Monroe County School Board Member Sue Woltanski joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the schools.
The district has adopted a balanced budget with the lowest millage rate since Woltanski joined the school board.
“That is primarily because of not just the increase in property values, which then allows us to collect the same amount of money on a lower millage, but also because the state changed the funding formula,” Woltanski said.
Under the new state funding formula, Woltanski said local districts are required to generate 85% of their funding, compared with 90% previously.
The change is connected in part to the growth of state-funded private school scholarships and vouchers.
“We have almost 1,000 kids in the Keys that are using vouchers to go to private school that are publicly funded by state education funds,” Woltanski said.
The school board also set a goal of directing more of its budget toward classroom instruction.
“The state requires you to have 65% of your funds going to the classroom, and our goal is to have 75% of the funds going to the classroom,” she said.
Woltanski said reaching that target is not always possible, but the district achieved the 75% goal this year.
“We’re trying to focus the funds into the schools and into the classrooms,” she said, while noting that other expenses, including bus transportation, remain important.
Woltanski also discussed the district’s efforts to promote suicide prevention during September’s Suicide Prevention Month.
Monroe County was the first school district in Florida to become designated as a suicide prevention district, following roughly a decade of work that included training teachers and counselors and establishing support systems.
The effort began following the loss of an eighth-grade student in the Upper Keys.
“From the next day, Dalinia Goins and the staff at the district was working with people to get this going,” Woltanski said. “We don’t ever want another one of those. One was too many.”
As part of the district’s suicide prevention efforts, students will have an opportunity to attend performances of the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.”
The Keys Players will perform the musical beginning Friday, Sept. 25, at the Coral Shores High School Performing Arts Center. The production deals with teen suicide and the impact of social media on young people.
The theme of the production is “You Will Be Found,” which Woltanski said aligns with the district’s message that students can reach out for help.
The production will include an all-student cast, along with members of the Keys Players.
There will also be performances at each of the district’s high schools as part of the suicide prevention effort.
She cautioned that “Dear Evan Hansen” is rated PG-13 and will not be shown to middle school students or younger because of its subject matter and some brief strong language.
Woltanski also discussed her upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., where she will participate in federal advocacy efforts on behalf of Florida school boards.
She serves on the Florida School Boards Association’s federal advocacy committee and said representatives will meet with lawmakers and federal agencies to discuss education issues.
Among the agencies Woltanski hopes to meet with are the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the school lunch program, and the U.S. Department of Education.
“We can talk about how the restructuring of federal funding is going, and, you know, what expectations are for that,” Woltanski said.
The Monroe County School District is also a member of the Florida Consortium of School Boards, a group representing school boards primarily from coastal Florida counties.
Woltanski said the consortium represents more than 1.5 million students, or about 55% of Florida’s students, and works to establish common legislative priorities.
She said the group focuses in part on securing adequate funding to account for the higher cost of living in coastal school districts.
Woltanski also provided an update on student testing, saying all state-mandated progress-monitoring testing has been completed.
“Now our focus is on education in the classroom without distractions,” she said.
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