For over 27 years Marjorie A. Myers greeted diners at her Paco's Mexican Restaurant in Winter Park with a smile and great food. Recently the Paco's family lost Marj to cancer. During her life, Marj was an active member of the community--giving back whenever she could and creating an enjoyable work environment for all of her valued employees, many of whom have worked at Paco's since it first opened its doors over 27 years ago.

To honor Marj's great memory and her commitment to service, Paco's is hosting a fundraiser to create the Marjorie A. Myers Memorial Scholarship Fund for ...   more »

OCCPTA will hold a Special General Meeting on Small School Closures

When: May 11, 2009
Where: ELC Building
445 W. Amelia Street
Orlando, FL 32801
Board Room
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

At this meeting we will discuss the pros and the cons of Small School Closures.
If you have any questions, please email Richard Bolam at 2ndVP@OCCPTA.org.   more »

The Community Calendar included in the newsletter CORE sent out earlier today accurately reflected the OCPS calendar and list of meetings posted on its website.

The OCPS calendar was wrong.

In an effort to obtain additional information regarding the proposed small school closures/rezoning, CORE learned that there is ALSO a community meeting regarding this issue on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. That meeting is included on pupil placement's revised timeline, but is not listed on any OCPS calendar. CORE has learned that meeting will take place and will include information about the suggestions made by Nancy Robbinson at ...   more »

Orlando Sentinel Editorial: April 29, 2009

Orange County School District officials still can't seem to fathom - or appreciate - their stunning neglect of a federally ordered biracial committee that went AWOL without anyone seeming to notice.

But at this point, the blame game is secondary to more pressing issues.

For starters, the school district needs a complete accounting of the committee's activities over the years. Did it meet when it was supposed to? Were zoning and attendance issues decided without the committee's input? How many meetings were held without a quorum? How many times were School Board members assured ...   more »

Orlando Sentinel: Posted by ErikaHobbs on Apr 23, 2009 5:34:45 PM


That's when you can review Nancy Robbinson's proposals that I (sort of) sketched out for you last week. I can't tell you why they won't let you peek ahead of time. Here is the official response from PIO Shari Bobinski: "Pupil Assignment tells me they will be posted after the May 6th community meeting as standard procedure."

And here is the new timeline of events:


Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Bi-Racial Committee Appointees Approved
Board Work session
5:30 p.m. Public Hearing


Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Superintendent Meeting
8:00 a.m.
Bi-Racial Committee Meeting
1:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Community Meeting
4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
School Board Rule Development Workshop
6:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
School Board Rule Development Workshop (continued if needed)
4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bi-Racial committee Meeting
1:00 p.m.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Community Meeting---Additional Meeting
6:00 p.m.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
School Board Meeting—Public Hearing
5:30 p.m.

   more »

OCPS to Hispanics: You can join biracial committee if you're white
posted by ErikaHobbs on Apr 23, 2009 5:41:25 PM
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Colleague Victor Ramos writes: A group of Hispanic activists were told today that in order to participate on the Orange County schools biracial committee, they would have to be counted as whites. The committee is part of the review process for the district's proposed school closures.

Activists rejected the district's compromise, calling it ridiculous and an insult to their culture.

They had gathered ...   more »

Monday, April 13, 2009
Down Economy Drives Down Student Enrollment
State forecasters said Monday that 10,000 fewer public school students are expected to enter classrooms this fall , the fourth straight year of declining enrollment in what remains the nation's fourth largest school system.
The economy has plenty to do with the downward trend. Migration from other states has cooled as Florida’s unemployment rate climbs to levels above the national average, a glut of unsold homes slows the construction industry, and the state hovers near the top nationwide in home foreclosures.
While 2.6 million students still are expected to fill ...   more »

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, left, and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland at Doswell E. Brooks Elementary School on Wednesday. Photo: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times


By SAM DILLON
Published: April 1, 2009

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told the nation’s governors on Wednesday that in exchange for billions of dollars in federal education aid provided under the economic stimulus law, he wants new information about the performance of their public schools, much of which could be embarrassing.

In a “Dear Governor” letter to the 50 states, Mr. Duncan said $44 billion in stimulus money was being made ...   more »

CLOSING SMALL SCHOOLS

Background


At the present we have a proposal for closing eight small schools at a possible savings of $8 million. This would take a long drawn out process of rulemaking to accomplish. There are some who would claim this violates are agreement with the public when we lobbied for the half penny sales tax. We have had a tons of mail asking us not to close these community schools. These buildings are all worth from 10 to 20 million dollars according to Mr. Proi. In this market we do not have a remote chance of just selling ...   more »

Please review the rezoning maps (attachment) and the presentation from OCPS pupil assignment on March 26, 2009   more »

Dear CORE,

I am very disappointed by recent decision by the Orange County School Board to close and merge Orlando’s smaller urban elementary schools. Closing these schools is very short sighted and is not in the best interest for the future of Orlando’s downtown neighborhoods. Closing urban schools may be economically, socially and environmentally unsound in the long term. Downtown is where people will want to live once economic recovery begins and downtown neighborhoods should be a focus of future economic development. If the older small downtown elementary schools close, many affluent parents will turn to private schools. Closing downtown ...   more »

From: DeCandis, Andrew [mailto:andrew.decandis@ocps.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 10:02 AM
To: City/County Managers and Orange County Interlocal Planners Group Cc: Frank Kruppenbacher; Moes, Brian F.; Collins, Richard L.; Blocker, Ronald D.; Simpson, Sandra R. Subject: Consideration of School Closures Please be advised that because of the statewide school funding crisis, Orange County Public Schools is considering closing several small elementary schools in Orange County. This notice is being provided in accordance with Section 5.4 of the Interlocal Agreement for Public School Facility Planning and Implementation of Concurrency. The schools being considered for closure are located within the City of ...   more »

 Mr. Merriam,
 
Thank you for your reply, except I wish you had answered all of my questions.  I will address my concerns after each of your paragraphs to help keep it simple.  Your text is in blue.
 

Last year we estimated that Transportation could reduce its
 budget by $3.8 million.  At the same time we estimated the
 budget for 08-09.  Both are estimates of future spending
 which we have some control over.  You have pointed out
 budget line items that have not been fully expended and will
 not; therefore not a true determinant on how we are doing. ...   more »

Rally at the Rep for Arts Education

“Strategies for keeping arts education in our schools”

The Orange County Arts Education Center would like to help those of you with children enrolled in arts classes to understand the best strategies for working to keep these opportunities available at your school. Information will be provided regarding the importance of arts education along with suggestions for helping you to organize efforts to support arts education.


Monday – March 23, 2009

6:00PM-7:30PM

Each school should send one or two representatives from each of the arts subjects being taught at your school. If for example ...   more »

Please read below for a 'conversation' between the Chief operational officer of OCPS and a member of the public who has researched for answers.........

 

Mr. Gledich,
 
Please review email chain below.  I have not received any contact from Mr. Merriam to date, but that is ok because I am trying to find some time to study some of the information I am finding on the OCPS website.  In your email you mentioned that the information I received was not clear and concise.  Straight off your website I found the information on the furniture in the official transportation budget. ...   more »

Board Members and Superintendent,
 
I have been talking recently with a member of the Transportation Committee, assigned by the board,  and I am hearing some incredible information about the budget in that area.  Being an Orange County Employee myself, I know that our department was asked to make across the board budget cuts and I believe it was done.  The Transportation Committee member I talked to informed me of many, many areas of the transportation budget that were not cut, and instead increased dramatically.  One  example is a huge increase for furniture, an increase large enough to almost fund ...   more »

This is the powerpoint from the work session meeting on Monday night about small school closures. The board made no decisions from the information which was presented. There were many unanswered questions when the meeting concluded.   more »

Please view the attached pdf. document to view the entire Summary report fromt eh Budget Study Group.   more »

Please review the attached letter that school board member Rick Roach sent to his fellow school board members in regards to school mergers/ closing.....   more »