by David Chapman
Staff Writer
In the recent midterm elections, voters across Florida shot down a proposed amendment that would have revised class size requirements, much to the disappointment of Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals.
Pratt-Dannals, speaking to The Civic Round Table during its monthly meeting Friday, explained his reasoning behind his support of Amendment 8, which boils down to money.
He supported the amendment because it would have allowed class size flexibility.
As it was and now remains, the school system must comply with hard caps on class sizes imposed by 2002 legislation.
Under those imposed class cap sizes, the maximum number of children in pre-K through third grade classrooms is 18 students; fourth through eighth grade is 22 students; and ninth through 12th grade is 25 students.
The Duval school system has yet to fully comply with those cap sizes, as do some other systems in the state. Those who do not comply face the threat of a penalty by the state.
The amendment would have alleviated the cap sizes.
Pratt-Dannals gave an example of a student in a school who wants to take an Advanced Placement physics course that’s at capacity with 25 students.
Options under the current rules to not incur a penalty, he said, would be to hire a co-teacher to help teach the course, hire another teacher and split the class into two classes or simply not allow the student to take the course.
“We want to do what’s best for the students,” he said.
Current funding levels are “pretty bad” and altering the class size cap restrictions to allow for an average of students instead of meeting hard caps would have saved the district money by not having to face a penalty and not having to hire more teachers.
Without compliance with the class sizes, the district is subject to a monetary penalty by the state that Pratt-Dannals said would come from reserves.
Paying the imposed penalty of around $2 million, he told the group, would actually cost less than hiring all the teachers necessary to comply with the caps.
He said Monday compliance could cost $10 million.
Critics of the amendment said altering the structure would affect student performance.
The measure needed 60 percent approval to pass in Florida, but only received 54 percent in favor. In Duval County, 52 percent of voters were in favor.
“It puts us in a position to make bad decisions,” said Pratt-Dannals, referring to the current situation.
Before talking about Amendment 8, Pratt-Dannals presented the group of about 40 civic leaders with a rundown of the Duval County Public Schools strategic plan.
The six-part plan took two years to compose, he said, with the first and most obvious goal to increase academic achievement across the board and raise the district’s “B” grade to an “A.”
Currently every high school has one of four different acceleration programs and progress has been made in writing, math and science levels, but he’s looking for more.
“We’ve set some very aggressive targets,” he said, later adding: “We’re going to raise the ceiling and the floor.”
Other parts of the long-range plan include significant increases in graduation rates, employing high-performing teachers and principals, continuing to establish secure schools and engaging the community and establishing further partnerships.
Like achievement, there have been successes in each area, but there is room for more, he said.
“We are doing some great things in our schools,” said Pratt-Dannals.
As for SB 6, the controversial teacher merit-pay bill vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist, Pratt-Dannals said he expects to see more conversation on the issue in the coming months but hopes there will be more input to create a solution.
As for funding from the Legislature in the coming session, he hopes education is funded at least on the same level it was the past year when federal stimulus dollars were used for the state budget.
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