The Tea the Data Spills: School District Flavor
Data alone can “spill some tea” about the state of our district when we allow it to, especially when we examine it with the correct context and alongside other data points. Our inquisitive community continues to ask why our district executives are paid so well while support staff and our educators scrape up what is […]
IDEA Funding, A Serious Matter Met with Unserious Answers
We have serious questions for Leon County School District (LCS), but they continue to deflect, ignore, or simply provide answers that land like a bad joke. Conversations about IDEA funding continue to circulate as many of our parents feel their students’ IEPs are not being followed and are being told noncompliance is due to resources. […]
Utility Bill Forgiveness For Me But Not For Thee
On August 4th 2025, we placed a request for the current bills at Department of Transportation at Hayden Burns Building, the Federal Correctional Institute, and Leon County Schools. At the end of September, we received the utility bills. Everything looked fairly accurate except for one thing; we placed our request in August, and these bills […]
Buses and Confusion and Students, Oh My!
This school year hasn’t even begun yet and parents are buzzing on social media about the new Leon County bus system. And like an angry hornets nest their conversations are vibrating throughout many of our social media groups. We have also recently heard from many concerned parents about the new bus routes. The most prominent […]
Neighbor Voices: Financial Uncertainty and School Community
During this time of financial uncertainty, with our schools facing a projected $12.5 million shortfall, Mr. Hanna’s job should be one of giving families a sense of calm and ensuring us that despite cuts, our children will continue to get a great education because we have great teachers.. However, after addressing the media, the community is so unnerved and […]
A Public Records Adventure: Leon County Schools
“Getting the dates off of the platform is not easy due to the way the platform is set up.” The custodian of records responded to us after we requested the dates of completion for the school executives annual trainings. A couple weeks prior we requested and received a list of required annual training for all […]
A Public School Parent’s Perspective
Submitted Anonymously “A Public School Parent” 5/21/2025 As we close another school year, I find myself reflecting on the events that unfolded—both through personal experience and conversations with other parents and teachers. Across social media and within our communities, one theme continues to emerge: leadership’s consistent failure to acknowledge and address the real issues affecting […]
The School Board And The Superintendent Pay
Rocky Hanna continues to be generous with raises. He gave himself 26.5% ($42,336) increase. Last year the superintendent pay was $159,988. This year, a whopping $202,324. That’s almost a full salary for a new teacher or a couple of paraprofessionals. Interestingly, raises in excess of the Florida Statute are to be voted on by a […]
When Testing Matters, The Taken Test Matters More
Social media groups buzzed on Tuesday January 14th about the district’s decision to offer the Classical Learning Test (CLT). Many parents expressed concern over the districts choice of test citing the test is not widely accepted like the ACT and SAT. Other parents are concerned with the material used in the test. Classical Learning Test […]
Striving For A Successful District Is More Than Statements
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 […]
Trust In Information: But What Information Can We Trust?
Superintendent Rocky Hanna went before the state to present his plan for Apalachee Elementary School. The state relies on the superintendent to bring and present data and information needed for the betterment of the district. The state, like our neighbors, trust that the information will be accurate and transparent. Hanna reported to the Tallahassee Democrat […]
The Impact of Central Staff Reclassification
Leon County Schools superintendent, Rocky Hanna, defended the increase in central staff spending at the last School Board meeting. He states that the increase in number and in spending is due to reclassification of employees. This defense is a result of a Public Records Request that Superintendent candidate, Joe Burgess, published earlier this week. The […]
A New Generation, A New School Structure
FloridaCapitalTea wanted to know if our current school structure works for our Tallahassee families. We reached out to you with a survey a few weeks ago and compiled the responses. We ran this survey for about one week and received 76 responses. Prior to Covid, there were cracks in the foundation of our school system. […]
A Hard Decision Needs To Be Made Quickly: LCS
Leon County Schools was faced with a hard decision at the end of this week. Close the Schools for a Florida storm or remain open. The last time the Schools closed for a storm, the storm was minor. Parents were angry that the schools closed for seemingly no reason. However, the opposite occurred on Friday […]
Rocky Hanna For School Superintendent
We set out to research who Rocky Hanna is by looking at various sources on the internet and compiling into one spot for our ability to quicky reference. We explored his campaign page, Social Media sites, and finally we Googled his name. This is not a complete compilation and we encourage you to do your […]
Joseph “Joe” Burgess For School Superintendent
We set out to research who Joe Burgess is by looking at various sources on the internet and compiling into one spot for our ability to quicky reference. We explored his campaign page, Social Media sites, and finally we Googled his name. This is not a complete compilation and we encourage you to do your […]
Genleah “Star” Swain For School Superintendent
We set out to research who Genleah “Star” Swain is by looking at various sources on the internet and compiling into one spot for our ability to quicky reference. We explored her campaign page, Social Media sites, and finally we Googled her name. This is not a complete compilation and we encourage you to do […]
School Superintendent Candidates: The Questions We Wanted To Know
First and foremost we would like to thank all the Leon County School Superintendent candidates that responded and participated. While 850CapitalTea does hold our own bias we feel it would be a disservice to our audience to not allow all candidates an opportunity to answer the same questions and have the attention of our viewers. […]
Leon County School Board: The Questions We Wanted To Know
While 850CapitalTea does hold our own bias we feel it would be a disservice to our audience to not allow all candidates an opportunity to answer the same questions and have the attention of our viewers. It takes courage to run in an election and it takes greater courage to answer tough questions posed by […]
An Overwhelming Consensus In A City Of Many Voices
In a city of many voices, Leon County Schools unveiled their new logo. We took our survey directly to you in order to find out your thoughts and feelings on the rebrand. An overwhelming consensus was reached well before a full 24 hours lapsed. Within 17 hours we received 149 survey responses and observed numerous […]
