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| Challenge: Transporting Students |
Transporting, feeding, engaging and educating just one child can be a challenge. Imagine what it takes to care for the 43,000 students in Manatee County classrooms let alone the 192,000 children attending Hillsborough County Schools.
From billion-dollar budgets to classroom head-counts – any way you add it up - Tampa Bay Area school superintendents shoulder a lot of responsibility.
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Challenge:
Feeding Students |
At the start of the school year, WUSF Public Broadcasting sat down with six of the bay area superintendents to talk about the year ahead.
All of the bay area school districts are struggling to keep pace with growth. On average, 65,000 students come to Florida annually. That's like adding a mid-sized school district to the state every year.
It's pinched budgets and widened the search for teachers. One way to pay for that growth was covered in WUSF's story on impact fees.
Improving student reading is a top priority for most districts as is shrinking the teacher–student ratio as mandated by the Class Size Reduction Constitutional Amendment.
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Challenge:
Engaging & Educating Students |
Several superintendents describe that amendment as an under-funded mandate. But, totally unfunded mandates are also a problem such as the Jessica Lunsford Act which went into affect September 1st.
Listen to an overview of the promise and the problems facing the area's top educators. |
