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Local Education Leaders Detail Funding Priorities at Legislative Delegation Meeting

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BRADENTON – Members of the Manatee School Board were at Tuesday’s Legislative Delegation meeting to address local Tallahassee lawmakers on the biggest concerns and funding areas for local education.

The purpose of the meeting, which took place in the Manatee County Commission chambers, was to give local municipalities, private non-profits and ordinary citizens a chance to address all of their state representatives together regarding local and state issues and funding requests. All local representatives– Sen. Bill Galvano, Sen. Jim Boyd, Rep. Joe Gruters, and Rep. Wengay Newton–were present for the meeting.

School Board Chair Charlie Kennedy went over the legislative platform chosen by the local School Boards Association (Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota) in August. The platform includes desired limits on school construction costs, the priority legislative issue chosen by the Manatee board. A new law passed by the Florida Legislature restricts the amount of money a school district can spend per-square-foot on new construction. "We are basically looking for flexibility over control of locally raised property taxes and school constructions," said Kennedy.
 
The Board Chair gave credit to the State Legislature for movement toward testing relief in Florida, and said there is "still work to do on not only reducing the testing burden and testing schedule for students in the State of Florida," but on moving the current Mid-March testing schedule back, "so that it makes more sense in the academic school year."
 
School board member Dave Miner was in attendance to give a report on the legislative priorities of the 13-district Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition, which he is a member of and has chaired for a year. "There are many things that this coalition is involved with," said Miner, who focused on "amending the teacher accountability system that will lead to flexibility, that will lead to meaningful evaluations for teachers." Miner added, "When you go back to Tallahassee, work toward more meaningful evaluations for teachers."
 
 

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