The Leon County School Board states Every Voice Should be Heard

The Leon County School Board Council.
Kayla Carter | The Famuan

TALLAHASSEE— Faculty, staff and students of all Leon County Schools attended Tuesday night’s school board meeting to voice their concerns and give updates on all school’s progress.

There are five school board members, an attorney and superintendent that meet every two weeks to go over with faculty and staff about the school needs and/or growth.  The school board discusses policies and contracts to make work more efficient within the public schools.

The school board explained how important it was for school representatives to bring their concerns to the school board so everyone can be on one accord. The superintendent, Rocky Hanna, gave his thoughts on how the school board can be efficient to helping out public schools and how the school board should be a main source of help.

“If you have too many hands in the cookie jar, and everyone is tugging, you’re going to eventually have crumbs instead of a cookie,” said Hanna.  

According to publicschoolreview.com, the Leon County School Board advises over approximately 64 public schools. One of the issues expressed at the meeting were some schools do not receive as much recognition as other schools in the district.

Abigail Hansen, a senior at Sail High School, gained the leadership role as a representative for the Student District Advisory Council. She said she excited to be a voice and wants her school to get recognized more.

“I’m happy to be in this position and being able to represent Sail High School, as it tends to be an unrecognized school, we have a lot to offer and a lot to learn,” said Hansen.

Alva Striplin, the School Board chair, explained that every voice should be heard from each school.

“We love to hear from our students, all schools should be represented, not just the major ones.”

For the past year, the Leon County School Board said they have expressed the importance of having a representative from each school to come out to the school board meetings and let the board know their problems, concerns or just to give updates of any progress.

A Florida Healthy School District Gold Level award was given to Penny Taylor, a representative from the Department of Education for the positive reports given from some public schools.

“There has been a decrease in a lot of negative activity that is making our students the best every day,” said Taylor.

One benefit about the school board meetings is that they are open to the public, faculty, staff, and students. But they aren’t the only ones that get to voice their opinions, parents and guardians are able to voice their needs and concerns about the education of their children too.

“One of our purposes is to make sure the community has transparency that allows them a window to know what is going on in their child’s school system,” said Chris Petley, the LCS Communications Coordinator.

The next school board meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 9th at the Aquilina Howell Building.