Over the weekend, we heard that O.J. Semmes Elementary School hasn’t filled 17 teaching positions, forcing the school district to bus children to Cordova Park Elementary on the other side of Bayou Texar.
The district is ignoring the class sizes mandated by the Florida Constitution.
In 2002, voters approved an amendment to the Florida Constitution that set limits on the number of students in core classes, such as math, reading and science, in the state’s public schools.
The maximum number of students assigned to each teacher who is teaching core-curricula courses in public school classrooms for prekindergarten through grade 3 may not exceed 18 students.
The maximum number of students assigned to each teacher who is teaching core-curricula courses in public school classrooms for grades 4 through 8 may not exceed 22 students.
We’ve been told Cordova Park parents can expect classes to have as many as 30 kids. Escambia County isn’t alone with this problem. Newspapers around the state are reporting similar issues dues to teaching vacancies in Duval, Leon, Pasco and Manatee counties.
Mini-libraries in the classrooms may has become a thing of the past. Administrators have discouraged teachers from bringing books into their classrooms. Any book must be on the Florida Department of Education’s approved list,