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.

1. Safety – we are dedicated to making our schools safe for ALL our students and employees.
2. Past a Half-Cent Sales Tax to maintain, fix and add facilities.
3. Raise teacher and employee salaries to be competitive.
4. Eliminate any schools with a ‘D’ or less grade.
5. 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!

After two year serving as your Alachua County Council of PTAs President (ACCPTA), I would like to take a moment to thank all those that have shared their time and stories with us as we re-chartered this organization. Thank you to Superintendent Owen Roberts, Superintendent Sandy Hollinger, and Superintendent Karen Clarke for recognizing and supporting the importance of having a county council through your participation. Thank you to our School Board Members – Dr. Gunnar Paulson, Rob Hyatt, Eileen Roy, April Griffin, and Dr. Leanetta McNealy for your support and participation in all county council meetings and activities. The relationships built with our Superintendent’s Office and our School Board Members make the ACCPTA the child advocacy association that it is. 

Thank you to all those that chose to join a PTA year after year. Membership is at the heart of PTA, and it is through our membership that we find our voice. 

Leadership development is the head of PTA. No organization can exist not matter how strong the heart, without those willing to step up and lead it. Thank you to all our officers. 

If you are a long-serving officer, thank you for your sustained leadership. I hope you can see the PTA organization as a place for personal growth while serving in areas of shared passion. If you are tired the drama that is inevitable from serving with other volunteers or the seemingly endless needs, please take a breath and look for a new opportunity, hopefully serving with PTA. If you need to take a break, please to sustain your membership and continue to help those around you to understand why you chose to serve. Whether a part of leadership or membership, we all must hold each other accountable to the mission. 

The mission of PTA is what ties it all together. If the first words that come to mind when you say PTA is not child advocacy, we are doing something wrong. The PTA mission of making every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children must be at the center of what the officers lead their membership to accomplish. It is the table that we set to bring stakeholders to the table for addressing any need of our students and families at any level – school, district, state, and national. 

Our hope is that your county council is viewed as a resource to support your local unit in your endeavors and to provide a voice that is bigger than one unit or any one member alone. Just like at the local unit, we need the courage of volunteers to take on leadership roles. At any level, if you think, “I don’t know how [insert person or committee] does [fill in advocacy effort].” Go and find out. Our schools need you now more than ever. 

Join as many PTAs as possible, give your talents and serve as an officer or chair a committee, and participate in as many Alachua County, Florida, and National PTA events as you are able. We are the keys to our school communities, we serve out of love, and we are grateful to serve to meet the needs of our most precious resource everywhere – our children. 

We may know these truths in our heart and head, but we need to say this mission out loud. It is one simple word that we must remember to keep our county council sustained – Advocate. 

Noun ˈadvəkət/ – a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. 

Verb ˈadvəˌkāt/ – publicly recommend or support. 

It is who we are together. As Presidents, we speak for our membership as the one voice. It has been my honor to serve as your Alachua County PTA voice for 2 years. It has been my privilege to serve alongside a growing board that placed the mission as central to all we do and spread . May we all continue to remember.

During Teacher Appreciation Week, which took place May 7 – 11, your Alachua County Council of PTAs (ACCPTA) took a moment to recognize the “T” in our name—teachers.

We can all be grateful for this battered but noble profession. Teachers have committed their lives to educating other people’s children and to making sure that all students in their classroom are given every opportunity to reach their potential. They hold the key to our future for 180 days a year, six hours a day. They deserve to be respected and celebrated in word and action.

In today’s world, our teachers are taking on responsibility for more aspects of our children’s lives than many of us realize. They’re expected to promote their students’ social, emotional, even physical development in addition to their academic progress. Society asks teachers to turn out well-adjusted, productive citizens without providing the support they need to accomplish such a monumental task…and TEACHERS persist.

Decisions made by non-educators in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. are making the job even harder…and TEACHERS persist.

Teachers must teach to the Florida Standards, which were established by the state. Their effectiveness is judged based on the results of standardized tests given to all students in grades three through eleven. The results can affect their pay, where they can teach and even whether they can stay in the classroom. In some cases, teachers are evaluated based on subjects they don’t actually teach. Little to no consideration is given to the external factors that can greatly affect a student’s test scores, things like a crisis within the family or a health issue…and TEACHERS persist.

Many state and national leaders nowadays believe schools should be viewed as businesses competing amongst themselves and with other types of schools for ‘customers’ and funding. Unfortunately there’s not a level playing field. Our public school teachers don’t get to pick and choose their students. They must serve every child who walks in their classroom. No matter the challenges (and there are many), teachers are expected to meet every student’s educational needs…and TEACHERS persist.

As an active parent and as president of the ACCPTA for the last two years, I’ve spoken to hundreds of local teachers. I know how hard they work to meet their students’ needs. Long days, extra school activities, professional development and time away from their own families are all part of the modern teacher’s job…and TEACHERS persist.

They’re even asked to be heroes, to protect their students’ lives at the risk of their own. As we’ve learned all too well over the last twenty years, teachers have shown they’re willing to make that ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our children…and TEACHERS persist.

How much longer can we expect our teachers to persist? How much more responsibility can we ask them to take on without the respect and support they need and deserve? How many young people can we expect to take up this profession in today’s environment? If the current teacher shortage in Alachua County, in Florida and throughout the nation is any indication, we are reaching a time of reckoning.

Now more than ever, we need to listen and to open our eyes to the many ways our teachers are working to prepare the future generation of doctors, mechanics, police officers, civic leaders and yes, teachers. Then we need to act on what we hear and see.  Our teachers need to know that we value what they do, which means we need to treat them like the important public servants and community leaders they are.

What can you do? First, consider volunteering in a school, particularly a high-needs school where teachers can really use the extra help.  It doesn’t have to take up much time, and you’ll probably find that you get as much out of it as the students and teachers you’re helping. For more information, contact the district’s Volunteer Office at (352) 955-7250, ext. 252.

You can also let your state legislators know that they need to be more supportive of our public school teachers. That means providing them with the resources they need and eliminating many of the laws, regulations, and high-stakes testing that burden teachers and don’t ultimately help students. You can find their contact information here:
Florida Senate
Florida House of Representatives

I’d also like to encourage you to join our #RedforEd Campaign. On May 8, we wore red to raise awareness about the need to increase education funding and improve working conditions. Our school communities have been “making do” for too long – enough is enough! This will be an ongoing campaign to support the advocacy efforts of the ACCPTA, and you can get your #RedforEd t-shirt by visiting our website at accpta.org.

Teachers, your ACCPTA sees you, hears you, and thanks you for your persistence. I encourage my fellow parents and citizens to say loudly and proudly: “THANK YOU, TEACHERS!”

 

May 2018

It’s been my good fortune to have the benefit of an active and growing Alachua County Council of PTAs since the beginning of my tenure as Superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools. That’s something most of my predecessors over the last ten or fifteen years haven’t had. Our district’s strong partnership with the ACCPTA is making a significant difference for our district in many ways.

The ACCPTA has been instrumental in bringing together parents, teachers and local citizens in many ways. PTAs have been established or revitalized at a number of our local schools. The ACCPTA has helped organize forums on important topics ranging from school safety to mental health to the future of public education. The ACCPTA leadership has been active in many district and community groups, ensuring that the voices of students, parents and educators are well represented. And of course, ACCPTA continues to be a strong advocate for public schools at the state level.

That support is critical, especially as our local schools and public education as a whole face many challenges.

Most of you know that our school facilities are in very poor shape. They’re old, outdated, and many of them are overcrowded. Unfortunately, the state has cut facilities funding by about $168 million over the last ten years. That’s created a crisis situation in our district and those throughout the state.

Back in September, the School Board decided to ask Alachua County voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to repair, renovate and build capacity at their local schools. Since then, the ACCPTA leaders, in partnership with district staff members, have visited every school in the district, most more than once, to share information and gather input about the needs at our schools. I had the pleasure of making several school presentations with the help of ACCPTA board members, and I can tell you their participation was very meaningful for the parents, teachers and other citizens who attended.

The ACCPTA and our school PTAs have come through in other crisis situations this year. They stepped up before, during and after Hurricane Irma, helping care for the 2000 or so evacuees who took shelter in our schools and then cleaning up campuses afterward to prepare for the return of students.

Of course, the most shocking crisis of the school year was the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. In the days immediately following the shooting, ACCPTA organized a moving candelight vigil that helped our community deal with its feelings of grief, fear and frustration. Since then, ACCPTA has helped the district communicate with parents about what we do to ensure the safety of our students and staff.  That includes having more school resource officers in place than probably any other district in Florida. It includes ALICE training conducted at all our schools months before the Parkland shooting, and even some parent workshops conducted this month.

As the parent of an Alachua County Public School student, a former teacher and now Superintendent, I appreciate everything that ACCPTA and the school PTA units are doing to support children and education.

I could not let this school year end without recognizing outgoing ACCPTA president Khanh-Lien Banko. It is thanks to her vision, her determination and her tireless efforts that Alachua County Public Schools once again has the benefit of a strong county council. She has made a positive difference in our schools and our community that will last for years to come and I know will continue to do so.

Of course, Khanh-Lien also had a wonderful leadership team, most of whom have been part of ACCPTA since it was re-chartered two years ago. I look forward to working with the new president and all of our ACCPTA and PTA friends during the 2018-19 school year.

On behalf of the School Board and the entire district, I want to thank everyone for their support during this very eventful school year. I hope you all enjoy a safe and happy summer break!

Karen Clarke,

Superintendent

Alachua County Public Schools