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A meeting was held at Cunningham Creek Elementary, previously scheduled by the CCE PACE PASS group, to address rumors and concerns about upcoming changes to PACE in St. Johns County School District. Administrators from CCE and Ms. Martha Mickler, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Learning were in attendance. Following are key points from the meeting:

Key Takeaways:

• No decisions have been made. Discussions are occurring amongst the principals regarding providing gifted services at students’ home schools.
• The superintendent has notified the school board of the possibility of canceling all “courtesy busing” of out-of-area students. Budget shortfalls and the prospect of further revenue decreases as a result of the proposed property tax amendment are being blamed.
• Ms. Wierda, CCE Learning Leader, committed to providing full-time gifted services to students currently in the full-time gifted classes. Gifted services would include a gifted-endorsed teacher and gifted students, supplemented by high-achieving students to make class-size minimums.
• Further meetings are planned and there is a commitment to an open process.

Key Parental Concerns:

• “Courtesy busing” is a misnomer.Transportation is necessary for students to have access to the educational services required in their IEP (Individual Education Plan), and should be the last service cut, not the first.
• If out-of-area students are forced to return to their home-zone schools, class-size minimums may not be met forcing cancellation of full-time gifted services.
• Communication, information, and promotion of PACE from the district has been inadequate. The district website has little specific information about PACE, and response times from district personnel are inconsistent.**
• While there is a commitment at CCE to provide full-time gifted services to those students already participating in a full-time gifted class, that commitment was not extended to students identified as gifted in the future.

Next Steps:

• More meetings are planned amongst the principals for more discussion of the matter.
• CCE PACE PASS planning next meeting for January to get updates on the process.

Not Covered:

• The role of FCAT/NCLB as a driver in the decision-making process (are principals seizing an opportunity to bring high-achieving students back to home schools for statistical reasons?)
• The role of parental input in the formal budget approval process - open meetings, public comment, etc.

**Note: We have not had this experience personally, and find school and district personnel generally responsive. Regarding the availability and promotion of gifted services in St. Johns County, we will present an analysis of our web-related efforts in our next post.

Posted: 11|30|07 at 1:19 pm. Filed under: CCE PACE Yahoo! Group, Cunningham Creek, News, Parent Inputs. New here? Follow this entry via RSS 2.0. Comment | Trackback