Inweekly won a small victory for open meetings. The Escambia County School District has opened the first hour of its ECSD-NAS Pensacola Joint Military Council meeting after the newspaper asked the State Attorney’s Office to look into it.
New Press Release: Escambia County School District (FLA) and Naval Air Station Pensacola leaders will hold the next meeting of the ECSD NASP Military Council on Oct. 22. The public is invited to attend the meeting virtually from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
“The agenda for the meeting starts with information sharing and discussion on predetermined topics and will address questions already submitted,†explained Council Co-Chair Steve Marcanion, ECSD’s Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. “The agenda includes council business items, a report of a new grant from the Department of Defense, and information on next week’s School Choice Expo, and more.â€
The public may continue to submit questions by sending them to pensacolapao@gmail.com or they can be submitted during the meeting by posting a comment to the Facebook LIVE coverage of the meeting on the page, Escambia Schools Public Relations. Those additional questions will be shared with the Council during the second hour of the meeting, time permitting.
Questions about general topics may be answered by the Council. Any questions about specific student situations will be addressed offline. If the subject of the question requires research, or if a subject matter expert is not in this Council meeting, the question’s topic may be added to the agenda for the next quarterly meeting.
Congratulations, and thank you for pursuing this. Also, FYI – Teachers will be attending this month’s ECSB meeting at the J. E. Hall Center, Tuesday (October 20) at 5:30 p.m. seeking answers to some important questions.
Per the Escambia Education Association, this year “the district overspent their budget by $1.6 million on School Administration Salaries. In contrast, they underspent their budget in Instructional Salaries, Student Support Services Salaries, and Student Transportation Services Salaries.†Also, while the state allocated $5.4 million to Escambia County to increase teacher’s salaries, the district only budgeted an additional $2.5 million. What gives?
Source: https://www.escambiafea.org/media/Escambia-FEA-ZBKBF8SDMNQ1AF0C9CAR.pdf
As a father of an elementary school teacher in Escambia County I am also concerned with growing class sizes in the face of Covid-19. As some students chose the virtual learning option this fall, my daughter began her traditional (on campus) class with only eleven students. This made it possible to arrange her room so to ensure social distancing. However, over the past few weeks her class has doubled in size, literally, making any attempt to social distance impossible. Unfortunately her situation is not unique, and the ECSB has provided little help in providing a solution. With winter approaching, and cases in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa County schools already on the rise, I am deeply concerned.