Help Southwest Florida students by supporting the 2018 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
identified by The School District of Lee County.
The Lee County School Board requests that the Lee County Delegation assist us to:
Obtain funding for a Lee County School District pilot program that successfully addresses teacher recruitment and retention through the use of a career ladder for educators, minority recruitment tools for all employees, and grow your own model for recruitment of new employees.
- There is a growing shortage of quality teachers and school administrators in Florida and the nation.
- Growth districts, such as Lee County, bear a bigger risk from this shortage as they need to hire teachers both for growth and attrition of the workforce.
- A meaningful career ladder based on performance is a proven method for limiting the attrition rate especially for the educators who are most important to the success of the organization and our students.
- Our Grow Your Own initiative will address our pipeline needs especially in the hardest to place specialties and provide new teachers who have a commitment to the community.
- The Grow Your Own initiative also will help to alleviate open seat concerns in the local higher education teacher training programs that are facing accreditation risks solely because of the current under-enrollments.
Amend the "High Growth Capital Outlay Fund" to provide state funding for needed classrooms to include Lee County as one of the fastest growing districts in the State.
- Lee County Schools has been a high growth district for most of the past two decades.
- Previously, the Legislature provided signifi cant capital outlay funds for new construction.
- Florida law has included a separate "High Growth Capital Outlay Grant Formula" for much of the past decade, however the Legislature has never funded the program through the formula, opting for local project funding instead during a handful of years.
- The current statutory language would require Lee County Schools to pass a referendum for a new local tax in order to participate in the program.
- We recommend expanding the formula to include Lee County and remove the local referendum requirement. Provide enough statewide funding to avoid additional new local taxes, and provide meaningful funding to the program so that the district may avoid having to seek such a referendum just to meet established student station needs.
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