Dr. Sue Woltanski, Monroe County School Board member for District 5, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s happening in the district.
A recent meeting about legislative priorities included 11 different districts in Key Largo.
Woltanski said, “Monroe County School District is a member of the greater Florida Consortium of School Boards, which is an organization that’s been around for about 40 years. It’s composed of school boards in South Florida basically that are coastal communities. It’s 11 districts that have similar costs of living basically is what it is. They got together to make sure that there was fairness in funding as it related to cost of living. This year, I happen to be president of that organization. So it was my responsibility to hold the legislative priorities meetings where we meet in the summers to discuss the upcoming legislative session. It’s a unique organization because we will only advocate for issues that had unanimous approval by all of the boards in our group. The next school board meeting is tomorrow, but at the following one, we’ll be approving that legislative platform, and each board has line item veto, where they can remove something from the platform if they don’t agree with it. But because of that, it’s a great organization to figure out how much people have in common about public schools and to focus on those issues.”
The funding formula was changed last year.
Woltanski said, “Last year, the legislature changed the funding formula to adjust funding based on comparative wage adjustments, and not cost of living. We’re hoping that they’ll add back in. The cost of housing here has risen much faster than our comparative wages have, so our wages don’t reflect the cost of living here. So we’re hoping that they’ll do that. But the exciting part for me about it was that because I was the host, I was able to choose sort of the theme of the part around the meeting. I chose to highlight the marine science programs and partnerships that we have, that are pretty unique to the Keys.”
A number of presentations focused on the marine life and ecosystems.
Woltanski said, “So it was great time highlighting these programs which we couldn’t do if we didn’t have great partnerships with environmental groups and marine educators in the community.”
Some of the AP courses in the schools in the Keys will continue to be offered – there was some talk in the state that a few of those classes might be taken away. A big one was AP Psychology, where 100 students in the Keys had signed up for it.
Woltanski said, “It seems like our district is really good at just waiting out the storm. So that class in particular is very popular. One hundred kids is a lot of high school kids for AP courses. Both of my kids took that class and they said it was unlike any of the other classes that they took. It really opens them up to things that they would never have been exposed to and a lot and it changes a lot of kids minds about what kind of things they want to do when they go to college. So it’s an important class, and I’m glad we’re able to do it. We have two great teachers that teach that and I’m glad we can support them and the kids, because it can be life changing for kids.”
Information about the schools are on the district’s website and there’s also an app you can download.
Woltanski said, “There’s an app now that you can put on your cell phone, and you can have access to all of that, bus schedules and meals, the meal calendar and all of that can come right to one app on your cell phone, so you can look for that as well.”
Sports are up and running and the band is also practicing.
Woltanski said, “Even if you don’t have kids, the sports events are fun to watch. Volleyball is indoors in air conditioned gyms or you could do football on Friday night.”
There are still some open positions in the district.
Woltanski pointed out, “If you are a parent of a football player, and you want to learn how to drive the bus, you can get a paid gig and see all your kid’s away games. I’m looking forward to a great school year.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keysschools.com/