John Dick, Monroe County School Board member, joined Good Morning Keys this morning on KeysTalk 96.9/102.7FM to talk about our schools.
There are 11 semi finalists for the superintendent position out of 32 candidates.
Dick said, “It was a good turnout, much better than the turnout we had years ago when we picked Mark Porter to be the superintendent. At that time, I don’t remember how many we had, but we didn’t get 32 I know that. I do think that we’ve got some real good candidates here this time, and both internal and external. So I think we’ll get a good superintendent out of this search.”
At the next board meeting on April 22, the numbers will be pared down even further.
Dick said, “There’s no set number on what that would be. It’s looking good. So now today, if everything is going on schedule, the responses from these 11 people that are semi finalists, the written and the video are supposed to be delivered. They should go to the board members at some time during the day, and then also all of it would be posted on the website. Now, of course, anybody wants to see what’s going on with the candidates, and you could see their resumes and everything you could see who’s the semi finalists. It’s all listed on our school board website. I expect today, to have those things posted to semi finalists answers. But again, sometimes the work can take a day or two, so we’ll see. But the plan was to have that today.”
The public can even make comments on the webpage.
Dick said, “There’ll be a time when we get to the finalists, which however many that may be, I would say, I don’t know, three or four people, maybe. But again, there’s no set number required, but when they come, they will three in the three different communities, Upper Keys, Middle Keys and Key West, there’ll be an opportunity to meet them and answer questions from them directly, where they’ll be in person. So it’ll be a good chance for everybody to see who’s looking to be the superintendent of Monroe County.”
There could be a potential budget shortfall of $2.7 million in the district, which apparently is due to allocations of more funding for school voucher programs from the state.
Dick said, “A big change is happening. We knew for sure there was definitely should be reduction in funding coming this year between what’s going on at the federal level and, of course, these vouchers. It’s unfortunate, because down here in Monroe County, we don’t have any of these failing schools, which the failing schools in some of the places are the reason why the vouchers are becoming more prominent and getting more involved, but we don’t have them here, and it’s unfortunate, but yet, all the districts take the brunt of the of the reduction of funding. So that’s unfortunate. If changes could be made that it’s just districts where it’s happening, but our schools are not failing, but yet, we have to now fund the private schools and the charter schools.”
The US Department of Education has been pared down, too.
Dick said, “It’s down to a shell, and I have a feeling it’s going to stay that way, because there was a lot of push by both sides of the aisle at times to get rid of the Department of Education, realizing that it really hadn’t accomplished much and was just becoming another bureaucracy. So I have a feeling that one really won’t come back alive. When one party does something, whether it’s good or bad, the other party is against it. But I mean, both parties, at times, have talked about disbanding the Department of Education, or at least people from both parties, maybe, but presidents from both sides have also said that so and now it’s being done, and I think it will not come back.”
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