Age 3 to Grade Three Initiative: St. Lucie County is Ahead

St. Lucie County is the first in the nation to concentrate efforts to provide our youngest learners with the fooundation that will encourage them to be lifelong learners. This initiative supports seamless, appropriate, research-based curricula (digital and print) to develop language, literacy and social skills for the important years of age 3 to grade three.

At the January 26 luncheon to launch this initiative, St. Lucie County Schools, the Parent Academy of St. Lucie, the Early Learning Coalition of St. Lucie and the sponsor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, told the audience of about 400 that this partnership, a five-year plan, is designed to advance student achievement, teacher capacity and parenting skills.

The keynote speaker, Adolph Brown, inspired the audience with his life story of overcoming early hardships in life to earn multiple degrees from the College of William and Mary.

St. Lucie County schools celebrate opening of Parent Academy, Early Childhood Initiative

By Kelly Tyko

Thursday, January 26, 2012

PORT ST. LUCIE — More than 400 local and state community, business, education and government leaders came together Thursday to make a statement.

Children matter. Families matter. Because how children and family navigate life defines community.

"Let us commit to breaking down the barriers that divide us and let us begin to unite our efforts in a cause to transform St. Lucie County for our children today and generations to come," Associate Superintendent Owen Roberts said.

St. Lucie County School District officials unveiled the Parent Academy of St. Lucie County and its Early Childhood Initiative at an invitation-only event Thursday at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center. The two programs are two of the four focuses in the school district's five-year partnership with the world's largest educational publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Florida Department of Education Chancellor Pam Stewart and Melody Jurado, director of Florida's Office of Early Learning, attended Thursday's event and brought congratulations from Tallahassee.

Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson couldn't attend the event, but sent a video message.

Robinson congratulated St. Lucie on its gains in student achievement over the last five years and said the district's partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt "is the kind of public-private partnership that is vitally important for Florida."

It's because of the partnership that St. Lucie is able to increase resources in the classrooms in a time of tight budgets.

"Today we make history as we publicly kick off our partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the world's largest publisher of educational materials," St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon said, describing the Parent Academy and the early childhood initiative. "Both these major stems of the partnership are not using any taxpayer dollars, HMH is investing nearly $11 million in and for the people of St. Lucie County and much of that will now fund these two culture-changing initiatives."

The St. Lucie County School Board approved the conceptual idea for the partnership in December 2010 and gave final approval to an agreement with the publishing company in March 2011. In the partnership, which continues through June 2016, the district will spend $12.4 million on textbooks and instructional materials from the company and the company will provide the district with about $11.3 million in extra goods and services.

The publisher is helping the district by providing training to teachers, classroom materials and financial support, such as discounts on textbooks and technology.

The partnership's other focuses are the development of a comprehensive science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum; and attacking the digital divide, which is the gap between people with access to digital and information technology and those with limited or no access.

Lannon said educators across the nation and around the world are "looking to St. Lucie for answers to 21st century issues."

"Through this partnership, St. Lucie County today stands alone in the nation, with the ability of providing for that more perfect union of our residents that does provide for justice and tranquility, does ensure tranquility through increased opportunities for all, especially for our children," Lannon said.

Motivational speaker Adolph Brown III was the keynote speaker Thursday and brought home the message of the importance parents and adult role models play in a child's life.

"If they flunk life, then we've failed them," said Brown, who addresses Fortune 500 companies, offers workshops and seminars and has published books, DVDs and CDs.

Brown also congratulated St. Lucie for its initiatives.

"There's no place doing exactly what you're doing," Brown said. "In Connecticut, they have parent centers. In Syracuse they have a whole lot of research on parent engagement. ... They don't come close to doing what you are about to embark on."

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/jan/26/st-lucie-county-schools-celebrate-opening-of/

January 2012, Linda Hudson, For a New Beginning

2012 Martin Luther King Parade

Tim Wilson drove his 1970 Olds 98 in the Martin Luther King Parade today for the campaign.

Joyce Jackson and Jean Wilson are in the back seat.

Thanks to all the people who were so gracious along the parade route. They mostly loved the vintage car and Joyce Jackson knows everybody!

Is The Commission Out of Touch?

Linda Hudson: Fort Pierce mayor out of touch with reality as an advocate of bonuses for city employees?

Linda Hudson, chairman of the Downtown Farmers' Market and two-term secretary of the Fort Pierce Citizens Budget Advisory Committee is running for Fort Pierce mayor.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Whether Fort Pierce employees deserve Christmas bonuses for the last two years is of lesser importance than what the $35,000 cost symbolizes: City Hall just cannot stop spending, and many spending items get approved on the consent agenda, meaning the public gets no information or hears no discussion about the justification.

Here are some facts about the city budget that may help the public decide whether Christmas bonuses were justified in 2010 and 2011, keeping in mind the measure of fairness to taxpayer and employee. Finance Director Gloria Johnson said employees are "facing economic hardship and have had to do more with less."

The city has budgeted $22.8 million for salaries and benefits in fiscal 2012 for 357 employees, an average salary, with benefits, of $64,000 per employee. In 2009, 172 city employees made $50,000 or more and 21 made $100,000 or more in salaries, without benefits. The per capita income in Fort Pierce, according to the 2010 census, is below the poverty level at $17,700.

In 2009, about $1 million taxpayer dollars were spent as an incentive to reduce the workforce. Actual layoffs in that year were less than 10. No employee has had a reduction in pay. The nine-day mandated furlough program took place in fiscal 2011 so there would be no pay cuts and no lost jobs.

City employees get a minimum of 35 paid leave days a year, and carry over unused sick and vacation leave. When they retire, up to 18 weeks of unused sick, and six weeks of unused vacation, leave can be paid to them in a lump sum, an amount calculated into their pension earnings. A holiday bonus already is paid to employees when they receive up to six days pay every November for unused sick leave.

City employees earn 3 percent of their salary toward their pension for each year of employment. The pension is calculated based on their highest earnings and can include overtime, sick and vacation leave payments. The employees pay 5 percent of their salary into their pension plan, while the taxpayer pays more than twice that, to fulfill the obligation of pensions for life. Shortfalls are always made up by the taxpayer.

For the first time, city employees now pay a portion of their own health insurance. Currently, they share the cost of their dependent health insurance equally with the taxpayer.

While city employees point out they haven't had raises in several years, those in the private sector have lost jobs or experienced reduced salaries and increased benefit costs. City employees maintain that they now have less in their paycheck because they have been asked to pay $25 per pay period for health insurance; most nongovernment workers have never had 100 percent of their health insurance costs paid. Seniors on Medicare now pay $99 monthly for health insurance.

The mayor says the holiday bonuses were his idea and symbolize appreciation for a tough year. The taxpayer may feel those bonuses symbolize a commission out of touch with the people who elected them.