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beachbums77

Beach Comber
Jun 21, 2012
10
2
From WZEP First News‎ > ‎
Rosemary Ragle Speaks Against ESE Changes
posted an hour ago by WZEP AM 1460 An Exceptional Student Education employee with the Walton School District took issue with Superintendent Anderson’s recommendation to add a Coordinator of Instructional Support Services. Rosemary Ragle spoke to the Board and questioned adding the position at a time she says morale is low, questioned changes in ESE staff location and questioned spending money for a position when it could be used elsewhere.
Ragle, who is with the Walton School District ESE Department, talked to WZEP First News. Ragle is also qualified as a democrat candidate for Walton Superintendent of Schools. With limited time to make comments, and with the meeting being an agenda specific special meeting, Ragle made several comments and points, but not all were fully cited or allowed due to the specific question on the agenda.
At the meeting Ragle talked about constraints on financing and teachers not getting step raises. She says she is concerned about teachers. Ragle also thinks moral is low and does not think teachers feel valued. Talking to WZEP, she noted the recent School Accreditation Report and says they cited the need to develop a plan of corrective action to improve the confidence of the stakeholders in the school district. Stakeholders can be teachers, support and parents. She says another area of weakness noted by the Accreditation team was the need to increase parent involvement.
Ragle also talked about Building One at the Tivoli Complex. She says it has always housed the exceptional education department. Currently they have six staff members with offices there. She told the Board that in the past the district spent funds to install a confidential record file room that meets requirements. Ragle tells First News her staff will be moved in July to accommodate the phy services department. Ragle says she is concerned that the departments are being split into two and that if the ESE staff is separated from the building, they will lose easy accessibility to the records needed to their everyday work. Ragle was stopped from discussing the relocation of her staff since the meeting was an agenda special meeting and the personnel recommendations were listed, but not building needs.
Ragle also questioned adding another administrative position to the payroll. She says the two departments were one, Psychological and ESE and now there will be two. At the meeting, Superintendent Anderson told the Board there will be no additional cost and there might even be a savings. It was explained the position would be funded through several TItle programs. Saying that union negotiations have been at an impasse, Ragle expressed concern with adding a position to the Tivoli Complex. She tells WZEP she feels it would have a negative public perception. Ragle says these funds can not be used to pay teachers, but could be used elsewhere. She says they could find areas of need where the funds could be used, without creating an administrative position. An example would be using these funds to provide inclusive services for V-PK and pre-Kindergarten disabilities.
 

seagrovegirl

Beach Fanatic
Feb 9, 2008
3,885
454
Historic Old Point Washington
I take exception to some of the comments by Ragle.

First, moral is low due to budget constraints and payroll freezes, this is across the counrty, not an isolated circumstance.

Second, I think teachers are notoriously underfunded and it takes a special person to educate our kids. That being said, don't contribute to the bickering, kids come first. It will get better, we have to get through the perfect storm.

Third, hiring additional staff to help the ESE students sounds like a plus to me, especially since it will be at no additional cost to WCSD. ESE programs need improvement in Walton Co.

Fourth, what would be Ragle's recommendation for improvement? The issues were addressed, in a meeting that was agenda specific, so I understand the limited conversation, so what was the point? It seems the motive is political which in my opinion was counter productive. It leaves more questions than answers.

My thoughts that remain, are this is a Union issue, and hiring more staff ( even though fully funded elsewhere)during pay freezes will detract from their paycheck. This sickens me.

Lastly, I have nothing to gain by my comments. I currently have no children in the school system and I have not chosen a candidate to support. I see this for what it is, it is so obvious to me, so I had to speak out.

I admire our teachers, they work hard and put up with a bunch of crap from kids, parents and administration, but the current circumstances are what they are. I want to see some thoughts on solutions, not negative comments in a limited meeting.
 

ann watson

Banned
Jun 26, 2012
53
5
Seagrove Beach
My husband has attended a lot of school board meetings and he was at the meeting on Wednesday. I understand that the most interesting issues to come up were personnel recommendations that some parents and others expressed concerns about. I am a teacher of 32 years who no longer works in Walton schools so I do know a little about schools and education. I also have a son who graduated from South Walton High in 2010. I understand that the personnel recommendations are given to the board by the superintendent and the board always approves them as a whole and not individually. With the exception of relatives of a board member, no individual names are even mentioned. The board is told by the board attorney that they must approve the superintendent's recommendations unless they have good cause not to do so. This would be a more valid argument if individual names were submitted for approval and not just the whole list with no names given to the board. The fact is that a lot of instructional candidates with better qualifications are passed over for less qualified teachers. It is a fact that in Walton County the number of experienced teachers with graduate degrees is below the state average. But less experienced teachers with only BA degrees can be paid less which is what Tea Party types with no children seem to think is needed. Our children deserve the best teachers we can recruit.
 

beachbums77

Beach Comber
Jun 21, 2012
10
2
Four years ago when I went to the poll to vote I felt I really knew very little about the local candidates especially the candidates for school board and superintendent. For that reason I was very glad to come across the interview conducted by the Defuniak radio station and hope they continue to report on the local candidates. The WCSD pays the superintendent over $100,000 so I think it's pretty important to all about the candidates.
Also on the station's website is a summary of the school board meeting. So, though I agree that the payroll freeze our teachers have experienced over the past 3-5 years would definitly dampen moral, there does seem to be another problem. According to the summary a person spoke on behalf of a group of teachers that were "too afraid" to speak for themselves. Afraid?
Hiring additional ESE staff I also agree would be of great benefit to our school distict. I imagine with budget constraints it is often the students with disabilities that can be most affected. But, as noted in the summary, this position is not for a person to work with students with special needs it is admisistrative position. From what I am able to find out online these positions start out at over $65,000 a year. And even though it seems the position will be paid for from "title" money couldn't that money have paid for 2 or 3 classroom aides? or much needed materials? Beginning teacher pay is only $34,700.
Current circumstances being what they are, I would hope school board staff would be thinking of providing educational services to the students first.
Hopefully there will be more to come from and about all the local candidates.
 

playing4possum

Beach Comber
Jan 1, 2011
40
3
It is quite interesting to note that Walton County School Board needs to have more "parent involvement". I not longer have a child in the here in Walton County and I thank Florida Virtual School and Northwest Florida State College for my child's education. I consider myself an active parent. I know the teachers and administrators that gave my child more education in a day than some gave him in a year. Say "YES" to parental involvement. Say "NO" to pedigree jobs. Seriously folks who are new here, it is not what you know but who you are related to when it comes to jobs here/especially political ones. I have not voted for Carlene Anderson once in all the times she has won in this county and this election will be no different. Until she sees the value of the community (especially parents) becoming involved in here in education, she will not have my vote. Yes, she has the biggest sign but it is not an A+ system here.

I can see where instructors were "afraid". It is true, she has not been compassionate toward them. I remember back to when she was an elementary school principal. She needs to pack her bags and go back to college. Why are we continually paying over 100, 000 a year to someone who railroads our instructors, changes them from school to school year after year so that they are at her whim of where she wants to send them.

Walton County School System needs a great leader. It is time to put aside who is related to what school board member, erase all the bad marks off the backs of paid professional teachers and move on with 21st century education. I may be one person but I will speak my mind.

The ABC's of education= Anyone But Carlene
 
Last edited:

ricky bobby

Banned
Aug 24, 2011
111
8
Tallahassee, Fl
From what I hear from parents and teachers I agree with the ABC formula. It appears that Mrs. Anderson has supreme authority and the board only rubber stamps her decisions, teachers live in fear and parents and other concerned citizens are ignored.
 

playing4possum

Beach Comber
Jan 1, 2011
40
3
Supreme Authority and Rubber Stamps make for pretty impressive diplomas, huh? What the Walton County children need is a role model, someone who believes in children, who is educated and trained in management. In this day and age, our children need to be learning skills that will sustain them for life and not focused on some government mandate of FCAT that will long be obsolete when they need to be focused on feeding their children. Frankly, I haven't seen that capability here. Sadly many of our voters think their votes do not count and wouldn't give Carlene the time of day, if they had it. That is how Carlene has managed to railroad through political doors to her seat of education.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
It is quite interesting to note that Walton County School Board needs to have more "parent involvement". I not longer have a child in the here in Walton County and I thank Florida Virtual School and Northwest Florida State College for my child's education. I consider myself an active parent. I know the teachers and administrators that gave my child more education in a day than some gave him in a year. Say "YES" to parental involvement. Say "NO" to pedigree jobs. Seriously folks who are new here, it is not what you know but who you are related to when it comes to jobs here/especially political ones. I have not voted for Carlene Anderson once in all the times she has won in this county and this election will be no different. Until she sees the value of the community (especially parents) becoming involved in here in education, she will not have my vote. Yes, she has the biggest sign but it is not an A+ system here.

I can see where instructors were "afraid". It is true, she has not been compassionate toward them. I remember back to when she was an elementary school principal. She needs to pack her bags and go back to college. Why are we continually paying over 100, 000 a year to someone who railroads our instructors, changes them from school to school year after year so that they are at her whim of where she wants to send them.

Walton County School System needs a great leader. It is time to put aside who is related to what school board member, erase all the bad marks off the backs of paid professional teachers and move on with 21st century education. I may be one person but I will speak my mind.

The ABC's of education= Anyone But Carlene

So who do you recommend we vote for and why? Please be specific. One candidate did not wow me at all in the last election and there is a brand new candidate it this election that I would love to know more about- she sounds very sharp.
 

playing4possum

Beach Comber
Jan 1, 2011
40
3
I do not endorse any of the candidates currently but I will be doing my research before I make my own choice as I hope every American Citizen chooses to do at voting time. Take some time and do the research. www.greatschools.com has a write in section where parents and have students have been writing down information. It also shows you how schools measure up nationally. Those kids at Walton Academy seem to not be doing so well. I understand why they are sent there but there should be a program in place that is teaching them more than where the next step to drop out is. Someone should go into the schools with an open mind and ask questions. A private group of citizens that gathers information about what our kids think their school is like. Sure it is mandatory that they go to compulsory school but we can use this time to change their lives for the better as obviously their lives spiral out of control from there forward. The whole reason we have children being taught is that we do not want them to grow up illiterate. Isn't that why little two room school houses were built in the little farming areas here. Now that we have bigger schools w

With more expensive advanced technology let teachers do their jobs and send our school board attorney doing for us? Can't he file a motion on behalf of the residents of Walton County to say we are going to reclaim the schools, teach our children and we refuse to continue paying our taxes toward a unjust way of measuring children's abilities. Or does the attorney feel he is powerless to take on that task?

So who do you recommend we vote for and why? Please be specific. One candidate did not wow me at all in the last election and there is a brand new candidate it this election that I would love to know more about- she sounds very sharp.
 

Annie66

Beach Lover
Mar 21, 2012
75
1
Seagrove Beach
From experience, I can say that Mrs. Anderson is more concerned with test scores, getting government grants, and making sure that her authority isn't challenged. My friends are teachers and I can tell you morale is low. And from what I hear and read, the board meetings are held for the sole purpose of approving the agendas to satisfy statutory requirement. Teachers don't need to live in fear of the head of the school district.
 
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