Don Sarro

 

 

• Do you support a change in the Superintendent once on the board?

• How does our district improve from its "C" grade? 

• How do we raise our graduation rates to that of neighboring counties?

• Do you support the Common Core?

• Do you support Charter Schools?

• Do you support the half cent sales tax extension?

• Do you support the recent decision to continue the use of the 10th Grade World History Book?

• Do you support the reduced rates for school impact fees being phased in the next four fiscal years?

• What should be done to help improve the performace of Starke Elementary in DeLand?

• How do you feel about privatizing support services in non-academic areas of the school district?

 

• Do you support a change in the Superintendent once on the board?

 

We will have a very inexperienced board come November, with no member who has served a full term in office.  Campaigning and governing are two different responsibilities.   We need the experience of Dr. Smith to guide this new board and help educate them on the operational needs of our district.  They also need to become familiar with district staff to determine if we could promote from within.   I would hope that when we do change leadership Dr. Smith would be an integral part of that change.  

 

• How does our district improve from its "C" grade?  How do we raise our graduation rates to that of neighboring counties?

 

I firmly believe that everyone in our district works each and every day to seek to improve student achievement and raise district performance.  It is important to remember that not all counties are equal.  We have known for four decades that poverty is the biggest impediment to educating children.  Our district has a lower tax base to draw upon than Flagler, Brevard, and Seminole counties.  Per capita income, property values, and corporate property taxes, are lower relative to our student population.   The state has exacerbated this challenge we face in Volusia.  In the last twenty years, we have gone from 60% of the district budget coming from the state, to roughly 40%.  Almost 60% of the funds for educating our children must now be levied locally through county taxes.   The state has further burdened our district by giving us less money per student than our county neighbors.  Because our standard of living is lower than our neighbors, we receive 97 cents on every state dollar allocated to a Volusia student, while our neighbors receive more than a dollar.  While we must advocate changing this funding formula in our state, we still must improve.  We still must do better.

 

Just two years ago our district was rated a "B" under the state accountability grading system.   Yet, last year the grading system changed with higher performance standards for each school.   In that first year, most districts dropped in their overall scores.  Two-thirds of our school districts were a "C".   The grading system has many flaws, but next year the grading continues despite a brand new test.  Yet, there is no question we can do better.  We have to address improvement at our Tiltle 1 schools and target the pockets of poverty at other schools, bringing resources to meet the needs of our students.

 

Today, our graduation rate of 68% is lower than our neighbors, but just five years ago our graduation rate was just 58%.  We now need to build upon that improvement.  First, we must reach high school students who may not see college as their future—expand opportunities to succeed (i.e. Volusia Virtual Schools) and expand the relevancy of high school (i.e. career & technical education).   Second, we must refocus on our lowest performing students and schools by allowing schools to differentiate their staffing to meet the needs of the varied students they serve.    We have made progress in these areas, but we must also look to our community for support.   Improving our ability to engage the business community will only improve our career & technical education programs.   Improving our ability to enlist mentors and business partners for our struggling schools will also help to improve student performance.

 

 

• Do you support the Common Core?

 

The state of Florida no longer uses the term Common Core, and has changed the name to reflect the current status of our standards which have integrated our old Next Generation Sunshine State Standards with the Common Core.  There are a number of standards at many levels, especially primary education, that many educators in the classroom are questioning.  There is almost unanimous agreement from the educational community that testing these new standards is premature.

 

Our state legislature has made an error implementing the new Florida Standards next year, and our school district must find a way to mitigate the undue stress associated with that poor decision.When the state educators adopt new standards, they have not created a curriculum.  Each county must then determine how to teach those standards.Implementing a curriculum involves educating district staff on the standards, allowing teachers time to collaborate to map out the scope and sequence of instruction, and also purchasing instructional materials to teach the standards.It will take a number of years for school districts to purchase the needed instructional materials to fully implement the new curriculum due to how funding is allocated at the state level for instructional materials.

 

Another problem facing the implementation of the new curriculum is that it is changing.This past school year, state educators met to revise both the Florida Sunshine State Standards and the Common Core. In January, Common Core standards were modified into new Florida Standards by a state committee of educators.  Ninety-eight of the Common Core standards were either edited or deleted by the committee. These revisions will continue for a few years, until they fully form into standards that have broad base support across the state. Knowing that these standards were new, knowing that they still will be modified, virtually every educational organization across the state requested a three year moratorium on implementing the new test under the accountability program (school grades). Our state legislature moved forward without the support of the state parent, teachers, superintendents, and school board associations.

 

So, the larger question is how we mitigate the damage caused by our legislature playing politics with our children’s education.First and foremost, we must make it clear to our schools that this year we are in transition.This message should be made clear not only to school administrators and staff, but to parents and students.The district must seek input from all our stakeholders on this new curriculum (parents, teachers, administrators) and actively advocate for needed changes at the state level.As the District 1 candidate with a strong curriculum background, I will be able to provide experienced oversight of district staff during this transition to ensure that undue stress is not being imposed on our schools, teachers, and students.

 

• Do you support Charter Schools?

 

Many citizens may not realize that charters are under the control of the local school district and Volusia has had numerous instances in which our district realized that giving charters limited oversight resulted in charter failures.  As a result of those failures, our district has begun to find the right balance of giving the freedom to innovate, but under the umbrella of oversight. In District 1, Ivy Hawn has proven to be a model charter under this arrangement, while others still struggle and need increased oversight. 

 

• Do you support the half cent sales tax extension?

 

I support the half-cent extension proposed by the volunteer citizen committee.  Since 2001 our district has completed 18 school construction projects with the half cent sales tax (almost 90% of those outlined in 2001) with more than 30% of the revenue paid for by tourists.  This new extension outlines five new construction projects, as well as technology infrastructure and school security.  There will continue to be a citizen oversight committee to insure accountability of that plan. 

 

• Do you support the recent decision to continue the use of the 10th Grade World History Book?               

 

I support the district in their decision to continue with the current textbook and curriculum for 10th grade World History.  First, the textbook is not the curriculum; it is one of many classroom resources used by the teachers.  Second, the omission of the birth of Christianity and the teaching of the birth of Islam is due to the sequence of learning in our state curriculum.  World History is taught at both 6th and 10th grades.  In 6th grade the course follows the timeline of the birth of civilizations to the Middle Ages, while the 10th grade curriculum picks up at the Middle Ages and concludes in the modern era.  Therefore, the birth of Christian faith is taught in 6th grade and the birth of the Islamic faith is taught in 10th grade.   Yet, having spoke with many of my history colleagues, it has become apparent to me that all try to include a review of Christianity beginnings to provide context while learning about the history of Islam.

 

Some critics of the book point to a "whitewashing" of the Muslim religion in the textbook.  This point does have a great deal of validity, but the same argument can be made of virtually all of our textbooks in history.   Our U.S. History books are filled with similar ommissions of opposing viewpoints.  Critiquing our history books is what we want not only historians to do, but our students to do as well.  Those of us who study history understand that it is merely an interpretation and that our books should be seen as tools to engage a questioning mind.

 

Our board and the local media need to do a better job educating the public about the textbook adoption process—public involvement does occur when our state and district adopt textbooks; our state does give our district the authority to adopt books that are not on the state adoption list (this power was reaffirmed in the last Florida legislative sesion).  In the case of the  10th grade World History book, such involvment did occur with an adoption commiteee a year before the controversy started in our county.

 

• Do you support the reduced rates for school impact fees being phased in the next four fiscal years?

 

I support the compromise made between the Volusia builders and our school district to reduce rates this year to 3%, from the 6% that was previously imposed.  That rate will reduce to 2.5% in the next two years.  In four years this agreement will expire.  At that point many factors will have to be considered to determine if the district's capital needs are being met with the current funding sources.   First and foremost, is the growth in new construction impacting our school district?  While the builders have asked the district to consider other funding sources that are more broad based than impact fees, those new revenues will likely need to be passed by a voter referendum.  If construction is impacting our school district, then we will need to work with the building community to best determine the revenue source to meet the needs of our children.

 

• What should be done to help improve the performace of Starke Elementary in DeLand?

 

Success at Starke is a work in progress, which began this summer with appointing a new principal and has continued with many members in our community rallying around Starke Elememntary.  We must be patient as the new principal and staff work with the community to develop strategies to support the students of Starke.  Starke must have the autonomy to create their own plan to impact student learning, and the budgetary freedom to make staffing and purchasing decisions to implement the develped plan.   If you would like to help Starke, they are looking for volunteer mentors!

 

• How do you feel about privatizing support services in non-academic areas of the school district?

 

While I do not believe I would have voted to support the privatization of custodial services last year, I do recognize that the board must give consideration to the issue of privatization when the appearance of financial savings is presented before the board.Yet, I do feel that our current board did not complete due diligence in investigating the consequences of privatization and answering critical questions which would have improved the evaluation of the Aramark proposal.

 

When considering privatization, here are a few questions that the board should consider prior to reaching a board vote:

1. What efficiencies (if any) could be gained within district operations to reduce costs to compete with the outsourcing proposal?

2. Do the savings of outsourcing come at the expense of the district’s governmental partners, such as county health care costs, or increases in state social services?

3. What responsibility does the district have to its employees in negotiating outsourcing of their work to a future employer?

4. How will the outsourcing company be evaluated per the written and verbal contracts made for services?

 

I do not believe any of these questions (listed above) were adequately addressed last summer in the public school board forum. We now are faced with contracting a new company to evaluate the services provided by Aramark because proper due diligence was not completed.