At the event, “Reforming Florida’s School System”, we heard a fascinating review of wide ranging reforms that are occurring right now to better Florida’s entire educational system. How will these changes affect you, your children and your friends over the coming years, and which solutions are working and which ones will directly affect you over the next decade.

Speakers were:

Patricia Levesque, Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Jeb Bush

Patricia joined the Governor’s staff in October 2002 as the education policy coordinator and has been responsible for overseeing the development of the Governor’s education budget and statewide education policies and initiatives.

Mandy Fletcher, Executive Director, Foundation for Florida’s Future

Statewide organization created in concert with Governor Bush to implement educational reform and initiatives in Florida. The organization has raised nearly $2 million to carry out its mission.

Featured speaker: Wade Habshey, D/Director of Public relations, American Legion

Dr. David Root, M.D., M.P.H. presented a fascinating overview of a program aimed at saving the lives of over 170,000 veterans who suffer from Agent Orange Poisoning and to similar toxic exposure.

Dr. Root is a Board-Certified Occupational Medicine specialist with more than forty years of professional experience. Prior to entering private practice, he ¬ served more than twenty years in the United States Air Force as a flight surgeon. As the Medical Director of an occupational medical facility in Sacramento, California, he has supervised the detoxification of more than 3,500 individuals suffering from the effects of occupational or environmental exposure to toxic chemicals and drugs.

Also featured was Joe Higgins, a former Marine and one of the most highly regarded ¬firefighters in FDNY. Joe trained almost half the current force. He was a member of a delegation of four FDNY firefighters and two members of NYPD who traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan to thank US troops for their help.

Pinellas School Superintendent Talks About Education Challenges

Last month, Dr. Clayton Wilcox, Superintendent of Pinellas County Schools addressed nearly 300 FCSR members, their guests and several public officials at the Fort Harrison Hotel auditorium in an enlightening and entertaining briefing about the his observations and plans for improving the qualify of education in the Pinellas County School system.

Dr. Wilcox began by pointing out that he is the CEO of a $1.2 billion entity, which is also the 22nd largest school district in the nation. His district comprises 15,000 employees, 113,000 students, 839 buses that travel 75,000 miles a day and lunchrooms that serve 70,000 meals daily.

Much of Dr. Wilcox’ talk centered on the “No Child Left Behind Act,” signed by President Bush in 2002 and designed to make schools accountable, as measured by annual performance gains. NCLB requires annual testing and annual report cards to ensure that every child reads on or above his grade level.

Dr. Wilcox showed several charts and graphs of math competencies in Pinellas with 17 year-old African American and Hispanic students at the same level as 13 year-old white students. Reading competency graphs mirrored the same–17 year-old Latin and African American students at the same level as 13 year-old whites. 60% of fourth graders read below a basic level.

Faced with these and other statistics of the lack of progress, Dr. Wilcox explained that he had the overriding responsibility of “making sure your students are educated” and “to make improvements so that there is absolute student achievement for all”.

“I must find or create a sense of urgency that it is improvement that counts” said Dr. Wilcox. “Great teaching matters. No one is going to learn from someone they don’t like or respect. We will teach and our students will learn the next thing they need to know when they need to know it. If they don’t know the word, they don’t go on until they know the word; if they don’t understand the concept, they won’t go on until they do.”

Dr. Wilcox has traveled to various venues in the County with his “listening tours” to gather public opinion about the school system. His regular column, “The Classroom,” in the St. Petersburg Times also invites participation in online discussions on education.

In closing, Dr. Wilcox encouraged members of the audience to take responsibility for their schools. “Get involved and help us. Volunteer.”