Special Meeting/Workshop

1. Convene: 2:25 p.m.
2. Public Comments: Jan Porter
3. CONSIDER ENDORSEMENT OF LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
   Motions:
   

   I recommend that the School Board endorse the attached legislative proposals for the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards for 2007.	-	PASS
   Minutes: The attached list of legislative proposals was developed by representatives of the participating school boards during August. The Consortium consists of the following school districts: Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Indian River, Lee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach and St. Lucie. School Board Members Monroe Benaim and Paulette Burdick represented Palm Beach at the August 24th Consortium meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, at which all districts except Collier and Monroe, who had school board meetings, had representation. These proposals: reflect concerns that are considered a very high priority or unique to South Florida school districts; attempt to avoid duplication or conflict with other pending proposals that will be considered in December by the Florida School Boards Association; and are consistent with proposals previously approved by the Palm Beach County School Board on August 2, 2006. Pursuant to Consortium by-laws, all proposals require unanimous approval by school boards for adoption. Results of a final legislative program will be announced in October. Mr. Pickup-Crawford reviewed the 2007 Legislative Program Priority Issues, and highlighted the following: FUNDING - Allocate sufficient state dollars with flexibility to enable school districts to support guaranteed continuation budgets that provide for enrollment growth, inflationary increases and competitive salaries and benefits for teachers and other personnel. Use new state revenue to provide for this continuation budget as opposed to the state using increases in local property tax revenues as the source of additional funds. Increase funding for Safe Schools, Transportation, Instructional Materials, and Supplemental Academic Instruction to accommodate higher enrollment and higher costs. Increase funding for Workforce Development, including adult vocational programs, and restore the program weights to fund Middle School Career Education and the 1.5 weight factor for high school vocational programs. Restore seventh period funding for high schools and fund courses from the Florida Virtual School that are offered beyond the regular school day. Reduce the ceiling cap that school districts pay in Required Local Effort (RLE) from 90 percent to 80 percent. CLASS SIZE REDUCTION (CSR) - Continue to fully fund Class Size Reduction, but not at the expense of the basic Florida Education Funding Program (FEFP). Provide full state funding for the cost of additional schools and classrooms to meet the state’s responsibility under the current class size reduction amendment and distribute the funds on a per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) basis. Fully fund the High Growth Districts construction program for the benefit of all counties experiencing enrollment growth. LOCAL DISCRETIONARY MILLAGE(LDM) - Oppose further equalization of the .51 Local Discretionary Millage until the basic program is adequately funded. Extend the voter-approved operating millage authority from four (4) years to ten (10) years. Increase the per student funding from the .25 LDM from $100 to $200 or support any other similar proposal that will benefit all Consortium school districts. HURRICANE RELIEF - Establish permanent provisions to assist school districts with hurricane damage without negatively affecting resources for other districts including: automatically creating a special trust fund to assist school districts with hurricane recovery; Holding districts harmless for all losses of funding resulting from a hurricane; providing an avenue for school boards to seek necessary waivers of state law for up to a year, such as shortening the school year, in order to resolve some of the immediate impact of hurricane damage; funding all operational costs associated with shelter operations; and including shelters in concurrency requirements. CHARTER SCHOOLS - Return the final decision and authority regarding granting a charter to the local school boards and more clearly define the responsibilities of the charter school and of the school board. In addition: repeal the Charter Schools of Excellence; maintain school boards’ authority regarding the disposition of local capital outlay funds and impact fees; and authorize school boards to collect administrative fees for all students served by the charter school. CONSTITUIONAL AUTHORITY - Oppose legislation that subverts or bypasses the constitutional authority of school boards and superintendents. UNIVERSAL PRE-KINDERGARTEN - Provide a flexible model universal voluntary pre-kindergarten program of up to six hours a day that can address the needs of the local community and fund on an FTE basis. REVENUE SOURCES - Conduct a comprehensive review of all current sales tax exemptions, except on food and medicine. Provide school districts additional funds by using some of the revenue generated by casino gambling and other gambling establishments (card rooms) and distribute the funds through the FEFP formula based on a district’s FTE. SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION - Provide adequate school construction funds to support: new facilities, renovations, replacement schools, school maintenance, land acquisition, mandated class size reduction, hurricane shelter retrofitting and pre-kindergarten programs housed in public schools. STUDENT COSTS - Abolish the 1997 per-student-station cost cap which does not keep pace with changing market place increases for labor and materials. PRE-KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOMS - Add pre-kindergarten space needs in the Florida Inventory of School Houses (FISH) by including them in the School Plant Survey. CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - Construction materials purchased by a contractor to be used for school construction from the state sales tax. OPTIONAL CAPITAL OUTLAY LEVY - Restore school boards’ flexibility in the use of funds generated from the 2-mill optional capital outlay levy. IMPACT FEES - Oppose the elimination of impact fees. WORKFORCE HOUSING - Enable school boards to recruit and retain high quality teachers by providing state funding for housing supplements to be used to assist teachers, who make a five-year commitment to the school system, to rent or purchase housing. Continue and expand the initiative of HB 1363, passed by the 2006 Legislature, which provides incentives for affordable housing for essential service workers, particularly teachers and other school personnel. COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS - Revise the formula that adjusts for differences in costs-of-living among districts to give additional emphasis to the higher housing costs in some areas compared to others. UNFUNDED MANDATES - Oppose any new state mandated programs that are not accompanied by an identified specific source of state funds sufficient to cover the full program costs. FCAT - Administer the FCAT towards the end of the school year and insure that it is graded by qualified personnel. BACKGROUND SCREENING - Require Level II screening only for contracted persons who come on school campuses unsupervised and have direct contact with pre-K-12 students. Board Members discussed the following issues: including supplemental services in the letter from Beverly Gallagher; charter school excellence; unfunded mandates; Universal Pre-K; cost-of-living; and District Cost Differential. Mrs. Burdick requested a resolution opposing the charter school EXCELL.
   Vote Results:
   Motion: Bill Graham
   Second: Mark Hansen
   Tom Lynch	-	Aye
   Sandra Richmond	-	Aye
   Paulette Burdick	-	Aye
   Monroe Benaim	-	Aye
   Mark Hansen	-	Aye
   Debra Robinson	-	Aye
   Bill Graham	-	Aye

   
   
4. Adjourn: 3:10 p.m.