DeLand, FL - The Volusia County School Board's superintendent search is in full swing. The application period ends on Wednesday, September 25 and then, the very next day, the Advisory Committee will have the first meeting to get the application reviews underway. School Board Chair Carl Persis said the community is encouraged to take part in the search while there's still time.
A series of community forums have been held with the last one taking place on Wednesday, September 25 at the Port Orange/South Daytona Chamber of Commerce building, located at 3431 Ridgewood Avenue in Port Orange. If you want to share your opinion on the qualities the new School Superintendent should have, visit the school website. You do not have to give your name or address but you will be asked to put down your connection with the survey, such as: are you a student, parent, employee, business owner, etc.
The Volusia County School District is the 57th largest school district in the United States, serving about 63,000 students. Despite that, Persis said that only about 1,000 people have completed the online survey and he also said the turnout for the forums has not been great. The survey will be open to the public until the end of September.
The next step sends the Superintendent applications to a Citizens Advisory Committee, which is made up of people from all walks of life, even a student. The Committee's job is to narrow the number of applicants down to a list of finalists. At this time, there's no word on how many that would be.
Besides the Superintendent search, the School Board will be talking about the budget. Some good news is that the millage rate will decrease from 6.281 to 6.081. Other good news is that state officials, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and Governor Rick DeSantis are pushing for an increase to teachers salaries and could increase the base starting pay to $50,000 annually. That does not affect the budget for 2019-2020, which is set at $991.4 million (compared to $868.5 million in FY19) representing a 14.2% increase.
The general operating category of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) had an increase of $14.0 million, due mostly to increases in Base Student Allocation (BSA). The Legislature increased the BSA by $75.07 per student annually to $4,279.49 from $4,204.42. Funding to allow for increasing costs such as salaries, benefits, fuel, electricity and other contractual expenditures continue to lag significantly behind inflation-adjusted costs.
The Volusia County School board meeting takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 24. The final community forum for the superintendent search is on Wednesday from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Port Orange/South Daytona Chamber of Commerce.
