JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Duval County School Board sat down with the Duval Delegation to present their ideas for change for the upcoming legislative session.
"This is about working together, knowing that public education is important to both entities and how we can make it the best that we can," says school board member Cheryl Grymes.
"It's important for us to hear all viewpoints and particularly the viewpoints of the leaders in our schools," says Duval Delegation Chairman Charles McBurney.
Superintendent Dr. Nicholai Vitti presented five main topics to the delegation: Change instructional materials to allocate funds for digital content; change class sizes; change end of course exams to be used as 50% of the final grade, not 100%; include special diploma students as graduates; and the big one, capital funding.
"Our PECO dollars, which is the amount of money the type of allocated money that we use to renovate our buildings, to deal with safety and life issues has been dramatically cut over the past couple of years. Most of that money has been re-diverted to charter schools so we want to make sure we receive our appropriate allocation," says Dr. Vitti.
Also discussed, Governor Scott's proposal fpr a $1.2 billion increase of the K-12 budget.
"In Florida, we're dramatically underfunded when it comes to public education as compared to other states throughout the country. So it's exciting to see the governor start to commit additional funds to education. I think the devils are in the details. Let's see exactly where the funds are going to be allocated and what kind of flexibility the district will have in using those funds," says Dr. Vitti.
From here, the legislators will take this information to Tallahassee next week.
