We recently wrote a piece on how the State grades our district. Here we plan to dive into our district’s strategic plan. The districts strategic plan is a commitment to the community to achieve various goals in different areas. All areas of the strategic plan are important. We found that while the District states they are focusing on all areas, we find that perhaps some areas have more of a focus than other areas.
Leon County Schools Pillars
We next wanted to located and understand Leon County Schools strategic plan. This outlines how they plan to achieve FLDOE grading scale.
LCS recently changed their logo to reflect the “pillars” of LCS. The pillars represent their goals and are outlined in the strategic plan. We found the learning goals under “Pillar II.” On a basic level their learning goals are almost exactly what the state outlined.
This is where we have to look a little deeper and while their stated intent is necessary for us to know, what they are actually doing and the impact they are having is much more important.
We prefer to look at information we do know. In Pillar III the district states “develop and implement district-wide recruitment and retention initiatives focused on appropriately staffing established positions.” Following the teacher negotiations, we know that the district is not achieving this. The teachers need livable wages in order to stay in the field or in the district. While an agreement on negotiations is great, it doesn’t always mean that the problems are solved. We can also see on the District’s Job Board (as of 01/14/2025) that there are many positions open for instructional staff from 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade educators to science and math instructors at various middle and high schools.
However, the most needed instructors are the ESE instructors. From speech pathologists to occupational therapists and teachers specializing in hearing impaired. We have spoken to a few of these occupations and asked them why they aren’t working for the public schools. Unanimously the answers we heard were related to compensation, one neighbors even stated they applied, were accepted but the pay was $20,000 less than other options not in Leon County Schools. The neighbor continued to express they would have taken a small difference in pay but $20,000 was too much, especially when they know of at least one other district that pays competitively and has a hiring waitlist.
The lack of staffing from the district has placed more stress on students, parents, teachers, and principals. Just last year, in an attempt to increase attendance, the district ran an campaign shaming parents for students absences. This was not received well by parents.
Many parents told us that their child was bullied and struggled with going into a hostile atmosphere. We believe that students would feel safer and have more attention in smaller classroom sizes. Other parents expressed they are teaching their children about work-life balance and taking breaks when needed.
Many have stated their interactions with the district are dismissive and the lack of resources and support add unnecessary stress to their families.
Parents of ESE students feel the lack of support the most.
Goals and Components Combine
The lack of ESE instructional staff is the impact of the District not focusing on students that need support. It is clear that LCS says they want to recruit and retain, yet their actions reveal they are not. Ultimately our district’s focus is on how they look on paper and their “intent” and less so on their impact on our community.
We believe this is a result of lacking clear communication and clear structure within LCS. Natural disasters and emergencies tend to highlight our weaknesses. We saw this play out in May (2024) during a storm which resulted in tornadoes and LCS illustrated notable deficiency in a chain of command. Our schools need consistency from the top down. We need our Superintendent and School Board to ensure that all principles are trained on interpreting data from the state and implementing strategies that help our students succeed.
When the district is unsuccessful their response leans towards confusion or outside blame. It’s time we, as a community, help our district. We must hold them accountable to their words and actions.
Studies show a correlation between economically disadvantaged students and success. Our own district shows that economically disadvantaged students are falling behind their peers in every area assessed. According to the state data, more than half of our student population is economically disadvantaged. This failure is not just on the school board. This is on the failure of our county and city representatives not prioritizing affordable houses or incentives for grocery stores to increase access to affordable food. This is a full community problem and is not solely one entity’s responsibility.
The Other Pillars
We only pulled a couple components to show how LCS impact on our community is inconsistent with their stated goals. However, many parents feel uneasy about weapons being found in bags and on campus despite security measures (Pillar I) in place. Additionally, parents express students are still unprotected from bullying.
Pillar IV is about an informed engaged community. Parents have reported their comments being deleted in comment sections. Recently the district has added their meetings live on their FaceBook meeting page which is a huge step in the direction of getting community engagement. As the 2025 year begins we will see if the district will continue to make strides in this area. Looking at the TSC and Lively merger that was taking place behind closed doors is concerning.
The final pillar is Fiscal Responsibility. This pillar affects every aspect of the district. Saving money at the expense of our educators is not financially responsible. The district is also not paying their fire service fee, increasing salaries for school executives, and spending money on gimmicks like a new logo.
Keep the conversations going. So many neighbors have sat down at our table and we’ve enjoyed the respectful discourse that has taken place. We have witnessed small changes over this past year because of all these conversations happening in our community, online, and at local government meetings.
We truly are better and stronger together.
