There are additional requirements for financial audits and transparency that districts must go through, with no funding provided for these activities.

School Safety

• School Resource Officers: All schools are required to have a full-time SRO. Gainesville Police Department will be hiring five additional officers in order to meet this requirement locally.
• Statewide Office of Safe Schools created to provide oversight and school personnel training. Alachua County school staff already participate in ALICE training.  
• District Requirements:
  • School safety policies & procedures
  • School Safety Specialist
  • Threat assessment teams
  • Risk assessments
• Required parental disclosure of previous mental health services and referrals upon enrollment in school.  
• Increased referrals to mental health services
• More coordination of services statewide
• Mobile crisis teams

Funding

• Average funding per student FTE (full-time equivalent):
  • Nationwide (2017): $11,642
  • Florida: $7,306.63
  • Alachua County: $7,038.68
• Increase in base student allocation from previous year: $.47 (.01%)

Constitution Revision Commission (CRC)

• 37-member commission, appointed by the legislature and the Governor.
• Meets every 20 years
• Initiatives will be placed on the ballot this November for a public vote. If passes, the amendments will become a part of the Florida Constitution for the next 20 years.
• Proposal 6003:
  • School Board term limits (8 years)
    This limits the public’s ability to continue to elect School Board members who they would like to keep in office.
  • Statewide charter school authorizer
    This allows for a statewide body to authorize and oversee charter schools rather than local school districts. This essentially creates a separate and competing system of public education, which is not in the best interest of our students or our tax dollars.
  • Civics education
    This is already included in the Florida Standards, but the amendment would make it a requirement to keep it there.