Dr. Sue Woltanski, Monroe County School Board Member for District 5, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in our schools.
On Friday night the Best of the Upper Keys benefitted the Children’s Shelter of the Florida Keys.
Woltanski said, “That was a great night. We’re so lucky to have Keys Weekly, to have a local paper and to have them be so involved in the in community events. It was fun to highlight everybody there, including Pam Caputo Key Largo School voted best educator.”
Superintendent Ed Tierney will give a 90 day report at the board meeting tomorrow.
Woltanski said, “That was a thing he had promised in his interview, that he would listen and learn in the community and then bring a report, and that is going to be tomorrow at Marathon High School Media Center. You can get a sneak peek at it on the agenda. He’s talked to us individually about it, but he clearly sees the strengths in the community as being a strong community, great teachers and our focus on student wellness and safety, wants to take a look at graduation rates. We are slightly behind over all, but he’s more concerned about students with disabilities and English language learners, and he thinks he has some plans that we can institute to get those kids better outcomes. So I’m excited to hear his full report, and it will air live tomorrow at five o’clock.”
There will also be discussions on some projects, including Trumbo and Reynolds.
Woltanski said, “Those projects are moving forward, and there’s new plans, visuals on the agenda that people will be able to see. Reynolds, that’s in the center of residents area, and they just had a community meeting with the residents in that area, and it seems like everyone was pretty happy. I don’t know if you’ve driven past Reynolds School, but the back part of Reynolds School is in quite disarray, and it’s really going to be a nice addition to that community to clean up that area and get it functional again.”
The chair of the board will also be elected.
Woltanski said, “Two weeks after Election Day, all school boards across Florida have an organizational meeting where we talk about the upcoming year, we choose our new leadership and our appointees to the various boards that we serve on, so that’ll all be up for discussion. Then there will be a passing of the gavel, assuming we get a new chair. There’s no reason that you have to have a new chair, but they will have a passing of the gavel and give some other people a chance at some leadership opportunity.”
The Small School District Council Consortium has given us a voice statewide.
Woltanski said, “Monroe is a unique district because of our location and our size. We’re like one of the only small school districts on in the coastal communities, especially in the south. So we qualify as a small school district. That’s any school with less than 25,000 students. And most of those districts are in the center of Florida, or across the Panhandle. Then we also are part of the greater Florida Consortium, which includes all the big districts. So because of the cost of living, we have similar priorities to them. So we’re the only district that is in both the Greater Florida Consortium and the small school district. But it gives us added insight into what’s going on in the state.”
Field trips will also be discussed at the meeting.
Woltanski said, “Our families are so busy, it’s really hard for kids to get to things like theater and the zoo and all these events. When we went to the community before we redid our strategic plan, it was one of the things that families wanted the most. These are the out of county field trips. There’s other field trips that are happening within the county, but they don’t need board approval. For example, Coral Shores marine engine repair group went down to the offshore boat races. They get a great experience meeting the guys in the pits and all of that to see other opportunities for marine engine repair careers. Kids are going to competitions. Key West High and their the their film competitions that they’ve gone to, and they’ve won national awards. And Marathon High School is going up to, I think it’s in Orlando for these pro start competitions. That’s their culinary program, which is just amazing at Marathon High. So there’s a lot of great opportunities for the kids. And if you look, you’ll see that Key Largo school has the most, but they only live a few miles from the Miami border, so it’s closer for them to go to Miami, really, than it is to go to the Founders Park.”
Veterans Day is also a wonderful moment in our schools.
Woltanski said, “There was a great event at Switlik last Friday, and then at Key Largo school, they always do a great one. That was in this past week. One thing I’ll say about Veterans Day, because it was on Tuesday, the students got a particularly long weekend. They got Monday off as well. And that is also an effort from the district. We used to have half days, and then these professional development days spread across the calendar, and we’ve now combined those professional development days and combine them with weekends, and particularly three day weekends, so instead of having to find childcare for a bunch of half days, some families can take advantage of the expanded weekend and have some real family time.”
The holidays are quickly approaching.
Woltanski said, “It all starts Friday. The kickoff, I think, up here for the season is Light Up Key Largo, which is Friday night up at Murray Nelson, and then just going to be family friendly events, one after another, you won’t be able to keep up. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, if I may say how grateful I am to work in a community that cares for each other and cares for their schools, and we saw that Friday night, and at the schools, we see it pretty much every day. You can’t have strong schools without strong community support. So I’m truly grateful for that.”
For more information on our schools, click here: https://www.keysschools.com